An Avowed New Year – Jan.2, 2026

Happy New Year! Is it for you? I hope it is. Not just another year, ho hum… oh, well… oh, me.  Naw, c’mon! Let’s make it a dandy, ok! On purpose. Leaving nothing to chance, but being willing to receive the chance happenings as though they are only ours; only ours to enjoy or to endure. Let’s talk about this kind of things.

Remembering, as we go, the perfect admonitions of our Apostle Paul, found pronounced in Romans through Philemon, but filtered through the wisdom of God found throughout all 66 books of the King James Bible. 

(And if it be that till now you haven’t found the reason to use the KJB as your source for truth, consider following this suggestion for the next 25 times you look something up in Scripture: read first the KJB, then as many other versions as you possess, then once again, after you’ve read all the other versions, then re-read the KJB. I don’t care what passage or single verse you’ve looked up, do this; then tell me, which version did you easily understand in the context of those you read. I want to know because I want to compare with you, those versions and the KJB.)

So, in the wisdom of God, we find a foundational truth: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”- Prof.3:5,6. Notice: “he shall direct thy paths. He shall. Not maybe, not hopefully, not “if” anything — He shall!  (I hope that is a foremost thought in all your plans for the year —I mean, He said that, right?) So trust the Lord with all things. For the whole year.

Prov.16:3 says, “Commit thy way unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” (a simple yet broad brush approach — do you trust the Lord?)

Coming forward to Paul, and our Scripture for this day and time is a wonderful, but often misunderstood verse: Phil.4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Do not misread this: it doesn’t say “who” it says “which”—it’s meaning then is more past/perfect: he’s acknowledging the Prov. passages, Paul is saying “it strengthens me to know that I’ll have nothing come my way of which I cannot get through.” He’s full of knowing Christ is the provider, he’s adding that the knowledge of that fact gives me strength to not be ill-affected by whatever. Or, another way to understand is this: you need not beg Christ to provide, you already know He will, so just go do it! Get on with it! If you know that your trust is in Christ’s Calvary work and the Lord God raising him from the dead, therefore He has saved you; it will make your new year easy to bear!!

You, of course, will not be engaging in the same things as me. No two lives are the same, though you might live together, you might share the same office or build  on the same job sight, even in marriage; no two lives live out their days the same. So, as I talk with people about the Lord and His word, or talk with them about improving the water they drink, or argue with them that Indiana is better at some things than Alabama (ahem) I have no doubts which things I will excel in and which I might not: what is about the concerns of the Lord in the lives of those I meet I know will come under the watch-care and the strengthening of the Lord Himself. My new year will not be difficult then, even if it might be frustrating or sad or heartache laden—whatever comes my way I’m buoyed to a level above by the Scriptural promise of my Saviour, Jesus Christ.

So, come on, write down your goals or intentions for this new year and check them off as they come by. Make it as happy as the suggestion intends:

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

thanks for reading, The Elder