Though I wrote this January 1st, I have been contemplating these thoughts, and I feel that they are just as applicable now as they were then. So in the hope that they may be of some use in your journey here on earth, here is what is on my mind:

The year 2008 is now history.

We can't change what has happened whether good or bad, we can only look back on it now and if we are wise, learn from our mistakes and press on toward the high calling of God continuing to run this race until we get to the finish line.

In reflection, I would say it has been a good year. I am grateful for the many challenges, obstacles, trials and temptations as well as the joys and pleasures which I have been blessed with.

The knowledge that I can't so much as command a single breath, causes me to think on the most incredible love of my Savior yet again. For some reason, He has chosen to reach down and mold this rough, otherwise-worthless piece of hardened clay. And everything He does is good! I am in the hands of the only wise God who cannot make a single mistake!

I may never know exactly why He chose to reveal His love to me, but one thing I do know: I am forever indebted and eternally grateful to my Creator; the GOD who holds the universe in the palm of His hand! This is my LORD. This is my Savior and GOD.
How can I serve any other?
How could I spend one moment in pursuit of some pleasure which is displeasing to Him?
How could I pound another nail into his hand, who laid it willingly down to pay the penalty for my sin?
How could I continue to sin in the presence of the GOD whose name is RIGHTEOUSNESS?


When this race is over, what will have mattered?

Will it be all the hills we skied, the jokes we shared, pranks we played, houses we built, cars we drove, waves we surfed, songs we sang, the games we played, money we made, businesses we built, the fame we got, the laws we wrote, offices we held, the inventions we made?

What will it be?

Will our pursuits have any significance in eternity?

As far as I can tell, the only treasure which survives the furnace that the world is going to be judged by is that which is laid up in heaven.

The first and greatest commandment is to Love the LORD our God, and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. On these two, hang all the law and prophets. That is, these two sum up all the law and prophet's messages.
God has boiled down all of life to this simple concept: Love. We love Him by loving others, because whatever we do to the least of these we do to Him, and we cannot say that we love God, while we hate our brother. The way we love, (or don't love) others is the way we love God, and loving Him is the most important thing we can do in life. Loving Him with all our might! Solomon was said to be the wisest man who lived, and with incredible wealth, and all his heart could desire, he set out to find what life was about. His conclusion was, "Fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man."


What are His commandments?

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." -Deut 6:4-9

(Also in Deuteronomy 8, and 12, and in the New Testament Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)


Before I was conceived, He knew all the horrible things I would do, and yet He covered them all with the blood of Jesus Christ anyway. The very handwriting of ordinances against us was blotted out by His blood! That means every sin had to be on it for them to be blotted out!
That is true love! While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)
Would you be willing to forgive each offense against you, if you knew about it before it was committed?
I want to have this kind of love. That is what I want to pursue with all my heart from now until the day that I pass from this world into glory.

It is my resolution; my pursuit; my all-consuming desire, to Love the LORD my GOD, with all of my heart, all of my soul and all of my might (Deut 6:5)
It grieves my heart to think that I am so foolish as to forget for even one fleeting moment the price that He was willing to pay for my immense load of sin, and that I wasn't even willing to put away some temptation that so easily besets mankind, for Him whom I love. That is just it, He continues to love me, a sinner in the flesh, whose soul is redeemed, sanctified and made perfect, by the sinless life and shed blood of His Son.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2)


Place yourself in the arms of the one whose strength never fails.

Looking ahead, I'd be willing to bet that there will be at least as many challenges, perhaps more; and just as many temptations, and trials, and times of baking in the oven to remove all the dross that continues to cling; but with the mindset that all these things are but pathetically puny sacrifices to make to our incredibly loving GOD, who for His love for us, refuses to give up working rough worthless pieces of clay, what manner of people ought we to be in all manner of love and Godliness?
How can we love Him with all of our might when our might at its finest, is but weakness? By changing where our strength. Remember the verse about mounting up with wings as eagles? It's in Isaiah chapter 40: 39 the last verse. It says "But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." But do you have any idea of the previous verses- the context?

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Couple this with the understanding that the word Wait has three meanings: 1. "Being patient". 2. "to collect, to bind together" 3. "To wait on, as a servant waits on his master". But here I am assured that it carries the 2nd definition; and the word renew is "to change".

Let's try it again: "But they that [collect, and bind together] upon the LORD shall [change] their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Let me remind the reader that a threefold cord is not easily broken. By ourselves, we are like a single thread. Bound together with fellow believers and the LORD, we are a many-fold cord whose strength is greatly changed: it is strengthened exponentially. This is in accordance with the Gospel of John, where we read that Jesus prayed to the Father in the garden, that "...[we] would be one as He and the Father are one." It is also in accordance with chapters 13-17 wherein we read that we are to love one another (13:34-35), love Him (14:15, 21, 23) and abide (dwell, remain, and to await one) in Him (15;4-8).

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:9-13)

I can't speak for you, but I know that I am incapable of demonstrating this kind of genuine love. However, I put my trust not in my own strength, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who walked this earth and was subject to the same tempted with the same temptations that we have, and did not fail. (Heb 4:15-16) In the One who loves all men perfectly. It is in this Rock that I place my life. It is on this foundation that I will build. All other ground is sinking sand. In Him I live and move and have my being. And His righteousness is my righteousness. When He died, I died. When He rose, I rose. (Romans 6)

When this race is over, there is only one thing that will have mattered. May He say to us, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord." Then we will truly say, It was worth it all!