Happy New Year

I know I have been away for a while. I haven't fallen from the faith or started going door to door as a Jehovah Witness. No, the Lord told me in the fall it was time to stop writing and start studying again. So that's where I've been the last few months, doing good old fashioned Bible study.

It was about this time last year I wrote my first devotional and it was on the gift of Jesus at Christmas and from there I was encouraged to start a blog and I was on my way. I got some great feedback from people and it spurred me to write as much as possible. My intent was not to come across as a know-it-all, but rather to share what God was doing in my life and encourage others to seek Him in a passionate way.

I love the week after Christmas and before New Years because it gives me a great opportunity to reflect on the wonders of what God did in my life in the past year while looking forward to what God will do in the upcoming year. I am happy to say with confidence that I am not the same person I was a year ago.

Through time in His word and through life experiences, 2008 is a year I won't soon forget. In July, I sat and watched as the Lord took home a 21 year-old after a three month battle with cancer. In December, I sat and prayed with a good friend until he lost his five-year battle with cancer and he went to be with Lord. A longtime employee of mine was diagnosed with colon cancer and he is in the battle of his life. What are you trying to teach me Lord?

He definitely taught me (with a little help from my wife) that I was no longer availabe to sweep issues and problems under the rug. As Judy says, it was time to get the shovel out and get in the trenches and do the dirty work. In what seemed like the longest August of our lives (it had nothing to do with the heat outside), Judy and I got busy and did the work that was needed in our marriage and I know the Lord has taken us to another level.

If we had any hopes of helping hurting couples in their marriages, we had to get things right in our own home. Judy and I have made a commitment not to settle for mediocrity in our home and in our marriage so we know to expect a constant barrage from the Enemy.

God gave me another lesson for me this year and it dealt with the subject of love. We talk about love in our world all the time, but the Lord told me this year that it was time to stop telling people how much I loved Him and start showing people how much I loved Him. A dear friend gave us a Christmas present with a framed picture of our Golden Retriever, Carly, and her golden, Miley.

At the bottom of the picture was a verse, 1 John 4:16, God is Love. The entire verse reads like this, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

God showed me more about love this year than in any of my previous 47 years. I got off my self-righteous butt (at times) and began to love people where they are and encourage them in their daily life and their spiritual journey without judging them and their motives. Showing agape unconditional love is not necessarily an easy thing, but it is the God thing. I had to show that if God is truly in me that I had to be loving others.

I know He is faithful to complete the work He has begun in me. I am excited for 2009 (even with our new president) because I know that God holds my future. My Bible study has shown me in the last week that God is pleased when when we choose to walk with Him (see Enoch and Noah).

I hope to be regular in my posting in 2009 and I pledge to be transparent as always. Have a blessed 2009 my friends and may the Lord show His lovingkindness to you and your family.