Holidays from New York 2007

Happy Holidays to you! In addition to my Newsletters, I want to share thoughts and feelings with you.

First of all, this time of year encourages me to reflect on God's blessings in my life. There's Thanksgiving that brings to mind all of the things to be thankful for. Christmas is a time to focus on Christ's birth, but even more so, the gift that He is in my life personally. Then there is the New Year and time to evaluate what I have done with my life this past year and if I have been obedient to His plan, and also make plans to follow Him more closely in the year to come.

I'll start with the thankful category...

I truly thank God for loving and accepting me and calling me His child. I belong to Him and He will never let me go. No matter how I fall short of the person He deserves for me to be, He is never ending in His forgiveness and redeeming relationship in my life. Always patient, always loving, always forgiving.

I thank Jesus Christ for being willing to endure life on earth to show us the way to Heaven. I thank Him for dying on the cross for me, because I truly don't deserve it. I thank Him for always being with me and speaking to me through the Holy Spirit to be not just my Savior, but also my Lord and Master and Guide.

I thank all my Christian friends for keeping me in their prayers. I thank those who help to support me in New York as I strive to be obedient to His plan for my life at this time.

I thank all true Bible Believing Churches in the country and around the world for going through all it takes to bring the light of Jesus and word of God to those who don't know Him. It can be a long, hard walk sometimes.

I'm thankful for all the Missionaries serving everywhere, whether in a safe or dangerous place, comfortable or not, language and culture barriers or not. All are following God and are encouragement to me to do the same.

I thank God for the health and strength to be able to live in a physically demanding place like New York City to serve Him.

I'm thankful that God provides (through others) all that I need. I'm thankful that He doesn't always provide everything that I want. I'm thankful for the lessons learned in the lean times and the blessings that come from little things that delight me.

I thank God for giving me the love I feel for those people I meet. I thank Him for making it possible to see others through His eyes and not mine.

I'm thankful that I have you to share these thoughts and feelings with.


Now to the Christmas category...

Have you really thought about the birth of Christ? I mean really thought about it. It was not clean and comfortable physically. It wasn't a glorius event in man's eyes. It was very humble.

God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus. Even though she was chosen, she still had to have had fears and questions and anxious moments. She's in Heaven now, but I hope she can feel my gratitude for what she went through on Christmas day and throughout the time of raising the boy Jesus.

I think about how commercial the Christmas holiday has become. It's almost a cliche to say that, but really it's sad. I do love the music and decorations and food and festive feeling for a while. I'm all about the basics in many areas of my life and Christmas is one of them. It's my favorite day to be alone with Jesus. Celebrating love with others during this time is fine. Honoring Him in church services is beautiful. But my favorite part is being with Him on His birthday. Just me and Him together. A time when I can make it all about Him. My prayer for everyone is that we leave enough time between loving on each other and giving gifts and presenting the best Christmas program yet, that we spend some really quaility quiet time with Him alone. He is worthy.


Then there's the New Year...

A time to look back over the past year. I like to take some time on New Years Eve to look back at my calendar/planner for the past year and remember the events that happened and thank God for the good and bad times alike. The blessings and the lessons. The times of understanding and those times when all I could do was trust Him. Then I like to think about what I know concerning my plans for the new year and dedicate those times to God. I pray He will guide my decisions, He will help me to see each experience through His eyes, that I will trust Him even when I don't understand that He will provide strength to me when I'm scared or anxious.

I pray He will give me health and strength (including physical, emotional and spiritual) to accomplish and experience all He has in store for me.

I pray He will help me to make good decisions and be a good steward of all He has given me (including health, finances, time, friends and ministry opportunitites).

I pray that I will not in any way be a hinderance to His plans for my life. (And I pray that His correction and education for me won't be too painful!)

I pray that all my family and friends who do not know Jesus as Savior will meet Him this coming year. And if I'm to be a part of those encounters, that God will give me discernment to say and do the appropriate things that will show Him to them in a way that is true and honest and real.

I pray that all who love and support me through prayers and finances will be blessed for their obedience to our Father. I pray everyone will feel they are really a part of the ministry He brings into my life. We all belong to the Plan, we just each are responsible for different parts. It's ours together.

I pray that you become closer and closer to Him and have a deeper relationship with Him everyday. I pray that we all have sweet times alone with Him often and that we realize how wonderful that time is.


So, to put it in basic terms...

I'm thankful for my God and my relationship with Him, and how He has provided the Holy Spirit to be an ever present part of my life.

I celebrate Jesus' birth and sacrifice of His life and His endurance of death & resurrection to show me how to get to Heaven.

I am humbled by His hand over my life in the past and I dedicate every minute of my future to pleasing Him and allowing Him to use my life to honor Him.

They're just 2 small words, but don't they carry a lot of impact?
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!