New Year

Happy New Year everyone!!! Hope if you went out last night you had a good time with friends/family. Tracy and I made it over to John and Nicolette Stephens for their party. It was real great to hang out with folks and see their new place after some renovation work. We did not get to stay real late because Joshua needed to get to bed (and so did we). There is not much else I would rather be doing then spending the last night of the year with close friends of mine that have taught me what community can look like. So as I look back over this past year I reflect on the community I have in Newport News and at By Grace Community Church and how grateful I am that the Lord saw it fit to bring us all to CNU many years ago, build his kingdom on its campus through InterVarsity, plant a church in a community that desperately needs Him, and show us what community can be between brothers and sister. What are you reflecting on this day?

I thought I would also leave you with some verses from scripture to meditate on as you reflect on this past year.

Romans 13:11-14
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Philippians 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Romans 14:7-8
For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.