As I’m getting ready to type up the newsletter I title my page Newsletter January 2018, and it hits me – 2018.  What happened to 2000, that was eighteen years ago.  Now the younger ones reading this will just think the pastor has lost his marbles (not so we gave them to the grandkids for Christmas) or that he’s dipped a little too deep into the eggnog (yes, but it was non-alcoholic).  It’s just that time keeps on ticking into the future (no I’m not about to fly like an eagle – the older ones will get it, the younger ones can Google the phrase).  The real question isn’t how did time get to going so fast and how is it already 2018 (only two years away from 2020) but what am I doing with all this time?
Paul, some 1950 years ago, wrote in the Ephesian letter “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as the unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”  Eph. 5:15-17
Nearly 2,000 years ago, or two years ago Paul’s statement rings true.  The days are evil; there is much hatred and discontent in the world.  Peace is a hard commodity to come by.  We have voices and influences calling from every side.  What are we to believe?  What are we to do?  Well, the answer to that has not changed in all these years and won’t no matter how many more years I see.  Understand and do the Lord’s will.  Some will say, “OK, but what is his will?”  Study to show thyself approved.  In other words, get into His Word, study and discuss with others.  Coming up in 2018 I will be preaching over Paul’s letter to the Romans.  I’ve always considered this to really be Paul’s statement of faith, what as Christians we really need to believe.  Much like our study of Revelation it won’t be quick and to get the most out of it you’ll need to read over Romans, many times.  But this reveals to us so much of what we need to believe and how we need to redeem our time that God has given us.
Don
 

    It’s scary to turn on the news these days, scary and depressing.  It seems no place is safe and no place is sacred anymore.  With the shootings we see from sin city to the church sanctuary it is easy to feel that the world has simply gone crazy.  Churches now along with schools, hospitals, and courthouses are looking more like military installations with armed guards patrolling the grounds.  So what is our response to all this?
   Some of you may be thinking by now, “Pastor, this doesn’t seem like much of a Christmas message.”  Yet this is why we have Christmas, man’s sin and God’s plan.  The child laid in a manger represents the greatest answer to the troubles we see around us.  Our security shouldn’t be in a gun, it didn’t really help the ol’ West that much anyway.  Our security isn’t in a man in the White House; they come and go on a regular basis. 
    Security is our sense of peace, of hope, the feeling that it will all work out.  We don’t find that kind assurance in the world.  We do find in Christ the plan for our needs and as Paul tells us the peace that passes all understanding.  In Christ all the promises of God are yes.  We find what we need.  So where are you looking for your security?  Any other place then Christ is a false hope, a shifting answer for an eternal problem.  Christ is the answer for your security.