Dawn Of A New Year

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

I the Lord search the heart, I test the emotions, even to repay every man according to his way and according to the fruit of his doing. Jeremiah 17:9,10

Another year has passed into the pages of history. A new year bright with all its hopes and goals lies untouched and ready for our use. Have we learned from our past, do we look with anticipation to a better tomorrow filled with all the successes we may have failed to accomplish in the past year. As Christians do our hearts still yearn with eagerness for the soon return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? As we edge ever closer to the year 2000, do we feel that ever present need to prepare for the soon coming of judgment, to that great Day of the Lord spoken of so often by the prophets of old.

As we survey the world around us, what do we see? Do we see the devastating results of man’s walk with selfish indulgence. his infatuation with the allurements of sin. Has the majority of the world turned away from love for God and love for his fellowman? Has a total feeling of apathy gripped a dying world that races headlong into the coming time of judgment? Who will blow the trumpets to awaken and warn these dying souls to their death march from which there is no return? Their foolish attitude that there is no God, leaves their lives twisted and empty devoid of any hope of salvation. How can we reach a lost world with the love of God when our hearts refuse responsibility to anyone but self. When every thing the heart desires seems right in our own eyes, we will never see that the end result is death, eternal separation from God (Proverbs 16:25).

In God’s world “selfless” love is the supreme and ultimate basis for life. In man’s world “selfish” love reigns supreme. As we look at the final, climatic events that must pave the way for the final judgment of each man’s heart, where have we placed our love? “Selfless” or “selfish”? Who do we desire to please above all else in our daily walk? Do we bend the rules hoping that God will not see, or hear or notice our transgressions. Do we fall upon our weak and sinful nature as a basis for our sinful acts, hoping that a loving God will overlook our sin and not blot our name from the book of life? How many excuses have we used to justify our chosen path? In the time of judgment how will these excuses stand beside the law of love and the ultimate will of a mighty God for His people?

Pride, the ultimate sin against a loving God, is a declaration of war. War against the will of a just and merciful creator in the lives of His creation. The fall that first began the terrible reign of sin was based on pride...a selfish desire to gratify self. Satan placed himself in conflict with the will of God, choosing to forfeit his coveted place of honor. Thus he proceeded to project his misguided ideas upon mankind leaving God to sacrifice His only Son to redeem a fallen race. Man has ignored the fact that we are bought with a price, we are not our own (1 Corinthians 6:19,20). This temple, our body, in which God desires to dwell through the power of His Holy Spirit, is of His making, His creation...body, mind and spirit. The choices we make will either glorify this temple or destroy it, ending in eternal separation from the heavenly Father. Only as we seek His will and understand His desire for us, can we make the choices that will lead us in the path of eternal salvation. We should be truly thankful for a God that is merciful and longsuffering, not willing that any of us should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). But as in the days of Noah His Spirit shall not always strive with man. As the sins of man continue to escalate and the love of God grows cold, the Spirit of God is slowly being withdrawn upon the face of the earth. The angels that hold back the four winds of destruction will soon release the power of Satan's unrestrained evil, and sin will have its way. Without the merciful hand of a loving God to stay its power, only those who have placed their trust in the merits of Jesus Christ and His righteousness, will find refuge in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). Those whose love of sin, their pride in glorifying self has guided their path in life, will reap the whirlwind of their choice Hosea 8:7).

Will we wait too late to make a choice for right, for life, for salvation? Has our mind been so warped with the ways of the world, that we refuse to see sin in its real nature. A deadly disease that leaves no life untouched, that penetrates the very fiber of our daily life. Our homes, our schools, our work environment, even our church, bares the scars of sin. Have we foolishly put off making a total commitment today, clinging to a forbidden sin, hoping that there is unlimited time to change before its too late. Many a life has ended abruptly, long before that hope was realized, now forever too late to make a choice for salvation. Sin is death, and only as we realize the magnitude of its penalty will change come. God’s eternal law forever remains as the standard by which all men will be judged. If we can look at any of those ten words of liberty and know that we are guilty, then the wages of sin must surely fall upon our head. The choice is ours. Will we look at this new year with a new attitude of preparation, of commitment, of dedication. Will we come to the Lord knowing that He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25)?