AH CHRISTMAS IS OVER! NOW ONTO THE NEW YEAR.
If you are reading this today you realize that for most of us Christmas is over for the year. My children, like most are at home busily playing with their new toys and watching television during their winter break. My wife is busy cleaning up the mess we made in the house over the past week. This weekend most of the world will celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of the next. For most Americans it means one last hurrah while watching several college bowl games on TV.
The one custom that I want to write about here is none of the ones mentioned above, but is the custom of New Years resolutions. That is where people resolve to do something to or for themselves that will make their lives hopefully better in the coming year. Some will resolve to lose weight, some will resolve to save more money, other's will resolve to spend more or invest more money. I find the custom to be a rather silly one because most people give up on their resolutions within a few weeks though some have been actually known to make good on their resolution, but most fail and surrender to their old routine.
I have at times joked and said that "I resolve not to make any more resolutions." This one I am pretty good at keeping because it requires no commitment to better my life. Truth is the only one who can make my life better has already done so by dying on a cross about 2000 years ago to pay for my sins. He came to the world and resolved to give his life as a ransom for ours and the neat thing is he accomplished his goal because on the cross he said, "It is finished" Jesus Christ did that for us. Do you know why Jesus was able to keep his resolution? It is because he is the Son of God. No other religion or self-made deity can truly make that claim. When he was asked by what authority he came to do these things He answered "I came by the authority of he who sent me."
We can not do what Jesus did because we are sinners and left to our own devices will fail at things like resolutions almost every time. Oh sure there will be one or two who might accomplish a resolution they made, but was it easy or hard for them? My resolution for this coming new year is to get to know Jesus better through his word and sacrament. That is the means he gave us to empower us with the Holy Spirit. As I get to know Jesus better I am going to share what I know with others and point them to the cross where Jesus has forgiven them for their sins. That is all I can do as the rest is up to the Holy Spirit.
Let Jesus help you with that resolution this coming year. You might find the results to be far more rewarding than ever before.
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Notes and thoughts about my life after seminary, as a Divorced father of two daughters, and other things that I want to write about.
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- Scott
- Married, Two Children. Currently attending Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana
2 comments:
I am not sure what you are getting at with this. What does it have to do with making resolutions at this time of year?
In actuality my wife did put my kids to work to help clean the house with her, but that wasn't the point of my post.
Jesus died for all of mankind. The elect are those who in the end were able to receive his forgiveness and grace by the power of the Holy Spirit through Holy Baptism. We can do nothing of our own will to get to Him because of our sinful nature.
Luther said that those who have received him in their lives will do good works as a result of what they have received. They won't be able to help it. If we cease to do good works unless it benefits us we are acting on our own selfishness.
Scott, here is an article I wrote for our minature local paper - similar in theme to yours:
New Year’s Resolution – REST!
by Pastor Dt Parker
Are you making a New Years’s Resolution this year? If so, you might want to read this article first!
Even though the idea of making New Year’s Resolutions have been longed joked about, we continue to make them. We will: lose weight, watch less television, be with our families more, get that garage/shed/barn clean and organized, some of us even say we might start going to… church!
Yet by the end of February, definitely by the end of March, 99.999% of these resolutions end up in the same place. Where-ever that place is, it is the place the furthest from our mind possible in the universe. If our spouses or kids bring them up, we feel guilty, for once again it seems, our greatest plans have been waylaid by the monster of time. Then the guilt and shame piles on, or we avoid the issue entirely.
I have a different plan for this year – my New Year’s Resolution is to rest. Yes, REST. To rest knowing that I have a savior who wants all my burdens, including those of failed resolutions and plans of this year, and years past. To rest from guilt and shame, knowing that Jesus Christ came to rid us of the penalty of sin, and thereby alleviate us from the guilt and shame that our past, and our present holds. To know that one man walked the planet, and died, that we could find the peace and rest our souls so desperately need.
This year, over here at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church (on Pena just off Bahrman) , we are going take a long look at our Lord Jesus, at how His love, His Teachings, and His birth, crucifixion, death, and resurrection give us the rest that we need. We need it in order to truly live, not under the shadow of past failures, but following the path that our Shepherd leads us on.
A path of peace, and of rest, as we realize the love and care of God, for us.
Please, come and join us on this path.
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