New Year's Revolution

New Year’s Revolution
Becoming Christ Centered in the New Year

It is January 1, 2008 at 12:46 AM. I am currently sitting at my laptop at a friend’s house contemplating the upcoming year. We have been enjoying one another’s company all night and now as the night presses on and a new year is birthed I look with eager anticipation to what lies ahead. I recall earlier when the television was on and the New York City ball was dropping, and preparations were being made to announce (at least to those of us on the east coast) that a new year was about to begin. Now as I hear the television on in the background, there are concerts going on and I know celebrations will continue late into the night and into tomorrow morning.

It is quiet here and my thoughts are on our Savior. What is on His mind this January morning? What are His thoughts about the upcoming year? I know He is the Alpha and the Omega knowing the beginning and the end and doesn’t live in a time tempered world as we do, but He is concerned with the affairs of mankind for some strange reason that is truly far beyond our finite minds. This is what captures my heart and mind in these early moments of 2008.

My heart hungers with a great passion for the working of the Holy Spirit in the bringing of a great revival to this nation and our world. This will only come when the people of God rend our hearts and come humbly and yet boldly before the merciful throne of grace declaring with sincerity and fervency an utter disdain for our sinfulness and the compromise that has been the signature of our generation and its relationship with this world. We are called by Jesus to be different from this world, engaging it as salt and light seeking to see the families, communities, cities, states and nations around us bowing before the cross of Jesus Christ surrendering their hearts and minds to Him This is my desire in the year to come, that the people of God with eager and zealous hearts would seek the Lord for the souls of those around them.

I am praying for a powerful hungering and thirsting for righteousness to rise in the hearts of God’s people. I am hoping that the distractions of this world would fade and the Great Commission of Jesus Christ would continuously and clearly come into view taking over our passions and hopes. We are so easily distracted with the appealing attractions of this world. It seems daily that our focus vacillates from the Christ-centered position that God desires to a blurry mixture of the poisonous man-centered concerns and pleasures of this world.

May God forgive us for this great rebellion. Oh, that we would resist and flee from these distracting deceptions the devil continues to offer. Oh, that our hearts and lives would have a single passion and be solely devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. What a shallow view we must have of our Lord, for with passivity and minimal effort we actively pursue a deeper relationship with Jesus. Our devotion to knowing Him and following His will is continually tripped up as we refuse to say no to the sinful desires and passions of our flesh. Jesus said, “If any man would come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). There is no doubt that a loss will be experienced when we fully devote our lives to Jesus. When surveying His life we find that it was not full of pleasures and self seeking treasure hunts. No, He came with a purpose in mind and faithfulness to the call of His Father. We as believers and followers of Christ must mediate upon and ponder the depth of the truth of our adoption into God’s family and the subsequent devotion to His plan and direction to go into all the world preaching the truth of salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. We must call this world to repentance from sins and faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that this will be our single passion in 2008. My hope is that we devote ourselves anew to the Scriptures. The Bible is the only thing that can change our lives and continue our transformation into the image and likeness of Christ. We cannot be victorious in this life without a devotion to God’s Word. Jesus said if we love Him than we would keep His commandments. Nothing in this world trumps the power of the Bible in our lives.

I complete this article not hoping to come across with a condemnatory attitude of judgment towards my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. On the contrary, I pray that this will instead spur each of us, especially myself, to a deeper relationship and passion for our Lord. May we join together in resisting the temptations of our adversary in this most vital age. May we seek with precision and purpose the distinctive calls that Christ has place on each of our lives - working together, fitted together as the mighty body of Jesus Christ built on nothing less that Jesus blood and righteousness. May God bless us in 2008.