JANUARY 2017
HAPPY NEW YEAR! What a wonderful time of year as we turn over the calendar to 2017. I would like to begin by saying, “THANK YOU” to all of you for your kind expressions of love and gracious gifts during 2016. You blessed our family and we are grateful to be called your Pastor and parsonage family.
As the New Year is upon us we often make New Year’s Resolutions. I would like to challenge us to think about the verse below. Most especially with our mindset of considering going deeper with Jesus Christ. Meaning, will we bow our knees to the LORD and show HIM HE is the LORD of our lives? Will we develop a discipline of studying the WORD of GOD so we will establish a deeper appreciation for HIS LOVE shown toward us? Will we reflect HIS LOVE toward others the way HE has shown it to us? No one else can do this for you therefore; you have to make the choice to go deeper with the LORD.
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height- 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (NKJV)
Some people like to read the WORD of GOD and they gain knowledge in their mind. As a result of this some people make a profession of faith and invite JESUS into their hearts as the SAVIOR of their soul. And that is a wonderful experience and a great beginning (2 Corinthians 5:17). However, I would like to speak to your Will. This is what you choose to do in making daily decisions. How you live out your life, what you choose to do with your life, etc.… that is what really matters to GOD. May I challenge you in 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
As followers of CHRIST (Christians), we are expected to learn from the Instruction manual “THE BIBLE”. As found in Paul’s writings in Colossians 1:9For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Reconciled in Christ: 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight- 23if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. (NKJV)
My prayer for our church this year is for each of us, to determine how we fit in, for the “Cause for CHRIST in HIS CHURCH”, called Linden United Methodist Church? I want us to think on What is GOD’S WILL for our lives and to seek after GOD’S FACE this year. As we ask GOD to reveal to us, what HE would have us to do for HIM AND HIS CHURCH? What we are to do for HIS GLORY, with our talents, with our financial tithe (amount we give to HIM), and with our offerings to HIM? As we surrender our Will to HIS to bring GLORY TO HIS HOLY NAME, JESUS. Please be in Prayer for these things this New Year and let us see what GOD will do with us? Have a Blessed month of ministry.
In Jesus Christ,
Bro Tony Antonelli, 2 Tim. 2:15