Saturday, January 9, 2010

Another Year is upon us...

There is an old saying that states, "Time Flies when you are having fun."
Fact is "time flies" whether you are having fun or not. It seems like we are living in the days when time slips away from us so quickly. Not many years ago society was worried about Y2K and what would happen after the stroke of midnight 1999 as the year slipped over into 2000. Many were worried about food supplies, and water and would all computers come to an abrupt halt? Would we be without electricity and water? Many fears swept over the world of the unknown and what our outcome would be.
Well we survived Y2K and now we have gone through the 1990's the 2000' and now have entered into 2010. Many things happened over the past few years, we have gone through a Presidential election and whether this was your candidate or not we are now one year with a new President. Many changes have taken place, people have lost their jobs, some their homes and material wealth, and the economy is not rebounding like some predicted.
In the past ten years since 2000 many of us have lost our parents and other loved ones to death. In the process of these past years, we have also been blessed with new little people in our lives.. From the year 2000 to 2010 God has blessed our home with five grand daughters and one grandson, ages starting from the oldest grand daughter of nine years of age to a 12 weeks old grandson. What a great blessing they are to my wife and I, God has been so good to us!
As we enter this new year, we realize that none of us knows what this year will be. Some are wondering will this be the year of rebound, where jobs are restored, the economy picks back up, stocks take off again as they have in the past? The truth is all these questions pertain to temporal things which will someday pass away. This seems to be the main topic on most peoples mind. Jesus warned them in the book of Matthew to guard your heart, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be..
Matthew 6:19 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Before you get the wrong idea, I am not saying that is wrong to have a fine home, car, or a savings account. The problem with most people is not the things they have, but the things that have them.
This is the most important thing about this new year of 2010, this could very well be the year Jesus returns. Do not allow anything, or anyone to get your attention off of His return. How sad it would be that the material and temporal things would out weigh the Glory of His return. We must guard our hearts for the treasures of this world can never be more valuable than the treasures of heaven.
As Christians there was a time when we had such a strong desire to see and be with the Lord.
We sang a song from our hearts that went like this..

I'm longing for Jesus to come back I long for Jesus Christ my King
To come and take me to My home beyond the sky
Up there where saints Will shout and sing

I'm longing for that glorious day When Jesus Christ shall come
I long to see His blessed face
When all the saints throughout the ages Shall be gathered home
The ones who've trusted in His grace

Oh what a glorious times will be When through the air I go
To meet the one who died for me
My sorrows, cares, my trials, my tears Will all be left below
For then my way will be complete

The word "Longing" means a strong desire, yearning, craving, hunger, thirst.

Where is your desires, your yearning, your hunger? This year let us turn our hearts toward home, laying aside anything that would hinder us in our race..
Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight , and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,"

I leave you with these encouraging words...
1 Thessalonians 4;16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

Look up, this could be the year of the Lord's return