Happy New Year - 2016…it is hard to believe.  I can remember New Years Eve in 1999 thinking “2000!?” - sounds so weird.  Then there was all the “end time” predictions.  All the talk about the “computer melt down”…Y2K… remember?!  Well, obviously 2000 has come and gone and we are still here looking at 2016!  Make no mistake about it though, Jesus is coming back again, because His word said so, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work…” (Revelation 22: 12)   So what are we to do in the meantime?   Well, as we start another New Year, a little spiritual “self-examination” is always good - “self- examination” administered by the true plumb line, the word of God.   The church at Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2 was given a self-examination by Jesus Himself.   Jesus said, “you have left your first love.”   See, they were busy with ministry, doing a lot of good things, but they had allowed themselves to drift away from Jesus.  Their devotion to Him had become lax, they had lapsed into formalism.  The honeymoon was over!  Jesus had a remedy; Remember - remind yourself where you where when you first came to Jesus.  Repent - change your attitude and actions.  Lastly, Return - get back to that closeness you first experience when you accepted Christ.  Like Mary (cf. Luke 10:39), spend some time again at HIs feet, through His word and prayer.  My prayer for 2016 is that we get back to our relationship with Jesus being the main thing.  If our relationship with Him is what it ought to be, then everything else will fall in place.

In His Service,

Pastor Rod