One of my older friends from high school was a former member of the Crips. Like the attached video, this young black man left one of the famous gangs in New York City. However, in my friend’s case, his mother moved abruptly one night, afraid her son would never get out of this gang. Needless to say, no one at my high school ever messed with this dude as if anyone did, he could make a phone call and within 24 hours this person would be history.
For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved ([c]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8.
From a spiritual perspective, it doesn’t matter who you’ve been associated with or where you’ve been in life as God’s grace is the great equalizer. All it takes to get right with God is a spirit of confession and contrition. As various prodigals finally come to their senses, God’s grace is new every morning, Lamentations 3:19-22. Therefore, as a new year begins, may God’s grace be constantly on your mind like the song by Trin-I-Tee 5:7.
I was introduced to the concept of seizing a season through the 1984 film starring Kevin Bacon Footloose. When a pastor’s son in Utah was killed coming back from a dance, the small town that Ren McCormack moved to banned playing all secular music in public. When prom season arrived for seniors, Ren went to the local town council to change this law. While speaking to a room full of anxious students, Ren proclaimed, “this is our time.” Five years later, Robin Williams clarified seizing this season in the film Dead Poets Society, Carpe Diem, seize the day.
To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven: 2 A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, 3 A time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, 4 A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, Ecclesiastes 3:1-4.
Following the great flood recorded in the Bible, God promised to never interrupt the four annual seasons on earth for the remainder of its existence, Genesis 8:22. While reflecting upon every circumstance and situation that happens within a calendar year, King Solomon declares that there is a season and time for everything. However, in wake of the freak injury resulting in a cardiac arrest to Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin on Monday Night Football this week, seize today as tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, James 4:14.
Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. 13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward, Philippians 3:12-14.
The apostle Paul provides what it takes to seize this first season of 2023 in the passage above. The mindset that Paul details includes three key character traits. First, you need to remain hungry for achieving more in life by avoid becoming complacent. Second, you need to forget what has happened in your past by focusing on what’s God’s will for your life in the future. Finally, when you keep your eyes on heaven’s prize, fulfilling the great commission in Acts 1:8, you will seize every new day that God gives you this season to shine the light of Jesus on a dark and dying and dying world.
As a parent, there comes a time when your child’s future is out of your hands. Whether this time waits until a daughter or son goes off to college or is speed up as they enter high school, don’t worry when it’s out of your hands. While parents can always pray for children, it’s hard to let go, especially for those of you who are control freaks. As I listened to Out of My Hands by Tony Vincent for the first time, this is the topic that came to my mind.
Arise [from your bed], cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward Him for the lives of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street, Lamentations 2:19.
The scripture that I feel aligns with Out of My Hands was written by Jeremiah. Earning the nickname of the Weeping Prophet, God often brought Israel bad news for the future due to a combination of disobedience and rebellion. However, beginning in chapter 3 of Lamentations, Jeremiah does share a message of hope based upon God’s grace and forgiveness. The next time you feel helpless with a situation out of your control, remember the message of today’s Tony Vincent song.
Modern historians tend to politicize their beliefs and subsequently rewrite history based upon their own worldview. This may explain the recent introduction of terms like Migration Period and Early Middle Ages to replace what my old textbooks called the Dark Ages. This secular period from 476–800 AD marks a gradual transition away from following God after Constantine’s influence on the Roman Empire. The apostle Paul would refer to this as letting your sinful nature run free, Galatians 5:16-21.
When men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of all they desired and chose. 3 Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not forever dwell and strive with man, for he also is flesh; but his days shall yet be 120 years, Genesis 6:1-3.
Despite what I was taught in Seminary, there isn’t nearly enough content to highlight the First Dark Age on Earth. Shortly after Enoch’s legacy of faith was forgotten, mankind took a turn for the worse. The words of Moses paint the picture of the thoughts going on inside the people on earth: “every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually. ” Meanwhile, their intentions were far worse: The earth was depraved and putrid in God’s sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power), Genesis 6:11.
There were giants on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually, Genesis 6:4-5.
The Bible is full of verses containing light and darkness. When you walk with God in Psalm 1 and 1 John 1, you are living in the light of Christ. However, anyone who stops walking with God due to busy-ness, carelessness, forgetfulness, idleness, or rebellion will quickly find themselves in darkness. According to Moses, walking with God and not walking with God is the difference between blessings and curses, Deuteronomy 28. May you make room in your life for Jesus in 2023 so you avoid the pain of a personal dark age on earth without God, John 15:1-5.
When I entered college, the Chrysalis movement began in my area. This three-day retreat for high school students is based upon the transformation of a caterpillar into a Chrysalis to become a butterfly. Since I was too old to attend this weekend, I worked with my Emmaus roommate Dave, the adult version of Chrysalis, to start an accountability group in the Newark area to anyone who went on this weekend. When I heard the Seven Day Jesus song Butterfly, these memories flashed within my mind.
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! – 2 Corinthians 5:17
The apostle Pail speaks to this transformation in the passage above. Anyone who decides to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ must go through their own spiritual Chrysalis transformation. Colossians 3:1-14 speaks of the necessary steps and mindset needed to leave your former way of life. The hit series Lost produced a similar message in their season one episode Moth to illustrate this change. As you listen to Butterfly, may you seek to become closer to Jesus in 2023.
A promise is a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. The expression promises are meant to be broken come from an analogy made by Ridens on Aug 16, 1681. The context of this expression comes from politics as “He makes no more of breaking Acts of Parliaments, than if they were like Promises and Pie-crust, made to be broken.” If you’ve ever been a recipient of an empty promise, you know how frustrating it can be when careless words are spoken without any acts or actions taken.
For behold, I, even I, will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy and make putrid all flesh under the heavens in which are the breath and spirit of life; everything that is on the land shall die. 18 But I will establish My covenant (promise, pledge) with you, and you shall come into the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you, Genesis 6:17-18.
This isn’t the case for Noah who was the beneficiary of God’s pledge and promise to save his family from the earth’s first rainstorm, Genesis 2:4-5. While the rest of society was feeding their sinful nature, Galatians 5:16-21, Noah spent his time habitually walking with God, Psalm 1:3. This firm foundation prepared Noah for the bad news that God broke, “all of his earthly friends outside of his family would perish.” According to Moses, Genesis 6:22, Noah did everything that God commanded, believing in God’s pledge and promise.
And of every living thing of all flesh [found on land], you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of fowls and birds according to their kinds, of beasts according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind—two of every sort shall come in with you, that they may be kept alive. 21 Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and you shall collect and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them, Genesis 6:19-21.
Based upon the details shared by Moses in Genesis 7, many Bible scholars believe that the flood waters lastedmore than a year, 370 or 371 days to be exact. Since God told Noah to board the ark one week before the rain began to fall, Noah was onboard of the ark for 377 or 378 days. As Noah, his family and the animals finally walked upon dry land, God’s pledge and promise was sealed with the earth’s first rainbow, an amazing colorful sight to see. This sign is on display following each storm somewhere in the sky to remind modern day Christian’s of God’s pledge and promise to Noah.
The first stanza of Carrie Underwood’s song Jesus Take the Wheel is a scenario that many Americans can relate to, consumed by a busy lifestyle. I’m not sure if Carrie is referring to herself or a friend, but she doesn’t pray to God until her life flashes before her eyes. Whether you’re driving on a highway about to crash or find yourself losing a battle with a crippling disease, it’s never to late to prayer to God for help, James 5:16-20.
But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life. 23 For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:22-23.
The apostle Paul compares eternal life to a free gift, offered to every human being. However, like faith, you can’t ride on your parents’ coattails forever. At some point in life, you have to take ownership of this free gift. From a spiritual perspective, when you ask Jesus to take the wheel of your life, you’re actually yielding control of every aspect. As you say goodbye to 2022 tonight and welcome in 2023, may you be inspired to make Jesus the Lord of your life, Romans 10:9-11.
The new year is as good as any time to develop a healthy appreciation and amazement of God. Unfortunately, it often takes some sort of accident that can scare the hell out of you. Something about surviving a near death experience causes your body to shake like the shepherd’s quake in the passage below. As you replay this event in your mind, goosebumps may appear all over your arms with your hair sticking straight up.
And in that vicinity there were shepherds living [out under the open sky] in the field, watching [in shifts] over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord flashed and shone all about them, and they were terribly frightened, Luke 2:8-9.
This shepherd’s quake recorded by Luke appears to be more out of fear as encounters with angels in the Old Testament were a sign of your pending death. As this angel recognized their astonishment and shock, there was an immediate call to calm down and relax. Although Luke doesn’t mention facial expressions, upon hearing the great news of a Savior being born, this shepherd’s quake transitioned from fear to jubilee.
But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people. 11 For to you is born this day in the town of David a Savior, Who is Christ (the Messiah) the Lord! – Luke 2:10-11
The author of one New Testament book uses fear on two occasions to invoke a sense of spiritual urgency in Hebrews 6:1-6 and Hebrews 10:26-27. Meanwhile, the apostle Paul call an entire congregation to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, Philippians 2:12. Just as God taught Moses about walking on holy ground in Exodus, modern day Christians need to enter God’s presence with reverence. While it will take time to break bad habits from your past, emulating the shepherd’s quake as your worship the Lord will help transform your mind about how to approach God in prayer to get His attention.
As someone who struggled to stay awake in church as a teenager, I probably missed several messages that God wanted me to hear. Then again, as Jesus often said to his followers, “let them who have ears hear,” Mark 4:9. It’s one thing to hear what a teacher says in class. Yet, to apply this advice by putting it into practice takes a combination of conviction, inspiration and motivation. This is the spiritual place that Clay Crosse reached when writing I Surrender All.
Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation. 11 The Scripture says, No man who believes in Him [who adheres to, relies on, and trusts in Him] will [ever] be put to shame or be disappointed, Romans 10:9-11.
My initial belief in God was based upon going to church and doing good deeds. This was reinforced within me during my confirmation in the Roman Catholic Church. Unfortunately, I wasn’t introduced to a personal relationship with God until high school through the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. When I accepted Jesus into my heart as my Savior in December of 1984, I was still in control. I had to wait until a retreat in college where the Lordship of Christ was emphasized. Like today’s song, this is when l I was finally willing to surrender everything in my life to Jesus. A new year, 2023, provides an opportunity to do likewise.
One of the major choices you will have to make in life is if you want to go with the flow or become a trend setter? Jesus touches on this subject near the end of his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:13-14. The analogy Jesus uses is based upon who you walk with in life. Are you following the masses on the highway to hell? Or as Robert Frost once penned are you taking, “the Road Less Traveled?” Jesus appears to be referring to Psalm 1:1-3 as who you surround yourself will dictate the choices you make in life.
When Enoch was 65 years old, Methuselah was born. 22 Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God after the birth of Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him], Genesis 5:21-24.
After the earth’s first family got off to a rough start with one scandal after another, the first trend setter came 7 generations after Adam. According to the passage above, Enoch wasn’t like most of the men on earth. While others were trying to please their peers, Enoch had his heart on habitually walking with God. Rather than a casual relationship, Enoch daily prayed and drew closer to the Lord. This example set by Enoch appears to have inspired Noah to become a positive trend setter in an evil society.
But Noah found grace (favor) in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his [evil] generation; Noah walked [in habitual fellowship] with God, Genesis 6:8-9.
Apparently, everyone but Noah was heading down the highway toward hell. The life and example set by Enoch had been forgotten by followers of God. Rather than take the less traveled path, everyone but Noah went with the flow in a society becoming morally bankrupt with each passing day. Sound familiar? As bad as the media and news makes America and the world sound today, it only takes one trend setter in 2023 to alter the course of history. May the lives of Enoch and Noah inspire you to make a difference in 2023.
