Happy New Year

Whew! We did it. We survived 2009. It's been a horrid year for many people. It might have been for us as well, except for God's interventions. When the economy began to meltdown, I was having nightmares of untold hardship for all, especially for us. It still blows me away that it wasn't. The worse things got outside, the better they got inside.

In 2008, Eden Valley nearly crashed and burnt. If God had not worked some major miracles, we would have been toast. Believe me when I say we were not worthy. We deserved to sleep in the bed we made for ourselves, but true to His nature, He chose to be merciful and very gracious instead. I've been praising God ever since. When the world's economy crashed, God injected $240,000 into ours. Then He filled our Lifestyle Sessions to the max. If someone messed up as badly as I did, I'd let him suffer it, but God just dusted the dirt off of my scraped knees and gave me another nudge forward. Can you beat that? If He'll do it for me, the chief of sinners, He will do it for you also. Believe me, I've had the experience often.

I weep for people who judge God by the hurts they've suffered at the hands of the ungodly. They get confused by the deceivers who professed to be Christians. Why blame God for their actions? The trick is to walk with God personally. Play fair with Him and He'll be more than fair with you. He is absolutely magnanimous. If we walked with God individually, we would come to know how awesome He is. How generous, how patient, how loving, how wise and how powerful. Oh me, if only we knew.

Galatians 1:4 says, Jesus "gave Himself in exchange for our sins." He didn't wait until we believed, received, repented, or confessed anything. He went to the cross with all of our sins whether we would believe or not. We don't believe in order to get Jesus to forgive us, we see that before we have any involvement with Him at all, He gave Himself to us. We believe after we see how wonderful He is.

Dear everyone, trust God. He won't let you down. I promise. (As if I can promise anything. My promise is based on God's promise to us.)

1 John 2:2 Jesus "is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." That includes you.

ST 9-1-1898:6 “With all assurance we may ask Christ to undertake our case; (With how much assurance? •Why?) for when He gave His life as the propitiation for the sins of the world, He undertook the case of each soul.”

Happy New Years everyone,

The Preacher to his Tribe.