Happy New Year

Went to Luther Britt to take some year end family photos. These were originally intended for the Christmas card, but did not get a chance to take them. Every day I had off, the rain would start.

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas and we are praying that you have a wonderful New Year!

Snowman . . . Langley Style

Since we woke up to a little snow today, we decided to make a snowman. After a little thought, a regular corncob pipe just wouldn't do.

Introducing the most feared man in the Galactic Empire: Frosty the Darth Vader Snowman.

May the force be with you in the upcoming year!

Food For Thought Fridays

Christmas is tomorrow. We are going to celebrate the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

It's the night before Christmas and I can think of no better time to think about the words concerning John the Baptist in Luke chapter three.

Here the words of the voice calling out:

Prepare the way of the Lord,make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

John was crying out, "Stop running from God and start running to Him instead. Make your hearts ready for Him. You need to be rescued and guess what . . . the Redeemer is coming! Yep! Your King is coming back for you!"

As we prepare for the coming of our Rescuer as a tiny baby, don't get confused when people ask you if you are ready for Christmas.

Whether or not you have bought all your presents matters very little if your heart is not prepared to celebrate the Son of God.

Getting ready for Christmas should mean that I am making straight paths for Him.

Begin to listen to the voice coming from the wilderness and heed his advice.

Prepare your heart for the King and let Him be celebrated this Christmas.

Merry Christmas,

Wade

Food For Thought Fridays

AW Tozer once said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."

Acts 1:8 says that we receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we become witnesses in the earth.

That is the test. Look at your church and your life.

Is there power and are you a witness? Is there evidence of the Spirit in your life?

We talk about being filled with the Spirit back in '98 or '65 or 2002, but what about last week or this morning?

If the Spirit was withdrawn from your life, would anything change?

Shalom

Food For Thought Fridays

Have you ever seen those NutriSystem commercials where a guy or girl weighed 350 pounds and now they weigh 150?

The best thing about the commercials are when the people stand up and put their old pants on and hold them way away from their bellies?

That is the proud moment of the commercial. The time when they say, "That was me!"

But, are we the same when it comes to our faith and our walk with Jesus?

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new is here!"

If we are a new creation, why do we struggle so much with the things we dealt with before Jesus saved us? Why do we keep getting angry? Or using bad language? Or dealing with sexual immorality?

It's probably because we want to keep putting on the same pants that we wore before we were saved.

We still have not accepted the fact that we don't need those old habits anymore to satisfy us.

Our satisfaction doesn't come from the things of this world, but from the giver of every perfect gift, our Almighty Father.

If you loose weight, I guess you can keep the old pants as a reminder of where you've been, but once you accept Christ, clean house.

Throw away those old "pants" and be the new creation Jesus has called you to be.

Food For Thought Fridays

I was reading in Genesis about the life of Joseph and something struck me, so I thought I would share.

In Genesis 40 verses 1 and 4 it talks about Joseph's stay in prison. The way the ESV Bible reads is that he was in prison for "some time."

Have you ever been at the point where "some time" was just a long time?

When you can't get ahead at work. When you know your kids are heading down the wrong path. When prayer seems pointless and Bible study is a waste of time. When your marriage seems as if it can't get worse. When you feel like you are all alone doing battle by yourself.

Yeah, some time can be a long time.

In 40:22, Joseph's some time turned into forgotten. In fact, it was over two years.

But, God was with him. Through pain, trial, hardship, and even being forgotten, God was with him.

God turned Joseph's some time into a growing season. You just have to see it from God's perspective.

What man meant for evil, God used to save a people.

If you change your perspective, what will God do with your "some time?"