September 1, 2009
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From The Pastor‘s Desk:
September Resolutions
Practically all of us make New Year‘s resolutions. Some of us also make mid-year, monthly, weekly, and daily resolutions. I want to encourage you to make some September resolutions. School is starting back up and there‘s opportunity to become engaged in some new studies at church and new opportunities to serve the body of Christ at Cambridge.
Socrates said, The unexamined life is not worth living. Well, the examined life is not worth living either if the examination produces no resolutions. What examination and experience teach us is that the unplanned life settles into fruitless routine. ( A failure to plan is a plan for failure. ) Well, the drifting life the coasting, que-sera-sera whatever will be will be, unreflective lifetends to be a wasted life.
How do we avoid a wasted life? Self-examination life-examination, routine-examination, schedule-examination, heart-examination followed by the resolve that you will make a difference. That‘s what I encourage you to do.
Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)
Paul prays that God will fulfill every resolve for good that we have. This means that God will help, or enabling us, to fulfill those resolves. It is a work of faith because we depend on Jesus to give us power to fulfill it. That‘s how we resolve by faith in Jesus.
Then Paul says that the fulfilling of the resolve is by his power. That‘s what we are depending on. That‘s what we are looking for when we resolve. We are looking to Jesus who promised to be with us and help us.
So pause sometime soon. Pause and examine your life. Examine what is missing that should be there. What is there that should be removed? What new dreams for ministry might you venture? What new habits do you want to build into your Fall schedule?
Remember: God will be pleased with new resolves for good if you resolve by faith in Jesus. I am praying for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power.
Seeking to glorify the Lord Jesus with you,
Pastor Jay
