Welcome to 2013

It’s a new year, a time for starting over, and making resolutions. I have to admit, I’m pretty terrible at keeping resolutions so I just don’t make them anymore. I have become very good at doing things at my own pace, and when I decide to do something, I get it done.

I recently finished a trilogy of books written by a Christian author, Robin Parrish. The books are fiction, but based in Biblical truth. The last third of the final book really got to me, and made me realize some things. First, I’m pretty stubborn and don’t always like to listen to others and their advice – including what I should be hearing from my Creator. So, He sends others (Believers) to tell me the things I need to be hearing from Him. I tend to hear this method a little better. Second, I am a being full of fault and sin, and no matter what I do, that is always true.

Thankfully, our Creator saw fit to give the human race a choice. We ALL have the ability to make choices, and it is completely up to each individual as to what path is followed in their life. Some choose a life of crime. Some choose a life of serving. Others choose somewhere in between, leaning towards one side or the other.

I read a book when I was a teenager called “This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti. These books by Robin Parrish make me want to read them again, because of the powerful mental images given of the eternal battle between good and evil on our behalf. His description of the veil between the reality we see and the one that is the true nature of the universe is powerful. Beings of power and beauty fight the shadowy creatures that haunt our nightmares (because this is possibly where we know we belong?) on OUR behalf, because our Creator, the Creator of all things, loves us.

It amazes me that we as humans are given a powerful ally in Jesus Christ. He is the One who was sent to earth to pay for the sins of humankind, past, present and future. Yet we spit in His face on a daily basis with our addiction to sin. Yes, addiction... every single one of us sins. No one human has the ability to be perfect, or live without sin. Too much of what we do and are surrounded by is grounded in sin – our thoughts, what we say, the actions we take.

For this reason, I make one resolution. To draw closer to my Creator this year. In that one decision, all others will be made simpler.

Romans 6:22-23 (NASB)
²² But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.