Out With The Old; In With The New

Have you ever heard the saying, "Out with the old; in with the new"? Well, sometimes that can be a good thing and sometimes it can be a bad thing. It can be a good thing when it comes to MATERIAL things. It is always exciting to get rid of those "old" clothes and get some "new" ones or trade that "old" car in for a "new" one. It can also be a good thing when it comes to MINISTRY in the sense that we should not be driven by the past but a by a vision for the future and what God wants us to strive for in this upcoming year. While I am thankful for what God has done for us in the past, and we should not forget it, I also want to be careful to not let the past hinder the future. There are many churches that do not seem to move forward because they are stuck always thinking about the way things "used to be." But while many times trading the old for the new can be a good thing, it can also be a bad thing. Change can be good unless it is change in the wrong direction. We must be careful to not trade the Word of God for any of the "new" teaching we are hearing today. God's Word still has the power it always has and God never changes; He will always honor things done His way. I hope as the new year dawns, you will make a resolution to ged rid of the old habits that kept you from serving God to your fullest ability last year and decide to commit yourself afresh and anew in 2009.

500 Tracts In About 15 Minutes!

Last Thursday night our church took part in the Siler City Christmas Parade. It was a great opportunity to give out the gospel to people in our community. Last year they prepared 500 tracts but had alot left over because there were not that many people there. So, this year we decided to prepare 500 candy canes with gospel tracts tied to them just in case the parade was larger this year. Boy, were we surprised! The parade this year was over three times larger than last year's. There were so many people there that we gave out all 500 candy canes and tracts in about the first 15 minutes! We were way under prepared because we had no idea that many people would be there but we will be ready next year. It was sad to see the many lining the streets that we could have given the gospel to but were not able to. People were taking the tracts as fast as we could hand them out. What a great outreach opportunity. We came back rejoicing that even though we wish we had been more prepared, we were still able to give the gospel out to 500 more people than we would have otherwise. So, to God be the glory!