3 Days til Bedlam

As you read this, it is three days until Bedlam. But I'm not really in a Bedlam kind of mood right now. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch 50/50. It's about a guy who has cancer and it chronicles the pain both physically and emotionally that people go through during this situation. It makes you cry, it makes you think, it makes nothing else really seem important.

This week is supposed to be all about football. How this game is the biggest in OSU history. If OSU wins, it earn its first Big 12 Championship, it's first BCS Bowl, and maybe, with a little luck, a National Championship opportunity. But none of that seems to matter right now after watching 50/50. The only things that continue to pop up are God, Family, and Friends.

The possibility and actuality of death makes you think. Earlier today a student on our campus was killed while riding his motorcycle. A couple weeks ago four more members of our OSU Family died in a plane crash. My Grandad died from Pancreatic Cancer. Death makes us think, makes us realize what's really important in life. And it's not football. It's not earning prestige in Call of Duty or being the most popular person on campus.

Don't forget what's really important in life.

Faith in God and living for Him, Your Family, and Your Friends are more important than Bedlam.

I Needed This Reminder

Ray Jones' son was playing baseball, and his team had batted around, but when it came to his son's at bat, he struck out. In fact, every time he came to the plate that night he struck out, never once hitting the ball.  After the game, his father came up to him and he said, "Son, I'm so glad you struck out every time you came to bat tonight." Confused, his son did a double-take wondering what in the world his dad was thinking.  But Ray said, "This way I can tell you that I am so proud of you, and you can know that it has absolutely nothing to do with what happened on the field."

Just think about that for a second, God is proud of you.  This is Love with a capital L that He shows us.  That even in our failures, our mistakes, and our sin, He still loves us.  I often lose sight of that and its easy to do so. 

And it doesn't mean we stop trying or keep living in our sin.  It means that God has and will always be there for us and is still working even when we feel like He isn't, or even when we fail.  It means we put more effort into pursuing Christ and Christ's goals.  Because:

He is working.

He is moving.

We are not yet complete and won't be til the day we die.

Let's get uncomfortable, take risks, love and serve others, take the Church to the people, live the Gospel, make Jesus Famous.

Living as if God Isn't Around

Did God leave me? Why can't I hear him? He must've left because I would've heard him? It couldn't be that I'm not listening, that I've wandered off, that's crazy talk.

Say something, anything, I'm listening now. Talk to me now. You must not be there. I'll try to contact you again when I feel this way again. I guess I'll go back to how I was living, distant from you, not trying to further your Kingdom. Trying to pursue my own interests, my goals, my dreams, it's all mine.

What have you done for me lately? You took away dad's job months after getting it.  You took away my scholarship to the place I wanted to be more than anywhere this summer, making me wonder if I'd make it back here.  I told you I would praise you no matter what happened, I wasn't lying, but I haven't done much praising have I? 

It gets harder to praise you when my plans aren't going my way. Me me me, thats all I care about isn't it? Not what you have done for me throughout all of this, your plans for me, your goals for me, the people you want me to be with and love on, to serve. I've truly been a shitty servant to you because I haven't been trusting you.  Maybe if I ever get a tattoo I can print that on my back "Failure of a servant."

Not once have I thought about how you are using each of these situations in my life? Making me more dependent on you instead of thinking I can do everything. Knowing you are really there, even thought I can't hear you, when we both know the truth is I'm not listening to you speak.  You are always talking, but I'm not listening, I've been too busy playing nhl, doing homework, watching tv, on the computer, and everything else in between, except doing the things you want me to do. 

And all of this falls into place in this thing we call life. Except, You gave me life, not the games or the music I play. You created me for a purpose, and its not to spend every moment of spare time watching tv.  You made me in Your image, and I'm destroying that temple with my thoughts and behaviors.

I say you are my all, my life, but actions don't back up my words.  For too long I've been ignoring you, but no longer.  For too long, I've decided not to act when I do listen, no longer.  You are here, with me forever and always.  And forever and always, I will be with you.  On earth, in Heaven; my focus, priority, and mission will be to make You Famous.  The good kind of Famous.  Famous with a capital F.  Loving You and Others as a servant.  A servant-leader at some point, but first and always first, a servant. 

You are here with me.  Through the tough times, the good times, the mourning, the rejoicing, the pain, the joy, the despair, the peace, the happiness.  You are here with me, and I'm going to listen better.

I surrender the control I've been holding onto.  I surrender the worries I have about being a servant-leader for RUF and our campus.  I surrender the dreams I have for myself, personal, relational, occupational, spiritual.  I surrender my life to You.  And from now on, I'm going to live that way.

Serve/Convert

As Christians, we serve not to convert, but because we have been converted.

When you read this, what thoughts run through your mind?

Motivational/Demotivational Friday Part 2

What is something you are being tempted with right now?

"Do you really want to spend the rest of your life wondering..." This is just one of the many thoughts that creep up when we are being tempted to do things. This whole summer it's felt like I've been tempted to just coast through everything. School. Work. God stuff. Knowing that if I did not make certain grades during this summer would result in me not returning to OSU gave me the motivation to fight through that, along with God's endless help. At work, I wanted to work as hard as I could to honor God with every day I was there. But actually spending time with God? In His Word? Prayer? Community? Those areas I truly stunk up. I let the exhaustion from work and busyness of school tempt me into going through the motions in this area. Now that is all over, waiting for my last grade to come in, the temptation continues...but in a whole new way.

So what are you being tempted with right now?

Motivational/Demotivational Friday's!

I've decided that every Friday will be Motivational/Demotivational Friday where I will post a motivational poster for your/my entertainment.

This one has special meaning because I just finished summer classwork that was due at 10pm tonight and was started at 5pm today.

This poster is kind of like life though. We often try to shortcut things in our lives. School, work, family, friends, even God. I know for me, my relationship with Christ is often shortcutted and given low priority or no priority because "there isn't enough time in the day." But we can't do that. Christ has to be the number one thing in our life, given top priority and full support. Then everything else has to fall around that and at the same time work around that.

And honestly I've sucked at that recently/this summer.

The time to change is now.

Tune in every Friday and throughout the week for more posts/posters

When Shadows Fall On Us

This song has been running through my mind a lot lately. The link below is the audio of it if you want to follow along. I miss you, Nick.

Shadows


Life is full of light and shadow
O the joy and O the sorrow
O the sorrow

And yet will He bring
Dark to light
And yet will He bring
Day from night

When shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When darkness falls on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we're thrown and we're tossed
We'll remember the cost
We're resting in the
Shadow of the cross

With every breath I take, every heart beat
Sunrise and the moon lights in the dark street
Every glance, every dance, every note of a song
All a gift undeserved that I shouldn't have known
Every moment I lie, Every moment I covet
I'm deserving to die, I'm earning your judgment
I, without the cross there's only condemnation
If Jesus wasn't executed there's no celebration
So in times that are good, in times that are bad
For any time I've had it all I will be glad
And I will boast in the cross, I boast in His name
I will boast in the sunshine, boast in His reign (rain)
What's my life if it's not praising You
Another dollar in my bank account of vain pursuit, I do
That count my life as any value or precious at all
Let me finish my race, let me answer Your call

How strict is too strict?

So I attempted to have an interesting conversation with a co-worker today after overhearing part of his convo with another co-worker about God and Jesus and stuff. Anyways, this part of the convo was directed towards Church Music, more specifically, using instruments during our music times at church. Now, he was saying that there is no biblical basis for using musical instruments; therefore, he believes (and I think his church as well) that when worshiping through music that we should not use instruments because the Bible does not say to do so. Sadly, we could not elevate the conversation today because of time constraints, guests, work stuff, and him not directly answering questions I was asking him. The way he said it made it sound like he believed it was wrong to do these things, even though he would not strictly say that. But he brings up an interesting point, even though I don't agree with him fully on what he is saying. Should our churches/us do things that are not specifically laid out in the Bible during our services/lives? Is it wrong to use musical instruments/do whatever it is just because the Bible doesn't explicitly tell us to do so?

Now I have a completely different opinion and an entirely different response to these comments that I couldn't express today because of time and I'll share later after yall discuss some. So, Ready, Set, Discuss!

anxiousness

This is what God has been teaching me about lately.

What do I have to be anxious about?

Being worried about my first week back at work and seriously being freaked out today as I sat in my truck before work today. Even though I've done this job before I got really freaked out.
What about girls and the worries they bring to the table?
Friends whose relationships with have deteriorated over the last few months?

And just when I finish praying this morning and God brings forth a peace for the day, I get an email. And now for X amount of time I'm left in the unknown and it scares the crap out of me.

Is this God teaching me to continue to give it all to Him and not to worry because it won't add a second to my life to worry? Is satan pushing harder cause he's found my button?

Probably both. Continuing to trust God even through the scary times that lead into a summer of unknown.
I'm scared. But I'm praying and trusting

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SuCo Day 3

I skipped over day two. Not that nothing important or crucial occurred on this day, but I'm today has been more thought provoking.
I absolutely love the music team for our large group. You can tell they mean the words they are singing. Do I always mean the words I'm singing?
The large group topic has been sanctification, and God has been hitting hard to me on that. I need to do a much better job at killing all sin in my life.
Humility-thinking much less of yourself, and more about others. I've sucked at that recently.
Went to the dating/relationships seminar today. Now I feel ready to date. I'm not. But I'm in my head as usual.
Jesus loves the Church not because she is beautiful, but Jesus loves her despite all the filth that occurs, and that is what makes her beautiful.
I've sucked at making meaningful conversations recently.
I've sucked at being vulnerable with people. And now its super scary.
I love the beach, God is moving and teaching. Tomorrow I'm spending time at the beach with just me in God listening and talking. It needs to happen.
But I am so blessed by the friends I have in ruf, and I'm going to miss them this summer.
Time to go back out and dance the night away, ruf style!

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Summer Conference day 1

It took us two days, 17 hoursish total to get here, except it felt short. Beautiful beaches. Awesome group of people. And God.

Sanctification is the main topic this week during large groups and im stoked to learn more about it.

I need to get to know everyone else in our group better. And I will starting at breakfast.

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Don't Forget

I forgot. I forgot what happened on that trip. I forgot that God kept us in Dallas instead of sending us to Haiti. I forgot what God did on that trip. How He worked through me. How He worked through others. How He brought our team together. The conversations I had. I forgot that on this trip I gave my testimony for the first time. How God brought me out of that wickedness and filth, and made me clean again. I forgot that I made a pledge that I wouldn't forget. Were they empty words? Not at the time, but they seem to be now. I forgot about my plans for after the trip. The labels on the water bottles. Oh, is that why I have a hundred water bottles in my truck, I forgot.

I've been forgetful lately too. Forgetting to read my Bible. Forgetting to spend time with God. Forgetting to pray for my friends. Forgetting to memorize scripture. Forgetting to challenge myself and others. Forgetting who really is Michael Minshew. The servant. The friend. The listener. Where is he? Sure, I still am these things sometimes, but I feel like I've sucked at it recently. Where did he go? I've been questioning a lot recently and it scares me. There isn't enough time in the day to figure this crap out.

I forgot. I hope you've done a better job at remembering than I have.

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Study Break on NHL

Another glitch while playing Luke, it was a goal, even though I was winning 6-1

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NHL At Night

Luke was pretty mad when I tied it up with 12.8 seconds to go.

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Matthew 5:31-48

*This is from my personal study of the Word today. So it is written to me from me. However, the parentheses in the first section are for you, answer here or to yourself. P.S. open up the passage and read it yourself and see what God has to teach you from this passage, it may be something different than He showed me today.*

Matthew 5:31-48

Divorce(31-32)- Whoever commits divorce, commits adultery, unless it is on the grounds of sexual immorality. Our country today, sees divorce as normal, or an easy fix to life and relationships. But the Bible clearly states if you get a divorce, unless because of sexual immorality, it is wrong, the same goes for marrying a divorced woman. (I understand that this might make some people a little angered to see this, but isn't this what the Bible says? Or am I interpreting it wrong? I do not feel like I am interpreting this wrong. So why does our country, even our community, often feel that divorce is okay?) Marriage should be a permanent union between man and woman as the two become "one flesh." Remarrying a wrongly divorced(not justified in God's eyes) person is committing adultery. (What do you think?)

*Sexual Immorality can consist of adultery, prostitution, and fornication, among others, but the Greek word is porneia.

Oaths(33-37)-Do not swear by Heaven, or Earth, or anything. No promises. But let my yes' be my yes' and my no's be my no's. Because I cannot do anything. I cannot promise anything. Do not swear by/using God in any way, but let my character be of such integrity that my words can be believed without an oath.

Retaliation(38-42)-If someone hurts me, slaps me, punches me, or verbally punches me, don't fight back. If someone takes me shirt, give him more of my clothes. Go the extra mile, be there for people. Give to those who need it, the poor, the needy, the broken. Give to those who need love. Humbly Love.

Love Your Enemies(43-48)-Love my neighbor, Love my enemies, pray for those who persecute me, pray for my neighbors, pray for my enemies. Love those who are hard to love. Greet and meet people I don't know and begin this same cycle of love with them. "sun...rain..." - God shows grace and care for all of his creatures; therefore Jesus' disciples are to imitate God and love both neighbor and enemy.

Get Uncomfortable
Love
Keep Yourself Pure Michael

bedtime

HPmmI'm laying in bed, can't sleep, writing this from my phone(I <3 technology). But I can't sleep. Thinking back on the events of today. I worked on homework from 10am-1145pm with a few brakes in between.

I gave up going to a friends homechurch and his home with our friends(lost community).

Spent just a little bit of time with God(most of the reason for staying back).

Worked on homework all day long, and taxes(which just sucked).

Beat Luke in ping pong on a broken table in our lounge. Also jammed out on an acoustic guitar that had no strings that I have now taken possession of because no one has claimed it(btw I played a great set).

Broke my best friend's heart

No wonder I can't sleep.

But through all of this, I know God is still working in my life and restoring and purifying me, and for that I am truly thankful.

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........

I've stared at this screen for a good ten minutes, and cannot think of what or how I want to say.

I'm tired.

I'm ready to be home.

God is still God and God is still good, yet I haven't thought that recently, or lived that out recently.

I've just floated along the last few weeks. I'm just kind of here, getting by, doing what I should do to be a good student. But it's not enough. I know it isn't enough.

When was the last time I read my Bible outside of church of RUF? I don't know.

The last time I tried to memorize my verses? I don't know.

Last time I shared the Gospel? Longer than those two combined.

Have I dwelt on God throughout my entire day? Nope, I've spent my time thinking about two girls instead, neither of which will happen, but I digress.

My effort lately towards God = major suckage.
and I'm tired of it.

Anyone else want to start over?
That's the beauty of God's Grace and Mercy, it's always there, because we always mess up. But at the same time, we have to react to it.

It's time to change. I've said that a lot, "I need to change" "It's time to change." What's going to be different? I don't know.

But it starts on the inside. It starts with dwelling more about God, and less about girls/hockey/baseball/working out/ultimate frisbee/food/sleep/nhl 11 scoreboard vs luke/______.

So how are things going to change?

What do you want to discuss?

If there is anyone who still reads this site, this question is for you.

What do you want to talk about?

This blog was intended to be an area for discussion, so the ball is in your court. Present a topic and let's talk about it.

Worship

Everything you do is an act of worship towards someone or something.

So who or what are you worshipping?

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Not Westboro

The great thing about creating plans, is that often times they aren't God's plans for us. It is something that I have had to struggle with learn a lot about this year, and it has been frustrating and at times, not fun. But I am always so thankful that His plans are greater than mine. Which leads me into the topic that I was supposed to write about a few days ago, Westboro. And this post, sadly, is going to be pushed aside to later this week. The reason for this is because I just stumbled upon an interesting site, churchrelevance.com.

*Disclaimer* This post is completely unfair to most churches because I have only been to a handful of churches in America. It is a rant that is fueled out of seeing countless churches not doing anything about the lost in this world. Churches that are more consumed with having large congregations and are not equipping people to spread the Gospel.

I saw a post on Twitter about the top 200 church blogs for the spring 2011 season. So I wandered over there, looked at the list, recognizing three of them, but then I found something more interesting. "Churches to Watch" and "Top Churches to Watch." Finding this oh so intriguing, I start browsing through the "top" churches in America, recognizing more churches I knew and listened to than blogs I had read. But what caught me off guard was how they were organized. Here are the categories for the "best" churches:
Church Growth
Church Innovation
Church Planting
Church Size
Influencing Other Churches
All Areas

Now obviously these churches are doing something "right" to end up on these "top" listings. And churchrelevance.com's mission is to help "create relevant effective ministries;" however, is all of that really important? Yes I understand that having a big church that is planting and growing other churches is awesome in some facets. Having a church within walking distance of everyone in the world is something that we should be striving towards. But I feel they are missing out on a couple key aspects.

Missions. Community. Where is the list that shows what churches are giving generously towards missions and sending out people to spread the love of Christ and the Gospel Message? Where is the list that shows what churches have an intense community that is showing nothing but love towards one another and is strengthening the Body, The Real Church and is adding to that community within their cities? Where are those kinds of lists?

Why have become a nation that is becoming more and more interested in who has the best stuff/staff/buildings/how big the congregations are/a billion other reasons that aren't really as important? How about those who are focused on equipping disciples to go and serve and feel missions in America and worldwide are important and don't care about what their building looks like? (I didn't see The Village Church on that list, por que?)

Do you agree? Disagree? Indifferent? How does your church stack up? Are they putting emphasis on areas like community and missions, or in areas like building and congregation size?

Remember when I made the comment that there should be a church within walking distance of every person on the planet? Do you know who that church is? You. We are the Church. The Body of Christ is the Church and we should be taking the Church to those who do not know Christ, not the other way around. Is your church training you to take the Church to the World? Is your church sending people sending out people to share the Gospel/staff going out personally and doing so/aiding in doing so? Is your church urging you to stay in, or go out?

Christians and Jesus

When you hear the word, Christians, what thoughts do you think?

When you hear the name, Jesus, what thoughts do you think?

Are the thoughts similar? Do they correlate with one another? What are your thoughts?

Please do not hold back whatsoever

Books

I love to read books. But the way I chose the books I've read/will read have come from a variety of sources. Suggestions from friends. Personal information about the book. But the biggest reason I have for choosing the books I've read are based off of the title. A catchy title categorizes most of the books on my shelf and stack. So, I'm going to explain to you why each book is on my shelf/stack. If for any reason you are looking for books to read, or have questions about said book, ask, and I will gladly tell you more.

My plan was to write out each book that I've read/have to read and how they came along. But as I started writing that out I realized that I was coming off as arrogant about what books I've read. And yes they are mostly great books and I recommend some, but those books aren't important. Jesus is. I could read every book in the world about Him, but if I don't act out my faith because of how Jesus has changed my life and make every effort to spread the Gospel message, then what good are those books? This all spans from the fact that I have just finished two books in three days, mainly because I didn't like them. Those two books speaking about the Holy Spirit and the Gospel message, but once again, if I am not sharing God's love in every second of my life and telling of how He died on the Cross for the world, then what was the point? I read books in order to learn something, to gain knowledge, and to wrestle through what I've learned.

One mistake I've made in the past is spending more time reading random books about Jesus than reading THE book about Jesus. That is something I strongly urge you to not let happen in your life because the Bible is the ONE book that truly matters. It is the ONE book that we should read over and over again and study deeply each time we open it. It is the ONE book that we should be completely in love with. Sadly, I definitely do not show that on a day-to-day basis. I tell you this because something I have been working on recently is being real and authentic with people (which I'll explain more later on here, hopefully). And I will still end up finishing these books and moving on toward the next 10-20 for the next stack (which is a great segue into being a good steward with my money post), but studying the Bible and then sharing Jesus' story and love will be the #1 priority (again) in my life. Because I'm tired of being passive, It's time to be a doer.

The entire Bible points towards Jesus. Together, let's fall back in love with story of Jesus and spread His love to this world.

Love God. Love People.

Joesph

So today I studied out of Matthew 1:18-25.

18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel"
(which means, God with us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Something that really stuck out to me was how legit Joseph was during this time. You may be reading this and think, "What? Joseph tried to divorce the mother of Jesus Christ the Savior, and you are calling him legit?" But let's think about this.
-Joseph and Mary were betrothed, not exactly the same as our modern society calls being engaged. Meaning, customarily, the parents of a young man chose a young woman to be engaged to their son. After the second stage of betrothal, only a divorce could properly break the binding contract.
-Betrothed partners were referred to as husband and wife; however, they were not yet considered to be married.
-Then Mary was found to be with child.
-Having sexual relations during the betrothal period was considered immoral and was also considered adultery. According to Mosaic law, the penalty for adultery was to be stoned to death.
-Joseph then considers divorcing her, because she appears to have been unfaithful.

So Joseph is hurt, he probably feels betrayed by his betrothancee (betrothal + fiancee)(I like to make up words)and most people in his situation would make an extremely big deal out of the fact that she is pregnant and not with his child while she is legally bound to him. But Joseph doesn't do that. Verse 19 says he "resolved to divorce her quietly." And in doing so, showing compassion to Mary even though he is probably broken by what he has found out. Obviously we know that Joseph didn't divorce Mary, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and explained everything about Jesus, and our Savior, born of a virgin, saved us.

But Joseph, not knowing the whole situation, still proved to be man of God in showing Mary compassion after thinking she had been unfaithful to him. To me, this definitely earns Joseph the award of Legit.

It makes me think about how mean I've been to a few friends that have hurt me in the past over something that is so small compared to how I'm sure Joseph felt when he thought Mary had cheated on him. I definitely haven't been showing love to them or to God through those relationships with them. That's something that I am going to work on now after reading this passage. What about you? Is there anyone that has hurt you that you haven't truly forgiven? Or have you hurt someone that maybe you need to seek their forgiveness? Are there any grudges you are still holding onto? Let's give it all to God and start loving on them and Him.

Love God. Love Others.
Love Jesus. Love People.
Love. Love.

Pretty-fying Your Blog

Welcome back to Word's From A Recovering Sinner. Sadly, it has been a long time since I have put a lot of effort into this blog, which means there are probably very few people who still come here to read and discuss. But hopefully that is about to change. I've started writing new topics and discussions for our blog that will debut in a couple of days. These are some thoughts that have been on my mind for awhile and hopefully will provide a few laughs, tears, sweat, maybe some bloodshed as well, who knows. This first series I think most of us can relate to in some way or form as the recurring theme involved with be authenticity.

As I started thinking seriously about this blog again I came to the conclusion that it needed something else, something new, something fresh. And what's the best way to do that, in the form of a new site. It would be perfect, it would have a new layout, pictures, maybe some 3D or possibly 4D features, it was going to be legit. Simply put, I wanted my blog to be the coolest looking blog anyone has ever seen. Then I started thinking seriously/rationally about all of this again, and this question kept popping up in my head: Why am I spending so much time frivolously looking for new color schemes and layouts instead of intentionally spending meaningful time with God or within the community that we've built here on our floor and with our friends?

This comes with incredible timing as the sermon at church this morning discussed idolatry, specifically with the Egyptians and Israelites in Exodus. What we often forget is that anything we place in front of God can become an idol or is an idol. And it doesn't have to be a bronze statue to bow to, it can be in the form of television, sleep, football or footBale, (as in the false god from the bible, I don't know how you spell it but I thought that was clever)or even something as simple and stupid as a new layout/website for a blog.

I am so thankful for the friends I've made while being up here. Together, we have built a community that is so passionate for loving God and loving each other and if it wasn't for that community, especially within the last two weeks, I might still be looking at new layouts for this site.

So what's keeping you from spending time with God right now? Whatever it is, I encourage you to put it on hold for a little while, and spend meaningful, intentional time with God and within your own community or building up a community, because that time is far more important than other thing on this earth that will eventually waste away.

1.1.11

Welcome to 2011 and Happy New Year's to those of you that still keep up with this blog! My hope is that this year more time will be spent living according to God's will and serving and loving Him in everything that we do! I hope to post more this upcoming year just on what God is showing me and what God is doing in my life. So here's to a new year, a new start, and a year of following after God.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
-2 Corinthians 5:17