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Points from the Pastor's Pen

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time"  Jonah 3:1

        If you live past January 1st, God is going to give you opportunities to turn your past defeats into future victories. Jonah shows us how God turns our past defeats into future triumphs.

          Even in our refusal to obey God’s voice, God pursues us and keeps speaking . God’s speaking to Jonah “A second time” represents this simple truth: For Christ-followers no defeat, failure, or disappointment is final. The new year gives Christ-followers the opportunity to try again, start over, and rebuild.

        Even in our poor choices God refuses to give up on us. Jonah gave up on himself but God refused to let him and spoke a second time. As we begin the new year of 2018, I challenge you to keep praying for lost children and grandchildren. I challenge you to keep speaking the Word of God over your family, friends, church, and government. For just as God spoke to Jonah a second time, God will speak to you and to all of your concerns and troubles again. God refuses to give up on us. He will speak again, the clouds will part, the Son will come out, and Jesus will reign.

        In 1939 as the world faced the darkness of World War II, King George of England, in his Christmas message to his nation, quoted these lines from the famous poem, “At the State of the Year”.
        “I said to the man who stood at the state of the year, give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown and he replied, go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That will be better to you than the light and safer than a known way. So I went forth finding the hand of God trod gladly into the night.”

        As we move forward into a new year, I pray we will hear God speak again. And I pray our past disappointments, failures, and defeats will by God’s grace be turned into future victories and triumphs.

Your Pastor and Friend,

Joel