New Year's Resolutions and Coffee

New Year's Resolutions - some make them, some don't. Does anyone keep them? I do not know of anyone who makes and keeps their resolutions. It is possible, but I do not know of them. Yet many of us continue to make them. Why?

I think it is the same reason that we tell our God, other people and ourselves, that we are going to change. We intend to change, but old habits die hard.  Does that mean that we cannot change? I don't think so, it is just difficult.  It requires effort. A lot of effort.

Some years ago, I was addicted to coffee. Really addicted. I tried to quit and endured a headache for about 18 days give or take a couple.  So I gave in and had a cup of coffee, and BAM, the headache was gone in about an hour.  Then a few years later, as I was driving to work, merging onto the freeway, with my coffee cup in hand, as I was being passed by people on the freeway with coffee cups in their hands, I thought to myself, "If America was half as addicted to Jesus as we are to coffee, we wouldn't have half the problems that we do!"

So, I asked God to help me break my addiction to coffee. I started cutting down on the coffee consumption, and in a couple months, I was only drinking a couple of cups a day.  So I quit. No headaches and no coffee for about three months I had no coffee and I was fine.  Now I can take it or leave it.  Every couple of months, I even quit for a few days just to be sure.  I like coffee, always have, probably always will, but now I don't have to have it. Thank you Jesus.

The point is -- and I know I kinda meandered a little -- New Years Resolutions are like choosing to end a coffee (or any other) addiction.  We CAN do it, we just have to be persistent, and forgive the pun, Resolute!

So, if you have a New Years Resolution, whatever it is, I am sure it is to improve some aspect of your life. So ask God to help you, ask others to help you, resolve to do it, and go for it. If you fail at first, just keep trying.  With God all things are possible.

Remember, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13

The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984). Php 4:13.

The Man in the Mirror

The other day, I saw some gravestones on Facebook, that had friends names, and birth and "death dates and causes" fictitiously posted, so I accepted the app and allowed it to create one for me as well. Well, it said that I lived 96 years and died by looking in the mirror. Anyway, that got me thinking (actually it got me laughing hysterically, but then I got to thinking.) 

Potential gravestone!

When I look in the mirror, what do I see? Do I see the same thing others see when they look at me? Or more? I have heard it said that the eyes are the window to the soul. I am not sure what this phrase means, but I do know that no one who looks at me, really sees what is inside my soul. Only God and I know what goes on deep inside. 

So who is this man in the mirror? Why would looking in the mirror kill me? And the most important question of all, how does this relate to Christianity? I shall attempt to answer and relate all these questions together in the lines that follow.

The Bible states that every inclination of man's heart is evil from childhood. Genesis 6: 5, 8:21. Note in the context of these passages it is not singling one particular man out, but emphasizing that we are all evil from childhood. In the New Testament, it states that there are none righteous, not even one. Romans 3:10.  Fortunately for me, other people cannot look through my eyes and see the depravity in my soul. Nor can I look into your eyes and see the depravity in you.  It is generally through our actions and words that we are judged by others. However, there remains the mirror.  When I look into the mirror, I can look at my reflection, or I can look deeper. Sometimes it scares me to look deeper.  Maybe someday it will kill me, but for now, not really. 

Fortunately, for the Christian, there is forgiveness. It is not that we are better than others, although we SHOULD be, given what we have been given by our Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus forgave us by the shedding of His blood. He willingly paid the debt that we had for our sins.  He did ask us to stop sinning, so we really should. We should do as Christ asks, esp. since He has done so much for us. "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does." James 1:23-25

The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996, c1984). Jas 1:23-25.

So to wrap this article up, let me say that although looking in the mirror will not kill me or you, it should cause us to think of what is happening in our hearts and double check our motives. We should evaluate our lives as we begin the year of 2012 and ask ourselves if we are doing what God wants us to do, or merely gazing at our reflection in the mirror and forgetting what we look like when we turn away?

The End of This Year

As I look back over the year of 2011, I find myself wondering who lived my life this year. I did very little that I had planned to do at the start of it.  I just did not seem to have ANY motivation. My life borders on a disaster in many ways. There are many things left undone, and it bothers me.

So what does this have to do with a Blog based on Christianity?

God is still on the throne, and despite my failures, He loves me still! Jesus came to heal and to help us. He came to restore our relationship with The Father, the Creator of the universe.

What makes this relevant to the end of the year?

Easy, as we end a year, we begin a new one. Personally, I plan to make 2012 a much better year, and to do a better job of fulfilling my obligations and responsibilities. And who knows, maybe the Mayans are right, the world will end, or change, or maybe Jesus will come back.

The bottom line is that Jesus loves us all and will continue to love us this year, next year and always!  He does not give His love or forgiveness conditionally, with the exception of our acceptance of them.  Christianity is different from all other religions because all other religions focus on man's seeking God or gods, and Christianity focuses on God seeking man.

God bless us all!