FROM THE PASTOR ---
The beginning of a new year fills me with hope, excitement, and anticipation. However, I know that many of my brothers and sisters in faith around the world face the new year as their first without a loved one, or a job or a home. Despite the joy of a new day and a new year, pain still marks our world. Yet I call to mind the fact that the world in which we live is not creation's final state.
Revelation 21: 1-6 confirms God's promise of the renewed creation to come: God dwells with the people and lovingly wipes away every tear. Death, pain, and mourning will be no more. God's promise of a renewed creation enables us to look with hope toward a sometimes uncertain future.
However, God does not abandon us while we wait. We stand on the eve of a new year with the renewed assurance of God's presence in Jesus which we celebrated in the season of Advent. We do not face a new year or a new day alone; through the miracle of Jesus Christ, we affirm that God is with us, even now!
Through the Holy Spirit, God fills our hearts and lives each day; and as followers of God, we also can show God's presence on the earth. God leads us to act with love and compassion toward others making God's loving touch known to all around us during this year of 2012 and every year as we enact the reign of God on earth now.
Faithfully,
Pastor Ken
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