HAPPY NEW YEAR/2024

A very happy and blessed New Year to you and your family.    So much going on in so many lives..  America needs Jesus...   Please heal our land, dear Lord. 

I pray that this new year brings good health and happiness for everyone, not only our family, but for yours as well.   There were many who lost loved ones and others whose family is suffering from many different physical and emotional situations.  We know that none of us is ever exempt from sadness or loss---but with the Lord at the helm of our lives, He can make it bearable and He can receive the glory.    My favorite verse is "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."   And, yes I can----and ONLY through and with Him!!

What are YOU going to do for Jesus this coming year?  Only use Him in emergencies, or will He definitely become the LORD of your life??   Don't go another day without Him.  He loves you so much. 

Following is a devotional for the new year from one of my favorite daily devotional books, "Springs In The Valley" by Mrs. Charles Cowman.   I'm sure it will be an enoucouragement and blessing to you, too.

 JANUARY 1, 2024

"For the LORD thy God brings thee into a good land, a land of  brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;  A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.   When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee."  (Deuteronomy 8:7-10).

We are entering upon a new year---surely we cannot but believe, a new age.   If we have rightly learned the lesson of the past, there lies before us a heritage of unspeakable blessing, which none of these vivid metaphors can too strongly describe; infinite sources of blessing, for the fountains and water brooks are but the figures of God's illimitable grace.   For WITH HIM is the fountain of life.

A FOUNTAIN FED BY ETERNAL SPRINGS!

They tell us of boundless supply:  "Bread without scarceness,"  the olive oil that speaks of the Holy Spirit, the honey that tells of the sweetness of His love, and pomegranates that are the seed fruit which speak of a life that reproduces itself in the blessing of others.

They tell of the "nether springs" which flow from the depths of sorrow, in the hard places, in the desert places, in the lone places, in the common places which seem farthest from all that is sacred and Divine.

How delightful it is to have His gladness in the low places of sorrow, and to be able to glory even in tribulations also. They tell us of pleasures that come out of the very heart of trials, treasures wrung from the grasp of the enemy.

How precious the springs that flow into the places of temptation, for there is nothing in life so trying as the touch of Satan's hand and the breath of the destroyer.  Oh, how sweet it is, even there, to find that the light is as deep as the shadow, and heaven is nearest when we are hard by the gates of hell, so that we can COUNT IT ALL JOY WHEN WE FALL INTO DIVERSE TEMPTATIONS, and can say, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Springs in the valley are very unusual; but He will give us both the upper and the nether springs.”