A New Beginning

Happy New Year Everyone!  In last night's post, "Out With the Old, In With the New", I revealed my new "One Word" for 2018:  Renew.  I am excited to see just where the Lord will lead me in this New Year as I seek renewal of heart, soul, mind, and body. 

Some of the verses we read in our devotions this morning were from the book of Deuteronomy 11:10 -14.  (From "Streams in the Desert" by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, 1950 edition).  And since we woke up to the lovely sound of rain on our tin roof, these verses seem even more appropriate for the start of the New Year:

10.  "For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come,

where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden,

11. but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys,

which drinks water from the rain of heaven,

12.  a land for which the Lord your God cares;

The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it,

from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.

13.  And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today,

to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,

14.  then I will give you the rain for your land in its season,

the early rain and the latter rain,

that you may gather in your grain, your new wine,

and your oil."

Now, I'm not sure just what all of this means for the New Year...except that God is promising to supply rain for the renewal of our land...and as we obey the Lord ...love Him and serve Him with all our heart and all our soul...then He will give us the rain for our land (and in our hearts)...and we will be renewed,  and blessed and we shall flourish.  What better promise than that could we want for the New Year?

Now here is the ritual for the first day of the new year..."Out with the old, and in with the new"....Calendars...

 First, my Teapot calendar...My sister Doris gives me a new one every year for Christmas. (And I give her a different one that she likes)

And then our favorite Country Seasons calendar by the artist John Sloane:
I like how the two people on the front of the 2017 calendar are waving to each other...like "so long to 2017 and hello to 2018"

And then I really love the January picture for the 2018 calendar...beneath the picture of the little white church it says "Guiding Light"...and not only is the church the symbol of the Guiding Light (Jesus), but the skies are lit up with beautiful light as well, heralding in the New Year.

I also love that this little church looks so much like the little church where our son and daughter-in-love were recently married (without the snow, of course)...and we have actually been enjoying the worship and fellowship of that little church recently and hope to continue there in the New Year, Lord willing.  (All a part of that "renewal" that God has planned for me...)

So with that note, I will close for today.  Expecting God to bring about renewal through the early and latter rain this year...as we follow the "Guiding Light" of Jesus every day.