On That Day - New Year's Message

Ezekiel 36:33 reads in the Young's Literal Translation, "Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the day of My cleansing you from all your iniquities, I have caused the cities to be inhabited, And the wastes have been built."

For some, 2012 was year to be quickly forgotten given the pain you may have experienced from a job loss or your home put on the auction block or the discomfort from a strained family relationship. Yet, what do you expect for 2013? A brand new year or will 2012 spill over bringing more discouraging news? What really is the point of making a new year's resolution when there is not much to look forward except more hardships?

For others, 2012 was an excellent year which brought perhaps a job promotion, a closer knit family through though a difficult season. Your spiritual walk with the Lord flourished and you reached out to others in need, resulting in an increase of blessings and sweet communion with the body of Christ.

Regardless to what 2012 may have been to us as believers we have the promise that God will continue to be God to us in these late hours of the final days before His glorious return (2 Peter 3:10-14).

Not only will He continue to cleanse us, as Ezekiel described, which is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, but God will restore those places we only perceive as a waste.

Recently, as a nation, we have mourned the tragic news of innocent lives destroyed, wasted by individuals who were possessed by hate and cruelty. Lives and places were utterly destroyed, leaving a by a horrific stain on the landscape of many hearts and minds.

Can hope still spring up? Can life be restored? Can the night of weeping pass and joy be found in the morning?

Yes! God can take the bitter waters of marah and turn them into sweet waters (Exodus 15:23-24) and bring a promise of healing. The water that Jesus spoke is Himself, the living water,made possible when we are thirst and dry (John 4:14). Ezekiel 47 speaks of salt water turning fresh to give and support life, changing everything in its path.

We can enter 2013, digging deep into the life of Christ, to be the well of fresh, living water for others that will make a lasting difference in this new year and coming generations.

2013 will be a remarkable year, unlike years past.

It will be a year of breaking expectations and trends, the predictable will be no more because we are on God's fast track of events leading to His return. As there will be an increasing gross darkness over the earth, a last day revival will break out across the nations. The yearning and desire to pray will be restored. Many will risk their lives to further the gospel of Christ,yes, even in this nation, while the love of many will only grow even more colder to the things of God and hatred toward those who represent Christ will abound.

There will be events that shatter and break, mend and mold, but as long as we are rooted in Christ, we are a people unshaken and unmoved by these things.

Yet, we only grower stronger and sweeter while 2013 becomes a promising year of God's fulfillment of the many things we long to see Him do in our lives and in the lives around us, even for those who are in desperate need of courage and hope who can't face another year, alone.