Last year’s keynote post,a good reminder for all of us.

 

Big Ben, London, with the new year's fireworks in the background.

Big Ben, London, with the new year’s fireworks in the background.


Time comes into special focus at the beginning of each New Year. The ten second countdown to midnight launches us instantaneously from the old into the new. Then we have to adjust to the new date writing? ?12 instead of ?11. But after a few days we forget about it being a new year and we get on with business as before.
However, being conscious of chronological time is not our only concern. We must also be sensitive to the season in which we live. There are natural seasons such as summer, autumn, winter and spring. There are seasons of life ? youth, middle age and old age. We recognize all these. But how many of us know what spiritual season we are in?
God is the God of kairos time, that is, the times and seasons of his purposes. As he works out his plan in the world he establishes the seasons, those moments of opportunity, in which heaven?s glory touches the earth and we are faced with the challenge to respond.
What will 2012 bring? That is a good question, but God does not always tell us the answer preferring us to take life one day at a time. We are called to live in the present ? as Jesus said, ?each day has enough trouble of its own? (Matthew 6:34). We are simply not made to live in the past or in the future, but in the present.
In our Vision Week, later this month, we will be looking at what God is saying to us as a church concerning his times and seasons for our lives. It is an exciting prospect to envisage God?s purposes, but in order to lay hold of them we must understand the power of the present. When God?s purposes touch our lives they always manifest in the present. This dynamic concept of the ?now? is so obvious that it is often missed.
Knowing what God wants us to do today in the light of his overall plan for our lives is the key. The legendary men of Issachar were men who understood the times (1 Chronicles 12:32). Yet, it was not an idle, speculative preoccupation with prophetic matters. There was a practical reason behind it all: they understood what Israel should do at a crucial time in the nation?s history. ?It was time to establish the kingdom in the land.
This is our ?now time?. Seize it in earnest – it will not come by again.? Make the most of every opportunity God gives you in 2012 to see his kingdom come in your life.
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A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

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