As you begin the new year, will you stop and consider how deep and how far you are willing to go with Jesus? Consider Jesus and go outside the boundaries of a scornful world, lay aside every weight and don’t allow your struggles to dominate your focus. We are to stand and fight for a people who are fighting against their own salvation. It’s all about people and all about those who need a Savior. Consider Jesus and go all the way with Him.

When we are indentified with Jesus, we will go through trials. This message reminds us that because Jesus laid down His life for us, we have everything we need to get us through difficult times. We have a trail mix, and when we walk along this journey we can put our hand in the bag and pull out whatever we need. Jesus provided for us a conviction of cleanliness and a persistent praise to keep us in the midst of the storm. In times of trial don't let the devil isolate you, get into the presence of God so He can search your heart and reveal His love to you.

If you put three geniuses in a room, they could not create something from nothing — only God can. It is man's role to arrange the things of creation in ways that bring honor and glory to God. Because of sin, man has failed in this role — primarily in the area of relationships. God placed man and woman in the garden to bring him glory. God asks us to be present with one another. Our presence always has implications, whether positive or negative. At Christ's birth it was time to create again. Jesus created something new. He wasn't just rearranging what was there.

 Most Christmas messages don't start in the Garden of Eden with the fall of man. And this is not a message about whether or not Christmas trees are pagan and carnal. It is a message about a loving and merciful God sending His Son to a manger as our Savior — rescuing man from his fall "down" into sin and his fall "up" into trying to be like God.

In the Gospel of Luke, Mary is troubled when the angel of the Lord tells her that she has found favor with God. Like Mary, many of us have a hard time receiving God's favor. We feel unworthy or undeserving, but this is just the type of person God wants to pour His favor upon — the unexpecting, humble and lowly. Favor is often misunderstood to mean an easy comfortable life free of troubles, but God's favor is sometimes accompanied by difficulties. Just look at Abel, Noah, Lot and Joseph. Despite the possible difficulties, the favor of God will always bring about a "from now on" life changing and defining moment. Beloved, through Christ we're already favored. We just need to position our hearts and lives to receive it.

We cannot achieve righteousness through our own efforts but only through faith in Christ. Many people mistakenly believe that while we are justified by grace, we must sanctify ourselves through zealous pursuit of the law. However, this self-righteous striving only leads to anger, pride, judgmentalism and jealousy. True righteousness and sanctification come from continually depending on God's mercy and grace through the gospel, not through human will or exertion. Christ is the end of the law and puts an end to our fleshly striving, setting us free to walk in His power and glory.

God's old covenant with the people of Israel was a temporal one based on the works of man. The New Covenant through Christ is a much more excellent covenant. It is an everlasting covenant based on the finished work of Christ on the Cross. It is not something we do or follow, but changes who we are. Christ's single sacrifice cleanses us for all time from past, present and future sin. Don't fall back into an old covenant way of thinking where you try to earn your holiness and God's acceptance through works.

In Nehemiah we see a picture of a people that were rebuilding with one hand but tearing down with the other. God had brought them out of captivity but they were returning to the sin of their fathers. God wants us to be completely free from sin, yet we sometimes find ourselves coming back to it. Freedom isn't going to come through our own strength and willpower. It can only come — and be maintained — by Christ Himself. Draw close to Jesus and trust that He is working on your behalf.

Astronomers tell us that we can see some 2,000 stars on any given night, but there are more than 100 billion stars in the universe. We see just a small fraction of what is actually out there. This is a picture of what happens when we get consumed by daily offenses in our lives. God has so much more in store for us, but we get intoxicated by petty grievances. We get caught up in the 2,000 star circumstances when God had a 100 billion star destiny waiting for us.