Measured by Years — Welcome Detweiler

Praise for God's Faithfulness at the Beginning of a New Year

We have just entered another year, and it should certainly be a note of praise and thank-giving on our lips and in our hearts, a thing to explain how good is the God we adore for faithful, unchangeable friends, whose love is as great as its power, and flows neither measure nor end.

Since Jesus, the first and the last, whose Spirit shall guide us, take hold, we will praise him for all that is past, and thank him for all that is to come. It seems as though the beginning of a new year always makes us think of some things which we do not think about so seriously at any other time of the year.

Life Measured by Years and the Journey into Eternity

First of all, it reminds us of the fact that our lives are measured by years, and while no exact number of years are allowed within, still the scriptures say the days of our years are three-four years and ten.

If by reason of strength they be four-four years, yet it is their strength, labor, and power that is the proof of God, and we are aware of it. For the beginning of the year marks another milestone, a journey from time into eternity.

I suppose there have been times when all of us have wished that we knew what would be the end of the year, but God, who always has our good in mind, has not been pleased to reveal all the details regarding our pathway during the coming years, and I am sure this is a few little problems to know.

God's Presence and the Promise to Jacob

A great person faces the new year with concern, knowing that he who is for us is greater than he who is against us. Many precious monks and nuns who are the foundation of the new service in the Southern Church, I want to remind you that each one of these precious monks and nuns passes a scroll of evidence to our souls, and, behold, I will be with thee, and will keep thee till thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.".

Genesis 28, verse 15. This psalm was named to Jacob by the God of Heaven at a time when Jacob was just about to begin a new year, or at least a new era in his life. Jacob's title means an angel. This promise was not given as a result of Jacob's obedience to God, but rather because of God's cosmic intention to show his grace to the young and the first.

If God willed the best of those who deserve the best, clearly anyone would be best. God seems to have said that he is letting the least deserve, for it is a magnificent grace. This promise, I will be with thee and will keep thee in all places till thou goest, may be claimed by every child of God for the coming year.

The claiming of this promise removes all fears and forebodings. To the best of knowledge, if God is in your presence, believer marches into the days, the weeks, the months, and other years with a peace of mind which is so necessary in these days of outward stress and strain.

The Unsaved Face the Future Without God

I must remind you that this promise is made through Christian faith exclusively. No unsaved one can claim this promise. In the sharp contrast to the Christian, the unsaved one must face the future alone, without God, without Christ, having no promise of his presence, utterly alone.

It is no wonder that unsaved ones express the frustration of life through long days of unrest. That year, a long time to live, especially when God is ignored, is like the sun to be rejected. Anyone who attempts to live independent of God is asking for a dull year.

You have already experienced many of these. It is absolutely obvious to continue in a course that you honestly admit that you do not live to the satisfaction you desire. No practice would more properly engage your meditation than this one.

Shall I continue to live in this same manner as before, without being saved? Without the method consciousness of a Savior divine present each moment of the day, living in continual danger of being lost for all eternity, annoyed by the unceasing fear of death?

Is this life? Will I someday be cast out of all my days, or sent away from God? Or, shall I begin a new year with undesirable overheads, so that I might come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my own precious Savior and Lord?

The Call to Seek Salvation in Jesus Christ

God will surely recognize the unconcealed desire of anyone who longs to be saved. Some of you will have to admit that the reason you are not saved is because you have never told God that you wanted to be saved.

You may always be mindful of this, that while yours is a ship that is tossing on the waves of the troubled sea without a turn, without a cap, you might be enjoying the pleasant calm of sailing with Christ through the heavens, reminding you daily, I am with thee, and will keep thee with our boat.

I will not leave thee. The Christian hemisphere follows disappointments and disappointments which almost overwhelm the soul, but the knowledge of an omnipresent Savior fortifies the Christian to the extent that he can actually thank God for all things, even those things which seem so uncertain to the flesh.

The Christian has proved the faithfulness of God, not only during the days of smooth sailing, but also in the days of adversity. During such days of testing, the child of God is sustained by the sympathy, the compassion, the comfort, and the grace of a wonderful Savior.

The unsaved one has no one to turn to while passing through similar experiences. He must either collapse, or resort to take the cruel suggestion to water your troubles by sinking deeper into sin, which will lead to more troubles.

Unsafe friends, you need strength in view of the days of trouble of which you may expect a certain share to leave you. You may even be in biting days of trouble by your willful rejection of the Savior.

Many have witnessed to the fact that days of extreme sorrow and grief were used by God to awaken the suffering soul within them to acknowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. A reasonable question may arise in your mind, How can I become a child of God?

Receiving Christ as the Way to Become a Child of God

Will I be able to face the presence of Christ truly? The answer to this important question, we are not permitted to project our own opinions or questions onto theories, and the word of God is the only safe source to find the answer.

In the psalm of the Lord, verse 12, the answer is given in a simple form. For as many as receive him, for them they hate all the sons and daughters of God, and for them there should be no name. There is no foundation of heart and strength, but condition is the only condition.

It is, as many as receive him. In other words, there must be a separate moment when the sinner confesses before God that he is lost, and that he is ready to accept or receive the man who is placed in death and died as a substitute to satisfy the claims of the holy God.

As many as receive him, for them they take power to become the sons of God. I tried many times to become a child of God by promising God that I would live a good ten months, but I never became a child of God on that basis.

For a bankrupt sinner is not in a position to promise God anything. Others have tried to become children of God by working for God, as if it could be obtained by virtue, but, as they say, they never become children of God on that basis.

To receive Christ, and enter into the good of his accomplished redemption, is the one and only way that anyone can become a child of God. To receive him means eternal life. To neglect to receive him means eternal death.

Claiming God's Promise and Trusting the Unknown Future

Whatever choice you may make, during the early days of the new year, none can bring to you more satisfaction than to receive him, which makes you the possessor of eternal life. Then, you may immediately claim the promise made to Jacob, I am with thee, and will keep thee, whether thou goest.

To know that nothing has happened in the new year, but what has been planned by God for my good as this world, gives deep and lasting satisfaction. I do not know what awaiteth me at dawn for another year.

The path untrodden I cannot see, yet knows my heart still fear. Though dark the path may be, or night, or smooth, or rugged way, I ever shall be led right by all time, for guidance and grace. I do not know whether short or long, my destiny will be.

I'll daily praise my Lord in song for all his love to me. Let the years shall longer go, and day by day be mine. I'll seek to lead from treasure to treasure, to thank the great divine. My God shall be my strength and steady while journeying here below.

He was upon my knee all day, his word assures me well. With joy I greet the opening year. It cannot bring me ill since night. My Lord will ever heal me. I'm told that we must be vicious conquerors and conquerors every little time.