New Year’s Resolutions – Weight Loss, Smoking and Treadmills

As the New Year arrives many of us make resolutions. We determine that we will lose 20 pounds, exercise five days per week, lower our cholesterol, get eight hours of sleep each night, or keep our house cleaner than last year.

How successful are we? People who track these things observe that 25% of us will abandon our resolutions in the first fifteen weeks.

Because we often fail to keep our resolutions, we tend to make them again and again. The average person making a New Year’s resolution this year will have made that resolution in 10 prior years.

Why do we fail to keep these resolutions?

Jesus spoke of the man who decided to change his ways. An unclean spirit leaves him only to return later saying, “I will return to my house from which I came.”

“When it returns, it finds it unoccupied, swept and put in order. Then it goes, and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

The problem with making and keeping resolutions often lies in the fact that we are not trusting in the Lord to make changes in our lives. On our own we will not be successful.

On occasion a chronic smoker may decide to quit smoking and succeeds without using a pills or patches. A doctor may tell a patient to lose 50 pounds or risk dying at an earlier age. The patient proceeds to lose weight and keep it off.

The more likely case is that we fail to keep our resolutions. We stop smoking for a week, but we find the anxiety too great. We return to our pack-a-day habit. Or we lose 50 pounds one year and gain 60 the next.

The Bible tells us that our real problem is sin. We are sinners by nature and tend to do things that alienate us from God and from others. Because this sinful orientation is part of our very nature, we are unable to change this condition by merely making a resolution at the end of the year not to do something in the next year.

We must begin by admitting to the Lord that we are sinners. Because the penalty for sin is death, we deserve to die and suffer eternally for that sin.

The wonder of wonders is that God cared so much for us that he provided a way for us to escape that penalty. The Bible says that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. The iniquity of us all was laid on Him. Jesus then rose bodily from the dead to defeat death and the grave.

The Bible also tells us that we must put our trust in Him in order to receive salvation. In other words, we must realize that He has paid the price on our behalf. We must rely on Him rather our good works to get us to heaven.

When we put our trust in Him as our Savior, the Bible says we have passed from death to life. Heaven is our home.

What does this Bible truth have to do with resolutions?

First, it shows us why so many people fail to keep resolutions. They may succeed for a while, but they often return to the same bad habit.

Second, when it comes to dealing with behaviors and attitudes that arise out of our sin nature, we cannot make any significant or lasting progress without trusting in the Lord.

Third, once we have put our trust in the Lord there is a range of New Years resolutions that we may wish to consider.

How about reading the Bible for a few minutes each day? What about making a prayer list with the names of family members and friends so that we can pray regularly for them? How about asking the Lord to help us serve Him in some way as we go about our daily affairs?

Losing weight, stopping smoking and dropping our cholesterol are all worthy New Year’s resolutions. If you have made those resolutions, stick to them. Don’t give up. Ask the Lord to help you keep them.

Consider adding some resolutions that go beyond food, drink and exercise. You will be glad you did, and 2006 can be the greatest year of your life.

The old gospel song puts it this way:

I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the worlds delights;
Things that are higher,
Things that are nobler,
These have allured my sight.

I am resolved to go to the Savior,
Leaving my sin and strife;
He is the true One,
He is the just One,
He has the words of life.

I am resolved to go to the Savior,
Faithful and true each day,
Heed what He says
Heed what He wills,
He is the living way.

I am resolved to enter the kingdom,
Leaving the paths of sin;
Friends may oppose me,
Foes may beset me,
Still I will enter in.

Christmas - Wise Men, Deceivers and the Masses

2000 years ago wise men from Persia came to see Jesus, King of the Jews. Along the way they stopped to chat with King Herod who was troubled by the news. All the while, the great mass of humanity noticed nothing at all.

Who are you and I like? Are we like the wise men that came to worship Jesus? Are we deceitful and angry like Herod, threatened by the Truth? Are we like a third unnamed group in this historic account, the great silent mass of humanity.

The wise men did not practice judaism. They were probably Zoroastrian priests who engaged in star gazing. When they saw the unusual star associated with the birth of Jesus, they decided to travel several hundred miles to see the babe, the King of the Jews.

His birth did not offend them. In fact, they went to worship Him.

In contrast, Herod the Great feared Jesus. When the wise men told him about the star and the baby’s birth, he became troubled. After all, he was king and did not want to lose power to another.

As a result, King Herod lied. Commanding the wise men to report back to him after they found Jesus, he stated that he wanted to worship Jesus too.

Actually Herod wanted to kill Jesus. When the wise men failed to email him with Jesus whereabouts, the enraged Herod ordered the murder of all baby boys less than two years of age.

Although the historic accounts tell us that a few wise men and several shepherds went to see Jesus, most of the people continued to go about their business unmoved and seemingly unaffected by the birth of just another baby in a small place. They had no awareness of his birth and would have placed no great importance on it.

In our day, we have been taught about the impropriety of offending others. We are told to consider the use of "Happy Holidays" rather than “Merry Christmas.” Schools hold holiday programs instead of Christmas programs. If government agencies decorate a tree, they gingerly refer to it as a Holiday tree.

We are urged to use extreme care to avoid irritating people of other faiths. We are particularly warned that the slightest mention of Christ and Christmas may offend people who have come to the United States from other lands and cultures.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Most foreigners who come to our nation are very glad to be here. They know we are a nation shaped and sustained largely by our Christian heritage.

Do our Christian roots keep them away? Absolutely not. They continue to come any way they can. Some have been waiting for years for the opportunity. Others enter illegally. They want to live here.

Once they arrive in this country they are not predominantly interested in eradicating Christianity from our schools and public life. In fact, many are quite interested in our religious traditions.

The people in our midst who raise the biggest fuss about Jesus and Christmas are activist atheists. They will not stop until they have silenced His name in our schools, kept the manger out of our public places and completely eliminated all reference to God on our coins and in our public ceremonies.

These activists are more like deceitful Herod who tried to mislead the wise men in order to bring about his own purposes. They attempt to justify their activity by appealing to the cause of those who come from other lands and follow other religious belief systems.

They use the so-called separation of church and state to crush any religious symbols, teaching or practice in the public arena. All the while they fail to mention that their belief system, secular humanism, is also a religion.

The result is that our nation dies a slow death as we move further and further away from truth. Violence, drug use, out-of-wedlock births, suicide, homosexuality and general moral decline ruin the lives of millions.

As the activists work so hard to marginalize Christianity, many of us continue about our affairs with little interest in the outcome. The press of daily life entirely consumes us.

The problem of the human heart is not merely a tendency to engage in what most people would call acts of great evil. It is also our capacity to leave God out of almost everything we do.

In a single day we are able to entertain thousands of thoughts and perform hundreds of actions without giving even passing consideration to the Lord. Even those of us who attend church on Sunday may live as practical atheists throughout the week.

When our work, pleasures, travels and day-to-day activities crowd God out of our lives, we are somewhat like the masses of people who lived in Bethlehem and the surrounding regions when Jesus was born. His birth had no immediate affect on their daily lives.

Whether we are like Herod or the silent masses, the Christmas story is a story for us. If we quietly listen we can hear the truth in spite of the traditions, anger, agendas and apathy of our day.

How silently so silently the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

This Christmas season let’s not be like the masses who continue their daily affairs without any awareness or concern of Jesus.

Let’s not be like the deceivers and scoffers who reject the truth in order to bring about their own agendas.

Let’s be like those who have put aside backgrounds and traditions to come to Jesus. Let's receive Him as our Savior, the promised One, Jesus the Christ. Let's worship Him.