Welcome January!

Happy New Year!

It is a new year, "twenty ten" is the phrase I hear our new year being called.

Today in church we heard about the meaning of this month's name.

It can be related to the spirit of annual resolutions that abound these first weeks.

The information I have gathered this afternoon is:

The first of January was dedicated by the Romans to their god of Gates and Doors, Janus.

A very old Italian god, Janus has a distinctive artistic appearance in that he is commonly

depicted with two faces...one regarding what is behind and the other looking toward what lies ahead.

Thus, Janus is representative of contemplation on the happenings of an old year

while looking forward to the new.

Some sources claim that Janus was characterized in such a peculiar fashion

due to the notion that doors and gates look in two directions.

Therefore, the god could look both backward and forward at the same time.

In his role as the Guardian of Exits and Entrances, Janus was also believed to represent beginnings. The explanation for this belief being that one must emerge through a door or gate in order to enter into a new place. Therefore, the Romans also considered Janus as the god of Beginnings and his name was an obvious choice for the first month of their year...a month referred to by the Ancient Romans as Ianuarius, which is not so far removed from the modern-day "January,"

taken from the Etruscan word jauna which means "door."

So, as I see the beginning of this new year in light of my faith,

I take time to look back, learn from the past year, and look forward,

making intentional plans for the year yet to unfold.

The plans will not be merely physical ones such as :

lose weight, more time with family, make better use of our finances, etc.

but deeper ones, the ones that are the rich soil

in which all of these usual physical plans are best planted.

So, my dear reader, do your plans echo mine?

I'm wondering.

I don't know what you have sensed as essentials for living a God centered life in 2010.

Mine include:

Slower reading, meditating upon and memorization of scripture

as God highlights them in my portions of daily reading through the Bible.

Listening to the Word more often via podcast and CD's. . .

listening to the text I'm studying.

Letting God guide me to have not just a full calendar

but a meaningFUL calendar. I like that difference.

Ending each day with a re-reading of the day's reading (in NASB)

but in a different translation as I drop off to sleep. (in ESV)

In other words:

I want to bear more fruit

and to make disciples and be further discipled.

See John 15

Here is a commitment written in 1785,

read it and consider how shallow our resolutions have become.

This is heavy stuff, this is deep, this is more of what Christ called us to consider:

I give myself up to your will in all things.

I am no longer my own but yours. So make me what you will;

put me where you will, rank me with whom you will.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

exalted for you or brought low for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and with a willing heart,

yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed

God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

you are mine, and I am yours.

So be it.

And this covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

John Wesley

Truth For Life

Be careful then how you live,

not as unwise people but as wise,

making the most of your time,

because the days are evil.

So do not be foolish,

but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Ephesians 5:15-16