The JBU is meeting this month for its 173rd General Assembly under the theme, “Keeping Faith with the Word in an ever-changing World - Embracing the Mystery”. In my reflection on the theme and in keeping with the social focus for this month which is love, because of Valentine’s Day, I thought we could focus on the mystery of Redeeming love. It is no doubt that this is a mystery to be embraced, the fact that God could love the unlovable, the unfaithful and the unlovely.

Mystery

As we face a New Year
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away; (Eccles. 3:1,6)

We look back on the year 2022 with gratitude and look forward with hopeful anticipation. The Year 2022 has, for many of us, been a year which presented us with multiple experiences.

Losses of life

The themes of Advent are very real, Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. They address issues that were not only current for the early Christian community but continue to impact us in this century.

Advent HOPE.

For a people who were exiled for 70 years, losing their land, their homes, their temple, and their national leaders, hope of the restoration of these losses and a political leader to defend them against their enemies was a real project. The words of hope offered by the prophet Isaiah were welcome and timely,

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1John 3:18); Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. (Rom 12:9)

Dear Family and Friends,
I greet you well as we enter another church year. It marks the end of one year and initiates another.

It’s a good time for reassessment, for re-evaluation and renewal.

As you make your assessment it is useful to ask, what did I promise the Lord that I would do in His name and for Him in the outgoing year?

Did I promise to use my gifts more faithfully and fervently?

Did I promise to give more and sacrificially?

Did I promise to speak to more persons about Christ?