Recipe for a Happy New Year

Take 2 cups of kindness, fresh from the Christian heart; add 1 cup of very thoughtful prayer and cream together with a pinch of prepared tenderness. Beat this mixture very lightly into a large bowl of love, generously seasoned with joy and laughter. Now, add enough faith, hope and charity to fill the bowl almost to the brim. Then, as you moisten this mixture with a dash of the tears of heartfelt sympathy, the bowl will be heaping full and running over. Fold in 2 teaspoons of pure joy for richer flavor. Pour into a pan previously prepared by the lining of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and bake in the oven of a tender, eager heart, until mellow and firm. Serve this with your main course, the BIBLE, in very large portions, as often as possible, to those desiring to learn the way of truth more perfectly. These directions, faithfully followed, will give you a most happy and rewarding new year.

Recipe for a Happy New Year

Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from all old memories of bitterness, rancor, hate, and jealousy; cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past – have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time.

Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. This batch will keep for just one year. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so may persons spoil the entire lot in this way), but prepare one day at a time, as follows:

Into each day put twelve parts of faith, eleven of patience, ten of courage, nine of work (some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), eight of hope, seven of fidelity, six of liberality, five of kindness, four of rest (leaving this out is like leaving oil out of the salad – don’t do it), three of prayer, two of meditation, and one well-selected resolution. If you have no conscientious scruples, put in about a teaspoon of good spirits, a dash of fun, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.

Pour into the whole love ad libitum and mix with vim. Cook fervently in a fervent heat; garnish with a few smiles and a sprig of joy; then serve with quietness, unselfishness, and cheerfulness; a Happy New Year is a certainty.

via Gospel Advocate, January 9, 1941

I AM THE NEW YEAR...

I am unused, unspotted, without blemish.

I stretch before you three hundred sixty-five days long.

I will present each day in its turn, a new leaf in the Book of Life, for you to place upon it and imprint.

It remains for you to make me what you will; if you write with firm, steady strokes, my pages will be a joy to look upon when the next New Year comes. If the pen falters, if uncertainty or doubt or sin mar the page, it will become a day to remember with pain.

I am the New Year. During each hour of the three hundred sixty-five days, I will give you sixty minutes that have never known the use of man. White and pure, I present them; it remains for you to fill them with sixty jeweled seconds of love, hope, endeavor, patience, and trust in God.

I am the New Year. I am here — but once past, I can never be recalled. Make me your best!

Author Unknown

Begin the New Year with God

This is the time of year when all of us do a little self- examination. We find that this is an appropriate time since the old year is now past and we stand at the gates of a New Year. This is the time when many of us look back and take note of the mistakes that we have made last year and determine or resolve to do better in the New Year. We look back on our personal habits, our likes and dislikes, our jobs, our home life, our role as father or mother or child, etc.

Let me urge you to examine your life and determine to begin the New Year with God! You are probably already involved to some extent in self-examination—do not forget the most important aspect of your life.

You may be a baptized believer who has drifted away from the Lord. If so, you need to renew your relationship with God. You should realize the condition of your life at present and the things that you have done and the things that you have failed to do in the teachings of God’s Word which are wrong. Then you should determine to do God’s will, being sorry for the sins of the past. When the sin is publicly known, a public confession is necessary; when the sin is private, confess privately your sins to God. Pray for forgiveness. Know that God has forgiven you and live your life for Him.

You may have been putting off your becoming a Christian. Now is the appropriate time to obey without delay. If you believe the Truth, repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of your sins. The time is now (II Corinthians 6:2). There are many who are concerned about you and are praying for you to obey. Many look to you for an example; will you not set the right example for them?

Life is fragile and death is so certain. Begin this year with God.

Lester Kamp

2013 Is…

A brand new candle, barely lit, that will burn itself out in twelve fleeting months...another volume in our book of life, full of blank pages upon which we shall write with our lives...a fresh suit of clothes without soil or tear...an open door, behind which many paths may be found before the door is closed...a new plant freshly pushing through the earth’s crust, destined to bear fruit, either good or evil...a piece of soft clay over which each exercises the power of a potter to mold it into a shape of his own choosing.

Worldlings will live out this new year in a Monday to Friday context. We Christians will live ours from Sunday to Sunday, looking forward to each Lord’s day when we can assemble with our brethren to worship God and to study His Word. While those outside try to fight the battles and face the trials of life on their own, we can draw from the inexhaustible source of spiritual strength, found only by those who submit to mankind’s only right Ruler.

The beginning of a year is a good time to view the past year in retrospect. How many times did I choose to be away from the assembly of the saints last year? How many times did I reject the spiritual feast of my Bible classes? How many weeks did I neglect to contribute financially to the spreading of the Gospel? How many times did I freeze up when I had an opportunity to say something about the Lord and His church? How many times did I compromise the moral standard of the Gospel to keep from being different from “the crowd”? How many times did I say “No” when the call went out for workers? If you can say, “None” to these, that is wonderful. You certainly moved to higher ground last year. If your record was not so good, do you understand that, just as many times as you placed something ahead of serving God, you proclaimed that He was not in control of your life?

Now, let us look at this new year again. Only you and I can determine what sort of flame its candle will burn. Only you and I can decide what sort of lines will be written upon its blank pages.

You and I alone are responsible for how free of soil and damage our suits of life will remain. The choice is ours as to how we will walk the paths that open before us. The fruit produced and the vessel molded are in our control. May we determine to make this the best year of our lives in God’s service here below.

Dub McClish