New Year 2005

all this tar to make, and at night, I have to study those

Blue Prints. Why can’t I be like the other people,

and just have a little fun? I don’t like being different,

those people think I am strange."

But Noah never stopped! He never listened to the pleas for social reform! I can guess that some came to him with, "Just think of how much good you could do in the community, if you weren’t spending so much time working for God."

Others might have said, "With the quality of a person you are and with your talents, you could have some real influence over a lot of people, if only you would join in this community project, instead of wasting all that time just simply doing what God said."

Have you ever thought what would have happened if Noah had stopped the work on the Ark for ONLY six months, while he tried to better his community????? He and his family would have been lost.... AND you and I would not be around!!!!

God’s work IS IMPORTANT, despite the satanic suggestions that other things are more important. Yes, on "...the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth".

But

that New Year’s day would

not have been,

had there not been

a man and his family who really were

committed to the task at hand.

If 2005 is to be year in which this church makes an impact on a world around us.... AND on a world to come, we will need some "Noahs" and some "Noah’s wives" who will say, "This work is important! Important enough that I will put God NUMBER ONE over EVERYTHING else", and will be available for service, no matter what that service might be!!

There were eight people doing the work of the Ark. Have you ever noticed that God usually does His greatest work through the few, NOT the masses. There weren’t too many, on this Ark project, who had that high and holy position of "THE TELLER OF WHAT TO DO".

No! If there was a job to do, they all had to do it. Even if it was..:

• Cutting the wood

• Shaping the wood

• Spreading the pitch

• OR cleaning up the mess, afterwards

The "position" they held was not important!!!! What was important was that the job got done, on time, within budget, that was IMPORTANT, or all else would have been lost.

All those Ark builders had to be servants. Not for glory, BUT for God and God alone, because only God and the animals would be around to give compliments, later.

I Don’t know what this year will hold – Physically, Financially, Nationally…

BUT

2005 is here!!

God’s directives for this earth will go on. Will you be a spectator in stands of the world, OR will you be an active participant carrying out God’s directive?

Following a rags-to-riches season of 1995 that led them to the Rose Bowl, their first in decades, the Northwestern University’s Wildcats met with coach Gary Barnett in 1996 for the opening of the next spring training.

As players found their seats, Barnett announced that he was going to hand out the awards that many Wildcats had earned in 1995. Some players exchanged glances, because Barnett didn’t normally dwell on the past. But as the coach continued to call player after player and handed them placards proclaiming their achievements, they were cheered on by their teammates.