GBC Community Update: New Years Resolutions

Good morning!  I LOVE Christmas and love the break but I also LOVE getting back to things.   I think this year more than ever I’ve been eager to get back at it and I think the current lockdown has made it even more so.  We have the unique challenge and opportunity this month and this year to provide a clear message and place of HOPE to the world around us. How can I not be excited about that?!?  Last year had some amazing elements to it despite Covid and I think this year is going to be even more exciting…..do you get the sense I’m excited??
 
 
GBC YouTube Channel
As we continue to look for ways to kept you connected and also use media to share the gospel we’ve added a YouTube channel to what we have available.
We will be livestreaming our services on this channel as well as Facebook plus also using this for our videos like those from Oasis Camp. There’s already a lot of content there so why not take a look?
Better yet, why not subscribe to the channel and share with your friends.
You can find our channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGBCFilms/videos
 
Reminder-GBC Small Groups Starting up this week!
As I mentioned last week, our small groups are starting up again.   This is an excellent way to grow your relationships at church, enrich your spiritual life, and enjoy community! There are groups meeting online and in person even during the lockdown. Small Group topics, meeting times (and start dates) are available here on our website
 
 
Thought for the day:  New Year’s Resolutions
And so we have begun a brand new year. Last year turned out quite different than I’d expected. It had a mix of joys and sorrows, goals met and goals missed, opportunities and losses, Covid and everything else, but now it’s behind us.  For many, New Year’s is just another holiday. For others like me it’s a time of deep reflection, both on the past year and on the one ahead.
 
For followers of Jesus, New Year’s has no unique significance. There’s no central biblical narrative informing our celebrations.  But this doesn’t mean Christians shouldn’t pause and reflect on the turning of the calendar. Moses asked God: “Teach us to number our days, so we may get a heart of wisdom”.  Time—seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, is a gift to us from a good God. To wisely follow him, then, is to redeem our time.
 
New Year’s can also remind us of the opportunity for new life.  Each day with Jesus is a chance to turn the page on an old way of life and embrace a new one. We are, after all, new creation people, and we serve a King who renews us daily by the Holy Spirit.
Setting goals for a new year are an important sign that we’re intentional about glorifying God in our callings whether that is at work or in school, at home or at church.
Before we write out our goals, we should begin in the heart. The temptation for Christians is to make our plans and add a splash of Jesus on top, rather than allowing him to form in us the desires and motivations to do his work.
 
Whether or not we’re making concrete goals or more abstract ones, whether you’re writing down resolutions or foregoing them altogether, over the next four updates I’m going to share some steps we can take, as we move triumphantly through 2021, to draw closer to Jesus.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris