What a great start to the year - everyone who made food for First Sunday Meal did an excellent job! Everything looked and tasted delicious!

I trust that you enjoyed the teaching session with Dr. Tatum. If you have not yet heard it, the Bible study is posted on the CCOG Facebook page. Some of the things that I took away from the lesson were the importance of living a life of worship. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not wake up on the day that the king set up this image and decide to start worshipping God. No way! They had been living for God every day. This relationship that they had developed with God made it possible for them to refuse to bow before an idol. They had a history of true worship. From the time that they had arrived in Babylon, they (along with Daniel) had made the decision to stay loyal to the true God. It would have been very easy for them to live in the palace, follow the ways of the Babylonians, and forget all about the Law of Moses. After all, who would care? Who would it hurt? Yet their hearts were completely faithful to God, even when surrounded by opportunities to forsake Him. We must develop that level of faithfulness - a kind of determination that will trust God and worship only Him.

Doesn't a new start sound great? When life becomes difficult, you have failed several times, you have messed up a perfect relationship, and you are bored of your job, your house, your friends, and family; a new start sounds exciting when we find ourselves stuck in the mediocrities of life. Do you know what Jesus did on the cross over two thousand years ago enables you to have a new start even now? Though many believers know this truth, they still live beneath this truth every day because somehow the lie of the old life seems to envelop their souls. The fact is the enemy of our souls knows if he can keep us looking back we would make little progress in the future God has for us.

We all have a past, and for some, it may be memorable, for others it may be horrible. Whatever the past looks like the enemy majors in causing us to indulge in what was. We serve a God that loves to plan ahead for his children, and scripture tells us that his plans are always good in the end (Jeremiah 29:11NIV). As a pastor, I am afforded the opportunity to minister to many people from the young to old, mature and immature, strong and weak but what I recognize is from the least to the greatest the most common issues among them all is letting go of the past.

I spent or should I say "Wasted" a lot of time and energy on what was, and what could have been. But I am grateful for the present and the bright future that God has for me and you too. I want to encourage you to take your time through this plan and to commit to stop looking back on the negatives in your life. Our memory is not the enemy, but the way we use our memory will determine the detriment. When I look back on life, it is for only moments of seeing what God did and how he has brought me through. As you journey with me, I want you to understand that a new start is available to you no matter where you've been or what you have done. Jesus died to save and give you a brand new start. Jesus specializes in new beginnings, and now I look at every disappointment, hurt and pain as an opportunity to birth something new. We do ourselves a great injustice, and we lock God out when we keep looking back negatively. We were made to move forward, and it's time to stop looking back.

Holy Spirit, help me from today to live my life with a view of what is ahead; help me to stop looking back!