WORDS FOR THE NEW YEAR

Pastor Gerardo Estrada and his family,
From left to right - Gerson, Nahum, Esly, Dana and Miriam Estrada.

"Go inside and lock the doors my people.  Hide there for a little while until the Lord is no longer angry."  Isaiah 26:20

"The Lord has put us in a secure place, under His protection.  We must have courage to face the days ahead.  2015, experts say, will be a difficult year.  There's a new open door before us.

Do we want to enter 2015 with the same problems and sins we had in 2014?  Or do we want change?

What is significant about a door?  What about when a door is locked?  What do we need?  KEYS!  Many people will try to unlock the door to the new year with the wrong keys.  Many superstitions are involved, such as watching out for black cats.  These are wrong ideas and wrong keys.  Only the Word of God can provide the right key to open the door.  Jesus is the door.  He will bring us peace, harmony, joy and emotional healing.

How good is your character?  This is very important because God has His eye on us.  How do we act in a crisis?  Do we glorify God?  Every day we need to lift up God.  He is molding us through pain so we will produce the right fruit.  We must produce the fruit of the spirit and not of the flesh, false things that are mentioned in Galatians 5:19.  People who worship idols, do witchcraft, are jealous, angry, selfish, troublesome, drunken and those other things mentioned will not share in the blessings of God's kingdom.

We must seek after the fruit of the spirit mentioned in Galatians chapter 5.  We should be loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, gentle and self controlled.

This new door is significant and filled with opportunities.  Let's pray together that we will enter this new year and face these new opportunities with courage.'

Pastor Gerardo Estrada
From a sermon preached December 30, 2014
in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico
Translated from Spanish