Happy New Year!

January 1
Leviticus 23:9-14

(9) And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, (10) "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. (11) He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. (12) And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD. (13) Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. (14) You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.


The wavesheaf offering represents a thankful acknowledgment to God as the Giver of the harvest, and dedicating or consecrating the harvest to Him. The work of harvesting the remainder of the grain could not begin until the wavesheaf offering had been made before the Lord.

Today we stand at the threshold of a new beginning. We have celebrated the conclusion of the old and rung in the New Year. It is fitting that we who believe in the One True and Living Christ and submit to His authority over us view the onset of a new year before us in terms that go beyond the world’s concept of celebrating.

It is important that we lay the year at the feet of Jesus and ask Him to be our Lord in a real and profound way as we embark on this new beginning. It is essential that we, as the Israelites of old, recognize that this year belongs to Christ and it is our privilege and our responsibility to lay it at His feet; to ask Him to accept our full responsibility and privilege of yielding the events of the future into His hands.

May we as believers in the One Savior by whose mighty name men may be restored to righteousness before the Eternal Majesty resolve that in thought and in word and in deed, we shall be submitted to Him and to His holy purposes; that the focus of our being will be to allow His light to shine through our surrendered lives that He may be glorified in us.

May we recognize that whether we live lives of blessing and prosperity in the eyes of those who behold us or whether we live lives of persecution and devastation at the hand of God's ancient foe and his human minions, we must "count it all joy," James 1:2, and recognize that "whether we live or whether we die we are Christ's," Romans 14:8.

With complete understanding that without Him we are nothing but through His “unspeakable Gift” to us (see II Corinthians 9:15) we are groomed to rule and reign with Him eternally, may we embark on the New Year with resolute commitment that we shall be fully surrendered to Jesus through all our tomorrows.