Happy New Year!

      Well, here we are at the gateway to another New Year, ready to lay 2010 to rest and greet the new arrival, 2011, first thing tomorrow. This past year has been hard for many people, not only in financial terms with the continuing slow recovery from recession, but for the myriad reasons that enter people's lives every year, simply choosing different lives to enter. Some will have met with severe illness, some will have faced the loss of a loved one and others a major change in their lives such as the loss of their job or a break-up in the family. 
      Whatever has happened, good or bad, is now in the past. One of the most important lessons that we have to learn is that you cannot change the past. What has gone has gone for ever. But you can change the present. What happens today may often be out of your hands, but the manner in which you deal with it, the way in which you react to the situations that you find yourself in, these are the things over which you have control. In this way, because it becomes your choice as to how you deal with things, you are able to change them, and changing them will mean that you change your future with them.
      As I look back over the past year there have been many changes in my life, not least of all my retirement from my position as the full-time Minister of a church.Not only that, but a couple of weeks or so after my final service the church was closed due to the high cost of much-needed repairs and as a result of a membership vote to do so. Of course, not every member voted for the closure, although there was enough to carry the vote. Nevertheless, it meant that a huge change took place in the lives of those who regularly attended the church, many of whom had one so for many decades.
      'Retirement' has not meant that I have lots of free time on my hands, but it has meant that I can choose what I do with my time on a more personal basis. Hence, I have spent more time on this Blog, trying to maintain the interest of you, dear reader, and also to attract new readers to it. Only you know how well I have succeeded in the former, but my statistics tell me that the readership has gone up ten-fold over the past few months. I am able to spend more time on the music aspect of my Ministry as well, with the result that I have managed to post a new hymn of mine on the Blog every day for the last four months, both lyrics and score.
      What will 2011 bring? Your guess is probably no better than mine. One thing is certain, however, and that is that 2011 will be a time of fresh opportunities and new challenges. How we meet them will be the way that we alter the present and establish the future. Let them pass us by and they will be gone for ever!
      Above all, for 2011, I wish you peace and happiness. I will continue to proclaim the Saving Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as often as I can, and in every circumstance and place. I will continue to fight against the evils that surround us, and of which we read and hear about in the Media every day. I will continue to do all that I can to follow the advice given in the Bible to let my light shine before men, as I share the Light of the Living Christ in my work, my writings and my meeting with folk. And I will continue to do all that I can to make this Blog somewhere worthwhile visiting each day.

Happy New Year!