A Letter from Your Elder

Dear Grace Family,

Everyone needs a fresh start sometimes! God wrote fresh starts right into Israel’s calendar through the required feasts and celebrations. God’s people in the Old Testament celebrated a new year with Rosh Hashanah, which was marked by the blowing of trumpets and began ten days of repentance culminating in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On Yom Kippur all of the sins of the whole nation from the previous year were covered by the blood of the sacrificial animal. Talk about a fresh start! But it was more than just a new day because it had been properly prepared for by a week of soul-searching and repentance. You can see how this was a spiritually profitable way to consider the past, identify and turn from poor actions and habits, and determine by God’s grace to lay down new and better patterns for living in the future.

There is always a place for new exercise routines or maybe better nutrition but let’s not neglect the more important spiritual foundation of allowing God’s truth into our thoughts and patterns of living and imagining better ways to seek first his kingdom as we look forward to our fresh start as a church family in 2019. 

Sincerely, 
Chris Miller