Over the years, on early morning New Years Day runs, I’ve contemplated the dawn of a new year amidst the solitude and serenity.

Proverbs 4:18 states, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”

The desire for God’s will in the days to come is my perpetual prayer on such occasions.

Haddon Robinson explains that the existence of the three wills of God often confuses even the most earnest Christ-follower:

• God’s Sovereign Will – God’s purpose from eternity past to eternity future whereby He determines all that shall occur (Eph. 1:11).
• God’s Moral Will – The Scriptures tell us what God wants us to believe and how God wants us to behave (Ps. 119:97-104).
• God’s Individual Will – While God works out His sovereign will through all men and has revealed to us His moral will, He doesn’t necessarily reveal His specific, individual will to us.

Robinson provides a good exhortation as we approach 2022, emphasizing the importance of repeatedly dedicating ourselves to the glory of God:

In God’s sovereignty, He can work in our choices, through our choices, and in spite of our choices, to accomplish His will.

The Bible is clear that glorifying God is our ultimate goal. But it doesn’t leave us with vague generalities—in achieving that goal, we are given intermediate goals.

God’s direction is clear and unambiguous. We are to act in love and kindness. We are not to be self-serving. We are to have integrity. We are to be faithful and generous. And we are to act out of proper motives. If we apply the characteristics of God’s sovereign and moral will to every decision we make, we will be well on the road to glorifying Him and living a fuller, happier life.

As we begin another year of ministry, our prayer for our program participants is the same for you, our faithful supporters:

1. Strength in the Word of God, which is essential to make good decisions;
2. Conviction to make Christ-honoring decisions, which often entail hardship and frustration;
3. Inspiration in Christ Jesus, who demonstrated that peace and pain-free living can not be proof that we’re in God’s will (Lk 22:41–44).

Paul warned Timothy, “in the last days there will come times of difficulty” (2 Timothy 3:1). Savage seasons have, in fact, battered Christ’s Church through its history by means of waves of worldly ideologies:

• Sacramentalism – in which ordinances and rituals were falsely elevated and undermined salvation by grace
• Rationalism – where scholarship and human reason attempted to dethrone God
• Orthodoxism – with its dead, cold, indifferent spirituality 
• Politicism – which led to a preoccupation with political power and social causes
• Ecumenism – where a lack of discernment resulted from an obsession with unity at any doctrinal cost
• Experientialism – that viewed truth as originating in feelings, intuition, and special revelations, relegating Scripture to secondary importance
• Subjectivism – where psychology captured the church, resulting in a man-centered, needs-based theology 
• Mysticism – as people began to seek individual, subjective spiritual experiences apart from the objective truth of God’s Word
• Pragmatism – where appropriate means of ministry were defined by the “customer-parishioner,” and truth was the servant of what worked 
• Syncretism – in which evangelicals, intimidated by cultural agendas and eager to find favor with the unsaved world, capitulated to blending Biblical truth with all forms of theological error

There is a cumulative effect as these movements increase in frequency and intensity (2 Tim. 3:13). In response to Paul’s exhortation that we have the divinely-empowered weapons to destroy such strongholds (2 Cor. 10:3-5), Guzik explained that wrong thoughts and perceptions, which contradict the true knowledge and nature of God, stubbornly set deep roots in human hearts and minds, influencing adversely an individual’s beliefs and behaviors. 

Christ’s church currently finds itself besieged by the ideological tidal wave of the Social Justice Movement, having been described as the greatest threat to the church in the last hundred years. Likened to a three-headed dragon, its peril lies in emulating secular culture while undermining Scripture in the areas of race, gender, and sexuality. The comprehensiveness of the movement presents unique challenges to church leadership, as it functions as a worldview, complete with its own soteriology, epistemology, sacred texts, and prophets. 

Almost a century ago, Machen cautioned regarding the powerful force of modern culture, which is either “subservient to the gospel or the deadliest enemy of the gospel.” He declared that subjugating culture necessitates not mere religious emotion but neglected intellectual labor, stating, “The Church has turned to easier tasks. And now she is reaping the fruits of her indolence. Now she must battle for her life.”

Back in December 2012, Empowering Action was formally launched. As we head into our 10th year of ministry, we are excited to announce that a generous EA supporter has agreed to match all donations through the end of the year up to a total of $50,000.

Below is one of the earliest pictures of the EA team as well as a photo of our current staff that your year-end contributions will help to support.

This past weekend our staff had the privilege of facilitating a leadership retreat in the mountains of Jarabacoa for 90 youth and volunteers from across our partnering churches. This next generation of church leadership studied the book of Daniel using the Inductive Study Method. Join us in praying for the same faithful resolve amid opposition in these young people today demonstrated by Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Scripture.

D.L. Moody writes in The Overcoming Life regarding the impact of Daniel’s unwavering commitment to the Lord:

Many are mentioned in Scripture of whom we read that they lived so many years and then they died. The cradle and the grave are brought close together. They lived and they died, and that is all we know about them.

In these days, you could write on the tombstone of many professing Christians the date they were born and the date they died. There is nothing in between. However, you can’t bury a good man’s influence. It lives on. They have not buried Daniel. His influence is as great today as it ever was.

Our prayer for these young people, as well as young believers around the globe, echoes the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy,

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. (1 Timothy 4:12)