In obedience to the command of God in (1 Thess. 5:18), let us all - - those who are unhappy and those who are happy with 2015- -give thanks to God for having given us access to the Old Year and a peak into the New Year.

As we leap into 2016, a “Leap Year,” a year with an extra day, let us trust God to give us a spiritual lift, an emotional lift, a social lift, and an economic lift in Jesus’ name! May 2016, indeed, be a year of extras and not of lack, in Jesus’ name! May the Lord keep sorrow far from us and if we would sorrow at all, may it be godly sorrow that leads to repentance and spiritual fruitfulness, in Jesus’ name!

Our spiritual emphasis in 2016 is the ambition to please God well in all things and always, in our private as well as public lives. Our private lives include the lives we live in the privacy of our homes, in the privacy of our hearts (our thought lives), and for some, in the privacy of their clandestine activities. We need to ask ourselves if God is pleased with what He sees and hears.

On the other hand, our public lives are the lives that are open to the eyes of the people around us. We must not forget, though, that no one can please God without faith in Him and His Word (Heb. 11:6). May the Lord sustain this noble ambition, in Jesus’ name!

Above all, let all who were outside of Christ in 2015 come into Him and those who have had one foot in Him and one foot in the world take the bold and wise step to end such miserable life, in Jesus’ name. May the love God has poured out in the heart of every believer in Christ through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) flow out to all who are within and without the church, in Jesus’ name. Let our song in 2016 ever be:

“Let there be love shared among us; Let there be love in our (hearts).
May now Your love sweep (our church). Cause us oh Lord to arise
Give us a fresh understanding; Of brotherly love that is real,
Let there be love shared among us, Let there be love.” Amen and Amen!

Dr. Joshua Uhiara
(President, MVM)