Well, it is official. 2005 is now history! It is now in the past. There is nothing we can do about it. Nothing we can do to change it. Nothing we can do to make it better or last longer. The only thing we can do with 2005 is learn from it. I have often wondered if it was around “New Year’s” time when Paul wrote the following words:

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14 NKJV)

Paul was ready to move on from the past. There may have been successes; there may have been failures. But he was ready to move on and make the present and the future better. He was ready to devote all of his energy into living the life God had planned for him. Are you? Are we as a church? Are we ready and willing to move on from the past? Are we ready to live in the present and work toward the future?

I believe God has great things in store for each one of us and He can use each one of us in a great way. In order to achieve these things, however, we must move beyond the past and keep the goal in our view at all times. I believe that 2006 can be the year to remember, but it is up to you. It is up to me. It is up to all of us! What will 2006 bring for you?

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. (Philippians 3:12-14, The Message)