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Our winter hideout is called the Florida Holiness Camp Ground. This year they are celebrating their hundredth year anniversary. Times certainly have changed during the hundred years since the camp’s humble beginning.  Lakeland was a small city then with a population of 25,000. At that time the camp was several miles south of the city on a dirt road. Eventually the city grew and eventually enveloped the camp. Now the city is five times the size and the dirt road has evolved into a four lane thoroughfare with thousands of vehicles transversing its asphalt service every day.

            The camp has continued to be a strong voice for the gospel and countless lives have been powerfully impacted and many souls saved.   So there is much to celebrate what God has done over the years. Looking back is also valuable in determining what was done well, what could have been differently and how can we do better in the future. But surely after appropriately celebrating, the focus must be on the future.

            In Jeremiah 43:18 we read:       Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

            I believe that this is the appropriate mindset for us in Chesley Community Church. God has blessed us in many ways. We are thankful for answers to prayers, for new people who have joined in the last year, spiritual growth, and God’s provision.  But let’s be anticipating and believing for the new things that God is more than capable of delivering. There are many challenges in our world and in our community but God is both a way maker and our way maker.

            We had two streams that crossed the farm where I grew up. The smaller one we called the creek, the larger one we called the river. Obviously when we use the word river we are indicating something beyond a trickle or tiny stream. I believe that when Jeremiah’s prophecy uses the word rivers it is indicative of volume. The river most referenced in the Bible is the Jordan. It had such volume in flood season that a crossing required a miracle!

                        I am looking forward to God doing new things for us this year! I am praying that each of us would be seeking his will for us individually and collectively as a church. Thy will be done Lord! Bring on the new things! Challenge us to walk closer, to believe big and anticipate even bigger!

                        Pastor Dave