Happy New Year to all my dear brothers and sisters who may be reading my blog for this month. I also pray that every one of you enjoyed a blessed and wonderful Christmas with family and friends.

Someone may have already asked you this or you yourself may have said this to someone, but can you believe that it is 2012!!! To me it seems like it wasn’t so very long ago that it was 1966 when I graduated from Rancho High School (did I just date myself). Since that time the years have just flown by and the older I get, it seems like the years go by faster.

I can remember when I was a young man, anytime I even thought about the year 2000 or any year past that, which seemed light years away back then, I envisioned that by the year 2000 we would be  flying around in the skies in spacecrafts instead of driving cars on the streets; robots would be doing all of our work; (can anyone remember the show the Jetsons)

Yet, here we are in the year 2012 and though we have made great strides in technology, we are still driving cars on streets made of pavement, that in many cases are in great need of repair. Today we can place men on the moon and in space stations; place rovers on Mars and launch satellites into orbit that can take pictures of you and I as we mow our lawn, yet we still can’t find a cure for the common cold.

Everyone has phones that aren’t just phones but minicomputers and we are constantly texting each other. Yet we  find we have become a society that has lost how to do that old cave man form of communication; actually talking face to face with each other. It’s a crazy world that we live in today.

People have become so intrigued with  programs on TV that deal with ghosts, finding bigfoot, UFO’s in the sky, seeing the face of Jesus or Mary on a tortilla or anything else that sounds weird or intriguing. It seems like everyone wants to believe that all those weird things actually exist.

I remember as a young man how intrigued I was with UFO’s. I was always looking up at the skies to see if I could spot a UFO flying so I could tell every body that I saw a UFO; with no such luck I may say. My father worked many years at the Nevada Test Site at Area 12 and Area 51; you know the places they say that don’t actually exist (isn’t that funny). I remember how I would always ask my dad if he ever saw anything weird in the places he worked but because they either threatened the workers with death or that something horrible would happen to them if they ever told what actually took place in those places, we never actually knew exactly what my father did or saw.

I guess what I am trying to say it that at times it seems we are more easily convinced to believe that bigfoot actually exists or that aliens are coming to take us away (have you ever noticed that many times when someone says they were abducted by an alien, they usually lived in a trailer somewhere out in the desert) than we are convinced to believe the truths and promises that are found in the Word of God.

I believe in 2012, the Lord will require His church, you and I, to have such a strong sense of belief or faith in the Lord’s promises found in His Word that no matter what we face in 2012, it will be our strong belief  that the Lord is able and His promises are true, that will get us through those hard times.

In Matthew 8:5-13 and in Luke 7: 1-10 we read as Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him and asked Jesus if He would come and heal his servant whom he valued highly, who was sick and about to die.  Jesus replied that He would go to the centurion’s home heal his servant.

The centurion told Jesus he did not deserve  Him to come under his roof. The centurion then went on to tell Jesus that he was a man under authority and who also had men under his authority. He would tell one to go and he would go; he would tell one to come and they would come; he would tell his servant to do this and it was done. So if Jesus would just say the word, his servant would be healed.

When Jesus heard this, He was amazed; He turned to the crowd and said, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” Jesus then turned to the centurion and said, “Go! It will de done just as you believed it would.”

When the people asked Jesus what must they do to do the works God requires, John 6:29, “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: believe in the One He has sent.” What is it that you are placing a lot of your belief or faith in today?

We all know that 2012 is going to be a very important election year for our nation and I strongly believe that all Christians should not only vote but they must also not waste their vote. Yet in spite of whoever it may be that will become our next president, I find comfort knowing that the Ancient of Days is still on the throne!!!

But I also believe that my faith, my trust must not only rest on the fact that the Ancient of Days is still on the throne; but it must also be a faith, a belief that is real and active in every area of my life and for all to see.

May 2012 be a year of great spiritual growth in your life my brother and my sister. May this year be the year that you finally; BELIEVE!!!