Happy New Year everyone! So, this is 2004 huh? I’ll be honest, it kind of feels like 2003. Not too much has changed other than I have to remember to write the year correctly. However, as this is the time of year to make silly resolutions to be better, I should probably make some too. How are all of your doing with your resolutions? We’re not even two full weeks into the year and I’m not sure if I even kept any (although to my defense, I didn’t really make any yet). But I’m rambling (1st resolution: don’t ramble in these emails). Anyway, on to the point, the slogan that I’m going to live by this year is “expect more in 2004.” I know it’s been said a few times in church, but without making it a cliché, I really do expect God to do more in 2004. That means I expect to see more blessings, more miracles and mostly more testimonies of how good God is.

The other day I was talking to one of my good friends and he greeted me with the customary, “how are you?” I responded, “good.” As this is the we start most of our conversations, and I’m sure all of you can relate, his response to my response sort of caught me off guard. He said, “oh really? That’s too bad.” I asked him to explain. He said it was too bad that I was only doing good. See, to him, God is so good and wonderful and active in his life, a response of “good” isn’t that good of a response at all. Now, I’m going to take it a step further and say if anyone asks you how you are doing, don’t waste the opportunity to tell them what God is doing in your life.

Living a Christian life is not a passive activity. It is active. The Bible tells us to “declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (1 Chronicles 16:24). But in order to declare his glory and marvelous deeds we need to have either experienced them or at the very least believe them. If you haven’t gotten this far yet, just start declaring the goodness of God by faith and I guarantee that it will soon be made manifest in your life. Or as one man put it, “you’ve got to say it, before you see it.” Even Jesus knew the value of this. In his first sermon he declared that he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to “preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19). He understood that he needed to tell others about they acceptable year of the Lord. There is a definite power in the spoken word. In the book of Revelation it says that they overcame the enemy “by the word of their testimony” (12:13). See, one of the things that happens when we talk about the goodness of God is we build faith in others. Their faith is boosted just by hearing what we have to say (Romans 10:17). Another thing is we actually magnify God. Anything you talk about is magnified, even the negative stuff, so make sure you’re magnifying the correct thing. But this year as we’re expecting more from God, I expect to hear more testimonies from you guys. In fact, I would love to hear about anything that God is doing in your lives (send them to scotts@hopechapel.com). So start sending ‘em in because I can always use a boost in my faith too!