By God’s continuous and constant grace we all finished another year and are now given a new year; Let us all thank the good Lord and praise Him for His love and mercy. Those who made New Year decisions might have partially or completely kept them and those who did not make any promises and decisions did not break any of them.

Let us shortly review what we are promised and given by our Lord Jesus Christ when we enter the gates of this New Year, 2006. All true believers and followers of Jesus Christ must realize and recognize that we are all saved by god’s grace and not by our own merit or good work. We confess our sins and mistakes before the Lord and receive the unconditional gift of salvation and eternal life through faith, and work them out daily through the fruits of good work with the help of the Holy Spirit who is given us as a free gift for all believers. We do good work for God’s glory. Let us always remember that faith without work is dead and is life salt without saltiness.

We are all citizens of the Kingdom of God and the passport to this kingdom is a free gift and we live in this world as simple visitors for a limited time, just like some of us who are naturalized citizens of U.S.A are visitors in India with an Indian visa, though we were once born citizens of India. Let us not try to be dual citizens of God’s kingdom as well as citizens of this world which will be destroyed by the Lord himself.

Our allegiance is only to Jesus Christ who is our one and only mediator. He paid a price for each one of us with his own suffering. He is our leader, master, high priest, sacrificial lamb and the good shepherd. He constantly pleads for us before the justice of God. Jesus is the only way to the Father and the only truth who will give us total freedom from the power of sin, Satan and death. No man made rule, regulations, denominational barriers, rituals or traditions. Cleverly conceived doctrines and dogmas should not be allowed to interrupt or interfere with our God given birth right in the kingdom of God.

Let all followers of Christ be united to carry out His commandments and teachings of love and mercy. Let us all be the true witnesses of the power of the Gospel of the living son of God. In order to help us out in carrying out is teachings we have the Holy Spirit who dwells within all true believers of Jesus Christ. We are promised that the Father and the Son will come and live with us. Let us all hope and pray for the abundant life for which our lord and master came to give to all who want it. Amen.