Some see Peter as a fool. Some see him as taking a posture of desperation that Jesus should wash ALL of him as he begs to be washed HEAD to TOE by Christ. Those who truly desire to be sanctified, desire to be sanctified throughout, to have the whole man, with all its parts and powers, made pure. But God’s work of salvation purchases for us a full justification by His grace alone. Jesus days, it’s just our feet that need regular cleaning. We need not be saved more! We need though, to take our salvation out of the garage and run to the dirtiest of places. We need to be mindful of the dirt we pick up along the way and be humble and allow our feet to be washed. Washed by the Word and wash the feet of Jesus as we wash the feet of each other!

The shortest verse in the Bible. It may also be that it should be considered to have great importance because of what it shows. It shows the true merge of humanity and divinity. Here’ is God, weeping over death. Death that is the result of the sin that entered the world, not through His doing, but of ours.

Our Saviour spoke of the necessity and nature of regeneration or the new birth, and at once directed Nicodemus to the source of holiness of the heart. Birth is the beginning of life; to be born again, is to begin to live anew, as those who have lived much amiss, or to little purpose. We must have a new nature, new principles, new affections, new aims. By our first birth we were corrupt, shapen in sin; therefore we must be made new creatures. No stronger expression could have been chosen to signify a great and most remarkable change of state and character. We must be entirely different from what we were before, as that which begins to be at any time, is not, and cannot be the same with that which was before. This new birth is from heaven.

The theme for this year’s vision is “MULTIPLY”. We see the vision working that word through the same framework God has given us to work His vision through all along in how we are always growing in our relationship to Him, to each other and to our city. That is to say, that in 2019 we will MULTIPLY in our relationship with God, MULTIPLY in our relationship with each other and MULTIPLY in His mission for our city.

As we look back on 2018, there’s much we can praise God for. Even if everything didn’t go the way we wanted it to or planned it to, we owe all of our praise to God. He is after all, God. The one that “Counts the stars and calls them all by name.”

We sometimes forget that we can only survive for 3 Minutes without air, 3 Hours without shelter in a harsh environment, 3 Days without water and 3 Weeks without food. Worse yet, we can’t make any one of those things. We are completely dependent! WE DEPEND ON GOD FOR LIFE ITSELF!!