"Ending and Beginnings" (or is it "Beginnings and Endings"?)

If we think of life in terms of time, endings always come before beginnings. An hour must end before a new one begins. A week ends before a new one begins. A month ends before a new one begins. So 2009 must end before 2010 begins. (But then it had to begin before it could end.)

On the other hand, life is born out of a beginning and not an ending. Look at Scripture; "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1.1). From this beginning, I prefer to think of life as just a series of new beginnings or a constant series of new transitions to what's ahead as opposed to endings.

I think of our church this way. Last spring, over 30 high school seniors began to invest their lives in new ways as they transitioned to all that God had next for them. Today, they continue investing their lives into the lives of hundreds of people they never knew before through new relationships God has given them in the six months since graduation from high school.

I think that is stunning.

That's the way I think of ministry - through what God is already doing through our children's and youth ministries, I see God beginning new transitions and new things all over the place. (That's the way I also see God's hand at work in the beginnings of the new lives he is giving to young families here at DBC.)

As we have celebrated and completed the first 20 years of Dallas Bible Church, I look forward with eager anticipation to the next twenty years. I believe God will use this church in newer and greater ways as we seek Him and continue to enter in to all He has for us.

"If you abide in me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15.7,8).

Abiding, prayer and blessing - they go hand in hand and in that order. Let's abide, let's pray, and let's experience the blessing of God as never before.

Do I hear a "Shout!"?