From: "Beverly French" <frenchb@vcss.k12.ca.us>
To: "Barbara Warren" <bjw18@csufresno.edu>
Subject: New Year's Greetings
Date: Sunday, January 02, 2000 9:14 AM

Here we are at the beginning of a new year and, as some believe, the
beginning of a new millennium (I'll leave that to you to decide).  To an
artist it is a clean canvas, to a writer a clean page, to a Christian a time
of new opportunities to increase our knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.  It
will include mountain tops and valleys -- all to give us the opportunity to
know our Lord and His ways more intimately.  Our God is so good, He always
desires the very best for us and the very best is to be conformed to the
image of Christ.  We know it so well, but it bears repeating lest we forget
in hard situations,

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those
who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to be come conformed to the image of His
Son..."  Romans 8:28-29

So we can rejoice in all things as we are exhorted to do by the Apostle Paul
in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18,

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks for this
is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

The Lord is our hope and our joy so we join the Palmist in praising Him
today.

"O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
 Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation,
 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
 Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
 For the Lord is a great God,
 And a great King above all gods,
 In whose hand are the depths of the earth;
 The peaks of the mountains are His also.
 The sea is His, for it was He who made it;
 And His hands formed the dry land.
 Come, let us worship and bow down;
 Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
 For His is our God,
 And we are the people of His pasture..."  Psalm 95:1-7

Hallelujah!  We are His!  So we confidently place our hope and trust in Him
for this day and all days to come.  Amen.