renewed from above for a new year

As we enter a time of renewal both in the secular culture through New Years and though the body of Christ via the covenant of renewal*, I find myself going over and over the following scripture from Matthew 7:

1Don't condemn others, and God won't condemn you. 2God will be as hard on you as you are on others! He will treat you exactly as you treat them.
3You can see the speck in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the log in your own eye. 4How can you say, "My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye," when you don't see the log in your own eye? 5You're nothing but show-offs! First, take the log out of your own eye. Then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend's eye.

In a nation divided by those clamoring for their rights and their rightness of thought, we in Christ are focused on humility and the forgiving grace of God in our lives for our sin...not others. We are not shaped by national boundaries, but by the variety of gifts we share within the body of Christ which lives around this planet.

I invite you in these next few days into a time of focus and renewal within your own life.

A brother in Christ,
David

* Lord Jesus, if You will receive me into Your house, if You will but accept me as Your servant, I will not stand upon terms. Impose on me whatever condition pleases You; write down Your own provisions; command me to be or do whatever You will; only let me be Your servant. Make me what You will, Lord, and set me where You will. Let me be a vessel of silver or gold, or a vessel of wood or stone; so I may be a vessel of honor. I am content. If I am not the head, or the eye, or the ear, one of the nobler and more honorable instruments You will employ, let me be the hand, or the foot, as one of the lowest and least esteemed of all the servants of my Lord. Lord, put me on whatever task You will; rank me with whom You will. Put me to doing; put me to suffering. Let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You, exalted for You, or trodden under foot for You. Let me be full; let me be empty. Let me have all things; let me have nothing. I freely and heartily resign all to Your pleasure and disposal.