New Year

He Makes All Things New

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!”

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Anything is possible with God

God can make all things new

Not on our timeline or when we want it…rather according to His plan and His timing

His plan and His way is better

God is with you and God is for you

He has shown you how much He loves you by sending His Son to the Cross to die for you and through the resurrection He has made your relationship with Him new

Choose God’s way and His plan…He makes all things new!

All Things New by Steven Curtis Chapman

DSC_0061 publish

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV

(This photo was taken at sunrise by a lake in northwestern Wisconsin)

Reflect with Gratitude, Go Forward with Hope

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV

Father God, thank You for being faithful.  Thank You for making a way for me in this life.  When I reflect on past events give me an eye for gratitude in all circumstances.  Please show me how You are at work in my life.  I want to choose to patiently wait on You, becasue I know that You will finish the work You have started in me.  In Jesus name, Amen.

DSC_0135-1 publish

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:5 NIV

(This photo was taken at sunset by a lake in Plymouth, Minnesota)

He Makes All Things New

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!”

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Anything is possible with God.  No matter what you have been through or what you are going through…God can make all things new.  Not on our timeline or when we want it…yet according to His plan.  His plan and His way is better.  God is with you and God is for you…He has shown you how much He loves you by sending His Son to the Cross to die for you and through the resurrection He has made your relationship with Him new.  Choose God’s way and His plan…He makes all things new!

All Things New by Steven Curtis Chapman

DSC_0061 publish

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV

(This photo was taken in September of 2020 at sunrise by a lake in northwestern Wisconsin)

He Makes All Things New

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!”

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Anything is possible with God.  No matter what you have been through or what you are going through…God can make all things new.  Not on our timeline or when we want it…yet according to His plan.  His plan and His way is better.  God is with you and God is for you…He has shown you how much He loves you by sending His Son to the Cross to die for you and through the resurrection He has made your relationship with Him new.  Choose God’s way and His plan…He makes all things new!

All Things New by Steven Curtis Chapman

DSC_0061 publish

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4:22-24 NIV

(This photo was taken in September of 2020 at sunrise by a lake in northwestern Wisconsin)

Do Good Works

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

Ephesians 2:4-5

DSC_0203 (2) publish

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Ephesians 2:8-10

(This photo was taken in July of 2018 on Lake Superior near the Apostle Islands)

Love

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

God loves you.  His love means more and is more powerful than anything in this world.  Live at peace and share His love with others…how?  Start by picking up God’s Word and read His messages of love to you…His love runs throughout the bible.  Love is described in terms we can understand in 1 Corinthians 13…it explains you could have all the money and knowledge and power the world offers and if you don’t have love you are nothing…then it explains how to live out love…

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13

Happy New Year and may God’s love be with you and shine through you each day of your life.  Amen.

IMG_20141016_114909746 publish

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:8

(This photo was taken in October of 2014 at the Nakalele Blow Hole on the island of Maui, Hawaii)

 

New Year’s Eve; Reflect…Forgive…Love

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

As the sun sets on another year today take time to reflect on your life and interactions with other people.  For the times you feel that you were wronged find a way to forgive others…not for them but for yourself…think also about how you will be a light of the love Jesus Christ gave to all us when he came down from heaven to save us.

DSC09023 publish

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Colossians 3:12-14

As I close this year of devotions I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Corinthians…

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

2 Corinthians 13:14

(This photo was taken in May of 2014 at a lake in central Minnesota)

 

The New Has Come…

/ mcalcagno / 1 Comment

It is a new day, a new month and a new year.  Be transformed…love God, love who he has made you to be and share His love with others.

Paul writes…

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:17-20

In the New Year…

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

IMG_20141016_114909746 publish

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”

                                                                                                      Psalm 51: 10-12

Peace be with you all through this New Year!

A New Creation

/ mcalcagno / Leave a comment

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

                                                2 Corinthians 5:17

“For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’  I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.”

                                              2 Corinthians 6:2

Peace to you and Happy New Year!