May God bless you as we bring 2016 to a close and prepare to begin 2017. It is always easy to for the negative things of the year gone by to dwarf the good things that took place, but overall, this past year was the most challenging we have had to face. With my teenage son’s stroke this past February, our family life and routine was turned on its ear and spun every which way. Yet, in times of crisis, God provides strength, often through others around us.

Many are saying that the church is irrelevant in today’s modern age and that faith is an individual walk and not something that we do in connection with a larger body. Apart from being an unBiblical notion, it is clear to me that anyone who would desire to live apart from the Christian church is a fool. They have strengthened and surrounded us with grace over this past year…something for which we will be eternally grateful.

Thus, having learned a great deal, having been tried, and having been sobered, we look toward a new year. And while we do not know what it is that it will bring, what we do know is that our God holds that year (and every year!) in his divine hand and he will use the events of life to conform us into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ.

God Bless You and May You have a Blessed New Year.

‘Preacher’ Win Groseclose