Fresh Oil from A Clarion Call

Fresh Oil - Winter Edition, 2010

Fresh Oil is a quarterly column published to the website by Jennifer Hallmark. Stop in every quarter for some fresh oil.

A new year, a new decade is upon us. What will 2010 bring in this world, the life of the Church, your life? Negative outlooks and hopelessness abound in the world we now live in and many “new” changes in the Church are in direct contradiction to the Word of God. Individuals face financial crisis, relational issues and a world full of ever increasing violence, sex and depravation. How can we be encouraged in these dark days?

     We must focus on the fact that there is still good in this world and God has not abandoned us. There are people fighting for what is good and right, scattered in places that we think are desolate and dark. Churches have grown the most during heated times of persecution. At times when we are attacked by hopelessness, we answer with scripture:

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21

And

     “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s good and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in the truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.” I John 3:16-19

     Our focus is on Jesus and our relationship with Him, His mighty overwhelming love for us. We grow in our love for Him and focus on His life, lining up our will with His. We look at the evil in the world and pray, then overcome by good. We reach out to those God puts in our paths and love them where they are. Ministry is needed everywhere, we need only look in our own backyard to see this. Loving and encouraging people are paramount in these dark times.

       Reach deep into the reservoirs of God’s love for you and then pour out liberally to all those around you. Look for the downtrodden, the weak, the weary and the poor and let the love of God in you flow. Fill up with the Word of God and spread it in the fields as seeds over all the land around you. Speak the Word, pray the Word and love according to the Word.

      Some of the words to the song, Oh How He Loves, by the David Crowder Band describe this:

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me.

      The world will know us by our love for God and others. Begin 2010 in this love…

     …Oh, how He loves us…

Jennifer Hallmark