As each New Year arrives it is our hope, by the good providence of God, that we shall have a better and more prosperous year than the previous year. It is a custom of many to make New Year's resolutions with good intentions of keeping them, as though that will bring greater happiness in the coming new year. While it is commendable to make resolutions to cease bad behavior and to endeavor to improve our conduct and character, we know from Scripture "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt. 26:41). We need God's grace to enable us more and more to live according to His will. The Apostle Paul said, "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10). As we understand God's will for our lives from His Word, we must cast ourselves completely upon His grace to cease bad behavior and to endeavor to be more like Christ in our conduct and character.

In the book of Micah, chapter six, Judah, the Southern kingdom of Israel, was suffering affliction from the chastening hand of the Lord. They were searching what they might do to please God, because their sins had brought divine judgment upon them. In Micah 6:6-7, the people of Judah were considering how they might change their ways in order to please God, asking, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" The prophet in Micah 6:8 reminds Judah how the prophets had already revealed God's will for them saying, "He hath shewed thee, O man (God speaks to Judah as one man), what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" Our best resolution is to live according to the Word which the Lord requires of us by His grace.

At the beginning of a New Year our thoughts naturally turn to the future. Except for a few politicians who try to paint an optimistic future, the fact is that our country has painted itself into a corner. They're using lots of green paint, but when it dries, it mysteriously turns bright red. There is an indebtedness that is beyond the average person to comprehend-trillions. A trillion is a million times a million. One trillion seconds on our clocks add up to 31,546 years!

So what is the real U.S. national debt and what is it made up of? Here's an illustration that puts it into perspective, showing the current rising debt of more than 12 trillion dollars plus the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and retirement benefits for civilian and military personnel. This is the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren-a debt of $184,000 for every man, woman, and child in America or $483,000 for every household in the United States (from Big Red internet site).

If that isn't depressing enough, many of our families are suffering with job losses, pay reductions, rising prices, and mortgages way over the worth of their property. Much of it is out of our control. I know, that's a terribly gloomy picture for the future. This is what men in power do. After the period of the judges, God warned the Israelites about the mistake of wanting an earthly ruler. He defined all the sacrifices the people would have to make and added, "And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day" (1 Sam. 8:18). But Israel insisted, and God gave them a king. The rest is history, a sad and continuing history. This is not about politics. It is about the fallen and selfish nature of man himself.

The church today is rapidly abandoning its Reformed heritage. Most people have little or no knowledge of the sixteenth-century Reformation, what it did, and what it was all about. Today it appears that many are ashamed of Reformed doctrine, or at the very least do nothing to defend it, let alone promote it. Is that not akin to being ashamed of the Gospel? Living as we do in times like ours in which it seems nigh impossible to rise above it all, what happened at the time of the Protestant Reformation is instructive. The sixteenth-century Reformation brought about real change, change which resulted in a biblically reformed church and which reverberated in societal change as well. From a human standpoint, what happened is pretty incredible. What could ever change our situation today? The only answer is another Reformation! If the Reformation changed the face of Western Europe in the sixteenth century, could it not do so today as well?

Now I suppose that people, who are eager to see change for the better in the church and our society, would be tempted to go back to the Protestant Reformation and look at the men who were involved, thinking that if we could only have men the likes of Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc., we might be able to turn things around again. That would be a mistake. They were people with the same sinful natures that we have. They had their strengths, but they had their weaknesses, too. Nevertheless, something happened then which changed the course of history. What was it? It was nothing less than the mighty power of the Gospel, the power of the Word of God. For that is just what the Gospel is. Today the Gospel has been truncated, dumbed-downed if you will, or put in a nut shell, i.e., "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16); "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" ( Acts 16:31). While this is certainly true, the Gospel is much more. The Heidelberg Catechism (Q15-19) explains this very well:

My wife Maricar and I returned to the Philippines September 17, 2009, for the funeral of her father. We joined her seven siblings who live there with their families, plus the oldest brother Vincent who arrived from London where he resides with his family. The Lord granted us a number of witnessing and counseling opportunities. I preached three times on the Lord's Day, at Papa's memorial service and at the time of his burial service. It is a challenge to give the gospel to a large family like hers. So far, she has a sister and a brother who have professed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maricar and I are thankful for what God has begun to do in bringing salvation to her extended family.

On the last day before my return to the US, I attended the quarterly meeting of the United Covenant Reformed Churches in the Philippines (UCRCP). It was held in Las Pinas City. The consistory voted to formally organize the Las Pinas City congregation sometime at the start of 2010. San Carlos City UCRCP and Las Pinas City UCRCP will constitute the first classis of the UCRCP which they hope to organize by March or April 2010. Then their classis will be able to proceed with the ordination examinations of Vic Bernales. He is a recent graduate of Mid-America Seminary and presently supplies the pulpit of Covenant Reformed Church of Davao City.