I got up this morning with the Cumberland Presbyteriuan Church on my heart;  and even as great as things are, I believe our possibilities are just as great/possible as we want them  to be  here in our local church and  our denomination.

You may be familiar with Robert Schuller. He has written a lot about possibility or positive thinking. On one occasion Schuller invited Pat Boone to sing for his congregation. He introduced Boone by saying that Pat sometimes gets tired of his image. So, once a year, Pat checks into a motel under a different name, and goes into the closet and puts on black shoes. The congregation laughed. They knew that white shoes were Pat's trademark.

Pat was invited back to Schuller's church a second time. He remembered what Schuller had said the last time he was there. Pat told the congregation that Schuller got tired of his image too. So once a year Schuller checks into a motel and goes into the closet and shouts "It's impossible! I can't do it." Schuller is known for his possibility thinking.

We need to look at the possibilities God has for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church this new church year. Look at Eph. 4: 22-24. Notice, Paul said, "Put off the former life .. be made new and put on the new man." Put off means to divest yourself of something, to take it off. Paul is using the simplest of terms to illustrate what we must do in the realm of thought, of the attitudes of life. We must reject those basic assumptions that have caused our trouble—putting them off, rejecting them, divesting ourselves of them—just as you would put off your dirty clothes.

The first step in experiencing what God intends for us is to recognize that. Put off the old. That is the first step. The other is to recognize the wonderful possibilities of the new life. In that phrase, "to be made new in the attitude of your minds," you have the fundamental difference between a Christian and a non-Christian. It is true that non-Christians sometimes realize that things are wrong in their lives, and so they change them. But they merely change to another expression.. They change the outer form, but the problem remains basically the same.

"God of possibilities, help us to realize your possibilities for our life, our denomination in this new year; to understand and put into practice this great principle of putting off the old self and putting on the new." Amen.

Our possibilities in the Cumberland Presbyterian  Church are just as great as we trust the good Lord for.  Love you.

In  "His" Service,

Bro. Roy