I don’t write anything on my new wall calendar before January 1st. I like to see all the blank pages and squares when we first put it on the wall. Soon the pages fill up and sometimes begin to look messy with corrections and lots of entries, but for a brief time I am able to enjoy the freshness of 365 days of an uncluttered schedule. There is something exciting and refreshing about embarking upon a new year with empty calendar pages waiting to be filled. It is exciting yet also concerning as we face the start of a new year that will bring both good and bad things into our lives. There will be happiness and sorrow, pleasure and pain, good experiences and difficult ones. Sometimes we are sad to see the previous year end, and sometimes ...

January is a wonderful time to chart a new path for yourself. Some call that new path new year’s resolutions or new year’s goals. I call them desires. I group my desires in 7 buckets all beginning with the letter “F”: 1. Faith, 2. Family, 3. Finances, 4. Function, 5. Fitness, 6. Friends, 7. Fun. Into each bucket I identify desires I’d like to see happen in the new year. I often come up with as many as 45 desires. Here’s the key. If I accomplish even 1 of those 45 desires, I’ve had a successful year. Desires are not the same as goals.

Neil T. Anderson, in his book, Victory Over the Darkness, defines a godly goal as “any specific result reflecting God’s purposes for your life that does ...

Ever wrestled with God? Since that’s not physically possible, wrestling with God takes the form of wrestling in prayer or wrestling in your soul. Perhaps you’ve wrestled with God over taking a job or buying a house or marrying someone or a wayward child or friend. Wrestling with God is not fun or pretty. Sometimes wrestling with God happens when He asks us to do something we are afraid to do. Sometimes we fear the consequences to our reputation, finances, lifestyle, or family. Fear is a primary motivator for wrestling with God. We wrestle with Him because we’re afraid of something or someone.

That was the case with Jacob. He had fled from his brother, Esau, to live with his uncle Laban in the city of Haran. He left under ...

Sandstone Evangelical Free Church in Sandstone, MN will be hosting Friday Night Fight, an event with a focus on men’s sexual purity. Dr. Irv Woolf, Director of Hopewell Counseling, will be the guest speaker. The event will take place on Friday evening, January 18, 2019 at 6:30 pm. Irv’s message is titled The Battle For Purity. The evening will begin with a meal. There is a suggested donation of $7.00 to cover the cost of the meal; however, please attend even if you can’t afford the $7.00.

The deadline to confirm that you’d like to attend is Thursday, January 17, 2019. Please call the church office by noon so an accurate count can be obtained for ordering food. The phone number for the Sandstone Evangelical Free ...