January 2Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's — 1 Cor. 6:19, 20.
At the opening of the new year, what lesson could be more important to us than this one, that we are not our own, but belong to another; that we are not, therefore, to seek to please ourselves, but to please Him; nor to seek to serve self, but to serve Him; nor to seek to obey self-will, but on the contrary His will? This means holiness in the most absolute and comprehensive sense of the word, not only separation from sin to righteousness, but separation from self (and the world) to the will of God in Christ—Z '97, 35 (R 2097). Not only are God's people His by virtue of creation and sanctification, but also by virtue of redemption. It is therefore reasonable and appropriate that all they have and are should be made to reflect credit upon God their Owner and Creator; and this reasonable thing they should render with all their strength of faith, hope, love and obedience; for less than this were unworthy and unseemly—P '29, 189; P '30, 14. Parallel passages: Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim. 2:5, 6; Acts 20:28; Rev. 5:9; 14:4, 5; 2 Cor. 5:14, 15; Titus 2:14; 1 Cor. 7:23; 10:31; Gal. 3:13; Heb. 9:12; 1 Pet. 1:18; 2:9; Matt. 5:16; John 15:8; Phil. 1:9-11. Hymns: 191, 5, 15, 132, 178, 187, 215. Poems of Dawn, 279: Another Year for Thee. Tower Reading: Z '10, 199 (R 4632). Questions: What has this text meant to me this week? Amid what circumstances? With what results? |
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ANOTHER YEAR FOR THEE
ANOTHER year we welcome!
Dear Master, may it be,
In thought and word and action,
Another year for Thee!
Another year of leaning
Upon Thy loving breast,
Where heartaches, pain and sorrow
Are lost in happy rest.
Another year of proving
Thy holy, blessed will,
To find my joy in doing,
And in Thy hand hold still;
Another year of service,
To prove to Thee my love;
Another year of training
For greater works above.
Another year of trials
And the blessings that they bring;
Another year's protection
'Neath the shadow of Thy wing.
Another year of gladness!
Dear Master, may it be,
In living and in dying,
Another year for Thee!
ANOTHER year we welcome!
Dear Master, may it be,
In thought and word and action,
Another year for Thee!
Another year of leaning
Upon Thy loving breast,
Where heartaches, pain and sorrow
Are lost in happy rest.
Another year of proving
Thy holy, blessed will,
To find my joy in doing,
And in Thy hand hold still;
Another year of service,
To prove to Thee my love;
Another year of training
For greater works above.
Another year of trials
And the blessings that they bring;
Another year's protection
'Neath the shadow of Thy wing.
Another year of gladness!
Dear Master, may it be,
In living and in dying,
Another year for Thee!
