Prattville Dragoons Chaplain's Column for January 2017

Chaplain’s Column: A New Year to Embrace Change
Scripture: Romans 11:33-36
In Hebrews 11:8 it says By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
A lot of us need a change of pace this year; but what we're really having trouble with is the pace of change. All change -- even the good -- is hard. It involves:
1. Adjustment
2. Moving from the familiar to the unfamiliar
3. From the settled past into the unknown future
It has been said, "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another."
We can embrace change by knowing we serve an unchanging God. At the beginning of this new year, we confess with Joshua: "We have never been this way before." But our faithful, changeless Lord will:
1. Show us the way to go
2. While Guiding us at every juncture
3. Bless us at every step
4. And provide goodness and mercy every day of our lives.
Camp Dispatch – Vol 16 No 1 Page 4
I believe "Prayer changes things." From an early age, I witnessed this powerful truth. I believe to stay in the Father’s will we must go to Him in prayer often.
Better than any other word I can think of, change describes our world. Vast, sweeping changes, especially in the last 150 years. Simply to survive requires adjusting, and to make any kind of significant dent calls for a willingness to shift in style and to modify methods. I have herd some say, "These are signs predicting Christ’s soon return." Quite possibly. But what about until then? What is essential? We’re back where we started, aren’t we? Being adaptable, willing to shift and change.
Just about Everyone is in favor of progress but it's change they don't like. I would have never believed that we would be ringing bells for the salvation army or collecting food for the poor. Our good works speak loudly for the Dragoons. People who once had a different opinion about us are now seeing us in a different light.
Let's not dig in our heels and cling only to the past. Heed the words God gave to Joshua: "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you ....In the book of (Joshua 3:5,7) it says “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you".
More than anything else, I’m convinced, the thing that attracted people to Jesus was His fresh, authentic, original style in a world of tired phrases, rigid rules, and empty religion. Remember the report made to the Pharisees? "Nobody ever spoke like this man." He was in step with the times without ever stepping out of the Father’s will.
Let’s pray for the SCV and the Dragoons for this new year. Additionally, we need to pray for all those on our prayer list.