Every first Sunday of a new year at Trilacoochee, we hand out a booklet detailing the year’s practical plan for personal and congregational growth. Our theme for 2017 is "IGNITE" It is rooted in the idea of having and engaging in a lifelong zeal for the Lord.

  Throughout 2017, we will seek to study and apply the commands and statements of Scripture that deal with our commitment, fervor, diligence, passion, and zeal as Christians. It is unfortunate that some Christians lose their zeal as time goes by. Maybe this has even been your experience. There are undoubtedly several reasons or causes of this, and I am not even sure I know all of them. I also suspect that for most people who experience a loss of zeal that the cause of their problem is not a simple one, but instead a complex one.

  As a Christian where did your zeal originally come from? It came from the gospel. When you first learned that the love of God has provided an escape from the consequences of your sin, that God would forgive you and that you could avoid His wrath – that message of love created in you a love for the Lord in return. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4.10). It prompted in you a response of gratitude. “The kindness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2.4). Furthermore, when you first learned the gospel you learned that the way God has provided this wonderful forgiveness to us is by the sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus. That the Son of God came here, to this earth to help us, and that He died for us – the realization of this great truth also creates within us a response of love, joy, gratitude, and awe, which is collectively called “zeal.”

  Let us develop and demonstrate a zeal for God that is in accordance with the knowledge we find in the Scriptures so that we may please Him in all that we do. Please remember, we cannot impart to others what we do not ourselves possess! Our relationship with one another always manifests the reality of our life with the Lord and the condition of our thinking and attitudes!

  May the Lord bless us all as we seek to know him, glorify Him, and share our knowledge of Him in 2017. Download our 2017 Practical Plan for Personal and Congregational Growth booklet.