As we experience life together in 2012, I am so grateful for the opportunity of being a part of the ZPC Family of Faith. You have made Alice and me feel very much at home. Thanks for your acceptance and hospitality.

As we look toward the unknown of the year to come, more than anything else, I pray that we might be renewed by the Spirit. Seasons of transition make us weary as we reflect upon the past and anxious as we try to peer into the future. It’s exactly in such times that we realize in new ways how crucial it is to completely depend upon God. Even though we may not perceive our need, in times like these, the fresh renewing breeze of the Spirit brings us refreshment and hope.

While it’s nice rhetoric to speak and write about the Spirit, what images are conjured up in your mind when you hear mention of the Spirit? In the small country church of my childhood, whenever we would read or sing or hear about the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost, I would imagine Casper the Ghost flying around in an unseen manner. It made me feel kind of “spooked.”

While certainly the least understood person of the Trinity, I have come to believe and experience the Spirit as God continually indwelling me in all times and seasons. In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon special people, for special purposes, on special occasions. In Acts 2 at Pentecost, as promised by Jesus, the Spirit came to dwell in all who named Jesus as Lord and Savior. It’s a life-changing, revolutionary truth to believe that the same Spirit who came at Pentecost continually indwells and wants to empower us today in the world in which we find ourselves.

Deeply desiring that each of us knows about and experiences the Spirit, on January 8 our preaching team will begin a series of messages about being “Renewed by the Spirit.” On those Sundays in January and February we will be talking about the ministry of the Holy Spirit at work within us today. It is the Spirit who:

• leads us to Christ in the first place;
• convicts us of the sin in our lives;
• creates community in which we grow and flourish;
• produces fruit or Christ-like attitudes and actions;
• gives us gifts or special abilities to minister within the church and the world outside our walls;
• guides us in the will and ways of God;
• unites us into one Body even though we come from different places;
• empowers us to be heralds of hope in a sometimes hopeless feeling world;
• controls us when we feel out of control;
• nourishes and restores us when we are weak and weary.

As you view this less than exhaustive list of the actions of the Spirit, do you see why it is important for each of us to know and experience more of the Spirit in our daily lives? 2012 offers us wonderful challenges and opportunities to love God and love the people in our spheres of acquaintance. I am really looking forward to sharing the moments and days of 2012 with you during this season of transition.

Please pray with me that in 2012 we might be “Renewed by the Spirit.” May God bless you and make you a blessing as we move into the future together.