Dear Family,

· A Prayer About Flabby Hearts and Love Handles (by Scotty Smith)

Dear Father, the health clubs and fitness centers are packed with post-holiday traffic. Yesterday I had to wait twenty minutes before I could even get onto my favorite elliptical machine. Once again, scores of us seem ready to leave the sugar/butter/carbohydrate binge of the past six weeks for the purge of exercise and sweat. This is a good thing, for stewardship of our physical hearts and bodies does have value, and it does bring you glory. Yet I’ve never been more aware that spiritual formation based on the “binge and purge” cycle simply doesn’t work. Our spiritual hearts needs to be strengthened by the grace of the gospel daily, and all year long. We cannot afford periods of “cruise control,” when we leave the banquet of your love for a buffet of comfort foods, fast foods and junk foods. Just like the physical heart you’ve given us, our spiritual heart muscle will atrophy if we don’t take care of it. So I thank you for the “means of grace”—the good gifts you’ve freely given us to help us grow in grace and the knowledge of Jesus. Thank you for the Bible—your written Word, through which you reveal yourself and feed us with the riches of the gospel. Thank you for prayer, meditation and corporate worship, by which you meet and fellowship with us. Thank you for the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, these tangible expressions of your covenant love and grace. Father, you won’t love us more or less, based on our use of these good gifts. But we certainly demonstrate and deepen our love for you as we do so. By the convicting work of your Holy Spirit, let us far be more concerned about flabby graceless-hearts than bigger love handles and “muffin tops.” Because you love us, don’t let us get used to being spiritually lazy. May we come to the point where we’d sooner avoid oxygen and water, than the means of grace. Certainly, gospel-sanity is to be preferred over personal vanity, all the time.

· Ten tips to jump start your year spiritually

1. Read the book of Mark with your SRPC family.

2. Read a devotional with your children. If you don’t have the Jesus Storybook Bible – get it.

3. Volunteer in an SRPC ministry. This weekend stay after worship for the Volunteer Preview and pick a place to serve

4. Make a counseling appointment with one of our excellent counselors to deal with personal struggles or mental woes. Debbie Holliday at 321-217-5845, Rich Greete at 352-613-4549 or Christy Holliday-Karimipour at 321-695-1697.

5. Sign up for the Family Mission Trip to Montgomery, AL - July 16-23. Nothing gets my heart more stoked for the gospel than trips like these.

6. Join a small group Bible study – mwood@sevenrivers.org

7. Visit Celebrate Recovery – your addictions don’t have to own you anymore.

8. Attend a class – Jamie Richard’s The Prophets: Understanding Old Testament Prophecy, Wednesdays, Jan. 12 – Feb. 16, 6:30 - 7:45 pm; Dana James’ five-week seminar Your Christian School: A Culture of Grace?, beginning Feb. 2; and Adam Jones’ Digging Deeper beginning March 23.

9. Don’t miss weekend worship – unless your child is sick or a blizzard has clogged Citrus County roads – be as regular at worship as you are at work!

10. Start tithing – for where your treasure is there will your heart be also!

· Good News – Paul Kalfa (former SRCS school teacher) has been called as pastor of Cross Creek PCA in Jacksonville. Bryan Loney – married to Lisa Ayers Loney who grew up at SRPC has been called to plant a church in the Boston neighborhood of Roslindale.

· Pastor’s Class is tonight. Is there anyone you can encourage to attend? Pray for the Holy Spirit to rock us!

· MLK Community service Sunday at 5:00p.m.!

· I’m preaching a three part series on Romans 12 beginning this weekend (Romans 12:1-8). I’ll see you then.

Ray