A Word from our Pastor 

January 2012 

Chuck Swindoll observes…..”The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life…..
We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have,
and that is our attitude….I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I
react to it. And so it is with you….we are in charge of our attitudes.” 

Whenever I hear the word “attitude” in a biblical context, my mind immediately goes to the Apostle
Paul’s words to the church in Philippi, “Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he
took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently
humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:5-8 NLT) 

Remarkable! “He,” who as Paul writes in Colossians 2:17, “existed before everything else began, and
who holds all creation together,” made himself nothing! What self-abasement; such pure humility.

So, as a follower of Christ, what should be my attitude in 2012, if, as Swindoll reminds us, life is 10%
what happens to me, and 90% my reaction to it. With so much riding on my attitude in order to enjoy
a successful new year, I must imitate the Master. 

Make myself nothing. Life is not about me – or any of us – anyway. Christ is all! 

I am reminded of the chorus of an A.B. Simpson song “Not I, but Christ”: 

                Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord! Oh, to be lost in Thee! 

                Oh, that it might be no more I, but Christ that lives in me!

Happy New Year! 

Pastor Jeff Palmer