Tomorrow is the start of the New Year and hopefully by now you have set some goals for yourself for the year of the Lord 2012. These are not New Year’s resolutions as the majority of them never get out of the starting gate. I am talking about goals – things you really want to change in yourself and achieve in the new year. And, hopefully by now, you have actually thought through a plan as to how you will achieve these goals and changes.

There is the old proverb that states, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it.” It would be such a waste, as a believer, to aim at nothing. In 2012 there are people to impact with the Gospel, churches that need planting, believers who need to be discipled, neighborhoods that need the Kingdom’s presence, and people who need to be loved. As disciples of the Lord each and every one of us has a call on our lives to “go into all the world” and be change agents in the nations of the world.

There is the old proverb that states, “If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always gotten.” I quote it frequently. I just can’t believe how many people continue to do what they have always done and expect the outcome to be different this time. Isn’t that the definition of stupidity? So, in 2012 what is it that you are going the change and do differently? What goals have you set that will help you to make the needed changes in your character, your daily timetable, your relationship with the Lord, your impact on your world, and your love for yourself? What are you going to do differently?

My prayer for you is that you will take the time to examine your life and your world and that you will then set some decent and measureable goals for yourself that will help bring about life-change in 2012. First changes in your life and then, through you, changes in your world as you impact those you know.

May 2012 be a year when you take time to examine your life on a regular basis because as an ancient philosopher once stated, “An unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato).

As we approach the celebration of the birth of our Lord it is good to pause and remember the purpose of His coming to earth on that first Christmas morning in the city of Bethlehem. He came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And, as we remember His birth let’s also bring back to mind a second birth He was involved in – the birth of His Church as found in Acts, Chapter two. Again, this birth was about “seeking and saving the lost” for this was the purpose of the Church and the call on individual believers (Matthew 28:18-20) and the reason for the power (Acts 1:8).

As I pause to reflect on this – and then examine my own lifestyle to see if I am living in such a way as to be a witness for Jesus as He calls all of us to be – I see some things I can adjust and change to enable me to better represent Him in my world – immediately here in my neighborhood, in the churches I work with, and in the ministry the Lord has opened for us overseas. I am, of course, willing to make these adjustments as painful as several of them may be to incorporate into an already busy life. But, we are talking about being true “ambassadors for Christ and His Kingdom” and so nothing should be too much trouble.

Our slogan here at Ralph Howe Ministries (the sponsor of these daily blogs) is “Loving God, Equipping People, Mentoring Leaders, Reaching Nations.” This is our daily focus and we take this calling from the Lord very seriously. Over the last several years we have impacted four nations in the former Soviet Union. We have seriously limited resources and even physically the travel and the workload is often a real challenge for me personally but with God’s grace we have seen many lives changed.

In 2012 we will again reach even more nations as believers in five new nations (for our ministry) have invited us to join them as they reach their nation and often other nations with the Gospel. We have accepted all of these invites and continue to work with those we have been privileged to come to know and love over the last three years.

We are an Apostolic Ministry with a prophetic expression; evangelistic in nature and structured for discipleship; training five-fold ministers as well as equipping the saints; all the while impacting the nations.

As we approach the end of another year of ministry in Eastern Europe and Central Asia we want to thank you for being such a vital part of what we are doing with the Lord. Many lives have been seriously impacted and permanently changed; eternal destinies have been altered; and many new ministries have been called forth and are being discipled, trained, equipped, and mentored through our ministry.

2012 will be an exciting and busy year and we hope you will renew your commitment to reaching the nations and continue to pray for this ministry. Your prayers are very foundational and seriously important to our continued outreach to those who do not believe and walk in darkness.

We were talking yesterday about stepping off the well-traveled paved route and choosing to walk by faith down the less traveled path of faith in the new year of 2012. God wants each of us to step off the paved road in search of what it means to love and be loved. After all, it is the season when we celebrate the fact that “God so loved that He gave His Son…”

This journey will mean looking deep into your own heart which we seldom take the time to do. This journey inward – to a road less traveled – is not an easy journey but it is an important one. You see, all journeys that really matter start deep inside us and take time. So, do something different this Christmas – different than past years and different than most other people you relate to and share life with – take extra time to take a look inside and travel off the pavement and see what you find.

For much of my life -and if you will admit it – for much of your life – we have been on a search for identity, a quest for belonging, a treasure hunt for meaning. In one word, we have been looking for a place our hearts could call “home.” A place filled with love; a place where we can be ourselves and find acceptance; a place where we can find meaning and purpose and thus begin to experience deep satisfaction and fulfillment. And, this place has nothing to do with a physical address or a series of successes in the job market or in other endeavors we have undertaken.

This Christmas – take that journey off the paved road to the one less traveled that will take you to the center of your heart. All journeys that really matter start deep inside us. And there you will find Jesus. There you will find His deep love for you. You will come to know that he loves every part of you – the good parts, the not-so-good parts, the pretty parts, the broken parts – He loves them all! There, in the center of your being, you will find acceptance, meaning, purpose, hope, and joy. Fear will disappear and peace will, once again, become a reality. And, you will come to know who you really are – your identity. It can only be known in Him.

Christmas is a good time to travel this road less traveled and get off the pavement for a few days and have a good look at your heart – your inner life. There are no road maps or signs to follow … just let the Holy Spirit guide you and direct you. You will discover His love for you and for His love for others; you will discover passion – His passion and compassion towards you; you will encounter personal road blocks that He wants to help you remove so that you can more fully come to know and understand yourself. You will be given fresh direction and renewed purpose and, in the process, discover again your divine destiny and your identity in Him. You find yourself suddenly “at home.”

It is a good time to stop the mad rush of the Christmas season and go in the opposite direction – into the quiet stillness of His heart and allow Him to still and calm your heart so that you can focus, in the special season, on what really matters. Just “Be still and know that He is God.” (Psalm 46:10)

God so loved that He gave His Son – this is Christmas. He then, through His Son, tells us to love Him and we can do that because He first loved us. And, because we love Him we love the things that He loved – ourselves and other people. Jesus said it was this simple – and this was a complete summary of all of the laws and the prophets of the Old Testament. Love God – Love yourself – Love your neighbor. Let’s not complicate it.

We are called to love God powerfully, deeply, intensely. Second, we are called to love our neighbors in the same way. The plan never changes. The strategy remains the same. This kind of fruitfulness can flow only from a place of radical intimacy with God. He has made the way – Jesus is the Way. The crib of Bethlehem is directly connected to the Cross of Calvary which is connected to the Crown on the head of Jesus. We thus enter the throne room of God through the blood of Jesus and can do so with confidence and, in fact, great boldness to pursue this intense and radical relationship with God.

God is raising up a radical army of laid-down lovers. A whole generation of those who are so full of passion and intimacy that they run into the darkness without feart to bring in the lost, the sick and the dying. He is raising up a new breed of lovers, those who live only to pursue a pasionate love affair with Jesus and who will love what He loves – the lost and dying. They will be be so full of the Presence of God that no matter what they are asked to do or what it may cost them, they say yes. There is no “no” left in them.

To be a part of this radical army of passionate lovers who say yes before they even hear what is being asked of them and from them – a band of lovers who have no no left in them – we need to be stripped of the complications and concerns that cause us not to see clearly, so that we will no longer be able to pass by without stopping for that one person in front of us. We need to yield to His immeasurable, ceaseless, bottomless love, and when we do we will soar on the wings of passion and compassion. We will reach out and embrace the lost – winning them for the King and the Kingdom.

It really is that simple – don’t complicate it.