Document: /pub/resources/text/Our.Daily.Bread: db931231.TXT
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    OUR DAILY BREAD                       Friday, December 31, 1993
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    Read:  Joshua 1:1-9

                              A FRESH START

                   Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed,
           for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
                              --Joshua 1:9

    They stand in the cold by the thousands in Times Square, New York
    City.  No  big  event beckons them, there's no ballgame  or  rock
    concert.  There's  just a huge lighted ball that descends from  a
    tall  building.  It takes only a few seconds and it seems  hardly
    worth fighting traffic and subway crunch to see -- except that it
    happens on New Year's Eve.

    Why  have  we  created a holiday  over  such  a  nonevent?  Other
    holidays  celebrate  famous  birthdays or  document  signings  or
    something.  New  Year's Eve just celebrates the passage of  time.
    We make such a fuss because it signals the end of an old era  and
    the  beginning  of  a  new  one.  The  old  year's  problems  and
    struggles  become a dim memory when we think of getting  a  fresh
    start.

    It  must  have been something like that for  the  Israelites  who
    stood  with  Joshua  and looked at the new era  ahead  for  them.
    Behind them were 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Ahead  was
    a  land  of  milk and honey.  And best of  all,  they  had  God's
    promise that He would be with them.

    As  we  stand with our back to 1993 and our face toward  the  new
    year, we can have hope because we too can be sure of God's  help.
    That makes the prospect of a new year worth celebrating!

    Author:  J. David Branon

                   Though I know not what awaits me--
                      What the future has in store
                    Yet I know that God is faithful,
                     For I've proved Him oft before.
                                 --Anon.

    THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
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    Never be afraid to entrust the unknown future to the  all-knowing
    God.

    THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:  Revelation 19-22


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