Ready For A New Year
2025 is about to be in our rear view mirror and the only reason we’ll look back is to make sure it isn’t closing on us again.
2026 could be worse.
Along with all the other issues we’ve talked about, the biggest issue we face is how to discern truth.
All of those amusing videos I see with cats playing musical instruments or firing bazookas actually scare the hell out of me…because they look real.
They weren’t made by some big studio…they’re made at home by everyday people.
Apply that same technology to police body cam footage or any one of a number of political scenarios…and the potential for great deception is enormous.
A very large part of the population already has a hard time knowing true from false…now people can manufacture and disseminate “proof’ from their home computers.
The next thing on the horizon is going to be “appearances of Christ”…if He appears with cats blowing trumpets, it’s probably not real…
I’m not good on year end lists…I rarely watch movies and I don’t read fiction.
We did equip everyone in my church with the NIV Application Bible to use alongside their NLT Study Bibles.
I also highly recommend the Connecting Scripture New Testament.
If you want to help us keep this going, use our Amazon links or simply donate directly.
Many thanks to the few and faithful who helped us get through this year.
Finally, many thanks to Duane Arnold for his faithful writing and friendship…he opened up a theological world to me and shares it with us all.
I wish I was younger so I could explore that world more fully…
Thanks as well to KevinH for his faithfulness to us and to God…he keeps us focused on the heart of the matter.
What were the highlights of 2025 for you…and what are you looking forward to in 2026?
If I have to pick one event that defined the year it would be Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the response, and then the memorial service. People who’d never heard of him while he was alive wanting to make him a saint. People unaware of him while he was alive cheering his death. It was like a cosmic test.
It reminded me of Ezekiel chapter 8 when the angel leads Ezekiel around temple inJerusalem, showing him the idolatries going on. Blessings and curses coming from the same platform. The people of God applauding the curses, united not by their love for God as much as their devotion to maga, and not knowing the difference.
Terry,
You may be right…it certainly was the biggest issue here in years.
We lost some long time readers because I said that Kirk was not a religious martyr, but a political one.
It will be interesting to see what happens to his organization…I’ll spare you my thoughts about his widow…
The highlight of this year for me is the end of it. It was a bad year, and next may be worse, but the only way out of any bad thing is straight through. I won’t look back.
The way to discern truth is by clinging to the teachings of Jesus as best we can, with God’s help. His teachings will make us pure of heart, and when the heart is pure, it is also discerning. The light he gives is all we need to make it through the darkness that surrounds us. Drop out of the culture war/social media rage bait/scare tactics/apocalyptic news reports/demonization of other human beings, and tune into Jesus.
The lowlight for me was my mom’s passing. The highlight was what came after: a renewed hunger for God, and an understanding that as a Christian I belong to Him: therefore, all the sins I overlooked and rationalized away were no longer to be tolerated.
It’s a work in progress…I do want to finish well and be told “welcome, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord” instead of waking up in Hell. So one of my main goals is to persevere and endure in Jesus…
I got the NIV Application Bible and I’ll use it when my Gospel readings take me to the translation. Instead, I’ve been referring to the single volume NIV Application Commentary. I also like the Connecting Scripture New Testament; it opened my eyes to how much of the Old Testament is imbedded in the New Testament. In 2026, the Baker Illustrated Study Bible is being reissued and the Jonathan Edwards Study Bible is being released, and I’m looking forward to getting my Humble Lamb BSB Maker Bible in the mail…
For 2026, I’d like clarity and direction from the Lord as to which direction He will guide me next…I’d like to knock out a bunch of classes from Mounce’s Biblical Training website and start learning Greek without having to pay somebody hundreds of dollars…when someone’s selling a yearly subscription to their program and tells me it’s the only way to learn Biblical Greek, I’m skeptical…
Personally 2025 was pretty normal-teaching, Spanish church, online Spanish Bible study, meaningful time with Felix, my cat…but the world outside was scary. I had huge fears every time I became aware of an ICE action that a brother or sister in Christ that I knew and loved dearly might be disappeared. I was careful who I talked to as I didn’t know what different opinions were, and I didn’t want to be responsible for someone’s deportation because I was talking too much. I found solace and wisdom in prayer, for both the news cycle and my church. So far we have been okay and I am thankful. I also know things can change, so I keep praying! I really have no great plans or expectations of 2026 except to continue to follow God’s leading and serve Him as He guides.
I appreciate PxP for the balance and challenge to the wild ideas wandering through Christendom. I think our government could just implode this year. No one (and I’m speaking for both sides of the aisle) seems to know how to govern anything. I’m taking refuge in God’s power to work even in the midst of our idiocy.
Michael,
Thank you for those words. They are received with genuine gratitude and no small measure of humility. Friendship, especially one rooted in shared theological curiosity, is itself a form of vocation, and it has been a privilege to walk alongside you in that exploration.
As for wishing you were younger—perhaps the better truth is that theology is not finally a young person’s discipline. It belongs to those who have lived long enough to know what questions matter, and to have shed a few false certainties along the way. The world you name is not exhausted by time or age. It remains open, not least because it is a world we continue to enter together, asking, listening, and learning.
“Drop out of the culture war/social media rage bait/scare tactics/apocalyptic news reports/demonization of other human beings, and tune into Jesus.”
Amen, Robert F…
BrianD,
Just a word of wisdom for you…focusing on your sins will not sustain you long, neither will fear of hell.
Focus on the goodness and compassion of Jesus and you will persevere….
That BSB looks beautiful…
Linn,
You have been a place of great encouragement for me…all of your posts sound like the Spirit.
All the best to you and Felix…a fine cat, indeed.
Duane,
The gift you have given is the freedom to think and the resources to think more clearly…alongside the camaraderie that happens when people are able to think together about what matters.
It has been a great journey…
Duane,
You are the most irenic, measured, thoughtful, informed, theologically sensitive and astute and articulate voice I’ve found online; I have not the least doubt that you are the same in person. What you say here is always insightful and pastoral. Thank you.
Robert F,
He is the same in person…I’ve had some great teachers and mentors, but Duane is in a class by himself…
Thanks Michael, Duane, Linn and Robert.
Midway between Christmas Day and the beginning of Epiphany, the world forgets about Jesus again. We are left alone with our, in many ways, secret knowledge of the coming of Christ, of the Incarnation, of the Baby. We are made, in a certain way, contemporaries with of the shepherds, the Magi, Mary and Joseph, and the animals in the manger, nursing our quiet encounter with God in his vulnerability, his power that can be truly and hauntingly quiet, and his powerful hiding from the Herod’s of the world. But he is there for us, in our anonymity and nothingness, and he will not fail to be there for us in all circumstances. “Jesus, Lord at Thy birth….”
Robert F,
Well said…thank you!
Michael,
I respect and understand your wish, but I could never wish to be young again, not in the way of this world; it was too bitter for me, I never had the strength required for youth, I never really learned anything. But I know there is another youth awaiting those who Jesus loves, imperishable as the wisdom of our always ancient and always young God, who is our Creator; and who does Jesus not love? Yes, I wish and pray for that eternal youth for all of us.