"It's amazing how the Lord provides and He's always by my side."  This was part of the lyrics from an old gospel tune as sung by the late Clara Ward Singers.  I wasn't even a teenager when I heard the Ladies Chorus of the Morning Star Baptist Church in Peoria, IL sing it with fervent fire on the second Sunday of each month in the old church at 440 West First Avenue.  It seems like the older I get, the more clearly I can recall moments of my childhood.

The Lord is a provider and an amazing one at that.  As we enter into a new year, the economic forecast is bleak.  'They' say we are officially in a recession that will be long and deep.  'They' say that it will mirror the times of the Great Depression of 1929.  'They' say that America will face a time unprecedented in curtailment of consumer spending and output never witnessed by our generation.

That's what 'they' say.  I am still holding on to the faith that we have placed in our Lord Jesus Christ as extolled, exemplified and exhibited by the many persons we are introduced to in the scriptures who modeled how to keep your head when all others around you are losing theirs.

One thematic thread that weaves triumphantly and consistently through the pages of the Bible is this:  When times are tough, it takes a tough faith to keep going and to get through.  You don't stop trusting just because of what 'they' say.  You confess and continue to live by what the Lord says.

As a church, the Lord has more than honored His word to us.  We've come through a tough year.  Church giving was down, attendance was vacillating, but we ended the year with increased attendance during the Christmas season.  On the coldest Sunday of the year, the Christmas Drama-Musical Presentation led by almost 100 children and teens, was witnessed by a Sunday morning record-attendance for December.  We had one of the largest crowds at Shout It Out Service (Watch Night) and our first giving on January 1 right after the clock struck 12 was phenomenal.  The sermon I preached that night tells the whole truth:  "Never Would Have Made It Without The Lord."

The first two sermons preached in 2009 were entitled:  "The Slate Is Clean" (8 a.m. at the 'Bol') and "Getting It Right This Time" (10 a.m. on the 'Hill').  I sense a qualitative, sanctified renewal to the work Freedom knows she has to do.  We've got eight years under our belt.  We know how to do this.  We've grown and been made stronger and wiser through the successes, failures, shortcomings, disappointments, and even departures.

I hear the Lord calling us in 2009 to make it happen.  This is not so much a year for new goals, programs, ministries, and ventures as it is a time to do the works of ministry.  If you're like me, you grow weary and tired of catchy slogans, mottos, phrases, spurts of energy that sputter after a while into lackadaisical lulls.

Join me Freedom as we show the Lord we're up to the task.  Maybe He'll use the tough economy to drive folk back to church.  That's His business.  In the meantime, those of us who love Him and the church and who never left, will keep maintaining standards of excellence in ministry.  Let's just make it happen.