(Part 1)

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“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6,7).

For many years I have had an annual anchor verse that I seek to focus on all year long. I use it for my email sig line and in other attempts to impact those in my sphere of influence.

It was over twenty years ago that the concept of having an annual theme verse was introduced to me. At that time we attended a small country church, the kind where congregants give verbal testimonies, praise or share a prayer request with others in the church service.

When we first moved to Lancaster County from New England in February of 2001 we rented a rambling old farmhouse overlooking the Risser Mill covered bridge. Even as we were still unpacking our U-Haul a new neighbor, Earl Martin, stopped by to welcome us to his neighborhood and brought us a Shoofly Pie made by his wife, Helen. A former pastor himself, he learned that I also was a minister of the Gospel so he brought along a hand-written prayer of blessing. He invited us to his church right up the road which is the church we attended for many years.

On the first Sunday of 2003 Earl stood up and shared the verse the Lord had laid on his heart for the new year, "The joy of the Lord is my strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). We could not foresee that only months later Earl would go home to be with the Lord. He was a godly man and shared numerous spiritual insights with me the 2½ years we knew him. Following our message is a brief daily encouragement I wrote following his funeral service titled, "The Legacy".

This year my annual verse is our daily text and for the next six messages we are going to be carefully examining this "meaty" text. It will also be my privilege to teach the first lesson for 2025 in our Crossroads ABF class this coming Lord's Day and this text will be our focus.

Prompting this verse is a conviction that the faithful follower of Christ needs to be "based", a newer term essentially meaning anti-woke.

The word “woke” to describe an outlook on life as best I can determine came into use about ten years ago (though it's probably been around longer). It connotes falling for every new fad that comes down the pike. Being "woke" is warned about in the Bible, “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14).

The word “based” is more recent for me as I began to see it used about 3 or 4 years ago. It connotes rather than being "woke", that a person has a life built on a firm foundation of objective truth, specifically God's truth as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. The "based" person has assurance that whatever the strange winds of fallen culture goes, “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm” (2 Timothy 2:19).

Memorizing and appropriating today's verse is vitally important in staying spiritually based. For me it's helpful to personalize it and make it my 2025 spiritual resolution, “So then, just as I received Christ Jesus as my Lord, I will continue to live my life in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as I was taught, and overflowing with thankfulness”.

Be encouraged today! Hebrews 3:13

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, how grateful we are that You opened our eyes and drew our hearts to the hope of salvation. We are no longer wandering to and fro trying to find a reason for living, but we have found Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, to be our reason for living! We are filled with humility and thankfulness that You would save us from our sins, give us a purpose for living, and provide for us a home that will last for all eternity - where aging, sickness, death and sorrow will no longer be a part of our life's story anymore. We are abundantly grateful for Your goodness to us. Amen.

Prayer for victims of the Islamic Isis massacre in New Orleans: Father, once again, our country has been bombarded by cruel and callous acts of evil that took the lives of innocent bystanders on the first morning of 2025. As we arose from our beds of safety our hearts were shattered by the first news of the day that many people were murdered or severely injured in the massacre in New Orleans. We pray for grieving families, for law enforcement and investigative officers, for the medical professionals and first responders who sought to assist and save as many as possible. We pray for those who have been traumatized by the horrendous carnage they witnessed, that they will find comfort and healing for their troubled hearts. We pray that our country would again become based in God's truth as revealed through Jesus and the Holy Scriptures and discern between good and evil. Would You turn these acts of evil into testimonies of Your grace that people experience even in the worst of circumstances is our prayer. Amen.