The new year is coming upon us and with the new year comes new resolutions that everyone wants to accomplish. For most of us we seem to struggle to accomplish these  resolutions that we make. Thankfully here are a few different blog posts that we found helpful that might give you some helpful tips to reflect, plan, and execute these resolutions in 2014. Enjoy!

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It's A Good Time To Remember, Reflect, and Resolve: Most of us can probably use a good dose of “considering our ways.” If you’re anything like me, you get overloaded and feel a persistent strain on your time, attention, and devotion to God. This strain can numb us and lead us to drift. And as D.A. Carson says, “we do not drift toward holiness.” If we don’t regularly take time to evaluate our heart, we can, often unknowingly, drift into sinful or sluggish patterns. To fight against this deadly drifting, it’s wise to draw near to Jesus and consider our ways. And while there’s nothing magical about doing this at the turn of the year, it does provide a natural opportunity to intentionally remember, reflect, and resolve with hopes that we will grow in deeper devotion to Christ.

Read The Whole Bible in 2014: Do you want to read the whole Bible? The average person reads 200 to 250 words per minute; there are about 775,000 words in the Bible; therefore it takes less than 10 minutes a day to read the whole Bible in a year.

Your Most Courageous Resolution for 2014: Resolutions are good things. They’re biblical: “may [God] fulfill every resolve for good” (2 Thessalonians 1:11). And I think developing New Year’s resolutions is a very good idea. A year is a defined timeframe long enough to make progress on difficult things and short enough to provide some incentive to keep moving. A resolve is not a vague intention, like “one of these days I’m going to get that garage cleaned” or “I’m going to read the Bible through this year,” but without any clear plan to do it. Resolves are intentions with strategies attached to them. You don’t just hope something is going to happen; you are planning to make it happen. To be resolved is to be determined.

Remember 2013 and Plan for 2014: Welcome to the day after Christmas! Each year between Christmas and New Years I walk through a simple exercise to help me think through the past year and plan for the coming year.  I originally learned this exercise from David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, and have customized it over the years. My wife and I both walk through it, and I use it with those I coach as well. Allocating an hour or two over the next week to walk through this exercise will help you to start the new year well.

The Empty Shelf Challenge: Empty a shelf in your house somewhere. Every book you read from now until December 31, 2014 goes on the shelf. (Waiting until January 1st to do something awesome is stupid and fake.) At the end of the year, I guarantee you will have read more than you did in 2013. Best of all, you’re scientifically more likely to accomplish something when you have people working on it with you.

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Weekly Once-Over:

What Christmas Is Really All About: Sometimes we miss the true meaning of Christmas. But this is a good reminder of what Christmas is really all about

5 Things We Can Learn From Our Children At Christmas: There’s a reason Jesus tells us to come to him like children. Trust is at the heart of how children experience Christmas. Here are five ways we can learn this from our children.

Practical Tips From A Dad For Affording Christmas Generosity: In his last post, Pastor Dave Bruskas explained why Christmas is a prime time for Christian dads to model generosity toward their family, their church, and the world. In this post, he provides some practical financial tips to help dads afford Christmas generosity.

One Way To Manage Christmas Morning: Christmas morning is a crucial spiritual formation opportunity to be capitalized on with my family. I want to be flexible and have fun, but this year I also want to manage Christmas morning with more intentionality. Here’s what I’ll be doing.

Three Gifts To Give Your Kids This Christmas: Whether or not your children get their “must-haves,” there are a few gifts that won’t show up on their lists that are perhaps the most important.

The Violence Of Christmas: And remember, most of all, that the violence and humiliation of Christmas happened because God loved us enough to suffer all of it on our behalf and by our side. In Christ, we never have to be alone in our sorrows, pain, and humiliation again. The one who made the world entered it as a child and experienced all of its hardships and injustices so that by God's grace, he could be our comforter in the years to come.

List Of A Few Great Christmas Albums To Listen To:

1. Page CXVI Advent To Christmas Album
2. Citizens Repeat The Sounding Joy Album
3. Kings Kaleidoscope Joy Has Dawned

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Weekly Once-Over (12.12.2013):

The Anticipation of Restoration: Christmas has been hijacked. What was meant to be a celebration of God's rescue of this world has become a frantic few weeks of stress, tension, consumerism and for many, deep depression and hurt. Even for Christians, there is a disconnect between what we say Christmas is about and what our lives show it to be about. We need to remember the story of a normal night in a nothing town when everything changed, when the long-awaited, desperately needed King was born.

3 Tips for Sharing Jesus With Others This Christmas: Even as our culture drifts away from Christendom, Christmas is still the most likely time of the year for non-Christians to consider matters of faith. Here are a few tips to help you step out of your comfort zone and talk to non-Christians in your world about Jesus.

Everlasting Joy Is Coming: Where do we find the strength to go on when our weakness and sin seems to drag us down? Listen for some good news.

The Dude's Guide To Christmas: We all want Christmas to be special, just like a scene from a movie. We want snow to be falling on Christmas Eve and we want to wake up to a warm, cozy house overflowing with gifts. More than that, we want our families to feel loved and cared for. We want what Clark Griswold wanted: for our families to grow closer over Christmas. Some of us try to force the Christmas spirit on our families, like our boy Clark. Others of us secretly hate Christmas as evidenced by our lack of passion and planning for it. Many of us are in the middle. We want Christmas to be meaningful, but we aren’t quite sure how to make that happen. Perhaps these suggestions will help you as you try to be the true and better Clark Griswold.

What To Do When You Don't 'Feel' God: These seasons of darkness are not only common, but are necessary for our maturity as followers of Jesus.

Help The Family of Slain Teacher Ronnie Smith: Buy His Excellent Book: Last week, the evangelical world was rocked by the death of Ronnie Smith, formerly a teaching pastor at the Austin Stone Community Church, who moved with his family to Libya to teach at the International School of Benghazi. On Thursday morning, gunmen shot and killed him as he was jogging near the U.S. consulate...

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Weekly Once-Over (12.5.2013)

5 Reasons To Open Your Blinds: There is a small, seemingly insignificant way we as the family of God can start to be missional in our own communities. It starts with opening our blinds.

5 Tips for Business Men On Mission: I’ve owned three businesses in the last few years. I’ve also held a high level executive positions that have had me on the road on a very regular basis. I know from experience that it can be harder to live on mission in everyday life when you are in a different city or country every week on business. Or when you have to run to Costco in the middle of your missional community gathering to grab milk for your coffee shop because they ran out. I’d like to share a few things with you that were helpful to me when I was on the road and/or very busy at work. Remember, these only apply if you are not working too much or neglecting your relationship with Jesus and your family.

5 Things to Teach Your Children This Christmas: Take advantage of this time of year to teach your children about the Christ-child. Spend time in the word, showing them the promised Messiah and how that promise was fulfilled in the baby born in Bethlehem. Help them see that Jesus is the greatest gift they could ever receive and the greatest gift they could share with others.

The Beauty of Motherhood: Matt Bieler, creator of a killer RG3 Adidas commercial (“What Light Can Do”), just released a short (2:38) film on stay-at-home motherhood. It’s not didactic. It’s aesthetic and expressive. It’s breathtaking. The video fits this season perfectly. In celebrating the Incarnation, we also give thanks to God for Mary, the mother of Christ. Short films like this remind us of beautiful, how godlike, motherhood is. Thank you, Lord, for devoted moms, who sacrifice themselves day in and day out for their children. They are not highly valued by modern society; they are highly, highly valued in your kingdom. 

The Ivey Adoption Story: Aaron and Jamie Ivey are united with their adopted son, Amos, after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti in 2010. Follow their journey as they get the news that their son can finally come home.

Early Post of Weekly Once-Over (11.27.2013) - Have a save Thanksgiving

Thankful For The Gift or the Giver?: If the foundation of our thankfulness is that we get God, then you and I will give thanks always for everything, because we're always getting God. However, if the foundation of our thankfulness is the gift, and not the giver, then our gratitude will ebb and flow based on how much of our true treasure we are getting.

A Table Of Forgetful Remembrance: On some level, every gathering of family around a table is a shadow of this idea of remembrance, a time when we recall our collective history, making days like Thanksgiving ones we anticipate with a mix of joy and dread, depending on who will pull up a chair to the feast. Why? Because our collective history is often dotted with land mines—difficult personalities, past hurts, broken relationships.

Proud People Don't Give Thanks: Desiring God put together a 10 minute clip of a sermon by John Piper he did nearly 30 years ago. This is definitely worth listening to.

Giving Thanks In Hitler's Reich: The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them. The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever. 

The First Thanksgiving: McKenzie concludes with the observation that, unlike the Pilgrims, we are too comfortable in this world. American Christians today rarely hunger for heaven. The Pilgrims, despite any of their faults, help us remember that we must “set [our] minds on things above” (Col. 3:2) and “lay up treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:20).

Sabbath Rest and the Moral Limits of Consumption: Each year it seems like the Christmas season starts a little earlier. I'm not talking about the four weeks of Advent or the Christmas season that begins on December 24. The church calendar and the liturgical year remain the same. It is, rather, the Christmas shopping season that seems to be pushed forward bit by bit with each passing year.

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Weekly Once-Over (11.21.2013):

5 Things Mistaken for Evangelism: In the matter of evangelism, I’m concerned about a number of things that people take to be evangelism that aren’t. And this case of mistaken identity can have consequences more serious than mere embarrassment. Let me mention five things mistaken for evangelism.

How To Live In A Secular Culture: How should Christians relate to a secular society that does not know Jesus? Paul’s letter to Titus sheds light on this scenario, showing us how God’s grace should motivate Christians to be good citizens and neighbors.

Intolerant Tolerance: Today morality is more like wine tasting than banking. In banking, there is a right and wrong answer. If you deposit a thousand dollars in a new bank account and a week later try to withdraw eighty dollars, you would not be willing to agree to disagree when the teller says your account is empty. But we don’t see morality like banking anymore. Instead, we see it more like wine tasting. In wine tasting, everyone has their favorite blends and no one is necessarily right or wrong—it all depends on individual palates. No one has the right to declare as an absolute truth that simply because they prefer a specific grape or vintage, it is superior to all other wines. The problem is, the God of the Bible sees morality like banking, not wine tasting. 

The Cure For Backsliding: All Christians are sinners, but not all Christians are currently backsliding. Backsliding is not the loss of one’s salvation (this is impossible), nor the loss of God’s love and care (his faithfulness endures forever). To say it simply, a backslidden Christian is one whose communion with Christ is waning and whose faith is weakening. I shared what some potential symptoms of a backslidden condition look like in a previous post on my site. Today, I would like to point us to the cure for a backslidden heart.

Why You Can't Push Your Kids Into The Kingdom: Children are a divine stewardship. They are not for us to own, but for us to love, carefully guide, and then release to God’s provident care. We cannot pressure, bully or force them into faith. We parent, not with anticipation of some promised outcome, but out of faithfulness to Jesus, leaving the outcome to him.

The Idol Of Hospitality: My husband and I host people in our home all the time. We are called to live in community with one another. We strive to live in community on a regular basis, but with that community comes hosting duties. As a hostess I provide food, entertainment, and above all make sure my house is clean. These three things can become an obsession for me, so much in fact that I find I never leave the kitchen. It’s unbelievably easy to get wrapped up in the details and not enjoy our company. We get so distracted with preparing that we leave little time for fellowship and gospel-intentionality.

This is Discipling: What would it look like if, as leaders, we focused less on the things that make our churches entertaining and more on making disciples? The video below gives a great simple look at what discipleship looks like.