J O U R N A L G U I D E

HAPPY NEW

YEAR!

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INTRODUCTION

With a New Year come New Year’s Resolutions. As humans, we seem wired to make resolutions every New Year – and it’s no coincidence. Our time is divided into days and weeks and months and years – and each one is a moment of renewal; a fresh opportunity, a chance to do things differently. We embrace these moments, understanding that our resolutions can focus our plans and direct our energies.

Throughout January City on a HIll will embrace this moment, making resolutions to focus our plans and direct our energies towards God. In the pages that follow, you’ll find a series of Bible passages, corresponding to different areas of our lives. Take time to read through them, and jot down your ideas, aiming to come up with one clear, specific, achievable resolution each week.

Together, let’s make the most of 2016!

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RESOLUTIONS: GOD

Matthew 22:34-40 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

Colossians 1:15-23 ‘All things were created through him and for him.’

Joshua 24:14-15 ‘But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.’

Philippians 3:8-16 ‘That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.’

Colossians 3:1-17 ‘Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.’

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RESOLUTIONS: CHURCH

Hebrews 10:23-25 ‘Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.’

Romans 12:3-8 ‘We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.’

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 ‘To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.’

1 Peter 4:10-11 ‘As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.’

Ephesians 4:11-16 ‘When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.’

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RESOLUTIONS: FAMILY

Exodus 20:12 ‘Honour your father and your mother.’

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ‘And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.’

1 Timothy 3:1-7 ‘(An overseer) must manage his own household well.’

Genesis 2:18-24 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’

Acts 16:25-34 ‘And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.’

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RESOLUTIONS: MISSION

2 Corinthians 2:12-17 ‘Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.’

Colossians 4:2-6 ‘Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.’

Matthew 28:16-20 ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.’

Matthew 9:35-38 ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.’

Romans 1:8-17 ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.’

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RESOLUTIONS: SELF

Proverbs 4:20-27 ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.’

1 Timothy 4:6-10 ‘Train yourself for godliness.’

2 Timothy 2:1-7 ‘Soldier … athlete … farmer.’

Genesis 2:1-3 ‘On the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.’

Psalm 104 ‘Wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.’

Psalm 139 ‘In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me.’

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SUMMER READING LIST

John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

Paul Miller, A Praying Life

Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

R. Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man

Barbara Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Woman

Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray

Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

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BIBLE READING DEVOTIONALS

John Stott, Through the Bible, Through the Year

D. A. Carson, For the Love of God (Vol. 1 & 2)

Nancy Guthrie, Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament

Phillip Jensen, By God’s Word (Vol. 1 & 2)