I know I have told you this sort of thing before, but it seems appropriate to say it again as we head towards the beginning of another New Year:

I have been a Christian for 50 years and was called to be a minister in the Church of Scotland the very day I was converted: though the story of all of that began in eternity when God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world. There are some things I miss of “the old days” of my spiritual walk from back then, some aspects of church as it was in the days I was newly converted, and some seasons of God moving gloriously by His Spirit in the years since then that I yearn might be repeated, but I don’t want to be lost in a sort of spiritual pining for what God has done in my past experience. Though there are things I miss from the past and even prefer to the way it is now in church life, I want to hear His voice for this day and be shaped with new longings for Him to lead m into His present and future purposes for me on the earth. I want to help others into their future in Christ too: that is a the job of a Shepherd, a Pastor, to be future looking and take the flock into fresh pastures. You can’t be a Pastor without being future orientated and speaking prophetically of the onward call of the Lord. “Lord, help me to be a prophet of the Lord my God, not a king of Nostalgia.”