Thank you for being a Greenhouse Builder. Thank you for giving, praying and promoting. We cherish your partnership in the ministry of Greenhouse.

This month we invite you to pray for the elective program. Several courses will start in January. Please pray that teachers will build strong rapport with their students, and that students will get acclimated to their new classes. Starting in January: Crickets (beginner violin), Developmental Psychology, Drawing, Improv, Orchestra, Painting, and Rock Climbing. In addition, please uphold ongoing classes in Latin, Lit Circles, Spanish, Technical Arts, and Writers Workshop. Pray as we discern what new classes to offer next school year.

As we change calendars, many of us consider our hopes and plans for the new year. The biblical realities of redemption and regeneration, confession and repentance encourage our hearts as we look at our past and envision our future. Consider God’s words in Ezekiel 36.

Ezekiel 36:25-28 (NIV)

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.”

Who is the one who acts in these verses? Who promises to cleanse, renew, and restore? Who will place His Spirit within His wayward people? The sovereign Lord Himself whose great name is holy (vs. 23). We cannot cleanse ourselves, resuscitate ourselves, or renew ourselves. That is God’s work, and by His work His character and glory are revealed to us, and in us. As we begin a new year, and think about fresh starts and commitments, let us quickly recognize that ultimately we invite the work of the Lord God, more so than our meager efforts.