Paris As we now have entered the new year of 2009, we need to remember an amazing story I heard years ago.

A wealthy man had died. He left detailed instructions about how his immense fortune was to be distributed. Among other things, his wife was to turn over a large sum of money to a poor minister who had often remembered the family with deeds of kindness.

The widow decided to give the money to the minister a little at a time—-not all at once but in regular installments. She mailed him a check for $50. Inside the envelope she placed a signed slip of paper on which was written:

"MORE TO FOLLOW."

Every two weeks the elderly minister would find a $50 check in his mailbox with the same message attached: "MORE TO FOLLOW."

"MORE TO FOLLOW!" That is Christ's unbreakable pledge to all who believe in Him and devote their lives to His blessed service.

As we launch forth into a new year filled with uncertainty, instability, war, stock market woes, and fears abounding, may we remember this glorious truth. The blessings which we receive today and have received in the past are but a pledge of those which we shall receive tomorrow. And those we receive tomorrow will bear the precious pledge of heaven: "MORE TO FOLLOW."

Remember the promise of Lamentations 3:22-23 - "Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning."

Each new year that comes our way will be filled with divine goodness. This is surely a comforting thought. For "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

The Apostle John in his Gospel speaks of the inexhaustible riches of Christ: "From the fullness of His grace have we all received one blessing after another" (literally "grace upon grace," John 1:16). Christ's goodness pours in upon His children as the waves of the sea. As one waves washes over us, another one soon follows, and then there is another one close behind, and another, and another, and . . . . "Grace upon grace."

"MORE TO FOLLOW." Christ's ability and willingness to supply our needs, both spiritual and physical, are eternal and unlimited.

Surely we who have such a bountiful Savior need never fear what the new year will bring to us. His grace and goodness will never run out. From His inexhaustible spiritual resources, as long as heaven and earth shall last, there shall always be

"MORE TO FOLLOW." Let's enjoy the new year!

Andrew Paris is pastor at the Delphi Christian Church.