Happy New Year

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Genesis 1:1-2


"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

John 1:1-5


"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with His people. He will dwell with them, and they will be His and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'

And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'"

Revelation 21:1-5

Suffering, Sorrow, Loss, Hopefulness, Faithfulness, and Prayer

This morning I came across this excerpt below in William Barclay's Daily Commentary on the Gospels.

I normally do not read this commentary.  This encounter today was by a happy accident, and a tender mercy, in a response to my own ongoing thoughts and prayers.    I wanted to share it with you because it speaks to many of us, and certainly most of those with whom I have shared conversations, especially over the past year.

Luke 2:36-40  There was a prophetess called Anna. She was the daughter of Phanuel and she belonged to the tribe of Asher. She was far advanced in years. She had lived with her husband ever since seven years after she came to womanhood; and now she was a widow of eighty-four years of age. She never left the Temple and day and night she worshipped with fastings and with prayers.

At that very time she came up and she began to give thanks to God and she kept speaking about him to all those who were waiting expectantly for the deliverance of Jerusalem. When they had completed everything which the Lord's law lays down they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew bigger and stronger and he was filled with wisdom, and God's grace was on him.

"Anna was one of the Quiet in the Land.  We know nothing about her except what these verses tell but even in this brief compass Luke has drawn us a complete character sketch.

Anna was a widow. She had known sorrow and she had not grown bitter.  Sorrow can do one of two things to us.  It can make us hard, bitter, resentful, rebellious against God.  Or it can make us kinder, softer, more sympathetic. 

It can despoil us of our faith; or it can root faith ever deeper.  It all depends how we think of God.  If we think of him as a tyrant we will resent him.  If we think of him as Father we too will be sure that:

A Father's hand will never cause
His child a needless tear.

She was eighty-four years of age. She was old and she had never ceased to hope.  Age can take away the bloom and the strength of our bodies; but age can do worse— the years can take away the life of our hearts until the hopes that once we cherished die and we become dully content and grimly resigned to things as they are. 

Again it all depends on how we think of God.  If we think of him as distant and detached we may well despair; but if we think of him as intimately connected with life, as having his hand on the helm, we too will be sure that the best is yet to be and the years will never kill our hope.

How then was Anna such as she was?

She never ceased to worship. She spent her life in God's house with God's people. God gave us his church to be our mother in the faith. We rob ourselves of a priceless treasure when we neglect to be one with his worshipping people.

She never ceased to pray. Public worship is great; but private worship is also great. As someone has truly said, "They pray best together who first pray alone." The years had left Anna without bitterness and in unshakable hope because day by day she kept her contact with Him who is the source of strength and in whose strength our weakness is made perfect."

The prophetess Anna is not much remarked or remembered.  She is 'the quiet of the land.'  I believe that there is a beautiful little church, on the slope of the Mount of Olives, the Church of Dominus Flevit, that was built on the site of an ancient Byzantine church that was dedicated to her.

Do you wish to know what God is thinking, what He is doing?  Talk to Him.  Talk also to His people, those who are yours to walk with you on the way.   And do not allow a wayward heart to make you hardened, deaf and blind.

Stocks and Precious Metals Charts - Thankfulness

"Since God has accepted you to be among the holy people that He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.   Make allowances for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you.  Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must also forgive others. 

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which brings us all together in harmony. And let the peace of the Lord rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful."

Col 3:12-15

There was a little more action in the markets today than I might have otherwise expected, especially in the afternoon session.

Stocks were weak, being led lower by the big cap techs. And the SP 500 got into the act, selling off rather handily in the closing hour.

We will have to keep a close eye on the performance of stocks in the first week of January, and then January as a whole. I am of the school that tends to try and make some conclusions about the rest of the year from the first month, where appropriate.

And gold and silver delivered a nice little rally, with gold sticking a close firmly above 1300 and silver grabbing the 17 handle by a couple cents.

While 1300 was 'psychological' the real resistance for gold is just overhead. How it does for the next few weeks will be key, and silver as well.

There are quite a few event risks to markets coming up around the US budgets and other political decisions as we roll over to the new year.

At some point in 2018 I do think we are going to see the start, at least, to a genuine change in trends. How it plays out may require some flexibility on our parts.

I wish you and your families a happy New Year. Life may be like a box of chocolates, but families are like fudge— mostly sweet, but with a few nuts.

Have a very pleasant and safe holiday weekend.