The Word for 2023: Dwell
During our 2023 New Year’s Day worship service, Pastor Carlos shared with the Christ Fellowship community what the 2023 Word for the Year was going to be. This year, our church will be focusing on the theme:
Dwell: Learning to Live in the Shelter of the Most High
As we just completed a study through the entirety of the Scriptures in 2022, we have seen that, throughout time, God has desired to live amongst his people — to dwell with them.
In the beginning, God dwelt with his people in the Garden. After the Fall, God set in motion a plan to bridge the gap of separation to once again be reunited with his people. In Jesus, God came to earth to restore that relationship and show the world his love. And in the end, God will re-establish his permanent dwelling with his people.
In Revelation 21:3, it says:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Sometimes, though, like the church of Laodicea, we get comfortable and content with a smaller and diminished relationship with God… a distant relationship. A lukewarm relationship. We need to chase after and be intentional in pursuing a close and personal relationship with God. To invite him to dwell with us and in our lives.
This year, we are accepting that invitation from God to be his people in close and intimate relationship. To dwell with him. To abide in his shadow.
This year, we will go through the Scriptures again, looking for the God-sightings and seeing all the ways that he has shown us that he loves us and wants to dwell with us.
