Joshua - “But as for me and my house, we will (or … we are resolved to) serve the Lord” - Joshua 24:15

Ruth - “for where you go, I will go … where you stay, I will stay … your people will be my people … where you die is where I’ll die… and when Naomi realized that she was steadfastly minded (resolved) to go with her, she stopped trying to convince her” - Ruth 1:16-18

Ezra - “For Ezra had prepared his heart (resolved) to seek the law of the Lord” - Ezra 7:10

David - “I am purposed (resolved) that my mouth will not transgress” - Psalm 17:3

Daniel - “But Daniel purposed (resolved) in his heart that he would not defile himself with eating the king’s meat” - Daniel 1:8

Joseph - “But Joseph being a just man and not wanting to make Mary a public example, was steadfastly minded (resolved) to put Mary away privately” - Matthew 1:19

Paul - “but I detemined (resolved) not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified” -                    I Corinthians 2:2

Jesus - “He steadfastly set his face (resolved) to go to Jerusalem” - Luke 9:51

There are other examples to be sure … but I think this gets the point across that throughout the entire Bible you see people who made RESOLUTIONS.

What many people don’t know about Edwards is that at the age of 19 he wrote down 70 RESOLUTIONS.  He used these resolutions as almost a “life mission statement” to make sure he made the most of his life for the glory of God.

Here are some of my favorites:

#7 Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life

#25 Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.

#55 Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if, I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and hell torments.

#56 Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

#69 Resolved, always to do that, which I shall wish I had done when I see others do it.

If you want to see all 70 of Edwards resolutions go to:  http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/resolutions.htm

Resolved: To floss my teeth at least once a week (this may not seem like a lot, but it is way more than I am currently doing)

Resolved: To read a different book each month (12 in total) as chosen by my friends who are on our New Years Resolution committee

Resolved:  To do at least one set of 30 sit-ups on my AbWorks everyday in 2009

Resolved:  To say things to people that I wouldn’t normally say to them unless I knew they were dying (because, in fact, they are dying… and we do not know what tomorrow holds - Proverbs 27:1)

Resolved:  To continue to pray with my wife every night before we go to bed and to continue to focus on a specific “category” each night (Salvation Sunday, Ministry and Missions Monday, Trusting Tuesday, Weak Wednesday, Thanksgiving Thursday, Family Friday, Social Saturday)

Resolved: The best I know how - to live every moment in the will of God.

Our next Claygroup is Wednesday, January 7th (session #5 in our “Growing” Book)

Dani O’Shaughnessey - 26% chance of winning ( Dan, I love you and wish I could go higher, but I feel that you will be a target this year and the mob mentality will greatly hurt your chances.  Despite you being a target and the mob mentality, I still feel you have greater than a 1 out of 4 chance of winning)

Dave McClain - 17% chance of winning (Dave, I spoke earlier to the fact that I felt you would win this year and my gut still feels like that may be the case.  However, me giving you a higher percentage as this point would reverse the intended result of you winning, thus I must give you a conservative 17% simply because unintentionally, I believe, I may have placed too much attention on you and this will unfortunately have a negative effect on your chances of winning this year)

Chris Macklin - 12% chance of winning (Chris is always a solid competitor and this year will be no different.  I don’t believe Chris will win this year, but I do look for him to give the actual winner a run for their money)

James Elias - 6% chance of winning (James, please do not look at this as me not thinking you could win the WSC.  The fact is this … history and personal experience tell me that James is not “in it to win it” - a more accurate statement would be this … “James is in it for someone else to win it”.  James has traditionally and unselfishly played his game in such a way as to try to aid someone else in winning.  I think this year will be no exception as I believe Jamie will attempt to be a “teammate”, if you will, to another participant.

Daren Dale - 39% chance of winning - (Yes, that’s right, I believe this year Daren has the greatest chance of winning.  Why, you might ask?  Crazy, unpredictable, energetic, scrappy, tenacious, cautionless and crafty.  These words desribe Daren’s game.  I feel like he has everything going for him and he has nothing to lose.  My inside sources tell me that James is going to (once again) try to help Daren win this year.  Regardless of everyone’s knowledge of this - I think it will be difficult to stop the force of Daren Dale, especially if he has guys on the inside working for him. 

THESE ARE MY PREDICTIONS FOR THE WINTER SOLSTICE CLASSIC VIII.

These percentages are based soley on those who I knew were going to be in attendance.  If anyone else shows up it may alter my percentages by a margin of 1-3%, but I do believe the winner will be found in the group of guys mentioned above with Daren having the greatest chance.