Happy New Year 2026...

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Happy New Year! And welcome to 2026. Well done for being up and about at this time of the day, and whether you had a big night out or a quiet night in, I hope you are in good health and good heart. 

Well what does 2026 hold? The answer is no-one knows. Will we have a year of good news or bad, or a bit of a mix? I typed the question "What will happen in 2026?" into the internet and here are some of the answers I got, and I quote...

  • No one can know for sure, but here’s a realistic, high-level look at what 2026 is likely to be like based on current trends...
  1. AI will be everywhere, not just chatbots: built into school tools, games, phones, search, and creative apps.
  2. More schools will adapt to AI instead of banning it—teaching how to use it responsibly
  3. Some jobs will change, not disappear—people will work with AI.
  4. Music, art, and videos made with AI will be common—and debated.

Well there's certainly an "Artificial Intelligence" theme there, and no wonder, actually I got my answers from an Artificial Intelligence website, Chat GPT.

I wonder how you feel about the increasing dependence on machines to do our thinking. So far, I've resisted the temptation to get AI to write my sermons! 

But AI aside, can we know the future? No- not really. You can guess at trends, you can have a feeling in your waters, you can even go to supposed predictions from Nostradamus or Baba Vanga, but there's only 1 person who knows the future for sure and that is God. 

In the Bible it says in the prophet Isaiah...
    I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
    from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
    and I will do all that I please.’

God describes himself as the Alpha and the Omega, that's the first and the last letters of the Greek Alphabet. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything that's going to happen in 2026.  

But here’s the wonderful thing. God loves us. I actually don’t want to know the future. I’m happy to leave it in the hands of a loving and kind God who sent his Son to come and sort everything out, and who can even bring good out of the bad.

Thanks for listening. 

Charlie Newcombe 01JAN26