Dear friends, God's grace and peace be with you is my prayer.
Yesterday, Pastor Rob preached his farewell sermon and it was on new beginnings. Actually it was on "Firsts." Rob shared the many firsts in his life: First car, first friend, first kiss with his wife, first child, first grandchild, etc. What he had never experienced was his first goodbye as a pastor which happened yesterday. As many of you who regularly read this devotional know Rob leaves us as associate pastor to become the founding pastor of the Hays County New Church Start. We'll hold Rob and Sandra his wife in our prayers as God leads him to this new start.
Here is the text for today:
2 Corinthians 17 Therefore, if any one is in Christ , he/she is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is,in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
This is the text that comes to mind when I think of new beginnings. In our relationship with Christ, Christ brought to our lives a newness of life. The physical side of life still matters but in Christ the spiritual side seems to make all dimensions of our lives better and fuller. Christ calling us to newness! We have in our hymnal a beautiful hymn, "This is a Day of New Beginniings" based on Revelation 21:5, where Christ says, "Behold, I make all things new." That is the beauty of our faith that we believe in a God of newness. God calls us to be new in our relationship with Him and with others. When our sins were taken away they stayed in yesterday and even better, these sins were taken away and sent to a place where they shouldn't bother us any longer. The newness is a life lived away from sin.
In my ministry I have seen that happen to so many people. In my first student charge I visited with a man undergoing some personal problems. His very appearance portrayed a man whose life had seen many experiences that were not the kind to be shared with others. In fact, this man when he was a boy had run away from home to join the circus. Having grown up in an era where that was one of the jokes and possible alternatives to life, to come face to face with one who had actually done that was incredible. I shared with him the gospel message and he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. The following Sunday he and his young family came to church and I couldn't recognize him! He had a new appearance. Christ had made him new! He offers the same to us today.
If we come to Christ and surrender our sins to him, he will take those sins from us and make us new. The brightness of his joy and love will even help us look new to others.
PRAYER: Gracious God of new things, make us new today. Let us surrender our sins to you and allow you to bring us newness of life. We pray in Christ Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great and NEW day!
e.v.
