December 27, 1994
As 1994 draws to a close, we look back and remember. Was it a good year? Or was it a year you would rather forget? Maybe this was a year for inheriting money or winning a lottery. Maybe 1994 was the year for marriage, or divorce, or having a first child or becoming a grandparent. Perhaps a series of financial setbacks put a blight on this year, or relationships did not turn out as hoped. Whatever 1994 held, the memories are important.
The Bible uses the word “remember” many times. Some of these passages suggest positive advice for ending the year and some suggest resolutions for next year. Here are a few examples from the New Testament about remembering.
Matthew 5:23 talks about being at worship and remembering that another person has something against you. It says go to that person and seek their forgiveness, then return and give worship. Patching up broken relationships is never easy. Anger and bitterness can be deeply rooted. Yet God knows these words are powerful: “I am sorry, I was wrong... please forgive me.” When we remember hurts we have inflicted on others and do something about it, we not only restore a relationship and remove tension, we also bring peace to ourselves and to the other person. This is a good way to end a year and start a new one.
Clearing up a botched relationship also applies to ourselves and God. Whenever we remember something we have done against Him, we can confess it, remove the load of guilt, enjoy restored fellowship with Him and a renewed sense of personal peace.
Remembering and confessing sin can be painful, but because Jesus died for our sin and rose again, we have access to God. As the angel told some women at His tomb, “He is not here; he has risen! Remember how He told you...!” Remembering that Jesus died for us takes the sting out of any memories of moral and spiritual failure.
Perhaps 1994 brings memories of godly living. If it does, then it may also bring to mind ridicule or mistreatment. In this regard, Jesus said, “Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20).
Jesus was rejected because His holy life stabbed the conscience of anyone who did not want to repent. Christians who live for Him need to remember what He said about this and not be surprised if others prefer sin and reject us and our message. Jesus also said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” We can remember that and be thankful for His grace that enables us to live in a godly way.
If this year’s profit was financial, here is another truth to think on: Remember this: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Cor. 9:6). If you were generous and God rewarded your generosity, thank God for the principle of seeding and harvest!
Tied into the idea of being generous is hospitality. The Bible tells us, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” It also gives us pleasure to remember those times of sharing with our friends.
However, God also reminds us “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” Being kind to everyone brings happy thoughts and if that has not been a large part of 1994, it is a good resolution for 1995.
At the close of the year, we can also remember others in prayer. Throughout Paul’s epistles, he says, “I constantly remember you in my prayers.”
Prayer for others is a wonderful way to sum up a day, a week, or a year. It takes our focus off ourselves and gives us opportunity to be part of God’s blessing for others.
Hebrews 13 gives a specific target for our prayers: “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” This probably refers to persecuted believers in countries where Christianity is illegal. Thank God we are free to worship Him, but remember not everyone enjoys the same luxury.
Another target for prayer is in the same passage: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.” Christian leaders in pastoral ministry or other vocations need our prayers now and all year long! The verse adds a good resolution for 1995: “Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”
This small sampling demonstrates how the Bible can help us wrap up 1994 and look ahead with hope and specific plans for 1995. As you use God’s Word to guide you in remembering and planning, may He richly bless you.
Showing posts with label Fresh start. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fresh start. Show all posts
Monday, July 4, 2016
Friday, November 22, 2013
Next Year? ................................. Parables 044
New Year’s Resolutions anyone? One dictionary defines a resolution as a “termination of an abnormal condition.”... ceasing to BE something that is not normal. Most resolutions are decisions to stop DOING unwanted behavior, and begin DOING new behavior. It would be interesting to take a look at resolutions from the point of view of BEING (or character), rather than DOING.
The human race, when first created, was perfect. Adam and Eve were innocent of sin, lived in harmony with each other and with their Creator. Their work was rewarding. They were content. And This was the norm, the way that they were supposed to be.
After Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they were no longer innocent but guilty. They were put out of the presence of God, and their normal, happy life became difficult, marked by sin, and diametrically opposite to the paradise they had been expelled from.
Since then, we have become so accustomed to our abnormal behavior that we tend to think of it as normal, except around New Years, when something stirs us to “turn over a new leaf,” “begin fresh,” or simply “do it right next year.”
However, the behaviors that we resolve to change are simply byproducts of our character, our BEING. Since New Year’s Resolutions generally take a swipe only at what we DO, our good intentions inevitably fail because we merely treat symptoms. And even if we wanted to, we cannot change what we ARE. We cannot terminate our abnormal condition. The Bible questions our ability to change ourselves with, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23)
But there is good news. God’s Word says much about the power of God to “make a new thing.” His creation gives examples, from the rising of a volcanic mountain off the flat ocean floor, to the metamorphosis of a butterfly from a fuzzy caterpillar. As for us humans, the Bible speaks of “putting off the old nature and putting on the new” and “walking in newness of life.”
It is possible to have new life. The source of this new life is Jesus Christ. In fact, He was so full of life that the grave could not hold Him.
1 John 5 says that anyone who has the Son (Jesus) has life, but those who do not have Christ, do not have life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
That means that a person who has received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life is made new, changed . . . given the capacity to live as they were intended to live, set free from guilt, restored to a right relationship with God, and changed. Actually, they have become normal.
This year, instead of making a list of resolutions of things to DO, a resolution that will perhaps run dry by January 30, try the definition of resolution that calls for an end to the abnormal condition of guilt and sin. Begin the new year with a new life, everlasting life, through a relationship with the only One who has that kind of life.
The human race, when first created, was perfect. Adam and Eve were innocent of sin, lived in harmony with each other and with their Creator. Their work was rewarding. They were content. And This was the norm, the way that they were supposed to be.
After Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they were no longer innocent but guilty. They were put out of the presence of God, and their normal, happy life became difficult, marked by sin, and diametrically opposite to the paradise they had been expelled from.
Since then, we have become so accustomed to our abnormal behavior that we tend to think of it as normal, except around New Years, when something stirs us to “turn over a new leaf,” “begin fresh,” or simply “do it right next year.”
However, the behaviors that we resolve to change are simply byproducts of our character, our BEING. Since New Year’s Resolutions generally take a swipe only at what we DO, our good intentions inevitably fail because we merely treat symptoms. And even if we wanted to, we cannot change what we ARE. We cannot terminate our abnormal condition. The Bible questions our ability to change ourselves with, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” (Jeremiah 13:23)
But there is good news. God’s Word says much about the power of God to “make a new thing.” His creation gives examples, from the rising of a volcanic mountain off the flat ocean floor, to the metamorphosis of a butterfly from a fuzzy caterpillar. As for us humans, the Bible speaks of “putting off the old nature and putting on the new” and “walking in newness of life.”
It is possible to have new life. The source of this new life is Jesus Christ. In fact, He was so full of life that the grave could not hold Him.
1 John 5 says that anyone who has the Son (Jesus) has life, but those who do not have Christ, do not have life.
2 Corinthians 5:17 puts it this way, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
That means that a person who has received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their life is made new, changed . . . given the capacity to live as they were intended to live, set free from guilt, restored to a right relationship with God, and changed. Actually, they have become normal.
This year, instead of making a list of resolutions of things to DO, a resolution that will perhaps run dry by January 30, try the definition of resolution that calls for an end to the abnormal condition of guilt and sin. Begin the new year with a new life, everlasting life, through a relationship with the only One who has that kind of life.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Gone Forever ...................... Parables 021
Have you ever done something that was completely irreversible, creating a situation where you had to begin all over again? Most everyone can relate to that, and today, I certainly can. I just put my storage disk into the disk drive to call up the article I was writing on my computer for this week’s Record. Before I started, I wanted to scratch one file from the disk, but I punched an “n” instead of an “s.” Instead of removing the one file, it removed all of them: an article in its final stages for a magazine, meeting notes, a few other short articles, and some other records.
Vanished. Completely! Some of these had already been put into printed form so they are available, but others, including the two most important to me, were not in any other form. Nor were they on a duplicate disk, as the instruction manual recommends.
So I say and looked at a blank screen and said, “Now what, God? I messed it up.”
Many years ago, I said almost the same words to God. Only it was my whole life that had been “punched out on the wrong keys.” I had, in so many ways, messed it up. When I looked to Him with “Now what?”, He lovingly allowed me to discover that he was not only willing that I recover and start over, He would equip me and provide all that was needed to do so.
In order to get His help, I first needed to clear away the barrier between myself and Him, my sin. I learned that the only way that could be done was to accept Jesus Christ as my substitute. I discovered that there was no way that I could make myself acceptable to God. The Word of God does not give that option. God made the provision for sin by sending his Son to die in my place, taking my punishment for sin on Himself.
When I did see my need and accepted God’s provision, I soon found out that Jesus had more to give me than forgiveness, marvelous as forgiveness is. He gave Himself! And in that gift, I was given His wisdom, His righteousness, His love, and everything else that is true of Him. In fact, when God looks at me, I have been so united with Christ, that all God sees is Christ. (Humanly, I don’t see myself in such a glorious fashion, nor does anyone else, but God does, and that is what counts for eternity!)
Relating back to my erased disk, the Bible says this: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Furthermore, He says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” He has not, does not, and will not, ever, hold me accountable for my sin. It has been erased, removed from the records of God, irretrievably!
And then, wonder of wonders, because of the reality of Christ in my life, it became possible to begin anew, with His help in making choices and even to correct some of the previous errors. That isn’t instant perfection. My life is like the average typist’s; I still punch some wrong keys now and then, but the mistakes do not go on record to condemn me. The disk of my life was wiped clean because Christ died for me, and that life is now being reprogrammed because Christ lives in me.
I regret making today’s error and losing the files from a disk, but it is only mildly annoying. He changes lost lives. Compared to that, a lost disk is nothing.
Vanished. Completely! Some of these had already been put into printed form so they are available, but others, including the two most important to me, were not in any other form. Nor were they on a duplicate disk, as the instruction manual recommends.
So I say and looked at a blank screen and said, “Now what, God? I messed it up.”
Many years ago, I said almost the same words to God. Only it was my whole life that had been “punched out on the wrong keys.” I had, in so many ways, messed it up. When I looked to Him with “Now what?”, He lovingly allowed me to discover that he was not only willing that I recover and start over, He would equip me and provide all that was needed to do so.
In order to get His help, I first needed to clear away the barrier between myself and Him, my sin. I learned that the only way that could be done was to accept Jesus Christ as my substitute. I discovered that there was no way that I could make myself acceptable to God. The Word of God does not give that option. God made the provision for sin by sending his Son to die in my place, taking my punishment for sin on Himself.
When I did see my need and accepted God’s provision, I soon found out that Jesus had more to give me than forgiveness, marvelous as forgiveness is. He gave Himself! And in that gift, I was given His wisdom, His righteousness, His love, and everything else that is true of Him. In fact, when God looks at me, I have been so united with Christ, that all God sees is Christ. (Humanly, I don’t see myself in such a glorious fashion, nor does anyone else, but God does, and that is what counts for eternity!)
Relating back to my erased disk, the Bible says this: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). Furthermore, He says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” He has not, does not, and will not, ever, hold me accountable for my sin. It has been erased, removed from the records of God, irretrievably!
And then, wonder of wonders, because of the reality of Christ in my life, it became possible to begin anew, with His help in making choices and even to correct some of the previous errors. That isn’t instant perfection. My life is like the average typist’s; I still punch some wrong keys now and then, but the mistakes do not go on record to condemn me. The disk of my life was wiped clean because Christ died for me, and that life is now being reprogrammed because Christ lives in me.
I regret making today’s error and losing the files from a disk, but it is only mildly annoying. He changes lost lives. Compared to that, a lost disk is nothing.
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