Nothing New in 2015

On the eve of the New Year my mind seems to be a little “ecclesiastical.”  I am not referring to church here, but the futile thinking of the author of Ecclesiastes.  As I look forward to exploring all the new God has to offer me in 2015 I am also reminded of the statement “so there is nothing new under the sun.” 

“That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done.  So there is nothing new under the sun.”   Ecclesiastes 1:9

As I reflect on last year I am reminded of all that I did not accomplish and all the things I failed to even begin.  Will 2015 prove to be the same cycle with only new events, people and challenges?  Will life just keep repeating itself until it comes to a final end?  See, I told you I was in a futile frame of mind! 

This posting could really be depressing if I stopped here. But, I have some good news.  Ecclesiastes was written before Jesus! Jesus tells us that apart from Him we can do nothing.  Without Jesus life is totally futile.  No purpose, no passion, no hope for newness.  With Jesus there comes hope, help, and totally new thinking, loving and living!  I am clinging to these truths:

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, 

for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; 

and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”  John 14:12

So my futile thinking is diminishing as I renew my mind with the words of Jesus, who has overcome and freed us from a hopeless, powerless and purposeless way of life!  I am making a list of the things I want to do better this coming year, knowing that it is only by abiding in Jesus and walking in His powerful name that they will be accomplished.  Some of these I have tried to do before with my own strength, but this year I am clinging and relying on Christ alone. Here are the things I am seeking to do better and greater while abiding in Him:

• Serve others.
• Steward my resources.
• See things through to completion. 

What new thing are you hoping to accomplish in the new year?  What would you like to do better?  It will only be a futile exercise of your own strength unless you abide completely in Christ and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Praying we will do greater works in 2015.  Have a fruitful New Year!

Abiding in Jesus,

Nancy

All I Want for Christmas is New Skin!

 "That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed on the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which is the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth." Ephesians 4:22-24

Christmas is just a week away and then comes the new year!  I begin thinking of the new year early on in the fall.  There is something about seeing the leaves turning brown and the days growing shorter that makes me yearn for New Year's Day.  Who doesn't like a fresh start, a revival of spirit or a recovery of health?  As I was thinking about renewal, refreshment, revival and recovery I chose to see what God's Word had to say about not only the new but also renew. I found that the word renew occurs about 17 times in the Scriptures.  At the beginning of my study I wanted to only focus on what I thought were the "spiritual renewal" verses and disregard the verses that referred to skin or flesh being renewed.  But a cross reference led me to the intriguing story of Naaman who was a captain of the army under the king of Aram.  (2 Kings 5)  He was a valiant soldier and highly respected, but he had leprosy, a disease of the skin.  There was no cure for leprosy, but a woman servant of his wife told him of someone who could heal him, a prophet in Samaria.  To make a long story short, Naaman was led to Elisha who had him dip himself seven times in the Jordan and as it says in 2 Kings 5:14, "his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean."  The Lord, through Elisha, restored Naaman's skin to that of his youth.  Are there any other women out there, besides me,  who wouldn't take a dip in the Jordan to have the skin of a child again?  

God's renewal power is seen daily by just looking at our skin.  What we see when we look at our skin is really dead skin.  The epidermis is the outer layer of skin that we can see.  But below the surface at the bottom of the epidermis new skin cells are forming. As the new skin cells form they begin to move their way to the surface and when they arrive at the surface they are old and tough and eventually die and flake off from the surface. According to Kidshealth.org we lose 30,000 to 40,000 skin cells a day.  But the good news is that new skin cells are always being formed and our old dry skin gives way to new skin on a regular continuous basis. As I was studying all about the renewal of skin I realized that God speaks to us about renewal everyday through how He created our skin.  To renew means to be always in the process of changing and becoming new.  The Lord created our skin to always be in the process of renewal. The renewal begins on the inside and works its way out, not only in our physical bodies, but also in our spirits. When Jesus died to save us and give us eternal life, He came to dwell in us through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is in the process of making us like Jesus.  He is convicting us of things we need to get rid of, teaching us new lessons and equipping us to live with new attitudes.  He is transforming us as he renews our spirits, souls and minds. He is renewing us from the inside out! 

   

"Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day."  2 Corinthians 4:16

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away: behold new things have come."  2 Corinthians 5:17

This Christmas I am asking for some new skin!  I am ready to lay aside some of the old skin and put on the skin that looks a little more like Jesus.  He came as a new baby to make a new way of peace with God and in the process he is making us new on Christmas Day as well as the 364 other days to follow. I am choosing to not lose heart as I look in the mirror and see wrinkled skin and gray roots on my head.  Instead I am determined to look deeper into my spirit, soul and mind for what Christ wants to renew in me so that He can do even more new things through me in 2015. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Nancy 

The Cost of New

The Lord has given me my word for 2015! He confirmed this word to me while on a mission trip to Kenya this summer.  After I had stood before his congregation and washed over them by quoting several passages of scripture, the Kenyan pastor came to me and said, “You are doing a new thing!”   For a month or so prior to this I kept seeing the word “new” in scripture, in devotional books, and hearing it in conversations. Once the pastor told me I was doing a new thing, I was assured that this was the word God would use in the coming year to teach me more about Him.

What I have discovered is that the Lord is the only one who can truly give or create a new thing.  As I researched the word new in Greek and Hebrew and searched out its English meaning I came to realize that there are many usages of the word. I have focused in on two Greek words and their meanings.  The first word refers to something being new in relation to time, which means it is temporarily new.  For example, the Bible refers often to new wine.  The new refers here to the beginning of the wines fermentation process.  It is new for only a short period of time.  I bought a new car over a year ago and I feel like it is still new, however it is not as new as it was a year ago!  It has more miles on it, and it has one little scratch on the back driver’s side door, which now makes it an officially used car.  Anything man creates is temporarily new.  But anything God creates is entirely new, completely new, and always new!

The second Greek word refers to something being new as inherently, absolutely, and qualitatively new.  This new refers to something that is unprecedented, never before known to exist.  The Hebrew word means new, recent, or fresh.  God always does something fresh, but His fresh never loses its freshness!

“Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?  I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:19

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord.”  Psalm 40:3

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away, behold new things have come.”  2 Corinthians 5:17

Will and Avery
New Parents 

This year, to go along with my word “new,” the Lord has blessed me with two upcoming “new” events!  My son and daughter-in-law are expecting my first grandbaby!  They will be new parents and I will be a new grandmother.  Then to top things off just a few days ago my daughter said, “Yes,” when her boyfriend asked her to marry him.   So we are now in the midst of planning a wedding to celebrate a new marriage.   What I have learned about the word new from these two life-changing events is that with anything new there comes a cost!  I am going to have to save up to buy that precious new grandbaby whatever her little heart desires!  I am overwhelmed not only with the joy of a grandbaby and a new son-in-law, but overwhelmed with the cost associated with both! 

Geoff and Sarah
New Marriage

As I was calculating the costs involved in my “new” adventures of 2015 I wavered on the edge of despair one moment and complete joy the next moment!  Then the scriptures of “new” came to mind and I was reminded of what God was willing to pay for my salvation.   He loved the world so much that He willingly gave up His one and only Son to be born into poverty, mocked and mistreated, crucified on a cross in order to purchase us a new life.  Not just a temporary life, an eternal life spent with Him, forever new, with zero miles, no scratches, and no bank account required.   Now that is worth singing about! 

And they sang a new song saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”  Revelation 5:9

I am looking forward with great expectation to all the “news” of 2015: a baby, a wedding, and fresh lessons from the hand of the One who gives new mercies, new songs, and new hearts!

Doodling: An Advent Adventure

Did you know that playing around with words is now a profession?  I sat down for dinner last night and began to talk with a young woman who I mentor. We got on the subject of “words” and she told me about a workshop she attended called, “Doodling.” She explained that it is brainstorming technique focusing on one word.  While focusing on the word, you look for other words that it may contain or words that are related to it with the goal of expanding your thought processes.  It is suppose to help people move from narrow thinking to more broad and creative thinking.  In fact, she said that people are actually hired by companies to be “doodlers!” They consult with companies training them to “doodle” and thus expand their vision, focus and goals.  As she was explaining doodling to me, I realized that I had doodled that morning, without even knowing I was doodling! I was walking on the treadmill and the word “advent” popped into my mind.  As I thought about the word I realized that advent is part of adventure!  I kept thinking about those two words and wondered if their meanings had anything in common.  And so I began to doodle!

My mind was focused on advent because we are now in the season of Advent, which is the four-week time period leading up to Christmas.  Looking up the meaning of the word I found that it is a noun meaning the arrival of something important or awaited. Another meaning I found was “to come to.”  Advent is the time we anticipate the celebration honoring the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  It is also the time we are looking forward to His second coming. 

On the other hand, the word adventure as a noun means an exciting experience or a bold undertaking.  The verb usage of adventure involves risk: to risk saying something, put something at risk or risk danger. The meaning of risk is a chance or possibility of something going wrong, something being lost or a chance of danger.  Within adventure the word “venture” is clearly evident.  The word venture also involves risk: to undertake the risks or dangers of a particular task or project.  With no venture there is no adventure.  “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” is a statement we have all probably heard a time or two! 

Advent leads to adventure – an adventure with no risk on our part! God’s bold adventure in sending Jesus into the world brought about salvation. The Father was the one who took a risk on His creation when He sent His one and only Son to earth as its Messiah, the One who would rescue the world from a life of sin and death.   He risked the world’s rejection of Jesus.  Many rejected Him the first time He came and many are still rejecting His bold move of salvation through crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Waiting on Him is not risky business; it’s smart business! Waiting on God involves the expectation of God doing something bold and exciting, which we know is possible!  God is the God of certainty.  What He says goes!  His promises are guaranteed; His plans and purposes stand for eternity.  As we wait for Christmas and as we wait for Jesus to come a second time there should be excitement, anticipation, and hope of good things to come.

Speaking of good things to come, this year I am not only counting the days until Christmas, but I am also counting the days until my first grandchild will be born!  I am already over the moon in love with sweet Isla Rose.  What an adventure awaits my son and daughter-in-law as they enter the risky venture of parenthood!  There is a chance for failure or of something going wrong, but with no risk comes no reward.  They will be greatly rewarded with the gift of a new life that will bring them great joy and a love beyond comprehension!  While I am waiting on Isla Rose to get here I will not worry over what could go wrong, but will eagerly count the days until we celebrate Christmas – God’s bold adventure to bring about peace in place of fear and life instead of death! Waiting on Jesus is truly the greatest and most profitable adventure of all!

"While we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, eager to do what is good."  Titus 2:13-14

Waiting,

Nancy