A NEW Beginning
Genesis 1:1&2
1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
The original term tohu and bohu , which we translate without form and void, they convey the idea of confusion and disorder, and therefore the phrase combining the two denotes a state of utter confusion and desolation, the Greeks used Chaos to describe these words.
And chaos is a word that we--as Americans--understand in a way that we never have understood it before.
But our God is a God Who brings meaning and order out of chaos!
The essence of creation confirms this!
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep...”
The earth was without form, it was unshaped, undeveloped, and unfinished...
These are tough words, words of chaos, and hopelessness.
But maybe that’s the point.
All of us, at some time or another have found something about our lives that can be described with words like formless, empty, and dark.
And as we go into the world, we come face to face with other people who feel as if these are the words that describe their lives as well.
They feel as if there is no hope…that everything is formless and empty, and that darkness covers everything.
Have you ever felt as if everything was out of order in your life…
…like nothing was fitting together properly as it should?
Many of us say things like: “Nothing ever works out right,” or “my personal life’s a mess,” or “my career is in shambles”….
… “this is not how I planned life to be.”
There is only one way to have our lives move from the chaotic to the state where there is real peace and real order.
We need God’s creative power!
We must put our lives in His hands, and let Him direct us.
God has a plan for all of us. A perfect plan.
This was and is God’s perfect plan….
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
God has taken the old law and has given us a new covenant, a covenant of love and of order and direction.
Only God can make the days and weeks flow together in rhythm.
Only God can put meaning and purpose and direction into life.
As Christians we still experience difficult seasons…
…trials and hardships. There is winter as well as spring.
But God causes even those times to have purpose.
We soon learn that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God has given us a new beginning, a new way at looking at things. In scripture it says….
2 Corinthians 3:6-18
6He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! 10For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. 13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. 14But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. 15Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. 16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Wow can you see, How we can look at the new beginning God has given us. With open eyes and hearts. We need to let go of the old way of thinking, the letter of the law and grasp the spirit of His word. Jesus said that the two greatest commands of scripture was, as recorded in Luke 10:25-28
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
Ephesians 2:14-17
14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
To have a new beginning we first must get rid of the old way of thinking, acting, talking and allow God to make us new from Chaos by putting things in order, in our lives and in our congregation. A new way of doing things, not our way but Gods way. We need to grasp the spirit of God, His love to do this.
John 13:34&35
34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Beloved we have now, today, only a few hours of this year left. We need to let it go and begin a new year with the great hope and faith God is in control giving us the direction that we must go as individuals and as a congregation. Let us move ahead not looking back on what has been only looking to what can be with God for this coming year. May we truly have a new beginning here at Buffalo Christian Church.
