WHAT MAY THE NEW YEAR BRING?
Joshua 3:1-11
As Joshua and the people of Israel stood on the brink of Jordan, they faced a new beginning. The generation of their forefathers who had fallen in the wilderness because of disobedience was now history. Moses, the great leader of the fledgling nation, had been given a private funeral and burial on the mountain by Jehovah. Their new leader, Joshua, was the man of the hour as he stood ready to lead them into the land promised to their forefathers. God’s presence was symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant that would go before them. Joshua challenges them to go in and possess the land. He tells of the wonders God will perform and reminds them of the victory promised to those who would walk faithfully, courageously and obediently into the new land. His statement, "You have not passed this way before," seems to sum up the challenge involved in stepping out by faith into a new and unknown land. There will be vast uncharted waters ahead. There will be many new and unexplored paths to walk. There will be risks be faced, challenges to be confronted and a high price to be paid, if success is to be achieved in the new land.
It is easy to draw parallels today. We stand on the verge of a new spiritual venture; a new calling to serve the Lord in the land of a new year. In a sense, the challenge of a new year is like stepping out on the beautiful, sparkling, trackless surface of new fallen snow. It is like standing on the edge of the fresh sand of a wave swept beach. Or a child contemplating a clean sheet of paper or a clean slate. All are free of the contaminating touch of man. There’s an old bit of verse that speaks of this challenge:
He came to my desk with quivering lip, the lesson was done.
"Have you a new leaf for me, dear Teacher?, I’ve spoiled this one."
I took his leaf all soiled and blotted and gave him a new one, all unspotted.
Then into his tired heart I smiled, Do better now my child."
I went the throne with trembling heart. The year was done.
"Have you a new year for me, dear Master? I’ve spoiled this one.
He took my heart, all soiled and blotted and gave me a new one, all unspotted.
Then into my tired heart he smiled; "Do better now my child."
Yes, we are like a those who walk in a new land. We have not passed this way before. Our footprints are yet to be made in the sands of time of the New Iear. Yet it is a great blessing to know that as we ring out the old and ring in the new, we can immerse the failures of yesteryear in the sea of God’s forgiveness. We can face with a great expectant faith the challenges of a new year. By the grace of God, if He wills it, we can cross over boldly into the land of the new year with an expectant faith based upon the precious promises of God. Based upon this confidence, let us conjecture what the morrow may bring.
THE NEW YEAR WILL UNDOUBTEDLY BRING TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITIES. In the new year we will surely have many tremendous opportunities to serve and glorify the Lord. Of course, these opportunities should focus upon our service in His church. The local assembly is the place to glorify God in the new year.
Paul said, " Unto him [be] glory in the church (called out assembly) by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." (Eph. 3:21) Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:20) Man needs intimate and continuing fellowship not only with God, His Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, but with his spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ.
God gave us the local church because of this need. All believers need constant and continuing good fellowship, but new believers especially need it. It is no more logical that a newly born spiritual babe try to exist outside the spiritual nurturing and fellowship to be found in the spiritual church family than for a family to throw a newly born infant out into a wilderness and expect it to grow into a mature and happy individual. All believers are given a ministry of fellowship entailing exhortation and encouragement. (Heb. 10:25) This ministry can only be fully experienced and exercised in the local church.
Out of 5840 waking hours next year, most churches will only have about 200 hours set aside for church worship, study and activities. Would it be possible to be 100% in attending the services of your church next year? Would setting this as your goal please God? Is an employer unreasonable in expecting 100% attendance at work of his employee? Is a principal or teacher unreasonable in expecting 100% attendance of a student? Which is more important a secular company, a school or a church of Jesus Christ?
Remember the old story of the pastor who went to the home of an absent and wayward church member? He sat down with him beside an open fire on a cold winter’s day. As they sat quietly staring into the flames, the pastor took the fire tongs and extracted a red hot coal of fire. Placing it upon the stone hearth, he resumed his seat. As the two sat staring at the coal, it gradually changed from a hot, bright cherry red coal, to a dark, cold, lifeless cinder. Then the pastor got up and slipped quietly out of the house. Needless to say, the member was in church the next Sunday.
We will have new opportunities of personal committal and dedication in the coming year. We will have a whole year to daily seek and serve in His will. Just as surely as the thread follows the needle weaving a beautiful tapestry, so we should follow Him and His will, weaving a life worthwhile in His service. Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls" (Matt. 11:29) If we will heed His command we will not only find new opportunities to allow Him to turn our talents into tremendous triumphs, but we will also experience the joy speakable and know the peace that passes all understanding. After all, this is His intent for us in the year ahead. He said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)
In the year ahead we will be called upon to meet one simple requirement, "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." (I Cor. 4:2) There will be times to simply say, "Wherever the Lord can best use me, that’s where I want to be!" Not necessarily where the burden is the lightest, task is easiest or the struggle is the least. Nor the place the position is the most prominent. David said he preferred to be a doorman in God’s house rather than have all the prosperity of the wicked. That is one reason why he could say he was always glad when someone said to him, "Let’s go to God’s house!"
Yes, in the year ahead we can be optimistic about our opportunities to serve the Lord. Great is His faithfulness. If we are faithful he will surely bless us and give us good success! An optimist finds an opportunity in every difficulty. A pessimist finds difficulty in every opportunity. Let us be optimists in the New Year!
THE NEW YEAR WILL SURELY BRING SOME BASIC BIBLICAL OBLIGATIONS. The obligation of personal Christian growth will surely confront us. It is often said we are either going forward or backward in the Lord’s service. There is no middle ground. There is no standing still. The Christian armour is not designed for retreat. We have heard all the old cliches’ and have seen them all acted out before our eyes in years gone by. "Like a mighty army, moves the church of God, Brethren we are treading, Where we’ve always trod." Or "Come weal, Come woe, Our status is quo." Our problem? We live in a Laodicean age. Someone said they saw some graffiti on a wall reading, "Apathy destroys!" Underneath someone had scrawled, "Who cares?"
In the year ahead we will be faced with the personal obligation of spiritual growth through the study of the Word of God. Will we respond nobly as the Bereans of old? "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11) Will we hunger for the milk or meat of the Word? ". . and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." (Heb. 5:12-13)
The following excerpt from my article, "Do You Have Spiritual Rickets," might challenge us about the opportunity for spiritual growth in the year ahead:
"It is sometimes said that hospitals minister to sick people, schools to ignorant people and the Church to sinful people; therefore we shouldn’t set too high a standard for church members. But sick people are expected to ultimately get well, ignorant people are supposed to continuously learn and Christians should be expected to grow and become better and stronger spiritually. There is no excuse for us to remain perpetually babes nursing on milk when we should mature to be grown up sons of God feasting on the meat of the Word.
One of the most distressing sights one can see is a child suffering from extreme and extended malnutrition. I am sure we have all felt compelled to turn our eyes away from the graphic illustrations of such suffering brought into our living rooms by the electronic media of our day. It is sometimes just too much to comprehend or understand. And our hearts are broken by it all, especially when we contemplate the many economic, social and political factors that seem to mitigate against any real lasting help or solution being found. We realize that in spite of the untold billions of dollars spent in short term band aid solutions, the problem seems to expand rather than contract. The specter of such pitiful little ones is sometimes difficult to banish from ones mind.
Would it not be good if we could view the plight of those who suffer from spiritual malnutrition with at least an equal amount of horror? Is the deformity and suffering any less destructive and distressing in the eyes of God? Is spiritual malnutrition not even more eternally significant than temporal deprivation? And yet we seem to take it in our stride as being an inevitable part and parcel of the human condition.
I am sure it would be fair to say that this condition is all too prevalent among God’s people today. We seem to be surrounded by a veritable army of those who are merely spiritual survivors. Who seem to ingest just enough to enable them to weakly struggle on from day to day, always defeated and never really knowing the robust victory the Lord intended in the lives of His people. Is it unfair to comment on the overwhelming number who seem to suffer from spiritual rickets? Those who seem to stagger through life on spindly and wobbly spiritual limbs with the ribs of their skeletal spiritual frame protruding for all the world to see?
It might be even more important to ask ourselves if this is the normal expectation among Christians today? If, as someone has said, a Christian lived the normal Christian life described in the New Testament, would he be viewed as abnormal by other Christians and the world around him? Perhaps we should raise our expectations because people seldom rise above them. Perhaps we should return to New Testament standards rather than the brave new world standards that seem to prevail all too often among Christians. Perhaps we should reaffirm the expectation that Christians should continuously grow and mature spiritually. That anything short of such growth constitutes spiritual malnutrition and is at least as pathetic and pitiful."
In the year ahead many of us will be faced with awesome family obligations and responsibilities. How will we deal with them? Where can we find the answers to the knotty problems of relationships that inevitably develop along the road of life? Of all those things that can contribute to shipwreck of one’s faith, family difficulties and unresolved problems would be among the items at the top of the list.
Of course, no one knows all the answers. Not even those who make their livelihood from giving lectures and writing books on the subject. But there is one thing for sure. As we enter into a new year we can determine to seek solutions rather than sorrowfully sitting around surrounded by a sad sea of self pity. We can pursue peace rather than crave continuing conflict. After all, our Saviour promised, "Blessed [are] the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matt. 5:9) By the power of the Holy Spirit we can seek to implement the principles found in that great passage Paul penned on family relationships. (Eph. 5:18 - 6:4)
Many years ago I was employed in industry. I still remember the slogan the chief chemist of my company had above his desk. It read, "Are you here with the solution, or are you part of the problem." The saying was blunt and to the point, but effective. Researchers would work long and hard toward solutions before entering that door with a problem. We should do the same in all our relationships in the year ahead.
THE YEAR WILL BRING TROUBLES, TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. The Word of God tells us trials and testing are part of life. The whole book of Job is apparently given to alert us to this reality. Israel’s experience is an example in this area as well. I understand it is fair to say that their troubles, trials and tribulations, as the wandered in the wilderness, represent a cycle that is all too applicable to the ordinary Christian. Peter and James both have quite a lot to say on the matter as well. Jesus placed it in the correct context when He said, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) Of course, our common experience in the years that have passed into history confirms it. The year may bring soul stirring sorrows and immeasurable loss to some of us. Hopefully, we will climb some mountain tops. We may also be called to walk through the valley and shadow as well. But we have His promise, ". . for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. ... Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." (Heb. 13:5 & 8)
THE YEAR MAY BRING GREAT JOY AND FULFILLMENT. This may be the year you achieve some God pleasing great ambition or goal. Perhaps you have been seeking a promotion and pay increase in order to glorify God and be able to be more generous in His service. Perhaps you have been seeking a new job in a place where you truly can be a great witness for the Lord. Perhaps you have been seeking a renewal of a relationship that will give you a new source of joy and happiness in the Lord. Jesus desires that we succeed, as He views success, in the year ahead. He urges us to be of good cheer. Donkey-faced Christians do not glorify God with their cloudy countenance. He has not proposed that we walk around gloomy-faced with signs proclaiming, "The end is nigh!" Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly." (John 10:10) After all, His Sermon On The Mount was all about how to be a happy Christian.
This momentous year may well be the year our Saviour comes again. Without placing too fine a point on our theology, it is easy to see that the signs of the times are clear. This old earth is rushing headlong into its date with destiny that will culminate in that future event. Our hope should be that blessed hope. "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; . " (Titus 2:13)
We should live daily in the light of His coming. Amos said to the people of God in his day, "Prepare to meet thy God." Paul reminded Christians of the imminent return of Christ when he said, "..that knowing the time ... let us walk honestly ... putting on the Lord Jesus Christ." Someone has said, "No man lives carelessly whose last thoughts before retiring in the evening or first thoughts upon arising in the morning focus on the Second Coming." There’s and old piece of verse entitled, "If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two." In it the author proposes that even our everyday routines and activities would change drastically as we prepared for the visit of our heavenly guest. We would clean up our act in too many ways to mention here. Let us so live in the New Year.
What will this year mean to you? We each have a clean slate. No one else can write our life story for the new year upon it. The pen of life is in our own hand. The story is told of student’s plan to defeat the wise philosopher. He stood before him with a small bird cupped in his closed hand and asked his teacher if it was dead or alive. The teacher said, "It is as you will it." So is the new year for each of us. We can soil it - mar it - and waste it. Or write a story that will be pleasing to both God and ourselves. This truly is the day (year) that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24)
