Hi how are you all today? I am well and looking forward to Christmas and a break from work. Last weekend I was in our Christmas production at church. I was in the choir. It was such a great time honouring God and seeing the community come and be touched by the real meaning of Christmas. Does your church do something similar?
This blog I want to talk about new people. Who are those new people? You and I after we give our lives to Jesus. How do I know this? It tells us in the Bible and the Message version really brings it out well.
In Ephesians 2:14-15, it states:
14 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance.
15 He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.
I love what verse 15 says. God didn’t just combine Jews that believed in Jesus and Gentiles that believed in Jesus together. Why is that? When you are making a cake and mix flour and sugar together, there are still flour particles and sugar particles in the mix. The flour is still somewhat flour and the sugar is somewhat sugar. They retain some of their previous properties.
This is the same as the Jews and Gentiles that became Christian. If God had of combined them, they would have retained some of their previous likes, dislikes, way of doing things, rituals etc. God did not want a combined people, He wanted a new people.
God wanted us all to have a fresh start / to be born again as Jesus talks about in John 3. When you create new- everything is new. The way of thinking is new, the ways of doing are new, the ways of worship is new etc. When Jesus died for us, we became new creations.
Our body may have looked the same – maybe. I have noticed when people meet Jesus there is a softening about them. The hardness is gone and peace now rules.
Our souls are being renewed daily as we learn a new way of talking and of thinking. Our spirit is definitely new- a heart of stone turned to a heart of Jesus.
Most of us dream sometime of starting over. Well with Jesus you can. When you meet and accept Him, He changes you and that is good news to most of us.
Remember this Christmas that Jesus was born as a baby, lived to show us how to navigate a fallen world and died so we could become new.
This is the good tidings of Christmas and deserves to be celebrated all year long. Why don’t you take that step and become a new person too. You won’t regret it.
Bless you heaps and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you
Karen
Living the life God intended 