Hi how are you all today? I am currently on holiday which is great as I need a rest and recharge. If you don’t think you need to rest and recharge, this is incorrect. Even God rested on the seventh day after creating the world. He also instituted feasts for the Israelites that had significance but it was also to give them rest from their work. God is into balance in our lives – work and rest (not one or the other).
This week I want to explore how the old affects the new. In my country, the convicts built buildings, bridges, roads etc that are still in use today. Even hundreds of years later, we are still talking about their influence.
Each generation is not supposed to compete with the previous one but to learn from them and grow further. My grandma had lots of wisdom and it is what I loved most about her. I have asked God for wisdom too do I can carry her legacy on.
Legacy is so important in the Bible and God loves family. There are whole chapters on family lines as legacy is important. Why would legacy be important to God? There are a few reasons:
1. God just wants to have a big living family love Him and love each other.
2. God’s initial design for earth was to have His loving family populate the whole of earth.
3. God is still in each generation having knowledge and understanding that the previous generation never had.
4. God reveals another facet of Who He is to each generation. God is a big God and will never cease revealing Who He is more and more.
Let’s look at some Bible stories:
1. Abraham was called by God to come out from a foreign land to a land of promise. That promise went through the generation of Isaac, Jacob, the Israelites (in a foreign land for 400 years), Moses and then Joshua before it came to pass.
2. Davids father was a shepherd of flocks whereas David became a shepherd of people.
3. David won the wars for the Israelite people so Solomon as king could build a temple and live in peace.
4 Hannah sought God for a baby in the temple with a priest who thought she was drunk. This was so a prophet could be born Samuel who would take over the priesthood.
Even though the old affects the new, we can’t put new into old or even fit new into old. Jesus said in Mark 2:21-22:
21-22 He went on, “No one cuts up a fine silk scarf to patch old work clothes; you want fabrics that match. And you don’t put your wine in cracked bottles.”
When patching old work clothes, you don’t use something different, you use the same fabric. Similarly if you are using new fabric to make a dress, you can’t use different old fabric. Why? Because the old fabric will tear and ruin the dress.
We can’t mix old and new but we can build on the old. When looking for a move of God, it is not going to be like the old way. It may have elements of it but it won’t be exactly the same. God is a creative God and is into new.
Joel 2:23 states that the old and new will come together.
Rejoice, you people of Jerusalem! Rejoice in the LORD your God! For the rain he sends demonstrates his faithfulness. Once more the autumn rains will come, as well as the rains of spring.
Both the autumn rain (early rain) and spring rain (latter rain) will come together. This is the last outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It will be amazing but also fearsome as God demonstrates His power in the earth.
So remember – old is good and new is also good – they are just different but work together to create the perfect plan for your life and the perfect plan for mankind.
Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.
Karen
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