January 2012
NEW, NEW, NEW . .
. OLD, OLD, OLD!!!
When Caitlin and Trent Bigelow are here in Church, it excites me.
They are so beautiful.
When Taylor Eberhardt and Jacob Keffer are here, so many of
us are ecstatic. When
our resident artist Emily Griffith is in Church, it makes our
sanctuary seem more complete and alive.
When Luke and Hannah Simpson or Mia and Sadie Confer are in
Worship, it highlights a certain special part of our giving
ourselves to God. Bill
and Toni or Michael and Heather might feel at times as if they can
NEVER remember a time they did not have little children -take my
child, please!-but for most of us, these little children , some of
whom cannot yet walk to talk, represent a newness and freshness of
life. Their softness and
innocence and trust and hopefulness represent what we all want to be
in life. We all would
like someone else to care for us and provide our needs and protect
us daily. These little
ones actually represent our own relationships with God.
Moms and Dads provide physical food -Jesus provides spiritual food
to challenge us and make us strong.
Dads and Moms always look to protect their sometimes helpless
and certainly inquisitive little children-Jesus is described as
the Rock behind which we hide for protection.
Moms and Dads are so strong, as they can lift two children at
once to carry them to bed or through the cold and wet-Jesus the
All-Powerful One can carry us through whatever problem or encounter
we have in life if we turn it over to Him.
Dads and Moms are trustworthy to the end:
even when you grow up and move away, they are always thinking
about you-Jesus walks with us every step of our lives, to protect us
at times from ourselves and to walk step-by-step with us through
life's problems, tackling them with us.
Jesus always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Jesus never
fails!
We talked in Worship today about when we are in Christ, no matter
what our age, we are new creations:
the old selfish approach in life is gone and the new created
and always still creating part of our life is begun by and in
Christ. The newness of
the year beginning today on January 1st is matched by the newness
and freshness each day of our life brings when Jesus is our Master
Builder.
Some of us are old; some of us are older; and some of us are older
than old!! (and some of us are 47 on January 2nd!)
Being old is good when experience and wisdom and desire to
grow is included with age.
Yet there is a consistency, with newness and freshness, that
overtakes our lives if we constantly follow Christ's leadings.
When we realize that we are never alone and that Jesus walks
every step of life with us, when we allos His Presence to permeate
each day, each moment, of our life . . . . Then we never grow old,
but only wise; never give up but always push on; never be satisfied
with status quo but always try to make things better; never settle
for looking at things from a selfish point of view but try to look
at life from other' points of view and Christ's point of view.
Most of us would not choose to return to age 5 like Emily and
Luke, or age 3 like Caitlin and Hannah, or age 1 like Taylor and
Jacob and Trent --but we can have their innocence and freshness
every day that we give ourselves anew to God.
Take the 100-day Bible Challenge that I passed out on Christmas Eve
and New Year's Day. Read
each of the next 100 days in the Scriptures with the rest of us
-your Church family-as we experience God together through His words
in the Old and New Testaments.
Let's not be OLD in 2012. . . . let's NEW CREATIONS in Jesus
Christ! Think of all the
fun we will have as “spiritual Kids” all over again!
Pastor Dr. Renny Domske
Grace & Peace
About Pastor Renny
