29 Dec Newness

New.

It’s one of those words that sounds funnier the more you say it.

It’s a homonym of “knew” and rhymes with about a hundred different other words.

It’s an exciting word—think of putting it before other words, like

“car”, or

“home”, or

“phone” or

“clothes” or

“idea” or

“friend”…

…and watch how you begin to feel.

It’s a word that conjures up possibilities, fires new programs and courses of action, and can change a person’s life.

It’s also the word that the Bible uses over and over again to communicate who we are and what God wants to do in our lives and world:

We are “new creations”

We have been given “new birth into a living hope”

The old has passed away, the “new has come”

Behold, God makes “all things new”

One day there will be a “new heavens and a new earth” …

… and that’s just for starters.

Our God is into new, and making things new and seeing things in a new light—

and so we should be, as well.

There’s a new year coming—2017, it’s going to be called.

And every study I’ve seen, every book on leadership I’ve read and speaker I’ve heard on living life to the fullest say that the first 30 days of something will many times determine the future of what is begun.

What will your first month of the year look like? In many ways, the new year is kind of an arbitrary barrier, or line we create, and on the other—

it forces us to think about ourselves and lives in a fresh way.

What will you prioritize now that you haven’t been prioritizing, or have lost sight of?

I hope, first and foremost, that your time with God and his Word and His Presence are not just near the top, but at the top of the list.

Without time in God’s word, our minds get lost and confused.

Without time in God’s presence, our hearts get lost and fatigued.

We need both to even begin to be who He’s called us to be and do what He’s called us to do.

Like everyone else, I have experienced many ups and downs in life and in what God had called me to do—but the one thing that has kept me alive and victorious is consistently carving out time for God’s Word and Presence in my life. Without it, I would be lost, my heart would get hard, and I would stop short of the finish line.

I want to be able to say, along with the Apostle Paul at the end of his life—I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished the race.

And to do that, we must “be made new in the attitude of our minds”, as he also wrote, and that can begin right now, this coming year for you.

This can be your year to GROW.

BREAK THROUGH.

GAIN NEW STRENGTH.

GO WHERE YOU HAVEN’T GONE.

BE WHAT YOU HAVEN’T BEEN.

Let’s be courageous and dare greatly together, and do it by putting first things, first.

I hope you’ll start the year off well and join us on New Year’s Day for a special message about facing the New Year in faith. There will also be a special announcement you won’t want to miss. As a reminder, I hope you plan to join us on our annual New Year’s Fast January 4-6, concluding with a special night of worship and prayer that Friday, January 6 at 6 pm.

You can do it!

With new hope,

Morgan