The Right Road? Acts 10

It was something new for the Church. It was a new time, not just a time of peace, but a time of opportunity. It was a time that Peter was about the region preaching the Gospel message. He had relied on the Holy Spirit to preach to the Jews along the Mediterranean Sea about Jesus. He was healing those who needed healing. Though his preaching and good works were nothing new for Peter, he was even beginning to act a little different.

For Peter, a devote follower of the Law himself, is now found in Joppa staying at another Simon’s house. This man was a tanner. He dealt with hides and critter skins. He was an unclean man because he was in an unclean business. Or maybe Simon Tanner had the right of it, of understanding the Law. Anyway, it was new territory for Peter.

It is understandable when something new comes along. A new thought, a new method, perhaps even a new theology is hard to accept initially. (Of course, it wasn’t really a new theology, but The Theology cleared up. All the Law and the Prophets pointed toward Jesus. Peter’s message did bring clarity to what was known, or at least to what was understood.) A church comes around and does things differently. That’s ok. It doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. It means that it is new and should be looked at. It should be weighed.

When I was in my Church of Christ youth ministry, it was something indeed new. This branch of the Restoration Movement, was struggling. Was having a youth minister an asset to the outreach of the church, to the discipleship of the church, or was it wrong, too conforming to the pattern of “worldly churches”? That was what the congregation and the eldership struggled with. After a year of ministering there, the question was still unsettled. I am not sure if even today that that question has been or will be settled for that congregation.

Something else new happened for the Church. No longer were people coming who had a passing familiarity with Judaism and the Law. Now people are coming in and have no clue as to what exactly a Christian believes. The world for Peter was changing, just as our world is changing today. For Peter, until this morning, Samaritans were the closest he got to non-Jews. They were at least somewhat familiar with the church culture.

To prepare him, however, God also challenged him with his core beliefs. As I’ve said, he was staying at an “unclean” home. Now in the middle of the morning, he is praying and has a vision. It’s a sheet coming down. “Kill and eat!” he hears commanded. Can you imagine what you’d see on it? You’d see pigs, horses, squirrels, rabbits, iguanas, snakes, turkeys, ducks, even perhaps dogs and cats. (Notice what’s not there: Catfish and crawfish!) Here Peter is in a crossroad. He knows that this vision is from God, but what should he do?

[He is willing to be challenged.] When a person is confronted with the new, it is natural for a person to fall back on what he already knows and has accepted. “Never!” you can hear him say. He’s denied himself pepperoni pizzas. He won’t change now. Or will he? “Go with the 3 men seeking you,” he then hears the Spirit telling him. He does. He leaves his comfort zone. He’s going with Gentiles on a mission for God.

He goes where he hadn’t really given thought. He’s forgotten the commission, to make disciples of all nations. It wasn’t to proclaim the Messiah to the Jews in all nations, but to proclaim Jesus as the Savior to everyone. Peter has learned that all need God’s love and grace. Everyone needs a hope for tomorrow, a hope that only comes by Jesus Christ.

And it is indeed everyone. Cornelius would be a man that many would see as being a moral man. He does good. He gives to the poor. And his heart was seeking. This is something of an insight we do not have with our neighbors. I wish we could. I have hurting friends. If I could read their hearts, then I could better effectively minister to them. Yet even here, the most moral of men still need to hear the Gospel. So Peter, directed by the Holy Spirit, is sharing the Good News with someone he would not have picked. Not because the man is moral and we sometimes see that as a hindrance. Often moral people are harder to reach mainly because they fail to catch the difference between doing good because you love God and doing good so that you can be good.  Another reason Peter would not have chosen him, if left to Peter is that this man is not only a Gentile, or non-Jew. He is a Roman Centurion. He is the icon of all that Jews hate. After three years with Simon Zealot, Peter surely could share his disdain for all things, or people, Rome.

Then that is how we are. We more times than not cheer when we hear someone we don’t like has suffered. Well let’s not be soft. Perhaps we don’t cheer about people we don’t like. We perhaps cheer because of someone we hate has suffered. For example, not too long ago, Seals took out public enemy numero uno. Osama was executed by a hit team. What was your reaction? Can you remember the day? News reports showed Americans everywhere rejoicing. Few of us thought, “There went his last hope of salvation.” But that is common, to rejoice when your enemy suffers. It’s why Jesus told us to be different by not just merely dealing with our enemy, but to go beyond, to love our enemy as if he were our dear brother, our best friend. Pray for him, give graciously to him.

[He is open to reaching.] Peter was gracious; going to someone God has directed him to. Then while preaching Jesus, the hope of a better tomorrow, the restoration of fellowship between man and God, God poured His Spirit on them, the Gentiles. Why? Mind, you, here we see the charisma poured out. That’s the Greek word for gift. It is not the same Greek word that Peter promised in Acts 2.38. This is a special gift that has been poured out at a particular time, or by the touching of the Apostles. Not even the early Deacons could impart the Charisma as did the Apostles.

This is important to understand because this is new territory. Did God truly want non-Jews to come to Christ? Was he truly calling the whole world?  This sign God provided wasn’t so much for Peter’s sake as it was for those who came with him from Joppa. They needed to know that God was indeed accepting of all men, of all tribes and nations. I ponder here about the order of things. Did the Apostles have heavier weight on baptizing people? Not so much as people being baptized, but the holiness of the rite itself. It is this time that the new believer is being washed of his sins and being given the gift of the Holy Spirit. John would write in the Revelation that those who believed in Jesus were sealed by the Holy Spirit. “Yes, Peter, I favor all who would accept Christ. Baptize them.”

We are in a new time, in a crossroads if you will. Everything seems to be changing faster than we can comprehend. New things are coming faster than perhaps we can handle. I never thought 20 years ago, typing away on my Apple IIe that I would one day be able to hold my sermon notes on this tablet, that there would be a site like facebook that would literally change the way we communicate with one another. It is amazing to see, to think about.

Like Peter, we will be directed to do something different, perhaps even new, if we are willing to be used. And in the storm of new, it would be so easy to be misguided. How do I know that I am on the right road? Peter’s journey, God had continually given him signs to say that he was on the right road. But can we see those signs today?

[We need to check the map.] Not necessarily so. Perhaps we might. Yet in all things, God still has given us something by which we should use. Peter tells us in his letter that we should test the spirits to see if this is indeed from God. But what shall our standard be? What will be the answer key for our testing? First, the Word of God, the Bible. If we are being led to do something new, to make sure we are on the right road, we need to be spending time in His Book to us. This is our road map.  Peter was at a crossroad, and God guided him to the right road. We, too, are at the same crossroad. 

Something Great - Acts 9.32-42

As I prepare for my sermons, I lay out the texts about a month in advance. We have been looking at the Book of Acts, looking at spreading the Kingdom while building a community. All the messages I have tried to keep with this theme. As such, I have skipped portions and even chapters, such as Acts 7. Here in Acts 9, this is the 5^th message, whereas Acts 10, a longer chapter, will have only 2 messages.

Originally, I thought that I would not have as many. I thought last week I would be finished with Acts 9, but as I laid out the messages, I couldn’t get past this one. It didn’t seem to fit a flow. But still there is a message here that we need to consider this morning. I brought it up Wednesday night at our prayer meeting. Jim and I had a great discussion about it. It made me wonder about the event. Let’s read this morning’s text:

What was it about this passage that I couldn’t pass? I went back to verse 31, and the church was encouraged by the Holy Spirit. Here we have Peter, being encouraged by the Holy Spirit, leaving Jerusalem and the comfort of safety that he and the others felt by staying behind as the rest of the church scattered. He now no longer had to fear the Sanhedrin arresting him. It seems losing their key zealot took the wind out of their sails.

Now as Peter was about, proclaiming Christ, he started ministering to people. I do not know if this man, Aeneas, was the only one in Lydda to be healed, but he was a person of interest. Peter did what he could for him, what God set him about to do. Peter was able to heal the man. He was sound and whole. No longer did he need to beg for handouts and scraps. He could now provide for himself.

Yet while there, Peter became aware of another person needing help. Her friends came for Peter because she herself had died. I am not sure how long she was dead. It could have been a day or two, maybe longer. Her body was washed and laid out for people to come and view. So he goes to see what help he could be.

While there, after seeing all the clothes she had made for others, for she loved making clothes for those who needed, Peter then puts the mourners, the community, and the family outside the room. He needed privacy, he needed quiet, he needed to talk to the Father, and so he did. In partnership, he raised Tabitha back to life.

From these two healings, many people were saved in three communities. Peter used what he was given for ministering to others. Ministering to people allowed him to see others who needed ministering, and he knew that this was a partnership. That is this morning’s outline.

We need to be open; we need to be looking for opportunity to minister to others. Tabitha did by being the closet for the poor. Peter did that through the healings. How do we do that in our lives today? Are we looking for ways in which we can be ministering to others? There are needs out there that go unmet. And if we desire to share the gospel with others, we need to meet what needs the person has so that the person will be open to hearing the Gospel. Consider James asking us what good is our faith if we see someone hungry or cold and do nothing to meet his needs? Too often that is what the church does now. That is what we do now.

I am not saying that we should go out and heal people. I am not sure that people are called to be miraculous healers of late. Seems the power of healing, as well as other gifts, were passed on by the laying of hands of the Apostles, which according to Acts 1, is someone who witnessed Christ from His baptism to his ascension. No one is that old today. But as the church globally, we feed over 100 million starving people every day. How many hungry people are you feeding in your neighborhood? Do you know of any who are? There are national and state and even city drives for coats and shoes for kids. Do we help facilitate that? The sheer number by which the church ministers to daily is greater than that of Jesus and his days of walking this earth. Are we seeking opportunities to minister?

When we start ministering to other people, then that tends to create a cycle of ministering to other people. Because Peter was in the Almyra and DeWitt area, someone from Stuttgart was able to send for him. (That is the equivalency of distance these towns were.) Say your skill is repairing bicycles. You enjoy doing it. As you help one in need, the word gets around that if someone needs help with his bicycle, he can come to you. You find yourself doing more, serving more.

Mr. Jett was a scout leader when I was a boy. He was known for helping kids. After school, being that he was retired, he opened his garage up for any and all who wanted to learn a neat art, wood carving. Now because this was after school, he had girls in his garage right alongside the boys. He would minister to them in ways that I didn’t realize at the time, and only more recently did I learn that a church had underwritten his expenses so that he could provide a supervision in a time before there were daycares so that kids wouldn’t need their latchkey while parents were away at work.

I suspect that was the nature of Tabitha’s ministry. As she helped one family with clothes, they told another family and soon she found herself helping others. Now mind you, this is not Tabitha, Mr. Jett or the bicycle repairman being taken advantage. These examples of ministry come from a partnership with the Holy Spirit. Because their service came from the Love of God so overfilling their hearts, they were able to serve others.

And sure, there may be times that we are taken advantage. I suspect that of those I help with bills, not a few were because of mismanagement, because they felt like they are due the help because the help is there. But that’s ok. We don’t worry motive if someone comes in need. I pay what I can, share the love and message of Jesus with them. I do so because I am not alone.

Just as Peter was not alone with Tabitha, (remember that he took time to talk to the Father,) so we are not alone. Because we have been clothed in Christ, so too are we sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are never alone. And because we are never alone, it is not by our strength alone that mission is accomplished. And also, let us remember that our Father has given us another resource so that we are not alone, tangibly. He gave each of us each of us. He gave me, you. He gave you, me.

We are at a point in our history, speaking now of Central Christian, where we need to realize that now is the time that, like Peter did something great, we too, can do something great. We have all that we need to minister. We have the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we have one another. Let’s come together to spur one another one. If you are not part of the Family, will you join us?

A New You

Acts 9.19-22

Touch of the Master’s Hand is my favorite song by Wayne Watson. Let me read it to you.

Well it was battered and scared, and the auctioneer felt it was hardly worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. “Well it sure ain’t much but its all we got left I guess we ought to sell it, too. Oh, now who’ll start the bid on this old violin? Just one more and we’ll be through.” And then he cried, “One give me one dollar; who’ll make it two; only two dollars who’ll make it three? Three dollars twice, now that’s a good price! Now who’s got a bid for me? Raise up your hand, now don’t wait any longer; the auctions about to end. Who’s got four; just one dollar more to bid on this old violin?”

Well the air was hot, and the people stood around as the sun was setting low. From the back of the crowd, a gray haired man came forward and picked up the bow. He wiped the dust from the old violin, then he tightened up the strings. Then he played out a melody, pure and sweet, sweeter than the Angels sing. And then the music stopped, and the auctioneer with a voice that was quiet and low, he said, “Now what is my bid for this old violin?” and he held it up with a bow. And then he cried out, “One! Give me one thousand! Who’ll make it two, only two thousand, who’ll make it three? Three thousand, twice, you know that’s a good price. Come on, who’s got a bid for me?”  

And the people cried out, “What made the change? We don’t understand.” Then the auctioneer stopped, and he said with a smile, “It was the touch of the Master’s hand.”

As I was pondering this morning’s passage, this song came to my mind. I like it. Saul of Tarsus, as we left off, had met the Savior on the road. God had then asked someone to do something that seemed, at least from Ananias’ point of view, quite dangerous, as if he was asked to shoo away a rattlesnake. Ananias, however, didn’t know that Saul was not the same person who headed to Damascus days before. He was changed. He was open to accepting the Lord. Ananias arrived, healed him, then baptized him, and then we have our text this morning:

It is said that most new growth within the body comes from new growth. Saul seems to exemplify that axiom. Here he is, with the disciples of Damascus and instantly proclaiming Christ. Now from here, or somewhere between verses 25 and 26, 3 years will have passed for Saul, for even our journey through the book. In the letter to the churches of Galatia, he says that he didn’t go to Jerusalem right away in his faith. Instead after 3 years of walking, then he became associated with the Apostles. But that story is for next week. This week, having been touched by the Master’s hand, he is new.

He was excited and telling others about Jesus. So often anymore, we have somehow come to believe that we need to study to know how to tell people who they need to see them through life’s storms. But here we see Saul, untrained in matters of Christianity. Perhaps he may have picked something up watching and battling the Christians the previous years. But for the most part, he accepted Christ. He was clothed in Christ. He was a new creation. He was new. And now he had a new mission, a new message.

What keeps us from sharing the message with others? Personally, there are a couple of reasons. First, but perhaps not foremost, is that of fear. Fear of what others would think of us. Yet let us consider something. We live in an area that is prone to have an occasional tornado. It is a scary time. Yet who of us would not make sure our neighbors knew of the impending doom? As soon as our smart phone apps alert us, or perhaps the TV station or the siren itself, do we not call loved ones?

Yet I say that there is something worse than a tornado coming. Well not for me, perhaps not for you, but for those who we love and are not in the faith, will they be able to weather the storm coming? Aside from being in Christ, the answer is no. We fear our temporary standing in our own worlds, but others in our spheres are hell bound.

This brings up another reason we do not tell others about Christ. Our culture has lead us to believe, and perhaps many of our churches are also guilty by being complicit. If we stand for truth, we are being judgmental. That is a lie. It is not judgmental when we say that God created a man and a woman to become one, a husband and a wife. It is not judgmental to say that life begins at conception, and anything that brings that life to an end prematurely is wrong. It is not judgmental to say that men and women are different, that God has specific roles for each in the kingdom.

Yet we do not want to be judgmental. Here is an example of being judgmental. Bob, because I don’t like you, you’re going to hell.” That is judgmental. Or this, a bit more subtle: “Bob wouldn’t be interested in hearing the gospel. He’s set in his ways.”  When the church, when we, when you and I start standing for the truth, we are not being judgmental, but we are perhaps bound to save souls.  Do we have new life? One sign of new life would be how we handle the good news. We don’t need to know more than Jesus saves, gave me hope to get through my troubles.

The New Saul also showed us something else: He is different. The people were surprised to see the stark difference between what they had heard and what they were seeing. They marveled at this. It reminds me of Matthew 5.16 where Jesus tells us that since we are the light of the world, then let our light so shine before men that they see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven. That is what Saul was doing here.

Of course, then we must remember Paul’s words to the Romans, 10.14, “How can they believe unless they hear, hear unless someone tells them?” Too often, in our non-judgmental efforts, we have taken Peter’s words to wives to win their husbands through quiet action as our role, our plan to save the nation, through the silent actions of the church. But that is a gross misapplication of Peter’s words. Rather, we need to realize that it is not enough to just do good, to pay it forward. We need to tell the person why we are the way we are.

Of our neighbors, do they know that we are different because of Jesus? Have we told them that? Or do we assume that they know because they see us travel to church on Sundays? Worse yet, do they even know that we are different? There was once a bumper sticker popular 20 years ago: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would you be convicted?” That can stop us up short.

In what ways are we living apart from the world around us, besides being here this morning? Do we laugh at the same jokes, even tell them? Do we hold the same values that are found in the world? If we are new, then it should, like with Saul, make a stark contrast with the world around us. It’s like being able to spot the hunter in his camouflage because he’s also wearing that bright orange vest. It makes him stand out, just as Christ wants us to stand out in our world.

Final sign of a new Saul is that he matured in the faith. That is what Luke, the writer meant when he penned the last verse, “and Saul grew more and more powerful…” (NIV). The Christian Standard says, “He grew more capable…” He matured in the faith. Maturity in the faith is something that comes by spending time in the word. See where Saul kept confounding the Jews by proving Jesus is the savior. Proving implies strongly that he was using the Old Testament Scriptures to show who Jesus is, how he is the Messiah. I believe also the mere exercise of debate helped Saul to grow in the fiath.

Now let me say this about maturity in the faith: It is expected of us. Paul chastises the church in Corinth for not being more mature, needing the elements of Jesus all over again. It’s similar to the accusation the writer of Hebrews made to his readers, that thought they ought to be eating steak, they still need milk.

Growing in the faith is not like physical growth. For my children, (Flower) has no choice when her legs lengthen, her head hardens, her teeth drop through the gums. It happens naturally. Even now, her reliance on milk is less than half as she is on to eating solid foods. Growing spiritually is something that takes desire and purpose.

I have had people tell me that after so many years walking with the Lord, they feel they still need the basics of the Gospel. I wanted to tell them, “Grow up! Stop being infantile.” When the desire to stay at a particular plateau, we become stagnant. We lose our saltiness. We cease being the light.

Now my signs of a new you are done, how we handle the Gospel message, that we are different, and that we mature in Christ, I feel a little beat up. I don’t like feeling beaten, and I don’t like to beat up. Sometimes, bluntness is called for. Sometimes when a child is reaching for that hot burner, we need to be harsh to grab the attention, rather than loving, because being all loving and emotionally sensitive might make us too late to keep that child from burning himself.

So here is the good news. If you and I are still breathing, it’s not too late to be new you. We can still rise up and be intentional, telling others the good news. We can start living differently, living for Christ immediately. We can decide now is the time to grow up.  This comes from the Grace that God gives us every day. Yes, we won’t always get it right, but God does give us His Spirit to guide us, if we but truly rely upon him. Paul, being an apostle, having written well over half of the New Testament, admitted to the Romans that he still messed up. He still found himself committing sins he knew better not to. Then to the Philippians, 3.13, “This is I know, forgetting what is behind me, I press onward to the goal.” All things have passed. We can look forward, to be new every day. Are you ready for a new you?

Before I close with the invitation,  I didn’t finish the lyrics of the song. Let me continue:

You know there's many a man with his life out of tune, battered and scared with sin; and he’s auctioned cheap to a thankless world much like that old violin. Oh, but then the Master comes, and that old foolish crowd, they never understand: The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought just by one touch of the Master’s hand. And then he cried out, “One! Give me one thousand! Who’ll make it two, only two thousand, who’ll make it three? Three thousand, twice, you know that’s a good price. Come on, who’s got a bid for me?” 

And the people cried out, “What made the change? We don’t understand.” Then the auctioneer stopped, and he said with a smile, “It was the touch of the Master’s hand.”

So this morning, which are you? Are you the old fiddle, battered, needing a healing, a gracious touch from the Father? Would you like to be that nice violin, making a sweet melody for the Kingdom? If so, and you need prayer, or just desire prayer

A New Year Every Day

In honor of the New Year, just a couple days away, I have 2 lists regarding New Year's Resolutions (NYRs):

Standard 10 Resolutions: Stop smoking, stop drinking, get into shape, lose weight, enjoy life more, get organized, learn something new, get out of debt, spend more time with family and help people.

Top 10 Different Resolutions: 1. Get your photo taken in 5 interesting and new places. 2. Learn a party trick. 3. Break a record. 4. Make a new friend every month. 5. Develop a good relationship with your body. 6. Learn something new that you didn’t learn as a child. (This is nurturing your inner child.) 7. Try a new food each week. 8. Make the usual unusual. 9. Settle a financial worry. 10. Do something nice for others each day.

Here are a few observations about NYRs: Most fail because they are made with little thought, usually within a week, or two, if not an hour of the New Year. One study shows 38% strongly do not make NYRs, of which I am now one. 64% of NYRs are broken by the end of the month, most of those by the end of the first week. And finally, did you notice, of the two lists, others were last. I looked at several “Christian” NYRs lists as well, and sadly, they also have ‘others’ listed last. Take care of yourself and then others.

Now as the new year is upon us, for the most part, we enjoy it, what it represents. It represents a new start, a fresh start. For some reason, we live life in blocks of time. We look at another hour, another day, another week, another month, another year. So the new year is here, and with it, we know that all that has happened in 2012, and that which didn’t happen, is gone. It is behind us.

But in that, we reflect on the previous year. We look at ourselves and weigh ourselves. We think about missed opportunities, struggles in life, be they medical, economical, or relational. We look at our faults and weaknesses. And that’s where the NYRs come in. We realize that we are lacking. We know the truth of Romans 3.23, of our sinfulness. We want to be better this coming year. Now here are some ways in which I can become a better person, thus the NYRs, fresh goals for the fresh year.

Now regarding NYRs, one expert has said that one of the main reasons NYRs fail is from the lack of tools needed to achieve the goal. Do you know that as Christians, we do have the tools needed to keep any NYRs that we make? This morning, we are going to look at some tools needed. Or perhaps measures by which we can have a new year, a fresh start every day. So when we blow it, we don’t have to wait for the year to start over.

First measure comes from the Gospel of Matthew, 11:28-30. Jesus knows how tired living life is, how hard it is.  He knows that we are bogged down, so he gives us an offer, a trade. Rather than focusing on ourselves, we give ourselves to him, and in trade, he gives us a new burden, a lighter one, one for the kingdom. It is interesting that most of the problems in life that anyone suffers, comes from being selfish. It is hard to worship and bow down to one’s own self. Have you tried it lately? Bow down to yourself. You cannot do it, and yet, as society, as the world turns, that is exactly what people try to do every day. The message they hear is: “Me first, me first!” You deserve this new car. You deserve to have this action done for you. You deserve this, you deserve that.

With Jesus, from the beginning it was all about putting others first. Look at the 10 commandments. The first 5 are about how we treat God. See other here. These are not about us, but about God. Now the 5^th is a transitionary one, but still about others, in this case, our parents. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, and do not lie are all about how we treat others. 9 of the first 10 are others, whereas on average, 8 or 9 of NYRs are about me. The last one, do not covet, is truly about the “me”.  In a sense, God is laying before us the map of a sure mess. Focus on you, and here’s what will happen. You’ll start to lie, then steal, then cheat, and then murder, and disrespect your parents, and then defame, speak against God. Jesus says that we trade our focus. Rather than on us, we focus on our neighbor. Jesus continues on with other passages about humility and putting others first, but this is enough to focus on now. We couple this with our prayer verse, Luke 10.2, and we change our perspective to a kingdomly perspective.

The Second Measure comes from Paul’s letter to the Church of Corinthian (2 Cor. 5.17). We take up Jesus’ yoke of burden when we clothe ourselves in Christ. We are then in Him, and therefore a new creation. You see, what has plagued us in the past, our sins, our failures, whatever, all of that is nothing now. We are no longer the same wastes that we have seen ourselves. Paul continues this passage in verse 19, that God does not hold our sins against us. That is a huge picture of grace here. God, through the work of Jesus, put our sins away, and reconciled us. Another passage, Paul says that God has adopted us. We are no longer waste, but we are children of the King of the Universe. We are holy children. We are forgiven and new.

I would be remiss if I left out Philippians 1.6 where Paul tells us that being a new creation, God continues to work on us. We continue to change. Whereas all the NYRs focus on the person doing the work, here are two passages that tell us that God, someone not me, is doing the work. This is an ongoing process.

Being an ongoing process, let’s consider the final measure we will look at this morning. Paul wrote these words in one of his last letters. Philippians 3.13-16. Here he is talking about being made perfect. He hasn’t. He said that God is still at work just a couple of chapters from this passage. I guess that we can say that this is more a reminder than anything else. What has happened is gone and is past. Too often we are tempted to live by the failures of the year, of life. We focus on what we could have done instead of what there is to be done. For some, they let what has happened to become their anchor. Because of some pain that they suffered, terrible as it is, keeps them from doing whatever. Because a mother abandoned her son, he became a man who never trusted a woman because he was waiting for her to betray or leave him, just like his mom. This means he might be married half a dozen times, or never married, just going from one woman to the next. Is there a pain that you have allowed to become your anchor? Paul says that is in the past.

Of course the context of the passage was more addressing successes of the past. They can be as much of an anchor or hindrance to living for Christ as pain was. When we so focus on the highs of the past, we stop dreaming for what can be done tomorrow.  We end up losing our vision. Whatever has been, was. It is interesting that verse 13 became the vision for Walt Disney, whether he acknowledged it or not. It came out in the movie several years ago, “Meet the Robinsons”. WD was known for always looking forward. In the face of success, he looked forward. In the face of adversity and failure, he still looked forward.

Now the new year is upon you. You may not be the type to make NYRs. But remember, since you have taken up Jesus’ burden, you now are new creation that our Father is still working on, that you no longer need to be shackled by the past woes. Even if you fall flat on your face Wednesday, Thursday is a brand new year. So is Friday. So is today.