December 27th, 2022
As Christmas celebrations conclude, it’s time to look to the arrival of 2023. For some, New Year’s Day is just another day. For others, there will be celebrations with family and friends. Some will make plans and resolutions while others take time to reflect on the year that has passed. As I’ve prayed about the new year, I’ve been thinking about some things the Bible has to say about newness. You know, one of the most difficult things to grasp is the fact that God is outside of time. Our minds are finite, so understanding the concept is actually beyond our capability. The created can’t fully grasp the uncreated, but the truth is that God is actually more real than time itself because He set it into motion. He has never not existed, and He’s never been anything but what He is!
I’ve heard it said that the greatest resource we have in life is time, because it’s the only one that we cannot multiply or manipulate. We cannot turn it back and in the natural, the effects of time are unreversible. Aging is irreversible. The decisions we’ve made can’t be unmade. The human mind reels with this, whether we realize it or not. That’s the reason so much fiction deals with the idea of time travel. Time is fixed in the natural and our supernatural God is the only One with power over it. 2 Peter 3:8 says,
“Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
He is the Ancient of Days, the oldest One, but He’s the only One that can actually make anything new. Every human heart, whether they realize it or not, longs for an encounter with Him, because He is the only one with the power to truly restore. The wages of sin is death and death is the inevitable result of time. However, when Jesus came—when the uncreated inhabited His creation—He took the keys to death and hell and actually set His people free from the death and indirectly from the effects of time. He has the power to reverse time in the Spirit of a man. In a moment, God can take an 80-year-old soul, worn by sin and life, and make Him like a newborn baby. 2 Corinthians 5:17-29 says,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
The power of Jesus’ blood is the ministry of renewal and reconciliation. The power of His sacrifice when we repent and receive it by faith makes it like we’ve never sinned and brings us back to the Father. It fills us with life and power and makes us like a new wineskin that He can then fill with the wine of His presence (Luke 5:36-39). When Jesus instituted communion at the Last Supper, He said it was the New Covenant in His blood. It was the covenant promised for thousands of years, but it was new. Jeremiah 31:31-35 says,
‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”’
That’s the New Covenant for you and for me! As we look forward to 2023, let’s remember the God we serve! He is outside of time—uncreated, infinite, and able to make all things new. We have confidence to enter the place only priests could previously go by the new and living way that Jesus opened by His own Flesh (Hebrews 10-19-20). God is outside of time. He knew everything we’d ever do but Jesus went to the cross anyway, for the “joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). That joy set before Him was obedience to the Father and it was you and me. Jesus looked at your broken life, your old, worn soul, and said “That one is worth it.” He longs to make us new and then fill us with new wine (Luke 5:36-38). He wants to fill us with His life and power, with purpose and destiny, to make an impact in the world. His purpose is like the sun rising and the coming of Spring. His mercies are new every morning. Proverbs 4:18 says,
“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
I want to encourage you, especially as we begin this new year, to believe Him for everything He’s promised. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve prayed or waited. 2023 is a time that God will make all things new if you’ll let Him.
`
Happy New Year!
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
I’ve heard it said that the greatest resource we have in life is time, because it’s the only one that we cannot multiply or manipulate. We cannot turn it back and in the natural, the effects of time are unreversible. Aging is irreversible. The decisions we’ve made can’t be unmade. The human mind reels with this, whether we realize it or not. That’s the reason so much fiction deals with the idea of time travel. Time is fixed in the natural and our supernatural God is the only One with power over it. 2 Peter 3:8 says,
“Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
He is the Ancient of Days, the oldest One, but He’s the only One that can actually make anything new. Every human heart, whether they realize it or not, longs for an encounter with Him, because He is the only one with the power to truly restore. The wages of sin is death and death is the inevitable result of time. However, when Jesus came—when the uncreated inhabited His creation—He took the keys to death and hell and actually set His people free from the death and indirectly from the effects of time. He has the power to reverse time in the Spirit of a man. In a moment, God can take an 80-year-old soul, worn by sin and life, and make Him like a newborn baby. 2 Corinthians 5:17-29 says,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
The power of Jesus’ blood is the ministry of renewal and reconciliation. The power of His sacrifice when we repent and receive it by faith makes it like we’ve never sinned and brings us back to the Father. It fills us with life and power and makes us like a new wineskin that He can then fill with the wine of His presence (Luke 5:36-39). When Jesus instituted communion at the Last Supper, He said it was the New Covenant in His blood. It was the covenant promised for thousands of years, but it was new. Jeremiah 31:31-35 says,
‘Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah… I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”’
That’s the New Covenant for you and for me! As we look forward to 2023, let’s remember the God we serve! He is outside of time—uncreated, infinite, and able to make all things new. We have confidence to enter the place only priests could previously go by the new and living way that Jesus opened by His own Flesh (Hebrews 10-19-20). God is outside of time. He knew everything we’d ever do but Jesus went to the cross anyway, for the “joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). That joy set before Him was obedience to the Father and it was you and me. Jesus looked at your broken life, your old, worn soul, and said “That one is worth it.” He longs to make us new and then fill us with new wine (Luke 5:36-38). He wants to fill us with His life and power, with purpose and destiny, to make an impact in the world. His purpose is like the sun rising and the coming of Spring. His mercies are new every morning. Proverbs 4:18 says,
“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”
I want to encourage you, especially as we begin this new year, to believe Him for everything He’s promised. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve prayed or waited. 2023 is a time that God will make all things new if you’ll let Him.
`
Happy New Year!
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
No Comments