“Behold I make all things new”
(Revelation 21:5).
Those six,
short powerful words have become my favourite description of God.
A quick
glance through the Bible reveals some of the “new” things he offers: a new life
(Romans 6:1-4), a new spirit (Romans 7:4-6), a new relationship (Hebrews
8:6-13), a new birth (1 Peter 1:3-5) and the chance to be made into new
creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) just to name a few. He desires to put a new heart in us so that
we can serve him in a new way (Ezekiel 36:24-28) and he does all of this
because his goal is to make things new (Psalm 103).
This “new”
message is important, not only because of what it says about God, but also
because it brings hope to our circumstances. When we know that God’s goal and purpose
is to make all things new and better, then it is easier to believe that the
mess that we find ourselves in is not the end of the story. The dead-end that we are facing can become a
passage to somewhere beautiful. Even
when we do not see the way, it is good to know that God does and that, if we
let him, he will lead us to something better.
Think about
it this way: If you were to come to my
house right now, you would find my shed, my basement and even my camper filled
with junk. We have some friends who are
cleaning out and old farmyard and Sara keeps bringing home things like old
chairs, cabinets, steel wheels and who knows what else. When I ask her, “What are you going to do
with all this junk?” she replies, “It is not junk! Those things are
treasures!” She is probably right. When she cleans the rust off, straightens out
the bad parts and repairs them, when they are made “new”, I will likely see the
beauty in them too. Just because they
are in bad shape now does not mean that they have to stay that way.
The church has one
message: “Come and be made new”. Not by your goodness, or by the church’s
authority, but by a God whose specialty it is to make all things new.
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