Making Things New

Chuckle: "We need a responsible person," said the employer. "I hope you fit that description?" "Yes, Sir, I'm your man," answered the potential employee. "On my last job, every time anything went wrong, they said I was responsible."

Good Quote: "We cannot hold a torch to light another person's path without brightening our own." --Ben Sweetland

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. . . . God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 NIV).

I was born in Zinc, a small mining town in the mountains of North Arkansas. It was called "Zanc" by some of the locals. The town was located in a beautiful little valley with Sugar Orchard creek and the railroad running through it. As a child, I remember it being a bustling community with a several stores, post office, canning factory, and other businesses. My grandfather, and later my uncle, owned and operated one of the grocery stores there. I thought it was the most wonderful place on earth.

However, today Zinc has grown old and there is almost nothing left of the community -- just a few houses but no commerce of any kind. When I last visited the place, I couldn't help thinking how nice it would be if I could just snap my fingers and blow away the "oldness" and make it like it once was -- make it new. But there's no way I can make the old town of Zinc new and there is no way I can make myself new. Only God can do that and only He can make me acceptable in His sight.

In our passage, we see ourselves with our old sinful nature with no way for us to change our condition in our own strength. Our old nature has become polluted by sin and the standards of the world and is not a pretty sight in the eyes of God. In the same way it would take a "miracle" to make Zinc new again, it takes God's power to miraculously make us into new creations with new natures. It takes God's Holy Spirit remaking us once we repent of our sins and place our faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. When we are "born again." as Jesus describes it, we are "in" Christ, and if we are in Christ, all things about us are made new. This means our lives and new nature are now controlled by the Spirit of God, not the lure of the world.

Does your life need a makeover to bring it into compliance with God's plan for you? Do you have the new nature that God wants to give you? If not, won't you bow your head this morning, give your heart and life to Jesus Christ, and ask Him to forgive your sins, and make you into a new creation -- a new person? Let Him make all things new and give you a new nature, a new purpose, a new joy, and a new peace.

Love, Jerry & Dotse