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. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
– 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV)
“The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Aren’t you glad God brings newness into our lives? Even to rebellious outlaws like we were, reconciled to God through Christ, who for our sake was made to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God!
I’m praying that I can become more of an ambassador for my King in 2006. I’m not even sure I know what that means, but this scripture tells me that’s what I am – I have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation.
I hope I live that out better next year than I did this year.
What’s weird is how we associate the New Year with doing things right. It’s a good a time as any. Still, I think that sometimes people decide to wait to fix things instead of just fixing them.
It happens much the same right befor lent. Even putting Mardi Gras aside, a lot of people decide to give up smoking or something similar for lent. Why wait? Give it up now.
Stroke once had a student in his ABS who decided to give up cussing for lent. (He was a lost kid) It was pretty humorous to hear the story. It had to be explained that cussing wasn’t something that should be done even separate from Lent.
Sorry Bill – didn’t mean to rant.
I really appreciate the core of this post. Our God is a God of new beginnings. The miracle that my life is a new creation and I have life outside of this beating heart and lame brainwaves is a testament to how much God truly loves us.
This has been a good week for me to look at what things in my life need to change for the better. Now I just need to put legs to my thoughts and structure to the change. (And then comes the discipline. Augh, the discipline . . .)
That’s a great point, Quaid.