The Challenge Of A New Year

In Joshua 3:1-11 we are told that as Joshua and the people of Israel stood on the brink of Jordan, they faced a new beginning. The generation of their forefathers who had fallen in the wilderness because of disobedience was now history. Moses, the great leader of the fledgling nation, had been given a private funeral and burial on the mountain by Jehovah. Their new leader, Joshua, was the man of the hour as he stood ready to lead them into the land promised to their forefathers. God’s presence was symbolised by the Ark of the Covenant that would go before them. Joshua challenges them to go in and possess the land. Joshua tells of the wonders God will perform and reminds them of the victory promised to those who would walk faithfully, courageously and obediently into the new land. His statement, "You have not passed this way before," seems to sum up the challenge involved in stepping out by faith into a new and unknown land. There will be vast uncharted waters ahead. There will be many new and unexplored paths to walk. There will be risks be faced, challenges to be confronted and a high price to be paid, if success is to be achieved in the new land.

As we see the old year out and usher the New Year in, we should understand that we stand on the verge of a new spiritual venture; a new calling to serve the Lord in the land of a new year. In a sense, the challenge of a new year is like stepping out on the beautiful, sparkling, trackless surface of new fallen snow. It is like standing on the edge of the fresh sand of a wave swept beach. Or a child contemplating a clean sheet of paper or a clean slate. All are free of the contaminating touch of man. There’s an old bit of verse that speaks of this challenge:

He came to my desk with quivering lip, the lesson was done.

"Have you a new leaf for me, dear Teacher?, I’ve spoiled this one."

I took his leaf all soiled and blotted and gave him a new one, all unspotted.

Then into his tired heart I smiled, Do better now my child."

I went to the throne with trembling heart. The year was done.

"Have you a new year for me, dear Master? I’ve spoiled this one.

He took my heart, all soiled and blotted and gave me a new one, all unspotted.

Then into my tired heart he smiled; "Do better now my child."

Yes, we are like a those who walk in a new land. We have not passed this way before. Our footprints are yet to be made in the sands of time of the New Year. Yet it is a great blessing to know that as we ring out the old and ring in the new, we can immerse the failures of yesteryear in the sea of God’s forgiveness. We can face with a great expectant faith the challenges of a new year. By the grace of God, if He wills it, we can cross over boldly into the land of the new year with an expectant faith based upon the precious promises of God.

Why The Incarnation?

As I walked up the footpath through knee-deep snow, bent into the icy wind of a subzero blizzard, I saw our excited young children at the window, waiting for my return home from the church study. Opening the parsonage door, I was overwhelmed by their excitement about the snow and their plans to build a snow man. Before I could close out the wind and snow, a tiny snow bird, nestling for shelter in the corner of the eaves, was swept inside by a gust of snow-laden wind. The excitement of the children was immediately refocused upon the plight of this small bird, as it flew frantically from corner to corner of our lounge room, desperately seeking an escape from his strange, new threatening environment, inhabited by, what must have appeared to it to be, a horde of screaming monsters.
I opened the door again, hoping the tiny bird's fluttering wings would guide it back to its natural habitat. By this time our frantic  feathery friend was obviously near exhaustion, and we joined our children in an effort to shepherd it through the door leading to safety and salvation.
All real life stories cannot have a happy ending, and for our children in particular, this one ended in trauma and tragedy. In one last effort to escape, the poor little bird flew into the opening  above our large open fireplace, filled with burning logs.

As they were being tucked into their beds that night and we  faced the task of comforting them and reassuring them of God's love for all His creatures, a bit of illumination seemed to come from the very heart of God.  I said to them, "Didn't we do all we could to help the little bird? Didn't we try to show it the way out; to the place it would be safe and happy again? But it just couldn't understand us. We just couldn't tell it we meant no harm. We were so much larger and so beyond its little world, that it was only frightened of us."
Then I asked, "How could we have told the little bird we cared for it?, How could we have told it we only wanted to save it?" Their eager little faces immediately lighted up with understanding as they vied for recognition to answer.  "Yes," they agreed. "If we could have only become little birds and talked bird talk for a moment, we could have told it we cared and could have saved it!"
What a blessing was ours as we shared once more the old, old story of Jesus and His love, beginning with the incarnation of God in the flesh of man. Focusing upon the absolute necessity for God to come and walk as we walk, talk as we talk, feel as we feel, and become truly God in the flesh of man, in order to communicate to us the great love of God; that He might show us the way of escape from the awful fiery judgment for sin and give us His eternal love, life and salvation in Jesus Christ His Son!

Some Reasons To Thank God

In Australia we do not have a national Thanksgiving Day. We do not have a day set aside especially for giving thanks and praise to God for His blessings upon our nation. Of course, this does not mean that the people of God in our land do not have as much to be thankful for as others who have a national day of thanksgiving. Nor does it mean we should not pause at every opportunity and especially give thanks to our great God for His bounteous blessings upon our great land.

We should thank God for His gracious protection. Sometimes we are like Elisha’s servant and are blinded to the reality and dimensions of the great blessing of His gracious protection. In order to really see it we need to understand the vindictive war Satan’s wishes to wage against us. He would like to see the terrorists succeed in their quest to obtain and explode WMD’s in large cities and population centres of our world. He would like to see epidemics of aids, bubonic plaque, small pox, anthrax and other more deadly exotic diseases, sweep planet earth and especially hurt and destroy the people of God. Since he is the god of this world and we wrestle against his principalities and powers and rulers of darkness in high places, why does this not happen?

When we consider Job’s experience we could ask in a more personal and practical sense, “Why didn’t Satan destroy you, your loved ones and your home last night, since he would obviously like to do so?The psalmist gives us the only viable and believable answer, “Bless the Lord O my soul who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth the life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies . .” (Psalm 103:3-4) And again, “The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” (Psalm 34:7)

Just think for a moment about the times injury or death has perhaps brushed you by. Most of us can remember times when a split second made the difference between destruction and survival. I

can name a few, but I am sure there are many more that only God knows about. Perhaps when we get to heaven we will be blessed to have a “video replay” of the times the Lord’s hand has been upon us, protecting us from disaster and giving us a new lease on life on earth. “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14)

When we thank God for His gracious protection we should always remember the blessings of good health. Why are we not overcome with disease and illness every day of our life? It is because He neutralizes and negates the effect of sin upon our environment and our body and graciously gives us good health. “He heals all our diseases.” Do we have to meet a man with a white cane and seeing eye dog before we can truly thank God for our eyes and good sight? Do we need to see a paralytic in a wheel chair before we can thank God for the use of our lower limbs?

Do we need to hear the awful wail of an ambulance before we can thank God for daily giving us travelling grace? Do we need to visit the intensive care ward in a hospital before we can thank God for the health to live an abundant life? Do we need to see a hearse go rolling by before we can thank God for sparing our loved ones that we might enjoy their companionship for one more day? I have been asked a number of times, “Do you believe in divine healing?” I always reply, “Yes, all healing is divine!”

We should thank God for His gracious providence. This means we should daily gratefully recognize and acknowledge the operation of the central truth of Christian existence in our lives, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.” (Ro. 8:28)