Pastor's Column 1/3/21

PASTOR’S COLUMN

“But forget all that – it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19, NLT

1st Sunday-Embrace The New!

In the acclaimed novel, The Water Dancer, written by the masterful literary genius, Ta-Nehesi Coates, the reader awaits with anticipation to see the brave and weary who have been in human bondage emerge into a new life of freedom, as a result of being “conducted” through the certain, but invisible railway to freedom. One profound measure of our spiritual maturity, is the assurance we have in a God whose promises are sure. We serve a God who acts on our behalf, and is not absent from the trials and difficulties we encounter in life. In the venerable prophecy of Isaiah, God speaks to exiles, whose lives have been turned upside down. Their new normal, was adapting to the customs. language, and impositions of the enemy. The people lived in a whirlwind of change, where life as they knew it was disintegrating. Into this vortex of change, God spoke. He was aware that the people had suffered many losses, but they retained a memory of what had been done for them in the past. Stunningly, God told the people [for the moment] to “forget about the previous victories.” The “new thing” God would do for the people would be greater than what He had performed in the past. This was God’s way of prodding His people to look forward to something new. He also wanted them to realize that the “change” and torrent of “blessings” promised them, was “already” in progress. The implication of the text is that what God has for us is greater, broader, deeper, and more sustaining, than anything we have been accustomed to! Notably, God will perform His work in the wilderness and in the deserts of our lives. He will work in areas where resources are scant; and in dry, barren, broken places!