Mark Parsec

Happy New Year? Happy New Life!



Posted: Monday, December 28, 2009

by
Wordcasters

Happy New Year - Happy New Life

As we begin this New Year, we cannot help but think of new beginnings. A new year means new opportunities, new challenges, and new experiences. For some of us, it means new THINGS. Those old things run down, break down and need to be replaced. So, we replace them with New Things… new toasters, new microwaves, new washers and dryers, new refrigerators, new cars…
Last year our upright vacuum cleaner gave up the ghost. It just stopped working. We couldn't afford to buy a new one. Thank God, a friend of ours was kind enough to loan us use her shop-vac. However, have you ever tried to vacuum a 5-bedroom house with a shop-vac? Let me tell you, it is a lot of work!

Well, just before Christmas one of our impoverished neighbors came up to us with an upright vacuum that he had found discarded in the street. Stan is one of those people who go around rummaging through garbage cans. He's a junk collector. So, when he came up to us and said, "Here's a vacuum I found, all it needs is a belt." I had my doubts.

So, the vacuum sat, in our laundry room, with the belt Stan was kind enough to provide, until the day after Christmas when I finally had enough time to take a look at it. I opened it up, installed the belt… and wouldn't you know it… that old vacuum ran like new. What a joy! What a relief!



Yes… sometimes those old things can be made new.



Before Christmas, I had asked my wife on a number of occasions what she would like to get… Her answer was always the same… "I want a new body." Oh… how my heart went out to her. After suffering the ravages of diabetes for more than 33 years… of course she wants a new body.

How many of you want a new body?

Although we know that we shall receive new bodies someday… our resurrected bodies, our exalted bodies, without malady or flaw.. in the mean time, we suffer, and we long for that day when we shall put on that incorruptible body.

The Apostle Paul spoke about this longing for our new bodies in Romans 8 when he said:

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 23Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.



So, until we put on our new bodies… we groan, we moan, we hurt and suffer… we cry out to God.

And in response God has answered our cries with an installment of His Holy Spirit within us and the promise that He shall make all things new. You see, the Holy Spirit is the firstfruits of our re-creation. If we are going to have a new body then we must begin with a new spirit.

This is what Jesus meant when He spoke to Nicodemus, John 3:1-8…

1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

So, you see, before the body can be made new… we must have a new spirit. We must have the Spirit of God within us. It is an inside job. The Spirit of God gives us New Life by giving us new hearts.



And this is good news for us because God is in the business of heart transplants. In Ezekiel 36:26-27 the Word of God tells us:

26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.  27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

The Spirit of God within us is like a new belt in an old vacuum. Without the belt the vacuum is useless. The belt is the heart of the vacuum. It transports the power to where it needs to go. The belt drives the vacuum. The belt breathes life into the vacuum so that it can do what it was designed to do.

Similarly, the Spirit of God gives us a new life by engaging our hearts, driving our hearts. We become spirit driven people. You see, God has promised to give His people new hearts and to put His Spirit within us so that we can do what we were designed to do. God can and will take us old sinners and breathe new life into us.

The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:17 that if… any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

An old broken vacuum can be a very messy thing. It could just blow dirt around everywhere and make a bad situation worse.

Our broken hearts and lives are the same way. Life gets real messy, with a lot of dirty or filthy thoughts, feelings and behavior. It is a life that is displeasing to God.

The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3:8-10...  8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

Oh… the New Person that we become in Christ becomes more and more like Jesus every day. In our Spirit Driven lives, we learn to walk in the Spirit

Regarding this, the Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16-25:

Walk by the Spirit

 16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
 
This New Year, as you're going through your old stuff and throwing it out to be replaced by new stuff, I hope you have a chance to take a look at your life. What is there that you need to get rid of? What is there that needs to be disposed of? What kind of garbage have you been packing around?
 
After you have had a chance to take inventory of your life, I hope you discover that God can do for you what you can't do for yourself. He will not only help you find the trash, but He will also help you get rid of it. And He will give you the strength to live a good life that is pleasing to Him, if you will walk in His Spirit. But, you have to let Him change your heart. Won't you ask Him to, before its too late.