Skip to main content
Encouragement

Happy New YOU!

By 01/22/2015No Comments

Happy New Year! Happy 2015!

I have repeated this greeting a multitude of times, and I sincerely rejoice in the new start the Lord gives me every day!

I am drawn to new things. As a child, I often rearranged my bedroom furniture. In the past 33 years, I have moved to new residences 16 times, including six relocations to a different state! I prefer modern furniture to antique or traditional styles. New perspectives intrigue me, new ideas excite me, new shoes delight me. But sometimes seeking the “new” means leaving an “old” person, place, or thing behind.

The Greek word for “new” is καινός (kainos), which occurs 44 times in 36 verses in the New Testament (NASB). It can refer to a new form: recently made, fresh, recent, unused, unworn. It can also signify a new kind of substance: unprecedented, novel, uncommon or unheard of.

In Luke 5:36-38, Jesus teaches a great truth about newness:

Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins.”

David Guzik writes, “Jesus’ point is clear. You can’t fit His new life into the old forms. This explains why Jesus did not begin a reform movement within Judaism, working with the rabbinical schools and such. Jesus says, ‘I haven’t come to patch up your old practices. I come with a whole new set of clothes.’”

I have to ask myself, “Am I really NEW as a result of following Jesus?”

In Luke 5, we learn that Matthew, known as Levi before he abandoned his old life to follow Jesus, threw a party and invited his tax collector friends. In leaving his former profession, Mathew made a great financial and social sacrifice. But for Matthew, there was no turning back. He didn’t regret his actions—he celebrated! He threw a party so his friends could meet Jesus. A saved man doesn’t want to go to Heaven alone!

HAPPY NEW YOU! Are you happy in the newness of YOU as a result of Jesus? Do you share with others the Gospel that generated complete and utter change in you? Does your heart yearn for others to become new creations in Christ? This year, let’s all resolve to rejoice in our newness and invite others to experience it with us!