The End of the Beginning?

                        

"Now this is not the end.  It is not even the beginning of the end.  But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” This famous quote from Winston Churchill expresses our reality as we come to the "end" of Great Beginnings.  Great Beginnings is not something to be carried out only as a year-beginning blast of focus on setting our priorities straight.   It is meant to get us started out with the right focus, priorities, and habits that need to continue throughout the year. 

So...from now on...

“In the beginning God…” needs to remain the first sentence of our lives

The gospel needs to be the foundation of all we are and do.  Christ is the first fruits of those who will be resurrected.

Our identity needs to be grounded in being the people of God, the "first fruits of all He has created."

God needs to get the first-fruits of our lives.  Certainly Great Beginnings is only the start of identifying areas of our lives where we need to be more intentional about giving God first fruits. 

Think through some particular areas of life:  thought life, family life, financial priorities, work, mission...

Also, think through the message of Great Beginnings:  how do we keep the heat turned up under the areas of prayer, fasting (and other spiritual disciplines), God's Word, and God-honoring choices. 

This is the end of the beginning...so let's move on to the middle...and end of the beginning, bringing with us and building upon the gains of Great Beginnings! 

                              

            Lord, thank you for great beginnings, for Your mercies new every morning! For the Greatest Beginning, my Savior, Jesus Christ! Teach me to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom! Be the beginning, middle, and end of all my days!

                             

A God of Second Chances!

         

Do you ever think that you'll never get it right? 

Good News!                                                                                   

Lamentations 3:22-23a says:

Because of the Lord's great love we're not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning;

                       

           Our God is a God of second chances (and third and fourth and ...) and new BEGINNINGS!

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

Thank you, Father!  Help me to please you today.

                       

More?

                         

(Trust and Obey, Big Daddy Weave)

Many people start the New Year by resolving to change something in their life.  This usually involves setting a goal.  Sometimes these goals are unattainable because they cannot be measured.  If I say I want to be more patient with people, a better person, or more understanding, how do I measure those things?

God has revealed to us, in His word, how we are to walk in obedience.  He does not say be more obedient, as if He is coaxing us to follow Him a little bit  better, no, He simply says be obedient.

As we take part in the “21 Days of Great Beginnings” let us resolve to be obedient in our relationship with our Lord.  Deuteronomy 10:12 says:

“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”

             

            Lord, help me not just to want to be more obedient, but to just BE obedient. I resolve to fear You, obey You, love You, and serve You with all of my heart, and all of my soul. I long to be called a person after Your own heart. You know my desire; guide me in Your ways.

                              

Go and Sin No More!

Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.  When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”  John 8:8-11   

               

      We are in the midst of 21 days of Great Beginnings.  In a beginning, something new is starting.

     Unless you are perfect (and what are the chances of that?) you need to change something in your life.  If the change is going to be effective and meaningful, the change has to come from the Lord, not you.  Any change involving the Lord's participation starts with you identifying your area of weakness (let's call it sin) and asking for forgiveness.

     Jesus promises forgiveness, which is a new start, or a beginning.

     In the Scripture referenced above, Jesus took a woman who was facing disgrace and death, and gave her a beginning.  Note that her beginning had a string attached:  stop doing what you used to do.  Think it's any different for you?

      Most of our sin is patterned; we tend to do the same things over and over.  I believe that all sin starts in the mind.  I also believe, based on what others have said, on my personal experience and most importantly, on what the Bible says, you absolutely can bring your mind under control.

      Please read II Corinthians 10: 3-5. 

       For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

       Now, read it again.  

        See, your mind does not have a mind of its own and you can bring it under control, with Jesus' help. When your mind next starts down the wrong path, take that thought captive in Jesus' name.  The Bible says you can.

   

        So, what do you do next?  Read Philippians 4:8-9 and follow it.  Simple.  Effective.

            In this Great Beginning of this New Year and throughout it, let me dwell on what is true, honorable, right, and pure. Help me to take every thought captive and inhabit what is good.

                           

What Else Can We Do?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to Our true likeness….So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.  Genesis 1:1; 26-27

Another awe-inspiring reality about God is His plurality. We read in these very early parts of the Bible that God was having a conversation with Himself, saying, “Let US make man in OUR own image, according to OUR true likeness (Genesis 1:26, emphasis mine). What is this? We don’t know until later, until the New Testament reveals God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But even in these earliest places we do see that there is more to God than we can wrap our minds around. And we later learn that God is One in nature and Three in Person. He is a Trinity…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe it was Augustine who said of this truth, “Try to understand it and you will lose your mind, but deny it and you lose your soul.” Well said!

This leads to Ephesians 1:1-14, the passage that tells us that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are working together on our salvation from eternity past, through the present and will complete our salvation in eternity future.  Along with being under God’s eternal triple-teamed watchful loving care comes many spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3).  Find some time to read this reflectively—feast on these words of life, people of God! 

Ephesians 1 three times repeats that we are to praise your glorious grace, Lord.  What else can we do?  Father… (praise Him).  Son, Jesus… (praise Him).  Spirit… (praise Him).  How indeed You, Triune God, are the first sentence of our lives. 

            Lord, in this new year, let me grow daily in knowledge of You, but not be so caught up in knowledge of You that I forget to praise You. I praise You, Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth! I praise You, Son, My Redeemer and King! I praise You, Holy Spirit, my Comforter and my Guide!

Lord Over Time (The First Sentence, Continued...)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

One of the great benefits of making this the first sentence of our lives is how it brings the reality of God’s greatness into the center of our awareness.  Today, let’s consider that God was “in the beginning...”  He is eternal, not bound by time.  God created time, the time we know as sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, etc.   But He does not live within time, is not bound by it. 

This is one of the more comforting realities about our Lord!  Time is one of our cruelest masters, most precious resources, and greatest challenges.  And He is above it all!  This is why we start this year (there’s that time master again!) with Great Beginnings – we entrust the first sentence of our lives, our beginnings, our priorities, the ordering of our lives, to the One who had no beginning!  He is Lord over time!  He is not in a hurry, He is not worried, He is never early or late or short on time.  And yet…in the Person of Jesus, God entered time and even became subject to it.  Jesus was conceived, born, lived for a certain number of years, and most amazingly hung on a Roman cross for six hours.  He understands time and all of its pressures.  And now He reigns and lives again above it! 

            Lord, sometimes it feels like time is killing me!  I desperately need You, the One, the only One above time, to comfort and empower me to live in time!  I surrender my time to you!  Please help me to number my days, so that I may gain a heart of wisdom.  

Even Me!

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Galatians 6:14-15

I can think of three goals Jesus came to earth to accomplish:

     1. To fulfill prophetic scripture.

     2. To provide a means of salvation that we could never attain on our own. 

     3. To show us who the Father is and what He's like.

     It is this third goal I'd like to focus on.  Repeatedly, throughout the gospels, we see Jesus reflecting the love of the Father:  to the woman who touched His robe, to Zacchaeus, to the woman at the well, to the father whose son had seizures, to His disciples.

     Let's take a look at His disciples.  They are much like us, that is to say, they were far from perfect.  They were quarrelsome, jealous (remember them arguing about which of them was the best, while Jesus was preparing to go to the cross?), boastful, inconsistent and doubting.  Jesus knew all about them.  As He prepared to sacrifice His life for them (and for you and me), He knelt down and performed the function of the lowest servant; He washed their filthy feet. Then He told them (and us) to do likewise.

     Jesus loved these men despite their pettiness, their imperfections.  They became the foundation of the early church--true New Creations.  They didn't let their past sins and failures paralyze them into ineffectiveness.  Instead, embracing the New Creation, they were transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and used mightily.

     Have you ever felt that because of your past (or maybe your present) God couldn't embrace -you?  You're wrong. You're ignoring the clear lesson of the gospels.  You don't have to try to hide anything from Him.  You can't.  You don't have to strive for God's approval.  You already have it.  Oh, by the way, just as He used imperfect disciples 2,000 years ago, He can use you in a mighty way.  After all, aren't you a New Creation?

May I never boast except in the cross of my Lord Jesus!  And remind me that I cannot and need not hide anything from you. Lord, help me to remember that I am a New Creation!