New Beginnings

Our family is going through a lot of changes these days. You might say, we are facing a whole lot of new beginnings.  For one, as many of you know, this past weekend our son Jonathan was married. It was a beautiful wedding. At the end of the reception, I stood with the crowd outside the reception hall, watching as Jonathan and his new wife, Danielle, drove off. As they did, they were driving off towards their new life as a married couple. For Kim and me, it was also the beginning of a new life as parents with a married son. 

In the midst of all of this, Kim’s parents have moved to South Carolina to begin a new life for themselves there.  After years of talking about making a move, they finally did it—sold their house in New York, bought a new one in South Carolina, and made the move.  They will now get used to living life in a whole new area, while we get used to not having them nearby—and not having Kim’s childhood home available for holiday gatherings or just that spur of the moment stop-by.   

Then there’s the new church that I will be pastoring.  This Sunday I begin our new pastorate at First Assembly of God in Shrewsbury, NJ, bringing my first message to the congregation as their pastor. God willing, within the next couple of months Kim and I will close on a house and move into a new town and begin to build a new life with a new church and new community. For us it is really a great big new beginning! 

I’m reminded that we serve a God who often leads his people into new things; giving to them new beginnings.  In the Old Testament God said to his people, Israel, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”  (Isaiah 43:9 - NIV)  The Apostle Paul tells the believers, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 – NIV) And, in the book of Revelation we are told that one day God will give to our world a new beginning as he creates a new heaven and a new earth. At the end of the book, John wrote, “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5 – NIV)

Life brings its changes. We are constantly faced with new things—with new beginnings.  Most importantly, however, are the new things God wants to do in and through our lives.  Ultimately, it’s about so much more than a new job or a new place to live, etc. Rather, it’s about the ways in which God wants to work in us to change us; and what it is he wants to do through us to bring his newness of life to someone else. 

Maybe God wants to do something new in your life today. Will you allow him to work in and through you to do something new? 

Have a great day!

Pastor Tim Harris