OUT WITH THE OLD!

OUT WITH THE OLD!

Isa 42:9

9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

2 Cor 5:17

17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

          On June 23, Saint Han's Eve, people in Denmark clean their houses and make a huge pile of all the things they no longer want or need. On top of the pile, they put a witch made of straw and old clothes and filled with firecrackers. They get rid of all the things they don't need, and the witch carries their sorrows completely out of the country--to Germany! Of course, sorrows are not easily gotten rid of, but we do need a time of beginning again. We do need to rid ourselves of the excess accumulations of the year. Most of the things we need to get rid of are not material but mental, emotional, even spiritual. We need a time to begin again.

   -- Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).

          Old wounds should be forgotten. The heaviest weight you will ever carry is not the challenges of today or the possibilities of tomorrow but the hurts of the past. If you have been unfairly treated or maliciously injured – after a brief moment of grief – simply forgive and move on. You may not owe it to your enemy but you do owe it to yourself.

          Old victories should be forgotten. The saddest sight in the stadium or arena of a defeated team are the banners of earlier championships. Rather than pointing out the greatness of the team, they only highlight the current failure. Keep everything fresh. Yesterday’s championships will not carry you through today’s playoff game.

          Old sins and habits should be discarded. Paul reminds us that we are “new creatures” in Christ Jesus. Therefore we should “…lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Heb 12:1-2

Come, Let Us Anew Our Journey Pursue

Come, let us anew our journey pursue,
Roll round with the year,
And never stand still till the Master appear,
His adorable will let us gladly fulfill,
And our talents improve,
By the patience of hope, and the labor of love,
By the patience of hope, and the labor of love.

Dear Lord, thank you for the blessings of this year nearly done. Let us lay aside all that should be dismissed so that we may grasp the blessings of the new. AMEN