Much has been spoken, written and repeated about oaths and fresh starts. But for the Christian, our best day is going to begin with the last Word, God's Son. He is the Father's remedy for our daily failure. He is to be our first thought and the final say.
I do not love God because I somehow have it in my self to love Him. I wish I did, but I really, painfully don't. I was raised as a young child to believe in the power and salvation of His Son, but like so many others I strayed far from that conviction, breathing in and living out a pattern of pretend. For an entire decade I led a stubborn, careless existence apart from the very redemption which had saved me from myself in the beginning.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-5, 10-14, ESV)
There is that word again: beginning.
Everything goes back to the beginning, and here I am going back to Jesus, who is the paradigm of turned leaves and cleaned slates. I really do want to make Him the basis for every new move I make. So this must be my prayer for the new year.
We hear a lot about resolutions with each passing year, and 2010 was no different. Whether it is moderating our addictions, improving our health, bettering our relationships, or increasing our impact upon the world around us, we all feel compelled to make vows to be more "valuable" in the ensuing year.
But God has already affirmed our value; that while we were at our very worst, He still thought to save us. And indeed, regardless of our own small, human resolutions for good, He has already begun a very good work in us, and it is He who will eventually complete it through us (Phil 1:6).
If we are to promise anything, perhaps we should pledge every exerted effort to pursuing God as He first pursued us. When we accepted Christ, we undoubtedly made an earnest vow to follow Him to the ends of the earth. Whether it was spoken aloud or not, our heart pledged itself to Him in faith and thankfulness.
"When a man makes a vow to the LORD or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said." (Num 30:2, NIV)Just think of how God is our template for making promises! When the Father makes a vow to be with His children, He means it for now and eternity. God doesn't break his end of any deal.
Last year I recommitted myself to my wife, writing out vows of faithfulness and love to her. Oh, that we would recommit the same to God in our marriage to Him! There is no greater human commitment than one eagerly bound to a perfect, Holy God and driven – even sustained – by a perfect, Holy Spirit!
If our story is really God's story, than our epilogue and prologue must be Jesus Christ.
My purpose for this blog is to exalt the Author of the story. If I fail in that aim, than really this is just a waste of internet space and your time. A puritan named Samuel Rutherford stated something that has become my motto as a writer. He said, "Put your hand to the pen, and let the cross of your Lord Jesus have your submissive and resolute Amen."
May we vow the same not only for the pen, but for our eyes, our mouths, our hearts, and our plans for this year.
Thank you Father God for your idea of the perfect beginning, Jesus Christ. He is the beginning and ending of everything You meant when you said you loved us. Sometimes we forget that He was Your introductory act and the Agent of our continuing faith, and we ask that You remind us of that always. Let His name be the precious phrase upon our lips and His person the desire of our hearts now. In His name we end this prayer and begin the moment, Amen.
Thank you, Joseph, for the investment of time, mind and heart that went into writing these true words. After reading your first posting on the new blog, a couple verses came to mind that are very dear to me:
ReplyDelete"We love, because He first loved us." (First John 4:19)
"Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory, because of Thy lovingkindness; because of Thy truth." (Psalm 115:1)
"Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of our God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escape the corruption that is in the world by lust." (First Peter 1:2-4)
And finally...
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us...In Him, you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:3-8,13-14)
Brother, in light of the mercy and love of God for each of us, I commit with you to present my body "a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And (I promise with you to) do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your (our) mind(s), so that you (we) may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1b-2)
In doing so, by vowing to be faithful sacrifices to the living God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, we will put aside all lust, slander, anger, envy, coarse jesting and any filthiness from our minds and hearts. We will reject the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.
We renew our vows to God and our wives in accordance with Ephesians 5:25-33: to love our wives sacrificially, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her...to love our wives as our own bodies knowing that He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church because we are members of His body.
In making this solemn and sacred vow, both to the Lord and our wives, we acknowledge that our lives are not our own, for we have been paid for with a price when Christ died on the cross for all our past, present and future sins. We will refuse to shame the Lord by returning to the gutter of lust that the world presents daily on the streets, on our computers and in the media.
But, if we do fail in our faithfulness to these vows, we know that He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Even so, we make ourselves openly accountable to confess any sin to our beloved wives, hiding no secret sin and striving daily to sanctify ourselves and our wives in our behavior.
May our lives be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, to the delight of our wives, to the integrity of our witness in the world and to the glory of the Lord God Almighty, in whose name we pray. Amen.