New Beginnings

Genesis 1    (NLT)       The Account of Creation

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Revelation 21      (NLT)       The New Jerusalem

21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

From Genesis to Revelation God is all about New Beginnings ….. This is the beginning and start of my blog and communicating the message of Jesus Christ as God has provided it and applied it to my life. Usually a beginning or starting point comes after an ending point of completion or maybe failure?  God is a God of beginnings and never allows an ending without providing a beginning. Our struggle is the narrow scope of our human vision on life. The scope itself is not good or bad it simply defines our limit in seeing and understanding God’s plan. We many times see our failures as final because they will force us into a change and change has a negative connotation in our culture. We like for things to stay the same so we don’t have to expend the energy on change and we are ok if things stay just like they are in our lives. God is a God of increase not decrease and he moves forward by steady and continuous change. God is not bogged by change, failure on our part or any other ending that we might personally wish to see. Thankfully God has a longer term plan and view of things and he will not allow an ending without providing a beginning. We also see our plans and our beginnings from the perspective that each beginning will result in an ending that fulfills those plans.

Proverbs 16:9   (NLT)

9 We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.

John the Baptist knew who Jesus was yet his plan from Matt 11 looks like he planned to be a part of the ministry and his “decrease” would be over time while Jesus “increased”. When John realized he was in deep trouble he sent messengers to Jesus to make sure that Jesus was on the right plan ……. He asked Jesus are the one we were looking for or do we need to look for another one ? Our translation today would be that God is in control as along as He matches our plans. We try to make sure God is on the right track like John but  Gods plan, like for John, is often different but our faith should lead us to understand that God will  always establish a path to a beginning just as certain as he allows an ending.

Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden of Eden brought and end to the immortal life of our body but it provided the beginning of a nation of Gods people and also the introduction of forgiveness.

Noah – The people of Noah’s day walked continually contrary to God and he decided to end their existence but his love provided a link forward in human life thru Noah and his family.

Paul’s plan was to persecute Christians and either get them to jail or kill them. While on his way to Damascus God ended that part of his life and opened up a beginning for Paul as God’s evangelist for the Church .

Simon Peter who carried the plans to be Jesus right hand and provided the confession of Faith that the Church still rests on to this day …. “ You are the Christ the Son of the living God.” From here it looks like Peter gets it but then he turns around and following the typical human pattern he tells Jesus the plan to make sure that Jesus is still on track and Jesus has to rebuke him. On the night Jesus was killed Peter confesses his loyalty to Jesus only to deny him 3 times before morning. This seems like a tragic ending of Peter’s ministry in many ways yet God finds Peter on the beach after his resurrection and reassures him that his ministry and the message are yet to come and will be according to Gods plan up even to Peters death. God provided a beginning that launched the NT Church from what appeared to be a disappointing ending. God is a God of New – New Life, New Direction, New Opportunity, New Relationships ……..