A New and Living Way

 “If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.”

(C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

Hebrews 10:19-25

A New and Living Way

¹⁹ Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; ²⁴ and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, ²⁵ not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

It’s that time of year again, resolutions, new beginnings, promises I can never keep.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t make New Years Resolutions.  I have made too many in the past and never kept any of them.  I tell you all this, just to say, that God does deal with us all uniquely, individually, beautifully.  God knows our weakness better than we do, He knows our every fear, our secret regrets.  He knows that we get discouraged, depressed, feel trapped, like failures sometimes.  The New Year can do this to us.

I woke up that way this morning, kinda depressed, disoriented.  I’ve been really sick, and so I’ve been stuck in a lot.  Cabin Fever, I guess, you’d call it.  But  have found that I don’t have to leave my house in order to escape cabin fever.  I just need to open the Word of God and I am suddenly back on the right path of sitting before God and listening to Him.  It’s like crawling up into God’s lap and letting Him tell me a story.  It’s like pouring out my heart before Him and listening as He speaks directly to my hurts, my fears, my needs, wants, and desires.  

 “If all experienced God in the same way and returned Him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.”

(C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

We are each a different instrument in God’s orchestra, a different note in His song, a different part of His symphony.  And we need to tell each other how God meets us in our everyday lives.  For me, there is no greater joy, than hearing how God is working in the life of another brother or sister in Christ.  God loves each one of us so completely, that there is no competition for His attention, no jockeying for position.  There is just sweet fellowship with God and with One another, as we sit at His feet, being all He has created us to be.  I have told people many times.  If all I am called to do is cook and clean for my family, jot down a few words in this tiny little blog, and speak of His kindness to me, whenever I have opportunity; if this is all He has called me to, and I do it with all my heart, Then God is just as pleased with me as he is with Billy Graham, or Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer or Kay Arthur.  I don’t need to be anybody big or well-known to be pleasing to God.  I can almost guarantee you, that these people did not envision big things for their lives, but it was what God called them too, and they have been faithful.  I have been called to “smaller things, in smaller realms.”  May I do all that I do for the glory of God and may he be pleased with me this coming year. 

I pray that God will bless you this Year, with a deeper knowledge of who He is, who you are, and just how precious and beautiful, just how perfect and complete His calling upon your life truly is.  May you sit before Him and listen, crawl up into His lap and be loved.  May you be closer to God at the close of 2014 than you were at its beginning.  God bless you all in the coming New Year.