Revelation 21: 4-6 “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done”…
Stuart Hamblin wrote country and western songs and before he got saved he was well known in that day and time for a song hewrote titled "I won’t go hunting with you Jake but I’ll go chasing women" He also wrote “If You've Got The Money, Honey, I've Got The Time”… “The Twist”… “Young Love”… ”Hello Mary Lou” ..”Oh Lonesome Me”.. “This Ole House”…“Blue Moon Of Kentucky”.. “I Walk The Line”…
Well, Stuart got saved and John Wayne made a bet that Stuart wouldn’t last six months writing gospel songs. Sometime after the six months was up, Stuart saw Wayne who told him "you cost me some money, Stuart-- I made a bet that you wouldn’t last six months". Stuart said "It’s no secret what God can do". John Wayne said, that sounds like a good song title and so Stuart went home that night and wrote the song "It is no secret what God can do." And the rest is history.. He was inducted into the country music hall of fame, He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was known as one of the most prolific gospel song writers of all time. I guess John Wayne really called that one wrong.
You see, Stuart Hamblin, had a new beginning and became a new man….
As the line says in his song “It is no secret what God can do”…..”WHAT HE’S DONE FOR OTHERS, HE’LL DO FOR YOU”…..
When I was a kid, we used to play “soldiers” we would run around with make believe guns, sometimes they were toy guns or sticks, shooting at the other team and play “war”. During the battle we would get shot, fall down, count to 10 and jump up saying “new man coming *……in”. Those were the days, when we jumped up and said “new man coming in”. What a privilege in Christ to jump up and yell, “New man coming in”
When Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden, the relationship between God and man was changed, and God immediately beganmaking arrangements to bring man back to him. To do whatever it took to hit the reset button and restart that relationship. Right then and there, he made them a promise.. Satan will bruise your heel but you will crush his head. A mother and her 7 year old daughter were reading the story of Adam and Eve and how sin came into the world, Jessica and her mother talked about why bad things happen in the world. Later that week, Jessica was sick and had to stay home from school. Feeling quite miserable, she told her Mom, “If only Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten the fruit, I wouldn’t be sick.” And before her mother could answer, Jessica added, “Of course, if they didn’t eat it, we’d all be sitting here naked!”
Every time we see the rainbow we’re being reminded that God is in the business of making all things new again! When the sin of man reached it fullest, and God decided to do a reset, God found Noah, and through the flood he made all things new again,Through Abraham God started a new relationship with man, and all things were reset and made new again. And then after 400 years of silence God spoke again to man, in the form of a little child in a manger in Bethlehem.
He isn’t dependent on what we might think is possible, but He makes the impossible, possible so that all things can be new again.
The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:17 made this statement “Any one who is in Christ is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come.”
We often refer to salvation as the new birth. But what if we called it the “New Beginning”… because it truly is. This new birth brings about a new perspective, a biblical outlook in which we see everything is in God’s hand…even the mysteries of life that we can’t understand.
By His grace, He’s given us a new way of life.
By His love we have a new relationship; we are God’s children and Hisfriends.
By His power we have a new freedom, our trust is in something eternal.
By His Spirit we have a new heart; we are dead to sin and alive in Christ.
By His word we have a new direction, His will, His way, and His time.
By His promises we have a new confidence; All fear is gone.
By His wisdom we have a new purpose, and new meaning.
In Gal. 6:15 Paul also wrote to the church… “The only thing that counts is the new creation.”
Paul is telling us….”Don’t go by how it looks, how you may feel, or even what you have known”….. The only thing that counts is the new creation. One man said, “I was a drunk, spent all my money on booze, neglected my family, and was a terrible husband, but somewhere at the end of my rope, I met God. I gave my life to Jesus, and since then I am no longer a slave to drink, no longer a slave to pornography, I dropped my filthy language, and my family has been restored.” Over and over again, in the midst of our sinfulness God is hitting the reset button and making all things new again.
In Genesis 1:1 God created something out of Nothing, and He is still able to do everything that needs to be done to create a new beginning, out of NOTHING!
It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, or what you’ve been through. It doesn’t matter how you’ve failed, or how you’ve fallen short. God says that your new address is a NEW BEGINNING!
We’re like the man who had an old shotgun which he brought to a gunsmith, hoping to get it fixed up. After looking it over, the gunsmith said, “Well, this would make a very good gun if it had a new stock, and a new lock, and a new barrel.” God’s new beginning is lock, stock and barrel….I have to admit that I have had a couple of cars that could have been good running cars if you jacked up the radiator cap and drove a new car under it…..
You can see this in John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, (a new beginning) I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am (in your new beginning). 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”… you already know the way, to God’s new beginning…. BELIEVE, TRUST, AND OBEY!
Let’s say that a guy was jumping around screaming with joy and you couldn’t help but notice it. He was making such a hoopla you would have thought that he won a million dollars. People stopped what they were doing, you could see the smiles on their faces when they heard the man shout for joy - then, you could see the shock on their faces as the realization came over them that the man making all the commotion, the man who was shouting, and jumping was a man who had never walked a day in his life. Let’s say that this man had sat at the gate called beautiful in the Temple for over 40 years. In over 40 years no one had ever seen him walk, stand or run. They looked once, they looked twice, and yes it is indeed the man who cannot walk - and he is shouting and jumping around. He has met his new beginning….
There’s a scripture you need to hang on your refrigerator…
Acts 3:20 “Times of refreshing shall come from the Lord….” Refreshing here, is renewal, to be revived, to breath again, to be restored, to enter into the blessing……
An elderly couple passed away and found themselves at the pearly gates. An angel was there to welcome them. First he showed them their mansion. The husband, overwhelmed by the sheer luxury of it all, asked, "How much does this place cost per night?" The angel replied, "Sir, this is heaven, it doesn’t cost anything." Then they were taken to the dining room where table upon table was piled high with the most delicious foods you could imagine. Againoverwhelmed by the glory of it all the man asked, "How much for the meals?" The angel said, "You forget, this is heaven, it’s free." Then they were taken to the most fantastically beautiful golf course they had ever seen. As the man stood there open-mouthed the angel said, "Now before you ask, there are no greens fees, this is heaven, everything is free." The man looked at his wife and said, Why did you take such good care of me, I could have been here 10 years ago!"
How about believing with me, that we can have some heaven to go to heaven in!!! I believe that’s what the Father has in store….
When I see our Father God, in the book of Revelation, declaring, “See, I’m making all things new.”….. I thrill at the fact that the one who says that in the future, is the same one who speaks to us here and now. He’s the same….. there is no shadow of changing with Him…. We fully believe that what He can do then, He can do now! He tells us…. “I Am the Alpha and the Omega, I Am the beginning and the end”.
In his book Dare to Believe, Dan Baumann illustrates the unique experience of knowing that something is ours, yet having a future longing to enjoy it more fully. He explained that at Christmas time he would always do a lot of snooping, trying to figure out what was in the gifts underneath the tree.
One year he discovered a package with his name on it that was easy to identify. There was no way to disguise the golf clubs inside. Baumann then made this observation: "When Mom wasn’t around, I would go and feel the package, shake it, and pretend that I was on the golf course using those clubs on the fairway and the green. He says….I was already enjoying the pleasures of a future event; namely, the unveiling, and then the enjoyment of those clubs. It had my name on it. I knew what it was." But only "Christmas would reveal it in its fullness." Friends, It may look like hell right now, but Christmas is coming!!!
There are many areas of our lives where our Lord, has gift wrapped new beginnings for us, but they are waiting to be unwrapped and enjoyed. They already have our name on them, they are already ours, we just need to unwrap them and step into them….
Jesus unwrapped new beginnings for the blind, the lame, the leper, the demon possessed, the deaf and oh yes, the dead….!!!
What if we lived knowing our new beginning was just around the corner, like we knew it was already ours, Our name is right there on it…. Can you see what it feels like, what it looks like, and how it will change your entire life!
Whenever and wherever Jesus shows up, New beginnings show up with Him…. Isaiah 43:19 “ Behold I will do something new! Now will it spring forth, will you not be aware of it”?
This indicates that we can have a new thing and not be aware of it. So I thought about that…. What would keep us from being aware of the very thing we dreamed of and prayed for when it comes. Or what would keep us from receiving it when it is already ours?
Have you felt there was more, but you don’t know exactly how to get there? You knew that you were capable of more than you’re seeing right now, but it would be too uncomfortable to take the steps necessary to take that journey… Or perhaps, you have no trouble seeing others doing the very things you secretly desire, but you can’t see yourself doing it…
Believe me, I never could have seen myself doing what I’m doing today. I was a popcorn speaker. Pop up, open up, and sit down! I was terrified to speak in front of anybody. I thought I had nothing to say that everyone had not already heard. My first sermon in church was on a Wednesday night, when the pastor was away, and he asked me to do the sermon. I got up, a nervous wreck, spoke for 5 minutes and the pastor’s wife stepped up and bailed me out! At that moment, I was thoroughly convinced that I would never be a preacher. But then, I received the infilling of the Holy Spirit, and you couldn’t shut up the Holy Spirit in me.. *……In other words, the Holy Spirit is saying “Go for it”!!!!
I love Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever opens up, grab it, and do it. And do it heartily unto the Lord!”
Galations 6:9 “Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap the reward if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith”.…
This is the process which allows us to discover our strengths and weaknesses and turn our weaknesses into our strengths. It is the program God has given us to find and use our gifts to build up and encourage the body of Christ. In the process, we begin to step over into the New beginnings which God has put our name on….
The way you finish your current season will determine how you begin the next one. So finish well….
Remember the words of the prophet Zechariah 4:10, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” I don’t know what doors you are waiting on God to open in your life, but I want to encourage you—press into the doors God has offered to you right now and watch Him go to work on your behalf. You may not feel like your current role is one of significance, but I can assure you—anything God has given you to do is significant. It is your new beginning, and it’s custom made for you…
Missionary Jim Elliot so famously said, “Wherever you are, be there with everything you’ve got”.
When Isaiah spoke to the Jewish nation and said “ Behold I will do something new! Now will it spring forth, will you not know it”? This verb “know” in the Hebrew language is “YADDA”, IT IS far more than cerebral awareness and consent. It has to do with the total giving of yourself, as in the husband-wife relationship within marriage. Adam knew Eve and she bore a son… Abraham knew Sarah and she bore him children. This is a knowing, which gives birth to the new thing of God! Often when a couple are expecting a child, the husband will say “we are pregnant” …That’s about the level of commitment by both of them… God says I will make a new beginning, and we say… We are making a new beginning…YADDA! I KNOW IT!!
Sometimes we miss God’s new thing because we don’t feel that we deserve a new beginning. We just settle for whatever we’ve got. When you feel like that and think like that, you have to know that God doesn’t agree with you. God sees you through the eyes of Grace and mercy. And when God sees you, this is what He says… Deuteronomy 28: 8 “The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouses, and in all that you set your hand unto, and He shall bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 11 And the Lord shall make you plenteous in goods…..12 The Lord shall open unto you His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto your land in His season, and to bless all the work of your hand: and you shall lend and not borrow. 13 And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath; if you hearken unto the word of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do them…”
When you do what only you can do, God will do what only He can do. God is a promoter of the faithful, not the discontent or impatient. In other words, if you want God to promote you into the next season, of your new beginning, get busy investing yourself right where you are, (whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might).
We could certainly say of Paul, that he did what he did with all his might. He was killing Christians wherever he found them with all his might. God knew that here was a man that was totally committed to what he was doing… Listen to his words… "Forgetting what lies behind, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the Heavenly calling of God in Christ Jesus." Through the Spirit, God has transformed Paul, and being open to that Spirit, he finds himself ready to act in new ways to relate to God in a totally new beginning.
I challenge us all to watch for those new ways God is presenting to us, to get on board and follow them to the new thing God has for us.
When Paul says “forgetting what lies behind”…. He’s telling us not to limit Him to what He’s done before, or what we may have experienced before.
When the children of Israel were up against the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army was bearing down on them… Moses had to quite them down and hear God for that time of transition… Egypt, coming down on them with Chariots and horses and foot soldiers, represented the former things. The other side of the Red Sea represented the New Thing. How easy it was for them to let the former things, hijack the new thing. The deciding factor was which one would they believe was the most real to them….Your new thing has to be more real that the former things…..
Perhaps you are hearing this right now and facing a situation so overwhelming that unless God does something that transcends human imagination, you don’t know of any way that it can ever work out. But think of this…Maybe what the Lord’s getting ready to change IS YOU rather than the circumstance, and then, He can change the situation!
Perhaps God wants our focus to be on the creator of New Beginnings more than the new beginning itself! Winnie was after me to tell her the surprise I had for her on her Birthday. But I refused to tell her, because I wanted it to be a beautiful surprise. Even though she pressed me, I refused to give in…
God is like that…. He wants us to know that it’s coming, because we trust Him, and we trust His word, and we trust His character.
His perspective is so much more far reaching, because He sees the new thing, and then all that the new thing is connected to, with all it’s ramifications for our lives and the lives of others. If He were to tell us, we would limit it to our small, Key hole view, and miss everything that it really is, in it’s far reaching implications. He sees the seeds in the apples on the trees in the seeds in the apples on the tree…. and that has already taken you into thousands of degrees of connection!!
He saw that I would skip my senior year of high school, and go to college, where I would meet my partner for life, and end up in New England where she lived, and become the pastor of our first church there. And by meeting her, have 3 children, who would follow us in the ministry, and meet her nephew, who would come to Key West and be a vital part of the ministry here, and by coming, he would meet his wife, who would also be his partner in the ministry, and on, and on, and on…
I’m glad I told some folks about God’s new beginning. The lady that T-boned me in a blizzard in Connecticut and as I pried my damaged door open and walked over to her driver’s door window. The Holy Spirit whispered to me that God had arranged this meeting. That’s what I told her, “God allowed us to connect”. Well, that shocked her, but it opened a door to introduce her to Christ. She received her “New beginning”, went to bible college and became a missionary.
New beginnings have far reaching implications beyond which our minds cannot begin to fathom, as we step over into them in simple obedience.
What the Lord wants us to understand when He says He’s going to do a new thing and “Now shall it spring forth” …. It is already in process. You can’t see it yet, but it’s already set in motion; just like after a long, cold winter, up North, there’s a change going on inside the Earth, where it can’t be seen underground, preparing to bring the approach of spring. In the midst of what has perhaps been the cold, bitter winter of your soul—or the drought of a long dry spell—the Lord says He has set in motion that which will bring about deliverance and bring a time of growth, development, refreshing, and fruitfulness. When you’re upset, weak, lonely, worried, anxious, depressed, in danger, need courage, struggling with loss, struggling with finances, struggling with work, in danger, or you have sinned or missed God…. He has a “NEW BEGINNING” FOR YOU!
When God’s “new thing” sprouts in you, it may look like winter, but you will catch the fragrance and beauty of the springtime of His purpose before you ever see it. Hear Him as …God would say to you… “Hear my words as I declare the kinds of things I can do and My inexhaustible resource of wisdom and power. Don’t confine Me to what I’ve already done or try to anticipate what I will do next. And though you may be captive, exiled, or guilty, My “new thing” is still there for you. I am your complete Deliverer, making a way for you where there is no way. I am renewing my covenant with you.. I have not forgotten my promise to you and My word will not return unto me without all being fulfilled. It shall be line upon line and precept upon precept. I have waited so that I could be generous and abundant unto you. You are coming into my fulness and my completeness. You shall put on my fulness like a garment and you shall not take it off. I come in My wholeness and completeness to make you whole and complete. My “new thing” will prepare you for whatever is to come, and out of it, you will find new themes and new mountain peaks, in your praise unto Me as you view horizons which you have never dreamed that you would see. Trust and obey”….
God has a New Beginning for someone here today….
