THE GOOD OL’ DAYS –AND THE EVEN BETTER ONES TO COME
Posted by Admin on January 19th, 2010THE GOOD OL’ DAYS –AND THE EVEN BETTER ONES TO COME
An e-mail launched me on a trip down memory lane. It began with the words, “I want to go back to the time when:
- Decisions were made by going ‘eeny-meeny-miney-mo’
- Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, ‘Do over!’
- ‘Race issue’ meant arguing about who ran the fastest
- Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in ‘Monopoly’
- Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening
- The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
- Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better
- Abilities were discovered because of a ‘double-dog-dare’
? Being old, referred to anyone over 20.”
Aahh…the good old days! Or maybe not! I pray each of you have things in your past that make trips down memory lane a positive experience in your life. However, where you have been, pales in comparison to where you are today, and where you are going tomorrow as a child of God. God is a forward-thinking and moving God. He is always eager to pardon our past mistakes and push us forward. This all because of a special birth we just celebrated – and a death and new birth we celebrate each day as followers of our Savior, Jesus.
It can become problematic when we focus on the past: the good, the bad and the ugly. God told His people in the Old Testament:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT)
None of you will argue that it’s a good idea to leave the bad things of life behind us, but there also comes a point when we have to put the good – our successes in life – behind us as well. Maybe you have successfully raised your kids (whatever that means! ?) and now you can focus on being an even better grandparent; maybe you just aced your finals and now you will shift your energy to succeeding in the new term; the examples could go on.
What about here at Grace? Could we not just sit back and enjoy the fact that we have 550+ followers of Jesus? I think not! “See, I am doing a new thing!” says our God. “Grace, (yes, you in Bradford, PA) I need you to continue those steps forward. There are more people (lots of them!) who need to hear of my Son and the plan of salvation!”
God is doing great things to you – and through you! Thanks for a wonderful year of ministry – for 2009 – and in advance for 2010!
God bless you!
Pastor John