Newness

There have been a lot of new things for me recently. A new house. A new job. A new routine. A new church family. And now, I am writing a little article for our church magazine, "the Grapevine", each month. This is my first entry!

New things can be exciting and daunting at the same time and I have definitely found that to be the case.

It has been great . I am an extrovert, at least for the most part, and so I like meeting new people. Having lots of conversations energizes me rather than draining me. But, trying to remember all the things I have been told about family and friends, previous health issues and so on is difficult.

Starting a new job is always a bit of an unknown. There is an excitement at what might lie ahead, a chance to start afresh, an opportunity to put your stamp on something. But the unknown factor means that you’re never quite sure what to expect.

In the Bible, there is a lot about newness, too much to cover in this short space sadly, but a couple of things we can mention:

We read of a new covenant, an everlasting one, where God will put a new Spirit into people, removing their hearts of stone and giving them new hearts of flesh (Jer 31:31-34). And Jesus tells us that this new covenant is made in His blood (Luke 22:20).

There is a new creation, both in terms of what takes place in an individual as they come to trust Jesus (2 Cor 5:17) and also in relation to the entire universe when Jesus returns to wrap up history (Revelation 21:1-5).

Newness in the Bible is never a mixed bag, it is always overwhelmingly positive. God doesn’t do newness badly.

As Christians we have much to be thankful for and much to look forward to when it comes to the new things that the Bible speaks about. Without newness we’d be dead, lost and have no hope, with it, well, precisely the opposite, and more.