The old is gone, the new has come

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp

how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Ephesians 3:17b-19

I have begun going to a new church in my new town, Waynesboro, and so far it has had an incredible impact on me! I have this great desire to go to church. I feel challenged and I honestly crave that challenge. I am tired of easy teaching; i am tired of being reminded and re-taught what I already know. Maybe that sounds arrogant, but I don't think so. I look at it differently: the more I am challenged and taught, the more I can retell what I'm hearing and re-teach what I am being taught. I have felt stale lately, and hearing the same old stuff, the stuff I am already capable of having a fluent conversation about or giving a coherent club talk or campaigner lesson on isn't going to freshen up my relationship with Jesus at all! But when I walk out of the doors of Tab on Sunday morning, I feel fresh!

On the front of the bulletin from this new church is a letter from the pastor (a very humble and wise man); part of it reads, "When we become Christians, the Holy Spirit gives us new life and a new nature. We were given "new roots" from which grows new fruit. the fruit of the Spirit..." When I hear that, it is easy and natural for me to automatically thing, "Oh, heard it before!"

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old has gone, the new has come!'

-2 Corinthians 5:17

But this week I have a fresh perspective on the idea of being "new" and the fruit that comes from being "new." I was created to be "rooted and established" in His love. If I am rooted and established in myself, my fruit is going to be weak and tasteless and scarce. God's design is to produce an abundant harvest through me!

And the workers are few!

"Then he said to his disciples, 'the harvest is great,

but the workers are few.'"

-Matthew 9:37

So often I feel like I am simply one in a crowd- but that is not how Jesus saw me as he died on that cross! He saw the perfect (and specific) plans that he had formed for me to carry out; this full and abundant life he designed for me to live.

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord,

'plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

John 10:10

It is a beautiful thing that I have brothers and sisters beside me as I live my life out according to his purpose- but I am not a number! Instead, he has the very hairs on my head numbered!

"Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

Luke 12:7

How sweet!

I get such a cool opportunity; my life gets to become a foretaste of what is to come- I get the chance to be the evidence and proof of what the world is searching so hard for. I get to know God and therefore I get to know true love because God is love.

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

1 John 4:16

Our God is so big! I am His beloved and so are you!

Be loved!

B