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From the February, 1998 edition of The Doulos monthly newsletter

by Tom Robb

Here we are with the NEW year just beginning. Scripture records this word NEW 192 times in 174 verses! Will anything be NEW or DIFFERENT as we enter this year?

NEW - Different from one of the same which existed before; made fresh Scripture expresses God's concern for persons and the larger creation in the broad categories of a new act and a new relationship.

GOD'S NEW ACT - Scripture often calls to mind past acts, such as the creation and the exodus from Egypt which reveal God's care for His world and people. Though rooted in God's acts in history, Biblical faith does not relegate God to the distant past. Time and again, writers of Scripture called God's people to anticipate God's new intervention in their lives. Isaiah 43:14-21 promised Babylonian exiles that God was now "doing a new thing" which paralleled God's acts saving Israel from Egyptian slavery. God again acted in a new way in Jesus Christ who offered a new teaching with authority (Mark 1:27) and whose ministry could be compared to new wine bursting old expectations of God's involvement in human salvation (Mark 2:22).

NEW BIRTH - A term used to describe the unique spiritual experience of beginning a changed life in Christ. The origins of the term lie in John 3:3, "Except a man be born again," John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," John 3:7, "Ye must be born again," and I Peter 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." New birth, like the earlier physical birth, is an initiation to a new experience of life. The new birth comes from hearing the word of God (James 1:21; I Peter 1:23). It is not a human accomplishment but an act of God (John 1:13; Ephesians 2:8; James 1:18). Individuals, however, cooperate with God's saving work through their repentance (break with a life of sin, Luke 13:3) and their commitment of life to Christ (John 1:12; 3:16). New birth makes one God's child forever. Rededication and renewal may come often in one's lifetime, but the new  birth never reoccurs,

Have you experienced the NEW beginning? With the beginning of this new year and the growth in attendance we have experienced here at The Chapel in North Canton, one can only imagine that there are those who have not yet experienced this NEW BIRTH. You have sat week after week listening to message after message but have not yet surrendered to conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps You are one of those people! Christ died for you just as you are, no matter what your spiritual condition Jim Cymbala, Pastor of The Brooklyn Tabernacle, in his book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, says: 'I discovered an astonishing truth: God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him. Why not make this year a year of NEW beginnings. Accept Christ today! He is waiting for you to call upon Him.

In Christ,

Tom Robb

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