The Gospel of Newness; The Word

[HKHaugan]

The Gospel of Newness; The Word 

I know the list in the previous article was long but it emphasizes the complete difference between novelty and newness.  Spiritual newness happens every next moment because every next moment is new.  The Word of God always has something new for us.  The Bible is the channel for newness because it has a way of working into your daily routine.  Even your worldly routine finds new meaning when the Word precedes its activities.

 The Lord has made newness personal.   No one experiences newness in the same way.  When we are talking about something new happening in our lives, no one else will ever have the same thing happen.  Each of us is unique and when something happens to us, the experience is personal and what’s more, unique.  No one else can experience what happens in your every next moment.  This is exactly why novelty is not new. 

 Again, novelty is fake newness, dependent on something material to give our heart a personal and relational quality.  If I buy a new car what do I feel like?  What does it actually do for my heart and the people I live with, the people I know as friends and associates?  They admire it for the moment and I may feel a sense of pride. But the moment it is recognized it flies away.  

 Now consider things beyond the car.  The house, the neighborhood, the job, the town, the diplomas I have, the resume I’ve built.  All of them are new for a moment, maybe even for a period of time.  But they were really fleeting moments in the larger picture of life.  That kind of new wears off.  They were the novelties that were held up as final touches on living successfully.  That is, according to the standards of secular society, a world without God. 

 Now put all this in the context of the living God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  He desires a personal relationship with each of us.  Everything that is personal with Him He wants to be personal with us.  It’s He sees us as unique persons and relates to each of us personally.  Newness is the insight that occurs when you believed, you trusted and you took a faith step.  Putting it in relational terms, it’s like this.  You were taught that when you show interest in someone, they benefit.  It’s all part of newness.  Something new happens for both of you.  For disciples of Jesus, when you ask a person if they have something they would like to have prayed about, nine times out of ten, they will share their concern.  That insight works both ways.  If someone asks the same of you, aren’t you open to being prayed for?

 Think about the unexpected.  You may pray about something, a desire or need or for someone.  What happened after you prayed may not have been what you wanted but was done as only God could have done it.  It was unexpected but better.  It’s the surprises that we see because of the spiritual perspective the Lord gives us.  It isn’t optimism, like training yourself to be an optimist so that you always smile, always accept circumstance and never face reality.  That can be as destructive as pessimism and its depressing conclusions.  No.  Having faith in Jesus and His presence in your life, accepts tragedy for what it is, suffering as part of a fallen world and His Holy Spirit that focuses us on Jesus in suffering’s midst.  You embrace it with Him in mind.  He will do something with it.  It’s the hope He gives, the love He gives and the personal way He comes into the thoughts and decisions we make while life issues pressure us.

 Look at it like this. You buy a new suit.  Sometimes you get a fairly good fit but, most of the time it has to be tailored.  So, the tailor has you stand on a platform, measures your dimensions and gets it to fit right for you. 

 When you accept Jesus as the Lord over your life, you find He is measuring you and tailoring His clothing for you to fit who you are as a unique image of God.  His measuring instrument is His Word.  No two individuals ever have the same measurements, so His Holy Spirit supervises the individual tailoring through the same Word, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb.4:12).”

 Following that line of thought, another insight He gives us is the way you can read the Word and it will seem to present something new every time you read it.  Now we’re talking newness.  It’s as though the Bible was personally tailored for each of us.  Well, it was!  His Word is saying the same thing to everybody but how it works out in each person’s life is different.  God’s will is personal.  When we stick to the Word He works his Spirit in us and our uniqueness is developed.  When that happens, we build confidence in Him and are released from reliance on the world’s standards as He builds true individuality in each of us.

Here are the words that seal His promises in us: “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.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile (Jer.29:11-14).”