New Beginnings

Have you ever wished for the opportunity to start over, to begin again, to have a fresh start? “The Christmas Carol” is one of the most famous Christmas stories involving a Scrooge who has spent his entire adult life taking advantage of the poor, manipulating and controlling others, all in the name of his own selfish ambition, advancement, even self-preservation. We discover that his childhood was filled with neglect, lovelessness and heartache. As we all know, “hurt people hurt people.” But all Scrooge’s attempts to serve and protect himself resulted only in loneliness and despair. Finally, certain “ghosts” visit him on Christmas Eve and give him an opportunity to begin again, to make a difference with every one of his remaining days.

Jesus made an interesting statement about the authority of God’s Kingdom. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). Citizens of the Kingdom of God are promised authority and given keys. Authority to do what with those keys? Authority to “bind” and “loose,” or literally, to close and open. The keys of the Kingdom are to be used to close some doors in order that other doors may be opened. Jesus promised to open doors for us. “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:8). The apostles acknowledged their dependence on God’s Spirit to open doors for the Gospel. “On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27). “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message” (Acts 16:14). Paul understood that he was able to travel to a certain place only if God opened the door for him. “I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you” (Romans 1:10). “I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me” (2 Corinthians 2:12). God opened (and opens) doors in response to prayer. “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message” (Colossians 4:3). In fact, in the Revelation given to John, Jesus revealed himself as the one “who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open” (Revelation 3:7).

However, in order for us to go through the door into our future, other doors from the past need to be closed. Sometimes we must experience significant “closure” from the past before we have real freedom to move into the future. The key Bible word is “repent.” To “repent” is simply to turn or to return to God. It involves shifting the posture of our hearts back to God’s heart and presence, coming under God’s authority in our lives. But “repent” also refers to other things we are “turning” from. We are always “turning,” either from God to other things or from other things to God. Our backs are facing some things are our faces are turned toward others. We cannot face both God and other gods. We cannot serve two masters.

Sometimes we try to turn to God without turning from those other things that distract us from God. When we do, we find our returning, our repenting, to be superficial and temporary. Such turning is really only a religious expression with no real depth or meaning. The prophet Jeremiah was particularly clear at this point: “They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, Come and save us!” (Jeremiah 2:27). True repentance requires a returning from the heart, from the will, not just the mind and the emotions. “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions” (Jeremiah 35:15). “They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).

What if old Scrooge had gotten up on Christmas morning and said, “I’m going to change. I’m going to distribute some Christmas presents this morning, eat dinner with my nephew, and tomorrow morning return to my counting house and catch up on my foreclosures”? What if he had tried to open a new door without closing the old one? How deep and long-lasting would his change have really been? On the other hand, what if on that Christmas morning Scrooge had said, “I would love to start over again, but most of my life is behind me. What’s the use? Although I see the error of my ways it’s too late to really do anything about it,” and gone his way unchanged? Would we consider that response a tragic ending? Yet how many of us despair of beginning again, of finding a new way, the way God of God for our lives?

The Good News is this: If we will turn to God with all our hearts, God promises to restore lost years. “Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness (Joel 2:12-13), “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). In fact, Joel went on to prophesy, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28-29). New beginnings marked by a new fullness of God’s Spirit.

As we come to the end of this year we have the door into a new year in front of us, with new opportunities and new beginnings. God promises a year of freshness in his presence, of healing and restoration. May God give us the grace to close the 2012 doors that need to be closed so new Kingdom doors can open before us. “Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in” (Psalm 24:7).