For Christians
All Over The World - It's Happy New
Year!
By Dr. G.
Byrns Coleman
Yet Another
New Year
It’s that time again
– wow! Time flies! It seems 2008 just got
started and here we are again saying “Happy
New Year” and watching the ball drop at Time
Square. The usual cartoon drawings are featured in
the January 1 newspapers -- “Old Father
Time—2008” leaving the world’s stage
and the “Infant Year 2009” coming
joyfully onto the stage.
The month January is named
for the Greek god Janus who is always pictured with
two faces, one looking back and one looking
forward, a likely description indeed. For it is at
this time of year that we look back – with
joy, sadness, regret, whatever – and forward
into the unknown future of the New Year. We make
our resolutions and hope, no matter what the last
year was, that 2009 will be better.
Resolutions like: exercise
more, lose some weight, read my Bible everyday,
pray more, be more faithful to the church, and on
and on we go. For Christians, the New Year many
times begins with special worship at the church. We
pray, sing, hear a sermon challenging us to genuine
commitment, and then we go out into the night
– the first hours of the New Year – with
great determination to make it so. And with
God’s help it can be so.
Remember the Apostle
Paul’s words: “I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.” Remember
Jesus’ words, “Go into all the world . .
. and I will be with you.” A New Year with all
of the opportunities it offers to us and the
promise of God to be with us – 2009 can be a
great year!
The Holiday Trilogy
...
The arrangement of our
calendar is so symbolic – Thanksgiving
followed almost immediately by Christmas followed
immediately by the New Year. We can thank God for
all the blessings that have been ours during the
year – Thanksgiving – and then be
reminded of the great hope, love, and grace of God
seen in Jesus – Christmas – with its
reminder that a new beginning is possible.
To the fishermen he said,
“Come follow me.” To Zaccheaus,
“Come down, I must abide at thy house
today.” To Nicodemus, “Ye must be born
again.” Each word of the Savior is replete
with hopeful possibilities. “Come follow me
– you can, you know!” “I must abide
at thy house – and I can be a part of your
life from this time on, you know.” “You
must be born again – you can, you know, start
all over again.”
Christmas with all of its
promises of redemption, salvation, love, grace,
hope, and peace.
The possibility of a new
beginning, a new start, a new birth. Someone wrote
words like this many years ago (I saw these words
first when a college student):
The New Year lies
before us, like a field of freshly fallen snow, be
careful where you walk, for every step will
show.
Years before Johnny Carson
took over the Tonight Show, I remember seeing Jack
Paar (this really dates me!) interview Bishop
Fulton Sheen during the Christmas season.
Bishop Sheen talked
eloquently, as he could do so well, about the
meaning of Christmas, the coming of Jesus, the
“pivotal point” of history – B.C.
– A.D. He said the great thing about the
Christmas message was that “no matter what
your past has been, you can start over again; God
has made it possible in the sending of His Son to
save us from our sins.” That really is the
meaning of Christmas!
A New
Beginning
There’s something great
about being given a new start, a new beginning. I
heard a colleague many years ago say about one of
our Bible courses at Wingate University, “I
hope I learn how to teach that course before I
die!” One of the things I’ve always liked
about being a college professor is that very fact
– good or bad, this semester is over; we can
try again next semester.
From time to time I’ve
felt like my colleague and had to confess –
“Wow! This course just didn’t get off the
ground. I hope I learn to teach it the way it ought
to be taught before I die!” But . . . there is
hope. A new school year is about to begin;
I’ll get another chance at it. A new start. A
new beginning. How great!
In life God loves us and no
matter what we’ve been, we can start over.
That’s the Christmas message. That’s the
challenge of a New Year. Christ came, lived out his
life in our midst, challenged us to follow after
him, gave himself at Calvary for our sins, died,
and rose again. It’s possible to start all
over again. Thank you, God, thank you!
"We Can Face Tomorrow"
A former student, fellow
minister, and good friend for a lot of years still
writes me from time to time (in more recent times
via e-mail). Every message I’ve ever gotten
from Buddy has ended with “Because He
lives” and he signs his name. It’s true.
It’s true. That is the message we celebrate at
this Christmas time, at this New Year’s
beginning, and, in fact, every Sunday in worship
– because He lives, we too can live!
So . . . where ever we may be
in our lives – happy time, sad times, all
times – because of God’s love we can
truly say and mean every word – HAPPY NEW
YEAR!
About the
Author
G. Byrns Coleman is Professor
of Religion and Chair of Department of Religion
& Philosophy, Wingate
University, Wingate, NC
. He is also a member of Wingate
Baptist Church
.
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If you have never made the
commitment to receive the love and life-changing
experience of Jesus Christ, please take a moment
to go
here and take the
first
steps to
salvation.
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