By Robin Sam
IT gives all of us at The Christian Messenger media ministries immense pleasure to meet you again with a new issue in the New Year.
Every New Year brings with it new hopes for a brighter, happier and glorious future. This is the time of the year when people have made resolutions to sign up for a weight loss program. Some people I know have resolved to be a better husband or a better wife or a better parent. Some have decided to learn a new language while some have resolved not to have any new resolutions in the New Year.
What is it about the New Year that makes us look forward to a great time on Planet Earth? If you regularly follow the news events on television or newspapers or the Internet, there’s nothing that makes us cheerful. Each passing day appears to be gloomier than the previous one. Crime rates are on the increase. Prices of essential commodities have shot through the roof. Morality seems so unfashionable a word that people rarely even use it in their conversations. That we are all living in a morally decadent society is undeniable. So, is there anything left for us to be happy to be about?
There is, only if you look up to the One who said in Revelation 21:5: ‘Behold I make all things new.’
Jesus Christ is the only One who can give us a better life and a hope for the future. He does not disappoint us because He holds time in His hands. He is the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end. He who created us knows how and when our lives will come to an end. What better way than to trust in Him to take us through 2013?
In this special issue, we have decided to do away with some regular features, news events and columns and give our readers 18 pages of Biblical promises. We have collected 510 Bible promises that we can lay claim to in the New Year. For the ease of reading, we have categorized them into different headings. I am sure you will like this special issue and pull it out of your bookshelf every now and then to find a promise, pray for its fulfillment in your life and decide to live a life worthy of our Savior. This is a collector’s issue, if you will.
The condition of being a New Creation
However, we cannot fool ourselves into believing that this love can be taken for granted. The promise of new heavens and new earth is only for those who have accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. Yes, the promise is to those who are in Christ and are acknowledged by God as ‘new creation’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). To such as those, the old has passed away and the new has come.
The commitment to the New Commandment
The promise of new heavens and new earth is to those who follow the new commandment that Jesus gave us while on earth. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).
The living of the New Person
The promise of eternity with God is to those who “get rid of the yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast” (I Corinthians 5:7) Find out the yeast within that corrupts you. Is it anger, malice, a lying tongue, a weakness for fleeting pleasures, an unforgiving spirit, or a lustful or a wicked eye? You know the yeast that is in you. Crucify your old self and let Jesus live within you. If you are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and put on the ‘new self’ (Colossians 3:10) today, the Lord will make a new beginning in your life this New Year. Amen!
To read more articles by the same author, click here. Robin Sam is the editor of The Christian Messenger. You can reach him at editor [at] christianmessenger [dot] in
