There’s something truly exciting about freshness. There’s a sense of authenticity and newness. You are fully aware that it isn’t the same old same old. It’s no longer business as usual. Something new and special is occurring. The adrenaline starts to flow and a new spirit fills the air. It’s a new beginning that will overwhelm us and put the problems of the past behind us. We all love the land of beginning again where there is a fresh new start.
II Cor 5.17 tells us that, “If anyone is in Christ that old things are passed away and all things have become new. Or God is a God of second chances (and third, and fourth, etc). He doesn’t write us off simply because we have failed. He will keep on allowing us to start over again and again. That’s why we should never give up in our personal lives and in the life of the church. We so often get into patterns of repeating the same mistakes and can’t seem to get on the right track. We’ve read, even seriously studied, the Bible and haven’t found the answers to life’s greatest problems. We have mixed feelings (which we keep to ourselves) about whether the Bible really has the answer to our problems. We verbalize that the Bible has the answer to every problem yet we can’t seem to find the answer to our own.
So, what’s our problem? Why can’t we find the answers we need to deal with our daily grind that often seems to pull us down. We attend church, Sunday School, serve in the church, study the Bible, pray, and nothing seems to happen. It’s like we are on a treadmill going fast but not moving forward. It’s not unusual to see someone who has been very active in the life of the church to drop back and become inactive sometimes even to the point of dropping out altogether. What happened? Did something bad happen in their lives to cause them to be embarrassed to continue serving and attending? Are they hiding some great sin from us? That may happen on occasion, but the most likely culprit is just burnout.
We get so busy doing things that we lose focus of why we do them. It should go without saying that without a motive, there is no motivation. And when we lose the motive we can only go on so long until something has to give. We get tired of going through the motions and receive no satisfaction from either the results of our efforts or knowing that we are doing God’s will. When we have a purpose, we can go on and on and on just like the Energizer bunny but when the purpose has waned, our spirits will eventually give in as well and we may be tempted to throw in the towel.
What we need is a fresh new Word from God. And what’s amazing about a fresh Word from God is that it will come out of the same old Word we have been reading all of our lives. That’s because the Word of God is a living Word. It isn’t limited in interpretation to a single time or situation. Old familiar passages can come alive in a new exciting way and fit a new situation. We sing, “Tell me the old, old story”, and it could just as well be, “Tell me the new, new story”, because the old story is the new story. In one sense, it isn’t the old story or the new story. It’s the story. It is timeless. It never changes yet it has the power to constantly change us.
In order for God’s Word to change us, we must study it with expectancy and seriousness. It will take more than a simple reading of a verse or two. Serious study will also include serious prayer. In order for God’s Word to impact our lives, there must be a dialogue, not just a monologue. God speaks to us through the Bible and prayer and we speak to Him through prayer. If we study His Word and pray about what we read, we allow the Word to take root in our lives. The application of the Word often begins to take place through prayer.
If we continue to do things the same old way, then we can realistically expect the same old results. It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. We would like to see some better results than what we are getting but without any additional effort on our part. That’s a little unrealistic, isn’t it? We are going to get what we bargain for. If we plant an apple tree, we should expect it to bear apples. If we put out a tomato plant, it won’t bear anything other than tomatoes. It’s a law of nature that we will reap what we sow. The same is true in the spiritual world. God will bless us according to what we sow.
If we want different results, we must do things differently. But let me hasten to say that just doing something differently will not necessarily produce the results we want. There must be good reason for change or we shouldn’t make any changes at all. Sometimes we don’t make changes because we are: (1) Afraid of change (The Fear Factor), (2) Don’t know what changes to make (The Knowledge Factor), (3) Don’t know how to implement the changes (The Knowledge Factor), (3) Aren’t even aware that changes are needed (The Blindness Factor), (4) Are satisfied with the results we are getting (The Complacency Factor), (5) Do not want the work that will accompany the changes (The Laziness Factor), (6) Don’t want the controversy that might accompany the changes (The Fear Factor), (7) Don’t have a serious commitment to the cause (The Lack of Commitment Factor), or (8) Feel that someone else is responsible to make the changes (The Lack of Responsibility Factor).
Some of us have been involved in the church for many decades and our knowledge and commitment is pretty much at the same level it was when we first accepted Christ. We can become hardened to the way we have been doing things both as individuals and as a church. Apathy has taken its toll and we just don’t seem to really care very much as long as we can continue on the same path. We pretend to care by praying for souls to be saved while we do nothing to see that that happens. We don’t visit, witness, pray passionately, or spend time with God yet we want to see people saved so it will salve our bleeding conscience. We may even fix the blame on the preacher or someone else but we feel we are clean. How sad when we not only become hardened but actually stand in the way of changes that might enable the church to “win the lost and develop the saved”.
What we need is a fresh word from God. Just where do we get this fresh word? Is there a good book out there that will show me this fresh word? Yes, there is! Will it show me an up to date way to improve my spiritual life and the life of my church? It certainly will!! Will it give us guidance as to the changes we need to make in our lives and in the church? You bet it will!!! Would you like to know how to get you hands on a copy of this exciting book? You may have your hands on a copy of it right now. It’s called the Holy Bible.
We sing “Tell me the old, old story” and all we want to do is to listen to the same old story over and over. Let me hasten to say that there is nothing wrong with the old story. It’s the greatest story ever told but it’s not a story that was designed just for listening. It’s a life changing story and if it hasn’t changed your life, then you’ve never heard the story properly. If the story of Christ dying on the cross hasn’t impacted your life to the point that you want to serve Him and tell others about Him, you have become immune to it’s message.
When we have put our methods on a pedestal and refuse to make any changes to them, then we slaves to a method rather than adherents of the Gospel. There are hundreds of thousands of churches in America. Some of them have done a great job of telling the story and are leading people to Christ. The ones that are doing the best job are not the ones that have patterned themselves after another church or following a program handed down to them by their denominational headquarters. It is the churches that regularly receive a fresh word from God.
How do you receive a fresh word from God? Well, I’m glad you asked that question. You can receive tidbits of freshness by listening to someone teach or preach. Nowadays you can go to the internet and listen to hundreds of the best preachers in America. You can take Bible study coursed on line. You can attend a great Sunday School class or other Bible classes. There are thousands of great books available for personal enrichment and devotional study. I heartily endorse all of these methods as secondary sources of spiritual enrichment.
The primary source of food for our spiritual lives should be God’s Word itself. Perhaps something that someone else said or wrote will direct you to God’s Word and help you to understand it better. No Bible teacher can personalize God’s Word for your life like the Holy Spirit can. It’s perfectly to read commentaries and other Biblical expositions written by other men but go to the source for yourself. It’s like sending someone else to the well to drink water for you and then coming back and telling you how cool and refreshing the water was. If you want to satisfy your thirst, you have to go to the well yourself. And while you are there, take the bucket and go to the deepest part of the well. That’s where the coldest and sweetest water is. The water near the top is ok but the best is deeper down. The deeper you go, the better it will be.
Don’t rush through a Bible study. It’s far better to dig deep in one verse than to cover multiple chapters in one sitting. Read the verse or verses multiple times and pray for God to open the Word up to you and enable you to apply it to your life. Use cross references or a concordance to further your study. Hopefully there will be times when you don’t need help from someone else. All you will do is read the Bible and pray. God is a living God and His Word is a living word. You will never exhaust the meaning of any particular passage. Because of its living nature, it will constantly give off new meaning. I never cease to be amazed at how I can read a passage with which I have been familiar for years and see something that wasn’t there before (at least it wasn’t there before for me). As you share with someone else, you each give your input and then together, you discover additional meanings. The more you study, the more God will pour out His blessings and directions for your life.
I am saddened that for the most part, we do not get our marching orders directly from God’s Word but from a “democratic process” in the church. We “vote” on what God’s will is for the church. Nowhere in the Bible does God authorize the church to take a vote to determine what His will is. We vote our preferences. Seldom in our churches are business decisions made after a time of heartfelt, soul searching prayer.
Neither is the right pattern in a church a pastor, no matter how well intentioned and spiritual he is, to tell the church what God has revealed to him and expect the church to follow. Let there be no doubt that the pastor should be the spiritual leader of a church. He should not have to go through the deacons or any other group to get approval for every little thing he does. He should share his vision with the church, ask the church to pray about it, seek a consensus and then move forward. He will not lose power by this approach. He will gain the support of the people. Should he not gain the support of the people, he might just be avoiding a catastrophe. In all likelihood, when he shares his vision, the people will buy into it and it will become the church’s vision, not just the pastor’s. A church may be very agreeable when the pastor wants to do something and they will say, “Fine pastor, go ahead and do it. We will watch what you do”. If the pastor has asked the church to pray about the vision and then after genuine soul searching prayer commit to the vision, they will then say to the pastor, “Fine pastor, let’s do this. We will help you with it”.
