The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 "This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. (Ex 12:1 ESV)
Dear church family, the start of a new year is an appropriate time for us to reflect on another year of life that our Lord has graced us with.
When I think about how much the Lord has done for us, I cannot help but give him praise. He has given us the gift of fellowship, a church community composed of people who are striving side by side for the sake of the Gospel. He has given us the gift of breaking bread together, a privilege enjoyed by us in a country where we are free to practice our faith and to have potlucks and go on retreats together without interference for the sole purpose of worshipping our Lord. He has given us the gift of new disciples who were baptized in our midst and have chosen to walk in obedience to their Saviour. He has given us the gift of children, with a number of babies being born in our congregation and with more to come in the new year. He has given us the gift of corporate prayer, as we begged our Lord together on our knees to provide for the needs of our fledgling church. He has given us the gift of his Word, as our church has eagerly devoted itself to studying God’s Word and putting it into practice in our lives.
Looking back through my diaries, I have nothing but praise to give to our Lord Jesus Christ for his numerous answered prayers and graces in our lives. We deserve nothing from God considering that we were his enemies, yet he chose us and called us to be his very own! He did not leave us to die in our sins, but he chose to lavish grace upon grace on unworthy vessels like ourselves! We should be lost, eternally separated from God, earnings the wages of our sin. But God, being rich in mercy, saved us by his grace!
For the Israelites, their delivery from slavery out of the land of Egypt was so significant that the Lord declared that the month of the Exodus, marked by the Passover, would be the beginning of their new year. But don’t we as Christians have even more reason to celebrate? Have we not been delivered from our cruel masters of sin and death through a greater Exodus? Have we not seen the power of God drown our sins like Pharaoh’s army in the depths of the sea never to rise again? Truly there is no condemnation anymore for those of us who are in Christ Jesus! For, we who are in him, have new life in Christ and that will never be taken away from us!
Brothers and sisters, as you look up into the night sky and see the moon and stars which our Lord has set in place to mark the passage of time and the beginning of this new year, remember that our Lord has made all things well and that he is WORTHY of our highest praise and worship. He marked the seasons so that we would be constantly reminded of his great works.
We celebrate a past year of his grace, and we eagerly look forward to another year of serving our Lord together and experiencing his grace, but most of all, we rejoice, knowing that we are another year closer to either our Lord’s return or the day that he calls us home to be with him. Every year that passes greatly advances us along the race of life that our Lord has set out for us to run. So, let us throw aside every sin that entangles, and run our race well for our Lord’s good pleasure. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly and nourish your spiritual hunger and may Christ be more precious to you than anything else you might gain or lose this coming year. Come, Lord Jesus, come!
Article by: Samuel Chua
