Renewal – April 2019

Easter is coming! Spring has sprung! The sun is more present in our days as we move into summer. The cold, dreary, dark days of winter are becoming a faint memory (until autumn at least).

We are in a season of renewal. It’s a time for grass to start growing again and deciduous trees to put buds and flowers on their branches. As a child, this was the time to go looking for pussy willows to snatch up and bring home.

While all of this renewal is happening around you, have you considered that, like our environment, we too need seasons of renewal in our spiritual lives? Easter is a celebration of the power and life that brought Jesus back from the dead. We are having a water baptism on Sunday, April 14th and in that we celebrate and symbolize being raised to new life in Christ—we were dead in our trespasses and sins but through Christ’s death and resurrection believers have been born again (Eph 2:1-5). However, is that it? Or, is there more?

You can only renew what was new. (Huh? you may ask) I said in one of my sermons last month that part of the struggle that people have with the Christian message of needing to be born again is that we think we’re alive without Christ. As I stated earlier, without Christ we were dead in our trespasses and sins … not mostly dead; all dead. Once someone receives Christ as Saviour and Lord, they are made new creations (2 Cor 5:17). Once you’re a new creation, there can be a need to renew along life’s journey.

One other aspect of spring is mud. My dog likes to tuck it into his paws. I’m sure he isn’t purposefully trying to get mud on the floor in our house but unless we watch and clean his paws the floor will get dirty. His paws and my floor need a lot more renewal in the spring. Jesus even taught that we can be clean but put up dirt walking in the world (John 13:10). We all need renewal. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (Acts 2:4) but also afterwards as they continued serving Christ (Acts 4:31). Paul encourages us to be continually renewed in the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:18). He even writes: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Cor 4:16)

Be encouraged brothers and sisters in Christ. Be renewed.

Journeying with you,

Pastor Merril

 


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