Opening THE Book 8 with Rev John

7th January 2019
as published by St Andrew's Church in the Gorleston Community Magazine

Rev John Kinchin-Smith
Assistant Minister, St Andrew’s Church

Happy New Year! Will you be making any New Year Resolutions this year? Did you manage to keep them last year? What does the Bible say about making New Year resolutions?
 
Well, if you’ve been following these articles, we’ve learned that human beings have made a mess of things from the very beginning however hard they’ve tried to do things right. We’ve also learned that God was not content to leave things that way and that he’s longed for human beings to enjoy life and the world in perfect harmony and wellbeing without taking away their freewill. Very early on he gave wonderful laws about “right” and “wrong” but, again, it’s been impossible for people to keep them – whatever their wishes and (New Year) resolutions. I guess you’ve discovered that for yourself
 
Well, God always promised that he would put things right. Those 39 books of the Old Testament contain literally hundreds of promises – and God can never break a promise or he wouldn’t be ‘God’, would he? Some of those promises are also ‘prophecies’ about the way those promises will come to pass. You can read some of the most beautiful promises and prophecies in the book of the prophet Isaiah chapters 60-66 (written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus)
 
Last month, we discovered that Christmas is really about how God’s promises and prophecies were fulfilled in the best Christmas present ever, the gift of Jesus. Somehow the coming of Jesus would deal with all the hurt and pain and evil and suffering in the world. You see, if we cannot do things right however hard we try, if we struggle to keep our resolutions, if we continue to have bad thoughts and do bad things and hurt ourselves and other people – then what hope for the world? Must we continue to fight wars, destroy our beautiful planet, suffer from disease and crime and poverty and all the pain and injustices of the world?
 
That’s the point! Only God could do what we couldn’t do for ourselves. But we can still choose to ignore God and reject his ways. If we really want to understand what God has done and to discover ‘life in its fullness’ – then the Bible tells us how. More next month...
 

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