What Changes at Midnight?
Like most I have been looking forward to the ending of a year that hasn’t been so great. Saying goodbye to 2020, however will not magically change things. It is not as if everything is going to magically become better at midnight on New Year’s Eve. So what will change or what can change?
The quick but not necessarily easy answer is YOU. You can change and so can I. We can make the decision to make this a better year through our own actions. One of my favorite Pop Christian Music songs is by Matthew West called “Do Something”. In the song West describes waking up one morning to a troubled world and how he could no longer bear the thought of people living in poverty or children being sold into slavery. He begged God to do something about it. God’s response in the song is to say, “I did, yeah, I created you.” Check out the song below:
2020 was rough, but maybe WE can make 2021 much better! Much like we have witnessed one of the worst years in recent history, the Prophet Isaiah witnessed first hand one of the worst times for the nation of Israel. The prophet would go on to write 3 beautiful poems, found in chapters 60, 61, and 62 of the Book of Isaiah, that would reaffirm a promise from God of hope and renewal. One of those poems, chapter 61, is proclamation of a year of the Lord’s favor. This would be a time when the people of Israel would radiate God’s justice, mercy, and blessings into the entire world. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus reads a segment of Isaiah 61, proclaiming that the time had come and was being fulfilled through him. As followers of Christ it should be our mission to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor by doing everything in our power to ensure justice, mercy, and blessing throughout the entire world. This Sunday, January 3rd, we will be beginning a brand new worship series based on Isaiah 61 called, “To Proclaim a Year of the Lord’s Favor”. In this series, we will seek out practical ways that we can make 2021 a better year not only for ourselves but for the entire world! I hope you will join us.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
