Originally Posted on January 11, 2016
The living God of heaven and earth wants to bless you in 2016! In John 10:10 (NKJV) the Lord Jesus tells us: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” You must remember that your life must be lived according to God’s standards, not man’s. Our great God’s economy functions differently than does man’s economy. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV): “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” You cannot live the way you want, claim to be a Christian, and expect God to bless you. Ted Koppel of ABC News Nightline fame stated many years ago: “The Ten Commandments are not the ten suggestions.”
The first way to be a new you in 2016 is to be in Christ. The Apostle Paul states in 2 Cor. 5:17 (NKJV): “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” When you are in Christ, you are first and foremost born again. In John 3:3 (NKJV) Jesus states: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Have you been born again? Do you know without a shadow of a doubt that you will go to heaven when you die? A person who is born again is one who has accepted the death of Jesus on the CROSS for their sins. They repent of their sins and make Christ their personal Lord and Savior by faith.
JESUS shed His pure, sinless blood on the CROSS for you and me. He died, but on the third day, He arose from the grave victorious. You can’t be a new you if you’re not clean inside and out. Being washed in the blood of Jesus is the only way to really be clean inside and out. Salvation secures your home in heaven eternally, and guarantees you an abundant life in this life.
You can make all of the resolutions you desire in 2016 to change yourself, but the way to begin is to be born again. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5:17 that old things are passed away and all things have become new. You can’t change your outward appearance only and be totally new. You have to be changed from the inside out. It is called regeneration. In Matt. 9:17, Jesus tells us that men do not put new wine into old wineskins, because the wineskins burst, the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined. You put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved. You cannot combine the old with the new.
When David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah, her husband, killed, he cried out to God in Psalm 51:2,7 (NKJV): “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be whiter than snow.” To be a new you in 2016 you must be in Christ. Are you in Christ?
Jeff Harvel 