IT'S A NEW YEAR....SO SHAKE OFF THE OLD AND PUT ON THE NEW

We all know that Christmas is about the birth of Christ and when you think about it's only fitting  that in just a few days  we will celebrate the coming of a new year.

My friend always uses the example of a dog walking up out of a pond.

You know what she means, you've seen it, they come up out of the pond and they start shaking all that old water off.

Do you know how many times putting off the old or being made new, or starting over is mentioned in the Bible?

Neither do I.

But I know it's a lot.

I'll list just a few so that you get the idea.

Ezekiel 36:26  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here.

Ephesians 4:24 To be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self.

Don't we all want a new start?

Don't we want the chance feel clean and fresh?

Have you ever wanted to do like that old dog and just step out  and shake off all that's sticking to you?

Wouldn't it be nice to go outside and give a sling, to all of that stuff that's clung to you over the past year and keeps you weighed down?

When Jesus came, he came into a broken, hurting world and he came to bring healing and that's what he still does.

He has countless offers in his Word about taking the old and making it new.

Makeover's originated with God and not HGTV

Every year I open the windows when I take the tree down.

I don't care how cold out it is, I open the windows.

It's a symbolic thing for me.

You know how clean and cold fresh winter air is?

It's different than any other kind of air.

I want to breath in that cold, crisp air while I take down the tree, it's like I'm taking down the old and putting on the new.

As good as Christmas was, it's gone now.

Now I want to move on to the new.

I open the living room window by the tree and walk across the floor to the kitchen and open the windows over the sink and it creates the perfect cross breeze, it comes in, and it goes out and I love it.

I need it.

It's a wonderful thing to celebrate the birth of Christ, and then to turn right around and celebrate a new beginning because that's what he is all about.

Remember how the book of Isaiah says, "by his wounds we are healed'?

Well one thing it's saying is, yes we can have physical healing but more often than not we need emotional healing.

We can come abused, mistreated  and broken or we can come as one who has, abused, mistreated and broken others and we can "shake it all off."

We can be made new.

Don't take the new year coming so closely after Christmas for granted.

Take it as a message.

Take it as a sign to climb up out of the pond and walk up on the bank and shake, shake, shake and then shake again.

Just get rid of it all.

Try the open the window thing......  let in new life and opportunity.

As you take the ornaments off the tree and as you feel the crisp air on your face and breath in the new remind yourself of this....

"I have come so that they may have life; and have it to the full." John 10:10

Now make it personal, say, "He has come that I may have life; and have it to the full"

It only makes sense that before you can have something to the full you have to have something to put it in.

You have to get rid of all the old stuff that keeps crowding out the new and this applies to our lives and emotions as surely as it applies to our homes or closets or anything else.

So go ahead, see that old dog in your mind and follow his example, step out and shake and if that still isn't enough then open those windows and breath deep

Make it not only a Happy New Year but make it a Happy New You!