It is the first Sunday of the year and once again, the list of new years resolution is being made. For the high schoolers and the elementary, I am sure when you get in for the first time in the year in class, one of your main assignments is to make your new year's resolution list.
New year's resolution is actually a personal pledge that we will do this, we will do that, we will not do this, we will not do that, we will continue this, we will continue that. Basically, it is a list of something to change and something to continue for the coming new year.
As Christians, what will be our new years resolution? In the Bible, I tried to research about the word “begin”. Today, we will be talking about the first five “begin” in the Bible. I found out that they are very interesting that is why I want to share it to you to help us rebuilding the hope of the new beginning.
Begin To Have One Language (Gen.11:4-7)
This is the story of the Tower of Babel were people decided to build the tower that reaches to heaven. Having one language, they started to build it and while God sees it and got mad to the desire of their hearts to be equal with God, God confused their language and so, they started to speak different languages.
I know that the story is not too heroic nor too godly. But what we can see here in the story is that the people have one language, that they understand each other very well, that they decided to build a tower that reaches to heaven.
Notice the passage in verse 6, it says that God said that they have to confused the language of the people because if they understand each other “there will be nothing impossible for them to do”. This means that if we understand each other, we can achieve things more than what we can imagine.
The same thing is applicable in our church. If we dream on having our lot and building, then it is not impossible for us to have it. If we dream of 100% maturity in our church, then that is not impossible to happen if we understand each other and that we have the same language. It is not impossible for us to become a big church and reach hundreds of people in a year.
Begin To Possess the Land (Deuteronomy 2:24-31)
This is the time when the people of Israel started to enter the land of Canaan to posses the land that was promised to them. At last, the long awaited promise is to be fulfilled. The promised land is about to be taken from the hands of the Canaanites. It is time for the Israelites to posses what was promised.
Note that the passage is also telling us that the Israelites is not just to take the land by just simply entering it. They are to take the land away from those who currently posses it. God commanded them to destroy the inhabitants of the land and possess the land that was given to them.
Also note that even along the way as they are to enter the land, Sihon, king of Heshbon hindered them that when they asked for a right of passage, they were sent with soldiers ready to annihilate them. They asked for food to buy, the surrounding nations prepare their army to blockade against them.
But the will of the Lord cannot be faltered, so as He commanded the Israelites to annihilate those who hinder their way to Canaan to which Sihon king of Heshbon fell in their hands along with his cities and their lands became a bonus of their conquest.
The same thing is true to us. God gave us the opportunity to possess the salvation that He gave and want us to have in its fullness. But sometimes, we do not know what it means to possess. Sometimes, God gave us gifts, valuable gifts yet, we do not know what it means to possess.
Sometimes, God gave us wealth, but we don't know how to possess it for the glory of the Lord. Sometimes, God gave us spiritual gifts yet we are not using it. Sometimes God gave us wisdom and knowledge to excel in school, yet we don't know how to possess it.
More often when we see the gifts, we tend to forget the giver of the gift and give glory to Him. How sad it is that another year has passed, yet not even half of our previous new year's resolution was fulfilled.
Begin To Give The First Fruits (Deuteronomy 16:9)
God is giving the Israelites instructions in celebrating the Feast of the Weeks (also known as the Feast of the Harvest, and later known as the Pentecost) where the Israelites are to give their first fruits. We all know that this is the law that was given to the Israelites.
Maybe some of us are asking now, so if this law was given to the Israelites, are we bound to this law? With all honesty I really cannot find anything that proves that we are also bound to this law. But what amazes me is the context itself. God at this point of time is teaching Israelites to do His will.
All throughout the Bible, we can see that God is teaching not only the Israelites but also us to honor Him through our wealth. God taught the Israelites to be an example to all people of all generations how to recognize, love and honor God in all occasion. And the Bible speaks to us clearly through the apostles and the prophets about giving our first fruits, tithing and in generosity.
Amazingly, this passage is one of the first five passages that mentioned about the word “begin”. To which as far as I see it,it is teaching us honoring God through our wealth.
So if right now, we are not practicing generosity and honoring God through our tithes and offerings, then just like what the Bible tells us, let us begin.
Begin To Be Magnified By Our God (Joshua 3:7).
This does not refer to God worshiping us. The passage used the word “magnify”. In some translation it uses the word “exalt”, this is why we will used what the Bible is telling us. God told Joshua that He will exalt or magnify Joshua not because Joshua is god, but because God is giving Joshua a high credit of his obedience to our God.
This means, that Joshua allowed God to use Him, thus, God established Joshua's authority over the Israelites giving him further instructions on how they are to cross the Jordan river, giving them the instructions on how are they going to enter the land of Canaan.
With Joshua's humility of submitting himself to God's power and miraculous river crossing, God indeed gave Joshua an extra ordinary power to lead his people into Canaan. Please note that the passage tells us that God gave did this to Joshua, so that the people will glorify Joshua, but God.
How about us? Did God told us to do something? Here we see that if God is telling us to do something, God will surely empower us so that we can finish the task that God gave us. And I strongly believe that when God called us to do something, there is no such great honor that is higher than we can ever receive from anyone.
This is also the main reason that I believe that if we are God's people called to work for God's ministry, no one should be afraid to accept the task. For God gave us not the timidity but of power, of love, and of self-discipline. God empowers us to accomplish the task that He wants us. God is at work, and not us because if it is us who is at work, then surely, it will be a failure. But if it God who anointed us, and he is the one who is at work in us, and we submits to his power and will, then the impossibilities of our abilities will be possible.
Begin To Fight The Enemies (Judges 10:18)
The book of Judges talks about the religious and political leaders of the Israelites right before they start recognizing kings. This is the kind of political system that God gave them. A seemingly extra ordinary leadership where God is the only King to be recognized, and the judges whom God anointed will be God's representative.
The story of here in Judges chapter 10 talks about Jephthah right before he became a judge of Israel. It came to pass that the descendants of Ammon is again trying to over power the Israelites to reclaim the land their “claimed” lands. And so the princesses of the Gilead is asking everybody who can be their leader. Then then chapter 11 will tell us the story of how Jephthah became the new Judge of Israel and how he lead Israel to victory.
The point however is about the use of the word “begin” in chapter 10:18. In this passage, we can definitely see the context talks about fighting the enemy. Applying the essence of the word “begin” in what we are talking, we can see here that we too have to wage war against the enemy.
At this point of time, the children of Ammon is not our enemies. Paul in the book of Ephesians chapter six mentioned about the four kinds of enemies, principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
The worst thing that happens to a Christian is when he begin to recognize that he cannot commit mistakes and denies that he does not have enemies. It is because when we begin to be blinded on what is going on, there we are already have lost the battle. This is why Christians sometimes feel so bored with their spiritual lives. They feel useless, and they feel that they cannot do this, nor cannot do that for the Lord. They feel that they are not qualified to work with God.
If we are feeling like this, then why God called us? Was it just to be saved? The Bible speaks that God gave us gifts so that we can use it in equipping all the others so that we can all reach full maturity.
Conclusion
How are we going to begin NEW YEAR? Was it again making a list of new year's resolution? My fellow pilgrims, the Bible tells us right now five things to begin. Let us begin to have one language, let us begin to possess the land, let us begin to give the first fruits, let us begin to be magnified or used by our Lord, let us begin to fight the enemies.
This is our goal this new year, to rebuild the Hope of the new Beginning.
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