Pastor’s Pen

"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!" (2 Cor 5:17)

 "Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed! Alleluia!"

For those first witnesses, this phrase was unsteady and unsure.  Could it really be true?  This is beyond the realm of reality.  It seems hard to believe, and yet, the encounters with angels and even Jesus himself, proves otherwise.  All that they had known before now is seen in a new light.  Paul speaks about it as a new creation.  We are new, because this reality of Easter Sunday has changed everything.  For many, new things are awesome; a new car or a new house!  I have a friend who was caught in the ravages of a crippling disease that was hurting his lungs.  He was able to get a double lung transplant, and after a couple of years is out riding his bike for miles.  He has a new lease on life.  Newness is awesome, but it can also be scary.  How do we walk down uncharted paths?  What will our future bring?  What will it look like?  We face the future but we only have the past to lean on and that can be unsettling.  What will our future look like?  

 The disciples and the women at the tomb on that Easter morning wondered the same thing.  What will the world be like without Jesus, their friend and master?  What will they do next?  In many ways, New Journey, faces questions about future places to worship or call home.  We worry about what it might look like.  We wonder about our identity. We wonder about our financial resources.  We worry about a congregation getting older.  These are all valid worries.  But these worries are never lived in a vacuum.  Since that first Easter, our lives are lived in the presence of a risen Savior, who promises to be with us to the close of the age.  We are not alone.  If we can begin with this promise, then we know that regardless of what that future looks like, we are never alone.  We are new creations, created and redeemed by the one who holds all of our futures in loving arms.  May God continue to bless our journey.

 Finally, I would like to say a word of thanks to Susan Brahs, who has helped me immensely as an interim pastor at New Journey.  Her commitment to the ministry of this place has been amazing.  She has done all of this remotely from a different time zone! LOL

Thank you Susan, for all of your hard work and your prayers, and we all pray for your future endeavors and know that you go forward with all of our support and prayers.  Blessings to you!

 Peace,

Pastor Tim