MINNESOTA BAPTIST ASSOCIATION

The President's Corner

(Jan-Mar 2007)

Everyone loves a new beginning, a fresh start. For this reason, a new year is the fresh promise of hope and change. It provides a platform of aspiration that what was bad in the past either be forgotten or augmented into something new and wonderful.

One need only peruse the comics section of the local newspaper, however, to reach the conclusion that for most people change is considered a laughing matter. "Resolutions" become the subject of derision when the person making them is actually perceived as serious of intent. "No one actually changes" is the common assumption; "we only rearrange the furniture on the Titanic each January."

Sadly, this assumption has foundation. Most people, statistically speaking, actually do fail in what they set out to reorder at the beginning of each year. Whether it is losing weight, quitting smoking, doing more for others, or any one of a whole host of other contemplations, the bottom line is that most never achieve their goal. Worse yet, such failures are in addition to a multiplicity of past failures (usually coinciding with the start of past new years). The worst part in all of this is the fact that this is the viewpoint of the world. Far, far too many Christians also hold this viewpoint. "Oh, yes, he may be zealous now, but wait until he's been saved for a few months. Then we will see where he is!" Sound familiar? Unfortunately, yes.

Therefore I propose that we follow the advice of a past preacher named Charles Haddon Spurgeon. In 1885 he preached a New Year's message that was textually based on Revelation 21:8, where He that sat upon the throne states, "Behold, I make all things new." Spurgeon preached, "We are not what we were: we are new, and have begun a new career. We are not what we shall be, but assuredly we are not what we used to be. As for myself my consciousness of being a new man in Christ Jesus is often us sharp and crisp as my consciousness of being in existence. ...This new principle is, from day to day, gathering strength and winning the victory. It has its hand upon the throat of the old sinful nature. ... I feel this within me: do not you? ... Why, either you and I are turned upside down in nature, or the world is. We used to think it a wise world once, but how foolish we think it now! 'The world is crucified unto me,' said Paul; and many of you can say the same. Meanwhile, there is no love lost, for the world thinks much the same of us. ... What a transformation grace makes in all things within our little world! In our heart there is a new heaven and a new earth." Let us so commit ourselves to providing a stalwart testimony to the world, to ourselves, and to the church around us.