Acquiring brand new things is great. It’s pleasurable to get a brand new whatever. Recently, I got a gift of a brand new golf club. It’s nice to swing for the very first time the latest club on the market (too bad the thing I swing at doesn’t go where I want it to go – I think I need a brand new golf swing more than a brand new golf club).

Last week, I went to the bank to get some brand new currency. The bank gets its supply for Christmas sometime around Thanksgiving. Brand new money almost seems to have more value than old money.

Before too long, we will be celebrating the advent of a brand new year. We have never before experienced the year 2006. It’s brand new. Many people feel as though a brand new year gives them a fresh start in life. They make resolutions and commitments based on the feelings of newness and starting over again.

Brand new is nice. Brand new can be refreshing. Brand new can make us feel better. Brand new can make us feel important and worthy.

There just one problem with brand new. Brand new eventually becomes old. Brand new eventually becomes forgotten. Brand new eventually needs to be fixed. Brand new almost always gets replaced by another brand new.

There is, however, a brand new that gets better rather than just older. There’s a brand new that matures rather than just ages. There’s a brand new that eventually gets replaced by all new rather than just another brand new.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” When a person confesses their faith in Jesus, a brand new thing happens. They become transformed into the likeness of Christ.

As time marches on, they become better and not just older; they become mature rather than obsolete. They eventually go to glory rather than extinction.

In just a couple of weeks, we will be ushering in a brand new year. Then 365 days later the brand new year will give way to another brand new year. In the midst of it all, I hope you will make a decision, if you have yet to do so, to confess your faith in Jesus and start the brand new year with a brand new life in Christ – knowing that a brand new life in Christ lasts forever.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Cory, d.v.

d.v., deo volente: God willing