I’m writing this from Kiawah Island where our family spends a week each summer. At least once each year, I bike about six miles on the beach to the far northern end of the island and this year that ride inspired today’s message.
The picture below shows what it looks like on that part of the island. The picture shows two breaks in the beach where you can cross at low tide to get to a completely uninhabited portion of the island.
When we first visited the island, there was only one break in the beach – the one to the right in the picture – but then, over time, the one to left washed through and created the marshy area between the ocean and the golf course in the picture. This change created a new habitat for fish, birds, and other wildlife.
When I rode by this area this year, it reminded me how our lives change over time and how those changes can lead to growth and make us, in a way, a new creation.
That brings us to today’s verse which is from 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
This island is a new creation after additional marsh is created and, in the same way, we are new creations in Christ once we allow Him to become our personal Lord and Savior. And just as we can behold all of the new wildlife in the marsh, we are commanded in this verse to behold the new creation of anyone who is in Christ.
When we commit our lives to Christ, we are literally transformed into something new and this transformation makes us more useful to God. Here are some examples:
- We become more patient with our children
- We see marriage as liberating instead of restrictive
- A business failure can be seen as a beginning instead of an end
- We see others through God’s eyes and understand how He wants us to love them
- Material things start losing their grip on us and we start changing our financial priorities.
These are all examples of new “marshes” in our lives that result from allowing Jesus to enter in and create them.
Questions:
- Do you have any personal “marsh” stories you can share with the group (something that happened in your life that allowed you to grow and become more useful to God)?
- When opportunities for growth come along, we don’t always embrace them. Why do we sometimes prefer to maintain the status quo even though growth will help us and others?
- Is the process of becoming more useful to God typically an all-at-once thing or does it take a long time?
- Do you currently have anything that you feel God is calling you to change so that you can be more useful to Him?
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