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New and Improved - Week Four

March 30, 2025 0 0

 

Old endings, new starts

 

One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that it is ancient but ever new. Our faith does not depend on actions or contracts made between distant ancestors and mysterious forces — it depends on a real relationship between us and God right now. It has deep roots that connects us to those times, but we are not hostages to them. Jesus Christ is not afraid of the new — new chances, new starts, new life. 

Life with Jesus is ‘new and improved’ as it draws us further into the mystery of God’s timeless love. It’s not a blank cheque for material prosperity… that’s a hollow kind of improvement that can’t buy happiness or fulfilment. But it will speak to our deepest longings and needs, with a saviour who draws right alongside us and is with us to the very end… and beyond.

SEEDS TO SOW: Where do we long for a new start in our churches and Christian communities today?

 

Read John 5: 1-18

Old isolation, new start…

A man, ignored and alone — literally stepped over — is given an electric new start by Jesus Christ.

While there is joy at the transformation there is also tension. Jesus, both God and man, acts with compassion to restore this man to his community — and in so doing directly undermines the authority of the religious leaders. 

Rather than explain why they were custodians over a system that left a man to suffer alone for decades… they try to pin Jesus on a technicality and Jesus calls their bluff.

Where are we fed up of inaction and inertia? Where do we long to see change? And where perhaps are we ourselves guilty of accepting the unfairness of the status quo when people are longing for help?

 

Read Psalm 51

Old offerings, new sacrifice…

A chance for a new start. In this poem is the restoring catharsis at the heart of our relationship with God. There is redemption, there is newness, there is a way back. Through God our focus can move outwards and upwards, rather than inwards and downwards.

Looking at verses 15-17 especially, what does God actually want from us? What does it mean to bring God a broken spirit?

 

Read Romans 6: 1-4

The same old ways, or newness of life!

The cycle of grace is not a closed loop, it’s an ever-growing spiral, that not only grants us a new start but the invitation to expand the spiral of grace ever wider, drawing more and more into newness of life. It’s what we know that we need deep down in our hearts… but loads better = New and Improved!

What does walking in newness of life mean to you in 2025?