Happy New Year!

Well kind of. It is indeed January 2014, the start of a new year on the Gregorian secular calendar. And yes I am happy that God has allowed me to see a new day and year. But…. May I share with you my dilemma?

I live in a secular world that honors a calendar that its leaders came up with more than millennia ago. However, though I live here I am not from here. I am from a Divine kingdom whose ruler is the Almighty God that I worship. His rules and calendar are different from the place in which I dwell.

My life in this world and my challenge navigating its rules is a temporary condition. One day my life here will end. However one day I will dwell in the Divine Kingdom of my Creator forever and I want to be prepared for that eternal life. So here comes my issue… whose calendar should motivate my choices and how I spend my time?

I have always had trouble with time. It is my most valuable resource and how I spend my time- and with whom- give the casual observer a picture into what I consider important. I only get twenty-four hours per day (hopefully eight of them I will spend sleeping) and none of them can be saved or reused at a later date.

I’m not talking about whether or not to celebrate a new year but whether in my daily life which calendar is the one that transforms my life and my future. Yes I stayed awake with my family to watch the ball drop in Times Square and I watched the people in the square so full of excitement and expectation for a new beginning. But as I looked out of the window and into the night’s sky at nature I realized nothing had altered. It was still a cold dark winter night (well its winter in my hemisphere)

You see in this Divine Kingdom I come from when my Creator says “Behold I make all things new” things change – His words are powerful and just His voice is enough to speak worlds into existence. When He simply speaks nature and the atmosphere begin to alter and make accommodation for what my God is about to do. When His new year comes nothing remains the same.

My God is so sweet He actually gives us more than one New Year a civil and a scared but I will stick with the civil year. The Biblical civil New Year begins around September or October and three major feasts are celebrated during this time - the feast of trumpets, the Day of Atonement and feast of tabernacles. A time of pronouncement, a day of restoration and a time of refreshing. These feasts coincide with the fall harvest season. A time when life’s cycle begins again. The land releases its bounty and prepares for rest. The Creator releases peace into my life and gives me another moment to rest in Him. God pronounces blessing over my life; restores our relationship; and refreshes my soul, body and physical needs. He takes the time to fill me until my cup runs over and I do not have room for any distraction. It is a time when He chooses to overwhelm me with His love for me. It’s a date I cannot miss.

You see, if you have said yes to Jesus Christ you are from the same Divine Kingdom that I am. The bounty He gives each New Year He wants to give to you. He wants us to be fully satisfied; resting in Him. He wants to recharge and restore you before you move out into your next season.

If you want to understand why He moves the way He moves you have to look at the way He chose to divide time and understand time on His terms. Understanding His timing makes a new year fresh and full of expectation and a Sabbath rest more peaceful. As my music teacher always taught me, “Practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent.” Let us practice now for the eternal life we crave.

Be Blessed

xylia

Fete Faith