Featured New Year’s Messages
The National Ministry team features sermons from around the country that inspire us take the steps we need to build God’s Kingdom. Below are this week’s featured messages welcoming in the New Year.
New Year, New Me
Contributed by Dr. Michael Balcomb, President, FFWPU
On Sunday, January 4, 2015, Dr. Balcomb gave a New Year’s message at the Cheon Hwa (Heavenly Dwelling Place) Gung in Las Vegas. In his sermon, Dr. Balcomb describes what it will take for us and for God to build a new world centered on peace and love.
Every day for about three months my kids would be telling me, “Dad, I need a new phone.” And what are they going to do with the old phone when I give them a new one? They’re going to throw it away, right? A few years ago, it was all about getting a new computer. Remember when you bought a computer? And pretty soon after you opened the box, it was out of date. “I want a new one!” I used to tell my kids, “I can fix your computer; I can make it work just like new.” “No, Dad, you don’t understand. I want a new one.”
So what about God? When He talks about making a new world, and a new heaven and a new earth, does that mean that He’s going to discard the earth we live on right now? Who’s going to live in that new world, in that new kingdom? Is there going to be a brand-new set of people created by God who never suffered, never sinned, who never had a problem? The word that God uses for “new” in this scripture doesn’t mean that kind of new. It means renewed, repaired, rebuilt, refreshed. It’s new in the sense of taking something that may have been tired and broken and damaged, and rebuilding it in God’s factory. It’s as good as new, it’s fresh, but it’s still us. It’s still this world we live in.
Everybody’s a Fixer Upper
Contributed by Faith Fusion
Faith Fusion is a faith community available online with Sunday services in Manchester, New Hampshire. It features messages from various writers, pastors, educators and faith bloggers. This week, we’d like to feature their New Year series based on the Disney movie, “Frozen.” Below is an excerpt from “Everybody’s a Fixer Upper,” one article of the three-part series. Visit Faith Fusion on Facebook for continuous updates and messages.
In the movie Frozen there is a wonderful song, Fixer Upper that we can learn a thing or two from:
The reality is we are all a bit of a fixer upper! We are all in the process of perfecting our heart and character to become substantial embodiments of God’s love in the world (not apart from the world, but in the world.) To achieve perfection, or a better term might be spiritual maturity, we need to constantly learn and practice, taking the best from our experiences and the examples of others.
Do you have a message or sermon you’d like to share? Submit your name and email address below and the ministry team will get in touch with you!