We’re entering a new season and it got me thinking about regenerating.
I recently read that our bodies regenerate. It prompted me to do some more research and what I found was interesting. Many of our bodies cells are capable of regeneration and some more than others. Our outer layer of skin regenerates every four to twelve weeks depending on our age. As we get older our cell regeneration abilities decrease, but the ability slows and doesn’t disappear. Our livers also regenerate quickly. Brains and eyes don’t have the same ability.
At St. Paul we are entering a post-Covid regeneration. We are starting education programs, Sunday school, and we are considering a healing service and new contemporary worship service. We have a women’s retreat coming, along with a new Bible study. The men are gathering for a monthly breakfast and starting a weekly study/prayer time.
Outside worship, joint events with Gloria Dei, Re-creation, and God’s Abundant Plate all are fairly new occurrences. Rock painting and Oktoberfest are events being done in the next couple months. Children are preparing to go back to school.
In all, there is a lot of “newness” happening. The Apostle Paul wrote in the epistle of 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man(person) be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”
I really like how the KJV mixes verb tenses because it more accurately relates the concept that we are ever becoming new. We are new in creations in Christ and ever becoming newer. We are always in a process of being created and recreated in Christ’s likeness, for God’s purposes, that we might glorify our Creator. We are imperfect and haven’t arrived at perfection, yet we are always being drawn closer to perfection (We are increasingly becoming a reflection of Jesus Christ and His being).
It is the same both individually and as a worshiping community. I like the concept of not having fully arrived to a place of perfection. Indeed, we likely will never arrive on this side of eternity. There is freedom in knowing this. For me, it is a tangible reminder of God’s faithfulness. And it is a reminder that we are all in “process.”
As you begin a new season in life’s journey, I hope and pray you may recognize God’s faithfulness. God is committed to you! Indeed, God has given you God’s very self. Your prayers are effectual. They are powerful because it is not you alone who is praying but the Holy Spirit prays along with you (Rom. 8:26).
I encourage you to continue to pray for your loved ones who haven’t yet realized God’s love and salvation. I ask you to continue to pray for our community of faith, that we would be directed in ways that are fruitful, and be bold in our proclamation of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. God is into new things from the beginning of scripture to the end (Gen. 1 - Rev. 22). Creation to the restoration of Eden. And God invites us to work with the Spirit to help build the new.
