Ringing In The New Year!

Depart! Depart! Go out from there,

touch no unclean thing; go out

from the midst of her, be clean,

you who bear the vessels of the LORD.

For you shall not go out with haste,

nor go by flight; for the LORD will go

before you, and the God of Israel will be

your rear guard.

Isaiah 52:11–12

            Yesterday’s blog was designed not to just impart some Greek language to anyone, rather it was to demonstrate that if one speaks and teaches other than what the Scriptures actually say; then they are not speaking or teaching truthfully. We must allow ourselves become so enamored by the beautiful oratory, or fancy teaching, rather we are to be prudent in all that is said to us. Many have succumbed to teachings that on the surface seem good only found bad and non–Scriptural. The goal as always is to teach us that we must ourselves change from the Inside/Out and this by the word of God rightly imparted. Isaiah’s words to “Depart!”
”Depart!” are words not only said to the nation of Israel, but to us, those of us who believe in the Bible as the inspired words of God. We are not to “touch the unclean thing,” and to “go out from the midst of her, be clean.” And this due to this fact; we are bearing the vessels of the LORD, His Gospel, and as His ambassadors we leave such things behind. Now it is this one thing that so entraps us and this is to be in a hurry to do things that we have come to believe must be done by us, but we are not in haste turn to those things that we have been instructed to leave behind. God will be with you and me and will be our “rear guard.” The Hebrew word ‘ףםא’ acaph, is translated in the New King James as ‘rear guard” and this is true. The word has a greater meaning and this is: to gather for any purpose, to bring objects, in this case you to a common point, and this refers to the end product and it is God who does the gathering. The word can also mean or represent a bringing to oneself as God brings His children to Himself and the word can mean that God bringing you to Himself and is withdrawing you or removing you of something. God who gathers and it is God who takes away, and God who destroys.

            We have come once again to the last day of the year, the year 2013, and are looking forward to the year 2014. You may be looking back on all that occurred in 2013 and we see things we wish we didn’t see, those things that we did that was not of God, and then, there are things we see whereby we see all that God has done for you. This may bring to you, those God things, and anxiety for the future and if not checked we may not allow those things of God, those memories of things we wish we did not do override God’s grace. God is God and is present in every age we live and while He allows those memories; He does so to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. This remembrance of the past and allowance by God is so as not to allow us, to fall into a shallow security in the present. God is going before you, He is not only your “rear guard,’ He is the One gathering you, and destroying those things that would destroy us if we do not turn to Him and allow Him to be our guide. God can and will, if we allow Him to do so, clear the past from our conscience, for it God Who is “going before you.” As we think upon the year 2014, do not become impetuous and forgetting those things, God did for you in the past. Do no allow the past and become thoughtless; rather go forward in patient power knowing that God of Israel is going ahead of you and those things of the past are irreparable, at least to us, they are what they are, but God can transform the past into a beautiful present and future. Let the past sleep, and let it sleep on the bosom of Jesus Christ. Once again: leave the irreparable past in His hands and then step out into the Irresistible future with Him.

            As you enter into this night and celebrate the New Year Day, do so with God, His Son Jesus Christ who you are an image of to lead you into that which is good. Take care, watch out for yourselves, there are those who care little about anything except there own pleasure and use this night as an excuse for excess. If, at all possible, join with others in your congregations, those brothers and sisters who would enjoy you company and are willing to celebrate this special day set aside as a memorial. There is a future and while God holds the future in His hands, we are the ones who are to demonstrate and exercise what the future will be for ourselves, our families, our friends, our nation, God goes before setting the stage, we are the actors setting forth for the world what God has set forth in us. Our yesterdays are yesterdays, past, not forgotten, but past, and they can by the help of God be that which impels us to live for God as we have never done so before. Not because we receive any reward for doing so, no, rather because God has saved you and deserves from us all worship. We have a mission, and that mission is to bring to our world the Gospel. What a pleasure that is and what a privilege it is, that God would give us this responsibility and go before us to aid us in our spreading of the Good news.

            Enjoy the night. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Now beautiful upon the mountains

            Are the fee of him who

Brings good news, who proclaims

            Peace, who brings glad tidings

Of good things. Who proclaims salvation,

            Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

                                                Isaiah 52:7

Break forth in Joy: Our God reigns

Richard L. Crumb