All Things New
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
The sacred story of redemption is that God is making new what once was old; God is finding again what once was lost.
2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
It’s a new season, a time of transition,
a new perspective, a brand-new perception!
God is doing something new:
a road in the jungle and
streams in the desert!
Look! See it!
- Charles Jones, "A New Season"
Food for Thought
Imagine yourself standing on the beach, watching the waves roaring in (calm down, surfers – this is not that story). Or sitting at the edge of the lake, enjoying the soothing rhythm of little waves washing over the pebbles. A fish splashes out and back into the water, and your eyes follow the ripple of the waves. Notice how every single wave is always new! Though it is created with the water that was already present, the wave itself – that energy, that life – is new.
The Creator has built newness into creation and invites us to be co-creators of new beginnings! I believe one way God does this is by gifting humanity with the divine spark of creativity – filling us with the inspiration to create and renew – which is part of what it means to be created in the image of God.
I mostly recognize God’s creative spark in me through music and poetry. And recently, God has blessed me with the gift of experiencing a renewal through my art in amazing ways!
I am Liberian. During the years that I attended the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary and served in ministry at First Baptist Church in Oldest Congotown – 1978-1988 – God blessed and used me to write and compose many poems and songs. Since that time, some of my works have been lost to memory and time. However, recently the Spirit has been reviving and renewing those songs and poems from many years ago – and making them new within and around me.
In June, I attended the annual Convention of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary Alumni Association in the USA. One of my fellow alum was a member at the church in Oldest Congotown when I served as choir director. She sang a song I had composed around 1980 – that I’d completely forgotten about!
More recently, I was inspired to revisit a poem I wrote almost 35 years ago. I began considering doing a second edition to it. Then, serendipitously, the person who inspired the poem requested that we reconnect! I have since completed the second rendition of the poem.
It’s as if I can see the artistic, creative Spirit of God painting, composing, weaving, and writing all around me through the renewal of art and relationship. God, the ultimate creator, is all the time at work renewing, reusing, recycling, that which might seem old to us, but beautiful, valuable, and worthy to God.
And isn’t this what God has promised? Scripture tells us that whoever is in Christ is a new creation, and that Christ ushers and enables us to come boldly into the presence of the God whose love and mercy are renewed to us every day! This is the new beginning that makes other new beginnings possible and relevant. Amidst the beautiful renewal with which God blesses us each day, God calls us to new life. In the most difficult moments of our lives, God calls us to new life. When we think our better days are behind us, God calls us to new life. Through the resurrected Jesus – the one once dead and now alive – God calls us to new life.
We so desperately need to cultivate this promise of renewal in our own lives and in our communities. We tend to cling to what is old and familiar, even if it’s harmful to us – destructive personal habits, alienating behavior patterns, systemic injustices – including all the “isms” that oppress and engender conflict and separation. But this is not the life we are called to.
The Spirit of God continues to renew and enable us to be witnesses to the new creation that we are in Christ; to manifest the new life we have in the Spirit. Look a little closer and you’ll see it, the creative Spirit of God is painting, composing, weaving, and writing new things all around us. In response to all the “old endings” in our world, God’s indwelling Spirit works with our spirits to be and bring “new beginnings” every day.
Every wave is new.
E.V.E.R.Y. wave!
We can feel the creative Spirit of God through the renewal of art and relationship.
Take some time this week to make something new or learn a new skill – make an object, a piece of art, bake something new, or try playing a new instrument.
Meet someone new; make a new friend; renew a strained or broken relationship.
Blessing
In Jesus Christ,
the old has gone,
the new has come!
A little Table Talk for your table...
Brainstorm with a friend the passions and skills you can tap into and use to create new beginnings for others and yourself.
Discuss the idea of “newness” – is it necessary? Why or why not?
How are acts of kindness like waves?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Ask your child which they prefer – the new or the old. Ask them why.
Talk with your kiddos about the waves in the ocean and how each one offers something new. Discuss how acts of kindness are like waves.
Work with your kids to make something in an arts-and-crafts project. Encourage their creativity!
Meet Our Welcoming Voice!
Rev. Dr. Charles H. Jones, Jr. serves as Senior Area Director and Area Director for Europe, the Middle East, and Liberia with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (also known as American Baptist International Ministries, International Ministries, or IM). His responsibilities include international partner relations; supervision and support for global servants (missionaries); and resourcing individuals, local churches, and regional and national organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico. He has earned graduate degrees in Divinity and Christian Education. To read more from Rev. Dr. Charles, check out his book, I Have A Song: A Collection of Original Poems, Songs, and Sermon Outlines.
To hear more from Rev. Dr. Charles throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
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