When I was planning my sermons a couple of months ago, and noticed that Dec 31, was in fact a Sunday I was excited, because I knew exactly what I would say. It s easy when you think about it.
Today is the turning point.
It is the last of the old year, and the beginning of a New Year. So, I began to look at what the Scripture had to say about Looking Back, and as is often the case, the sermon that I wrote is very different from the one I thought I was going to write. What I discovered when I began to examine what the scripture had to say about looking back is that it has tremendous potential for harm if it is not done correctly. There is something about the Past, the good old days that has the potential to grip our hearts and draw them back to where we were, instead of empowering our present and motivating us toward the future God has for us. There are a number of passages in the bible where we are told to Remember what God has done on our behalf, but that always has to be weighed against the prohibition of trying to Return to a place, a time, an event, a relationship, that has passed, and is now gone.