Do Not Depart

Encouragement and Tools to Abide in God's Word

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So, What’s New?

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I got several “new” things for Christmas. Duck Commander pajama pants. A bag of flavored coffee. A Tupperware container. These nice gifts replaced things that were worn out or used up, but they weren’t really different than anything I’ve had before. These “new” items were merely unused, unworn, recently made.

But “new” can have a deeper meaning. Consider 2 Corinthians 5:17. Here it is in the New King James:

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The Greek word translated as “new” in this verse doesn’t simply refer to something recently made. It also means a new kind, a change in substance, form, or quality. When we become “new” in Christ, we aren’t simply a new person. We are a different kind of person, with a different kind of nature.

New Beginnings Series - donotdepart.com

It’s Not Just You that’s New!

I love what else pops out in the NKJV and the KJV. When we come to Christ, this “newness” doesn’t stop with us. It changes everything in our lives. “All things become new.”

Yes, because of my saving relationship with Jesus, I am new. I am spiritually reborn. I am a new creature with a new spiritual nature. Praise God! But because I am new in Christ that newness also transforms everything in my life.

Because I am a new creation, my relationships are “new.” Because I am new in Christ, my work is “new.” Because I am a new kind of person, my motivations, desires, and goals are different. I approach life with a “new” attitude. I interact with people in a “new” way. I meet life’s circumstances with a “new” outlook.

Therefore, nothing is the same. Everything is changed. Christ has made all things new.

Discard the Old, Embrace the New

Do you ever feel like you’re lost in a sea of sameness? That your life is common, boring, or dull? Do you ever wish you could do something different, be someone different?

If you have fallen into a tired slump of bland routine, remind yourself of this truth: God has made you into something radical. Believer, you are different, unusual, and unique.

Look at yourself and your life through Jesus’ “new” lenses. See the world with His eyes and embrace the “new” life in Him. Allow His newness to transform everything around you.

Have you forgotten that Jesus makes all things new? In what areas of your life do you need to be reminded of this truth?

His word has purpose – Sign up for it

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Do you believe this?

So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11

We want to see this work.

And we invite you to join us!

We’ll be memorizing this verse (and twelve more in Isaiah 55) this winter. Focusing on one verse at a time, we’ll spend thirteen weeks meditating on foundational truths about who God is (provider, deliverer, wise, powerful,…) and what He promises us (presence, compassion, forgiveness, joy…).

Beginning January 20 and ending April 20, commit to spending time with Him through one verse per week.

His word won’t return to you empty.

Sign up here this week and download any resources you’d like.

Other questions? More answers are here.

Or leave your question/comment below.

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When you’re tired of the old

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or, HOW TO FIND FRESH GRACE

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

Holiday break is over. You’re back at work. Kids are back in school.

And your old problems are back as well.
Is 2014 looking suspiciously like a repeat of 2013?

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Where are those new mercies God promised to bring every morning?

Granted, “new mercies” is old news. “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” was written by the prophet Jeremiah around 575 B.C. to a people heavy with sorrow at the destruction of Jerusalem (Lamentations 3:22-23).

In your own lifetime, maybe you’ve read that verse dozens of times. Maybe you’ve heard it so often that you tune it out now.

The old can become stale.
Until the hunger becomes fresh . . .

How can we receive God’s grace in new ways for our old situations?

1. ASK FOR IT
Begin by asking for fresh grace (Matthew 7:7). Search your heart to distinguish your needs, then lay your requests before the Lord. God delights in giving good gifts to His children and will honor your dependence upon Him.

2. PAY ATTENTION
Once you’ve asked, watch to see how God will answer. His response might not come packaged as you’d expect, so keep eyes and ears open to new ways He may be revealing His mercies to you. Anticipate the unexpected (Ephesians 3:20).

3. GIVE MERCY YOURSELF
Could you be jamming up God’s mercy by refusing to pass it along (Matthew 5:7)? If you’ve become too self-consumed, find another who could use your help. Don’t be surprised at how quickly God’s grace can flow through you to them, healing your own hurts in the process.

4. REFRAME YOUR STORY
If you’ve grown deaf to God’s grace in your life, seek out a fellow believer who can remind you of His goodness you may be overlooking (Proverbs 19:20). Listening to another’s perspective on your story can be enlightening.

5. BELIEVE DIFFERENTLY
Could your expectations be out of whack? Take time to realign your expectations with what God actually promises (Isaiah 41:10). Sometimes we need reminders of the deeper gifts. Believe differently and see if new mercies become uncovered.

6. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.
In the end, remember it’s not up to you to earn your grace; it’s a gift God gives because of who He is, not because of what you do. Trust that He will be faithful; find rest in His steadfast love for you (Deuteronomy 7:9).

Even though you may still feel stuck with the same old problems, you’re never the same old you. Every day you’re being transformed more into the image of Your Creator (2 Corinthians 3:18). Every day is different from the last, and you’ve never experienced God in this day in this exact way before.

Receive His mercies as new in this day, in this moment.
It’s grace at its freshest.

Have you brought old problems into the new year? How have you seen fresh grace for them? Who helps you reframe your story?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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Scriptures for Your New Beginnings

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We are a week into the new year… seven days of January are already on the calendar. Did you make resolutions? Set goals?

I don’t know about you, but whenever I set a new goal or make a decision to change, I start out with great enthusiasm. This is it I’m sure… I won’t give up, the change is going to happen! Rah rah, go team me!

And every time, life gets in the way of my grand plans. The unexpected happens, or I find that the challenge was harder than I anticipated. I waver, I lose confidence.

I rely so heavily on God’s Word for encouragement and guidance, and embarking on new things is no different. Have you had any challenges on your road to new beginnings this year? Take heart, and take some time to meditate on what God has to say about it.

I have put together a few scriptures to remind all of us, including me, of what God means by new beginnings. Print them out and spend some time meditating on them. Let’s embrace His Word and His version of new life! Trust me, it beats all the diets and exercise plans any of us can dream up!

New Beginnings - scripture printableDo you have a favorite amongst these verses? Did we miss a scripture that would fit?

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Resources – Memorize Isaiah 55

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Sign up to memorize Isaiah 55 together! It’ll be easy–one verse per week for thirteen weeks of beautiful promises from God’s word.

Each Monday, beginning January 20, we’ll highlight the verse of the week here at the blog, ending Easter week, April 20.

Fill out the registration form below to receive all the details as well as monthly memorization tips in your email inbox. If you’d like additional accountability, join our Hide His Word Facebook group, follow #HideHisWord on Twitter, and practice with our ScriptureTyper group.

RESOURCES

Print or download as many of these free resources as you’d like. (Resources are for ESV, but use the translation of your choice.)

Also check out Scripture Stickies for purchase. This is a set of removable sticky notes especially for our challenge. Use this code—DONOTDEPART—to get a 10% discount when checking out. Consider the Scripture of the Month Club while you’re there, using the same code for a discount.

INVITE OTHERS

We’d be honored if you’d mention our memory challenge on your blog (download the button here). And tweet or Facebook this:

Want to memorize a Bible chapter? Sign up for Isaiah 55 @DoNotDepart http://wp.me/p1Su7F-2Kb #HideHisWord

Link up coming February 10 for your blog posts about memorizing scripture.

Questions? Comments? Let us know in the comments.

REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED – Join us for our next memory challenge coming soon

It’s coming . . . memorize Bible verses with us

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I’ve found that women don’t want to postpone a closer walk with God until they have more time. Women hungry for God need Him today.
– Janet Pope, [amazon_link id=”0802409644″ target=”_blank” ]His Word in My Heart[/amazon_link]

Want a more intimate relationship with the Word in 2014?

Then come memorize His words with us!

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While memorizing scripture is no guarantee for a closer walk with the Lord, nor is it a command or a necessity, it is one great way to spend more time with Him.

As we see and say and hear the words over and over, we allow the transforming power of God’s Word to alter our thinking, our behavior, and our very lives.
– Janet Pope

But do you think memorizing a whole chapter would be too hard? Then you might be surprised to hear that memorizing connected verses in a single chapter is often easier than memorizing a random set of disconnected verses.

Beginning January 20 through April 20 (Easter), we’ll dig into Isaiah 55, one verse a week. Start spreading the word.

Registration begins on Monday, January 6. Come by to print your resources for 13 weeks in 13 verses full of beautiful truths and promises from the Word.

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Questions or comments?

New Beginnings

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Every year as the clock strikes midnight on December 31, people around the world cheer and welcome a new year. Lists are written, goals are made, resolutions are shared.

Something in us just loves a fresh start.

There is much to commend in setting goals and making resolutions. To search oneself and desire to change for the better is a worthwhile undertaking indeed! Yet as we dive headlong into this new year you might ask yourself… Am I seeking to change myself, or am I seeking the One Who can truly change me?New Beginnings Series - donotdepart.com

Our God is a God of new beginnings!

Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18-19

This month the Do Not Depart team will be exploring God’s Word for the new beginnings God offers us in Jesus Christ. This is a fresh start that is for eternity!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17

Have you already experienced new life in Christ? Are you seeking Him this year for renewal in a specific area of your life? Please let us know in the comments how we can be praying for you!

Recap: Good tidings in modern times

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In the past month we’ve celebrated the Word who became flesh and lived among us. We’ve talked about how to use our gift of words to display God’s glory and to share His truth. It’s all about Good Tidings in Modern Times.Good tidings in modern times

Good tidings tools we’ve shared

Though most ribbons are untied and most gifts are unwrapped, it’s still the right time to use our gift of language to reflect and share about the Word.  In him is life itself!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:1-4)

We’re grateful to have you reading with us at Do Not Depart as we share tools and encouragement to abide in the Word.

 

If your thoughts have already turned to a new year and you just can’t wait for January inspiration, take a look at last year’s theme about Spiritual Disciplines.

How to Grow in Spiritual Disciplines

(from January 2013)

 

Christmas: What to do when it’s over

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Before Christmas, there are designated songs to sing, appropriate decorations to display, and even timely tasks to do. But when it’s suddenly “done,” people sometimes flounder and ask, “What now?”
Good tidings in modern times
Life’s challenges didn’t pause for Christmas, and it doesn’t take long for leftovers and laundry to pile up. So “What now?” What do we do AFTER Christmas? Some of the most humble earthly characters of the incarnation story left a not-so-humble example for us to follow.

“And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” (Luke 2:20)

If our attention and our hearts were truly turned afresh to the coming of Christ as a babe in swaddling clothes as the hope of all men, then it should show on the day after Christmas.

  • The shepherds went back to their regular lives.
  • The shepherds went back as changed people.
  • The shepherds continued to believe what they had heard and seen.
  • The shepherds glorified and praised God.

Most of our readers (and all of our team!) fit more closely into the “shepherds” category than the wise men/kings category. We can take our after Christmas cues from the common folk of old who experienced the not-so-common birth of God’s Son, Jesus.

  • Get back to regular life. What we celebrated changes life today!
  • Get back to work, but be changed because of what you know.
  • Keep on believing in the truth of Christ’s coming.
  • Let your heart be full of praise and overflow in words of praise.

Everyone who heard what the shepherds had to share wondered at the news. As the cultural distractions of the season fade, let’s give our world reason to “wonder” at how Christ’s coming changes every day of our year!

 Other “After Christmas posts” from our team you might enjoy:

5 Tips for Setting Spiritual Growth Goals for the New Year with Kathy Howard

The Most Important Thing to Do This Christmas with Lindsey Bell

After Christmas Instructions with Julie

 

 

 

Repeat the Joy

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We have many favorite Christmas-themed picture books around here.

This is one of our favorites this year.

Repeat the Joy {DoNotDepart.com}

[amazon_link id=”0525422765″ target=”_blank” ]Listen to the Silent Night[/amazon_link] is gorgeously illustrated, focused on the journey to Bethlehem and the beginning of the Word become flesh (John 1:1-4). The steady rhythm the words take when read aloud help you feel the possible emotions of the night.

This is one of my personal favorite pages:

Repeat the Joy {DoNotDepart.com}

Look at that unabashed joy on the shepherd’s face.

Repeat the Joy {DoNotDepart.com}

The urgency of his posture. The importance of that job to spread this new of great joy.

It makes me almost think those shepherds immediately grabbed that good news and ran with it.

But reading Luke 2 reminds me otherwise.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appear to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.” – Luke 2:8-9, NIV

They were what? Terrified?!

Considering the awe-inspiring appearance angels might have had (not necessarily the “happy” simple faces on Christmas crafts), I might’ve been terrified, too.

The angel greeted the shepherds:

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’” – Luke 2:10-11, NIV

That’s pretty upfront. Do not be afraid. I bring good news. Here it is!

Did the angel stop there? Nope. Read on, and we see:

“This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” – Luke 2:12, NIV

The angel told the shepherds this good news outright, and he told the shepherds they would have visual confirmation!

Is this the only message the shepherds receive? Nope.

“Suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” – Luke 2:13-14, NIV

Not only did the angel tell the shepherd the good news and say they’d have visual confirmation, but an entire host of angels appeared to sing praises of God and confirm this great news.

In just seven verses, we have one revelation and two big reminders of immeasurable joy.

The shepherds didn’t hear this good news just once. They heard it three times. Repeated joy.

So off the shepherds run (dashing with that excitement in the illustration above, I imagine) to Bethlehem to see for themselves. (They need another reminder!)

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to the Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” – Luke 2:15-16, NIV

They see him! They actually see Christ the King, born in the humble, new, fresh form of a human baby. The beauty. The joy. Unimaginable, isn’t it?

And so they go, ready to the share the news as they’ve been commissioned to do.

Do they tell just one person? Speak this good news just once?

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them…The shepherds returned, glorying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” – Luke 2:17-18, 20

Who knows how many times these shepherds repeated themselves. But they did. They told many people, and then they returned, still praising, still repeating the joy.

We Need Reminders

We need truths repeated. “Do not be afraid” is one of the most repeated phrases in the Bible (Luke 1:30). The psalms repeat again and again to “rejoice” and to “trust” and that God’s love endures forever (Psalm 136).

We need reminders.

Sometimes I need reminders of the joy myself. Sometimes I need something repeated until I really get it, trust it, understand it. (And I’ve seen the same happen with others, whether it be about faith or about other things, like health or habits.)

Here are five Scriptures to remind yourself or share with others to repeat the joy and share good tidings this Christmas:

  • “The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.” – Psalm 145:13b
  • “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” – John 14:27
  • “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14
  • “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5
  • “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This list is not at all comprehensive. What verses would you add? How can you repeat the joy to yourself and others this Christmas?

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