Beginning Again

 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.  2 Peter 2:20

Welcome to the cold of October! And we had snow too. Some Christmas piano music seemed appropriate to the conditions outside this morning, and so I tried to play along but my ups and downs no longer seem to go in the right direction! Piano lessons as a child were provided to us but having stopped practicing and learning some decades ago, my skill at the piano is long gone. In the modern age we like to think of beginning again in areas of our life that have fallen into disuse and so I searched that phrase in the Bible and came up empty. The Word of the Lord does not seem to go there. In faith, looking at the story of Israel and the people's desire to go back to Egypt way back in time of Moses, it seems that the Lord is rather against any beginning again on this journey.

What about being born again as Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3? Is that not beginning again in this life? No, I would say not, for to begin again in this life would be to start over in a life of sin and picking up those natural skills of lying, stealing, coveting, and so on would be our lot for a second time around. And one must assume we would only get better at those things with further practice. No, being born again means to us starting on something entirely new, a new life in Christ which is in opposition to the old life of fallen sin. It is in our new faith quite frustrating to us that the old life tags along constantly trying to get us to begin that again! 

In Christ our Lord we begin anew, like a child. Amen.

Bucky