Pastor Ben’s Ponderings

“For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again,
but the wicked shall fall by calamity.”  (Proverbs 24:16)

I recently read a story about a small town in Maine that was going to be submerged under water due to a power plant project. They were going to make a man-made lake. The people of the town were given many months to arrange their affairs and relocate. During those months, a curious thing happened. All improvements stopped. No painting was done. No repairs were made on the buildings, roads, or sidewalks. And so, a long time before the waters came, the town looked totally uncared for and abandoned, even though the people had not yet moved away. One citizen explained, “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.” That town was cursed with hopelessness because it had no future. But, unlike the town, every citizen of that town could experience a new beginning.

Many heroes of Scripture needed new beginnings in their lives: Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3; Moses after he killed the Egyptian in Exodus 2:12; David after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11; Elijah after an emotional breakdown in the desert in 1 Kings 19; Even the disciples after Good Friday in Matthew 26. Maybe YOU need a new beginning.

Through the experiences of life, God shows us that the things of earth are only temporary, but our relationships with each other and with God are eternal. God will always prove to be faithful even when we have to start over. As children of God, our faith for the future is not in economic and political systems, but in the kingdom of God!