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I’ve quoted my favorite poem about the New Year many times, and I’ve even used it on printed calendars in decades passed. But since I can’t find it online using search engines, I’ll repeat the first and last verse here for all our new readers who may not have received our 2009 New Year’s newsletter.

What makes the old year old? What makes the new year new?
What makes the winter cold? What makes the blue sky blue?

The year turns around, it’s clear, But if it turns out new,
The newness of your year Is clearly up to you!
— James Dillet Freeman

So there is something for you to think about right now! To help you, here are five “new” verses from the epistles to the churches to show you that you’re really starting this New Year “brand-spanking new.”

1. “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6 ESV). Notice the “now” — “now… we serve in the new way of the Spirit” or “in newness of spirit.” Now that you have Christ in you, there is only one way to live: “in newness of spirit,” or as the Mirror Bible says, “free to be slaves to the newness of spirit-spontaneity.”

In our Bible college days, we heard the phrase, “The services next Sunday will be unusual as usual!” The early Pentecostals were well acquainted with the spontaneity of the spirit! Most unfortunately have become usual as usual, “same old, same old.” You can serve Him in the new spiritual way, using spirit-led spontaneity!

2. “[God] who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (II Corinthians 3:6 ESV). We live for God under a new covenant, a new contract. And as long as we keep within that contract, we will have a more than abundant life. There is no freedom without fences, and God’s covenant has fences so expansive and exciting that we are light-years away from pushing its limits. We are yet to enjoy all the “down payment” of His great grace in our lives. What new aspect of grace are you going to tap into in the New Year?

3. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (II Corinthians 5:17 KJV adapted). You knew I wouldn’t leave that verse out, didn’t you? “Jesus [verse 16] did not reveal a ‘potential’ you, he revealed the truth about you, so that you may know the truth about yourself and be free indeed!” (Francois du Toit). The “therefore” tightly links verse 16 to verse 17, and the “wherefore” (KJV, same Greek word) of verse 16 links to the truth of verses 14-15.

[Unashamed advertising] For a brief introduction see my 72-page book “In Christ: A New Creation.” And if you want to go deeper, get my 128-page book “In Christ, Christ In.”

4. “Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24 ESV). You do the putting on, just like you put your clothes on in the morning. One translation renders it, “clothe yourselves with the new man” (ISV). God has already created the new you, now you “put on the new humanity” in your consciousness and conduct.

“Immerse yourself fully into this God-shaped new man from above!” (Mirror). Think and act like a child of the King! Walk down the street as if you own one side and you’re thinking about buying the other.

5. And our final verse: “[You] have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10 ESV), and read down to verse 17. Again, “put on” like a garment, the new humanity. “The Greek, means ‘the recently-put-on nature’; that lately received at regeneration” (JFB). Be what you already are, not what you think you could be.

“The newness of your year Is clearly up to you!” Have a great New Year! — Peter Wade.