“Behold, if any one is in Christ, there is a new creation, the old has gone; the new has come!”
(II Corinthians 5:17)

Happy New Year Bethel Lutheran Church! In Christ we are a New Creation!

What does it mean to be a New Creation? Well, it means that as Christians we are willing to walk forward in faith. To live as a New Creature means to trust God to do what we have previously relied on ourselves to do, and have failed to do. It follows our countless futile attempts to control, manipulate, and transform others and ourselves into something we’re not. It comes after we give up all that, realizing that although that may be what the old nature longs for, or what others may expect of us—it is not what God wants from us.

As Lutheran Christians we believe that through Holy Baptism we have died and have risen with Christ into newness of life. We are joined to, and belong to, Christ, together with others who have been raised with Christ. By God’s grace we are a New Creation and members of a new community. Saint Paul writes: And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. (I Corinthians 5:15).

As we enter into this New Year, let us at Bethel Lutheran Church continue to live out what it means to be a New Creation in Christ—a people willing to die to ourselves and to seek God and God’s purposes in our lives, ever searching for new ways to touch the hearts of others. Let us proudly continue in the tradition of a church that is always reforming. Let us continue to allow ourselves to be transformed daily, so that our priorities, motivations, and attitudes continue to reflect that of the Risen Christ.

Grace & Peace,

+Pastor Dan

Previous Pastor's Pages

• Fall, 2002