Mark 1:1 Amplified Bible

The Preaching of John the Baptist

1 The beginning of the [facts regarding the] good news of ^[a]Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

Sometimes, the truth is directly in front of our noses – things just need to end – despite all of one’s very best intentions, and “maxed out” maximum efforts, they have reached a point where things can go no further – but they need to.

A job which has no promotional future – that “dead end” job.

A job which is unfulfilling – we have been in it for a long time, dissatisfied, no amount of joy no matter how hard the effort being made to turn things around.

Not meeting our personal educational or family financial goals ….

A wrong career path ….

We have reached an age in life where developmentally, we cannot help but feel the need to try something new, something exciting, invigorating, challenging.

A relationship with some place, something, someone which is not mutually fulfilling or just plain became abusive to either one or both parties involved.

Perhaps we have come to that place in life where we realize that relationship is us unsuccessfully trying to get along with ourselves in a world of uncertainty.

Wrong choices made at the wrong times …. which has caused someone we care about very deeply – to feel betrayed, unloved, immeasurable needless distress.

Poor decisions now being lived out through lasting undesirable consequences.

We are just feeling empty, spiritually unfulfilled in too many ways to count.

Nowhere to turn ….

No place to run ….

No one to turn to ….

No one to trust ….

No more drugs and no more alcohol …. all the bottles are broken and empty.

This vessel we occupy called our body – our flesh and bones – broken, empty.

Life Sentence in a “maximum security prison of our own design and strength.”

Sick and tired of being sick and tired ….

Where do the descriptions end?

Where does the new life, the fresh start in life begin?

When does the new life, the fresh start begin ….

From our state of brokenness – from our state of utter emptiness, with such a severe distrust of everyone and everything reigning and ruling over our souls,

What else is there to try – what else is left for us to literally risk “everything we do not believe we have left to risk – in a “life or death struggle winner take all?”

Perhaps the answer is … the very Creator of our Life, the Author of our life itself!

The question we all dare need to ask ourselves – Do we need a fresh start with God?

If you do, the opening verse of the gospel of Mark has something for you.

It speaks of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to offer new beginnings to all who seek God’s mercy and strength in a time of need.

Mark’s opening words to his narrative remind us of the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

When all which came before was being defined, ruled, by unimaginable chaos.

God spoke into that undefinable, unimaginable, immeasurable chaotic mess.

And afterwards everything which came into existence, which proceeded from the mouth of God, which was created by God, was declared by God “to be good!”

Mark apparently wanted his readers to remember that God is present and at work in the beginning of all good things.

When God created the world, everything was good.

But Adam and Eve sinned against God, and things began to go wrong.

But that was not the end of the story, for God immediately set out to restore what was broken and lost, and his work centered on the coming of Jesus Christ.

What does this mean for us?

Well, we know God loves us and did not turn away from his rebellious creation.

God directly and decisively came into the world, entered (barged) into mans affairs through His Son Jesus, to save us from our sin and its consequences.

Because Jesus came to die in our place, paying the price for our sin, all who with their whole hearts confess and believe in him aren’t under sin’s curse anymore.

They are given a new beginning,

and that is what the gospel (“good news”) is all about.

Have you received a new beginning through Jesus Christ?

Is it time for you or I to consider a new beginning, a fresh start through Jesus?

Here are 3 signs God is calling you to start fresh in a certain area of your life:

1. If Guilt Has Been Hindering us from Moving Forward and Thriving in Life, The truth of Scripture is this: God Wants us to Embrace a Fresh Start with Him

Please read this carefully: I want us to be careful when using the phrase “fresh start” because as Christians we must always remember our “righteousness” in God’s judgement is based on Jesus Christ alone and never upon our own works.

One reason humans crave a fresh start is because we want the chance to do things right on our own – under our own “acceptable terms and conditions.”

We want a clean slate so we can have a chance of keeping our slates clean through our own flawed logic and severely flawed ideas of ‘our’ lack of sin.

But this is not the Christian way. 

For as Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians succinctly teaches each one of us;

Philippians 3:8-9Amplified Bible

⁸ But more than that, I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequaled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him [believing and relying on Him], not having any righteousness of my own derived from [my obedience to] the Law and its rituals, but [possessing] that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

So the necessary first step of embracing your fresh start with God is:

by our fully embracing, surrendering ourselves to the truth, that no matter what has happened in our life, no matter what sins we have committed, we are still righteous before God if you have placed your whole faith in Jesus Christ because your righteousness is now based on Christ and not your own actions.

With that being said, even when we know these biblical truths intellectually, the actual real life lessons of our actual real life experiences can feel very different.

As Christians, even though we are fully righteous in Christ because he has justified us through our faith, we can still be burdened with shame and guilt because of the lingering memories, ongoing consequences, of past mistakes.

God does not want this for us.

So if you have committed a sin that you keep thinking about and is holding you back from living the life you know God wants you to live, it’s time to let that go.

The choices cannot be undone –

Decisions cannot be undecided

Consequences will forever still be the consequences we have to live into …

Now is absolutely the right time, God’s Kairos, to embrace God’s grace:

Psalm 103:11-13Amplified Bible

¹¹ 
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear and worship Him [with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence].
¹² 
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
¹³ 
Just as a father loves his children,
So the Lord loves those who fear and worship Him [with awe-filled respect and deepest reverence].

If you have confessed it with your whole heart (Romans 10:9-13)

and repented, it’s over …. FOREVER ….

2 Corinthians 5:16-19Amplified Bible

¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view [according to worldly standards and values]. Though we have known Christ from a human point of view, now we no longer know Him in this way. ¹⁷ Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. ¹⁸ But all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ [making us acceptable to Him] and gave us the ministry of reconciliation [so that by our example we might bring others to Him], ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s sins against them [but canceling them]. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation [that is, restoration to favor with God].

God’s grace is ALWAYS and ABSOLUTELY enough, 

Romans 5:20-21Amplified Bible

²⁰ But the Law came to increase and expand [the awareness of] the trespass [by defining and unmasking sin]. But where sin increased, [God’s remarkable, gracious gift of] grace [His unmerited favor] has surpassed it and increased all the more, ²¹ so that, as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness which brings eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God’s grace is greater than our guilt. Lay it down. God has forgiven you if you confessed it (1 John 1:9).

You now need to forgive yourself, live in His Grace and start fresh with the Lord.

2. If Too Many Rules and Obligations Have Sucked the Life Out of You, It’s Time to Start Fresh with the Lord

As Christians, our journeys often start with an immense sense of freedom and joy when we realize we are not saved by obeying the Law but rather through faith in Jesus Christ and by God’s grace alone.

However, what too often happens as we begin to walk the Christian path is that we begin to subtly or not so subtly, overtly, covertly, start picking back up those self same rules and regulations that by His resurrection, Christ set us free from.

While God definitely want us to read our Bibles, pray daily, go to church, take communion, serve others, obey a whole host of other biblical commandments, God doesn’t want us to return to our old self-defeating ways, become legalistic.

Now that we have been saved by God’s freeing grace, we do not have to obey his commands out of fear and with a religious spirit.

Rather, now we can obey God’s commands because we want to, because it is a joy, and because we know it pleases the Lord.

If you have lost that perspective and have begun to dutifully obey the Bible rather than out of the freedom Christ has given you, this is a definitely a sign God wants us to reconsider our “self-defeating ways” start fresh with him.

The path forward is not to now throw away your Bible and act like there are no commands God tells us to follow.

Rather, the key is to embrace the freedom you have in Christ that has nothing to do with your obedience to the law.

When you and I know that you and I are free because of the free gift of Christ, you and I can obey God from a different spirit.

You can obey him out of freedom and not out of obligation.

Galatians 5:1Amplified Bible

Walk by the Spirit

5 It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].

Galatians 5:13-14Amplified Bible

¹³ For you, my brothers, were called to freedom; only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the ^[a]sinful nature (worldliness, selfishness), but through ^[b]love serve and seek the best for one another. ¹⁴ For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is fulfilled in one precept, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself [that is, you shall have an unselfish concern for others and do things for their benefit].”

So if the overly complex, hard and inflexible “bondage” of rules and obligations have made you feel “chained” enslaved, to an old and outdated system of living and loving and stolen your freedom in Christ, it is definitely time to start fresh.

Just make sure you are starting fresh in the name of God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit – not in some new manifestation, same old wardrobe of worldly backwardness.

Embrace God’s grace.

Obey God …

not in order to be saved by him but because you already are saved by him.

3. If the Circumstances in Your Life Are Giving You a Fresh Start in a Certain Area of Your Life, This Is a Sign God Wants You to Embrace This with Him

Recognize sometimes we don’t need a total fresh start in every area of our lives.

Sometimes our walk with God is going great and we just need to keep growing with him.

What we often need is just a fresh start in one specific area of our lives like in the area of raising newly teenage children, our physical health, or our careers.

God is in control of everything, so if the circumstances of your life are panning out in a way where you have the chance to start fresh in an area you know you really need a fresh start – don’t fight it, embrace it.

For example, if you know your children are entering “dating life” and you remember your own efforts way back when was an utter mess for awhile but God had cleared the deck and there is now one relationship (wife) in your life,

see this as a fresh start with sharing a new facet of life with your child and a new life lesson for you both to be cherished and experienced with the Lord.

Or if you lost your job and now you are needing a new one, this can be a fresh beginning of learning, working on something even better than what you lost.

In short,

if you lost something in life, perhaps it is God’s Kairos, God’s time! God allowed that loss to happen to you because he wanted to get excited, to give you the new opportunity to start over, completely a fresh with him in that area of your life –

As much as you may or may not realize, desire or not desire, a deeper, fresher connection – relationship with God, with Savior Jesus through the Word of God:

The beginning verses of The Gospel of Mark immediately gives each one of us uniquely Christ Centered Kairos moments to immediately kickstart our hearts:

Mark 1:1Amplified Bible

The Preaching of John the Baptist

1 The beginning of the [facts regarding the] good news of ^[a]Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Lord, my teacher, sometimes I find that I am too often confused when I need to make important decisions about my life’s work, my relationships with myself, my family and my friends, my health, or finances. Too many times I have failed and have failed very badly and the consequences are ever before me, plaguing me with their “finger pointing” and soul piercing eyes. Show me the way I should go when I just don’t know which way to turn. Help me remember to come to you, rather than trying to figure everything out on my own. Guide me along the best pathway for my life. Advise me and guide me, Shepherd over me. Help me to listen to your guidance and not resist it. I thank you that your unfailing love surrounds those who trust you. My God, Thank you for these Kairos opportunities to start afresh through thy Son. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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