Advertisements everywhere trumpet the news that their product can make your floors, finish, headlights, skin, etc. etc. look like new again.  We search for ways to look younger and to take steps back to the past where things were easier or brighter or more hopeful.  Marketers know this and use it to sell products of many different kinds.  What they may not realize is that they are taking a page from a much older book about a return to former times and become new again.  One of the themes of Scripture that runs through the whole Bible is God’s renewing of the chosen people.  God set up ways for people to understand that a mistake is not the end or their relationship but through an atoning sacrifice, the heart, the mind, the soul is renewed.  When people could not even follow the simple, and increasingly not so simple rules, God provided the Perfect sacrifice, once for all so we can re refreshed, renewed and be whole again.  Try this: every time you see a commercial about how to make your home or car or body “like new” or “younger” or better, remember that God has had the same plan forever and there is no cost to you, no postage, no waiting.  God is always there ready to forgive.   Read Ezekiel 36:25-27 and 1 Corinthians 5:17 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Pastor Ed