One more year has gone into history and we have entered into a new year. We all look forward to receiving gifts on our birthdays and on festivals and also the New Year’s Day. Do you know what gifts our heavenly Father has in store for you this year? What promises He has for you? Let’s search the Scriptures and see what they are!
Rom.6: 4. ‘Even so we also should walk in newness of life.’ We must not be as we were previously or do as we were. Our old life, which was full of sin and shame, is dead and buried with Jesus (Yahshua), in our baptism. We rise with Jesus (Yahshua) in the new life. It is through the glory of the Father that we rise and walk in the new life, a life free from all bondages of sin. 1 Cor.5: 7 says,’ purge out therefore the old leaven…’ We should put away from ourselves everything that comes between God (Yah) and us, everything that corrupts us. Eph.2: 10 says that we are His workmanship...created unto good works…that we may walk in them. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.(Rom.8: 1)

Rom.7: 6.’We should serve in the newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter’. We must change our ways. We must still serve by new spiritual rules and principles, in spirit and in truth. It is to be of a spiritual nature and not as per the letter of the law. The worship required under the gospel is of the heart and spirit. When we say ‘serve’ we are ministering or attending to the needs of others. As ministers therefore, we are ambassadors of Christ (Messiah). (2 Cor.5: 20), we are ministers of Christ (Messiah). (1 Cor.4: 1) As ministers of the Lord the Holy Spirit sends us to people who have need of the Gospel. We can see in Acts.13: 4, how Paul was sent by the Holy Spirit to Cyprus.

Eph.4: 24.’And that you put on the new man, which after God (Yah) is created in righteousness and true holiness’. This passage along with Col.3: 10, proves that man was filled with righteousness, holiness and knowledge, before he fell. We read in Gen.1: 26, that God (Yah) created man ‘in His image’. So man was acquainted with the Creator. But after he fell, he lost the knowledge of God (Yah). The new man means a new nature, new principles, new hearts and new spirits. The new man lives a new life really repenting of sin and does not return to it again.
All this is not by the power of man, but by the Spirit of God; this is God's work, and not man's. The soul is "created", and therefore is not in man's power, which cannot create; it is only God who can create. He has created it after his image, and in his likeness; which is righteous and truly holy.
This holiness is not the empty holiness of the Jews or the pretended holiness of the hypocrites
This kind of a new man is renewed everyday; he increases in holiness, righteousness and grows in grace daily. His knowledge increases, of his old condition or state, and of his need of Christ (Messiah) and His salvation.

2 Cor.5: 17. ‘If any man be in Christ (Messiah), he is a new creation.’ That is if any man accepts Jesus Christ (Yahshua Messiah) as his savior, if his way of life changes, his thinking changes, his feelings towards his neighbors change, if he has become a true Christian, then it is right to say that he is a new creation.
He was a child of satan, he is now a child of God; he was a slave of sin, and his works led to death; he is now free from sin, and has his fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. He was before full of pride and wrath; he is now meek and humble. He previously lived for this world alone; now he lives for God, and he looks not at the things, which are seen, but at the things, which are eternal. The old man is dead and a new man has risen in his place, a man after the image of His Creator.

Ezek.11: 19. ‘And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you: and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh.’ These words prophesied by Ezekiel, referred to the captivity of Israel in Babylon. Their hearts went far from the true God (Yah) and they worshipped idols. Unity of hearts was impossible but now when they take away the ‘abominations’ (v.18) then their hearts will be one, that is, they will unite in their hearts. A new heart would be given to them. Their hearts were hardened in sin, had become insensitive towards God (Yah) and what was good. Their hearts were senseless and stubborn and it is only by the grace of God (Yah) that such hearts can change.
The same prophecy holds good for us today.
Our hearts have become immune to the needs of the world. We are so busy in our own lives that we have stopped drawing a line between good and bad and do what we think is right and not what is right. We have forgotten the great commission which our Messiah gave us, ‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’

The year 2004, which has just started, however, is according to the solar calendar. The Biblical calendar is a Lunar calendar and starts in the month of Nisan (Ex.12: 2; Esther.3: 7), which corresponds to March / April. For more information on the Biblical months please refer the Quiz page of ‘Trumpets’ April 2003, or write to us at the address given below.