S04E062, New Life needs the Old, Andy B 2 Minute Video

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A friend in the US sent me a photo from her garden. And it struck me just how much the old vegetation had protected the new flowers growing, because the old had literally covered over the new, during the winter.

With Easter just a week away at the time of writing this theme of old becoming new, is very much on my mind!

I’m reminded how the terrible eruption of Mount Saint Helens resulted in the devastating loss of much forest. And yet that loss also allowed smaller plants, flowers and bushes the chance to grow and thrive because they finally saw lots of sunlight – that the forest canopy overhead had denied it prior to the eruption.

It’s easy to see devastation as just an end. But, with Jesus Christ, the end is never the end.

Jesus is known as the Redeemer. And it more than a name. Because Jesus can redeem everything in our life, especially those things were just the end. With Jesus, they can also be the beginning.

Just a thought...

Andy B

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0:00
So another Andy B 2 Minute Video. And I was sent a photo from a friend of mine in the US. And he's been doing some gardening and in one of these photos, that you can see now, you can see new life trying to poke through the old life, the old flowers and vegetation from a previous year. And yet this new life is trying to burst through.

0:22
And as we look ahead to Easter, at the time of filming, just one week away, that's the very essence of what excites me personally, as a Christian, about Easter as a season! Because that new vegetation, those new, beautiful, little flowers and plants, needs the old vegetation because it protects it. And you can see how it's bursting through from underneath. And it protects it and it's wonderful.

0:47
I've used this illustration many, many times. But when Mount Sount Helens erupted, all the trees for miles, and miles, were blown away, blown out, blown down, blown away from, from where they were. And all of a sudden, all this new vegetation started to grow because they hadn't had a chance to grow, because of all these big trees. Once thetrees are gone the little tiny flowers and bushes and shrubs had an opportunity to finally grow, because now they were getting the sun.

1:16
We all have history. We all have old stuff. But some of those old things actually can be quite protective.

1:23
Here's a nice, little, yucky thought for you. The skin that you see is dead on your hand. It's dead skin. The reason we cut, and we bleed, is we cut through the old skin, to the new skin, which is underneath. The old skin protects us. It protects the new. And it's good to have things that protect us.

1:40
And when I'm thinking about churches, this is where my brain's going today. When we're thinking about churches, and we think about those people who've been in that church for a long time, and sometimes we can see those blockages. We can see them as people who are just stopping change. And yeah, there's definitely a load of that going on in the UK church! But at the same time, actually, these people who have been there for a long time they were there before you and I might have arrived. Actually, they've been keeping that church going. So let's not disrespect the old. The old is just as important as the new.

2:08
The old feeds the new it doesn't become lesser. And the new then will feed new, new, if you like new stuff.

2:15
So here's my thought. It's spring. It's Easter. Maybe there's some vegetation that's blocking your view from the sunlight. God wants to wash that away, clear it away, so that you can grow and you can flourish.

2:28
Just a thought