Christ Church Daily Devotion Dec 20 2023

Today's Daily Devotion focuses on Isaiah 43:16-21, where God speaks of making a way through the sea and doing a new thing. The passage emphasizes forgetting the past and being open to God's new work. The message is that God provides water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, giving hope and life. The transcription also mentions the significance of bridges and the Blythe Ferry closure, highlighting how bodies of water can be barriers or conveyors of life. It encourages us to be open and attentive to the new things God is doing in our lives and the world, bringing hope to others. Welcome to Christ Church's Daily Devotion for December 20th, 2023. Today we will be reading from Isaiah chapter 43, verses 16 through 21. This is what the Lord says, He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick. Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past, see I am doing a new thing, now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself, that they may proclaim my praise. When we first moved to the area in 1992, the Blythe Ferry was still in operation for cars to be transported across the Tennessee River on Highway 60 between the towns of Birchwood and Dayton, Tennessee. In 1994, the current bridge across the river was completed and the Blythe Ferry closed. The bridge opened up many possibilities for employment and the economy on both sides of the river. Reverend Michael E. Williams writes, bodies of water serve as both barriers and conveyances of life. In an era of bridges and airplanes, when we can easily drive or fly over bodies of water, we forget the power the images had for earlier ages. Reverend Williams continues, in verse 19 where God says, see, I am doing a new thing, for the people then, the imagery is shifting from water as a barrier to water as a conveyor of life. Are we open and prepared for the new thing God might be doing each day in the world and in our own lives as well? This thread of God's doing a new thing is woven throughout all of scripture. In 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Paul writes, so if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away, look, new things have come into being. Sometimes we are resistant to the new thing God is doing in the world and in our lives, but this is the gift of hope from the prophet Isaiah, which the people carried with them. This is the gift from the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. This is the same God who made a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, verse 16, and will now create this new gift, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I have formed for myself, that they may proclaim my praise. In today's personal worship option, God invites us to always be listening and watching for what new thing God is doing in the people and circumstances around us. Dear God, open our eyes and ears to the new things you are doing and lead us to bring your hope and life-giving powers to others.