Coming Soon! Chamblee-Tucker Christian Fellowship, Formerly Known As New Covenant Community Church! June 3, 2012.

When I first began this devotion last January, I wrote," "Behold, I am doing a new thing"! But as I wrote and edited and re-edited, it felt old and depressing.  The trailers were still on the grounds, empty and useless.  The sanctuary was deemed cracked and unsafe, despite years of work, cable, reinforcement, tape, paint, creativity, imagination, and funds to make it otherwise. Stacked parts from the disassembled playground cluttered the grounds.  Parking timbers lay rotting. Faded parking lines blended into the asphalt.  Trash filled, overgrown, and hard to navigate hedges bordered the property along Chamblee-Tucker. In spite of plans, we still had no permit to move forward on the project. This didn't feel like a new thing to me, it felt like more of the same, magnified ten times. My spirit felt like the grounds and facilities looked: chaotic, unfinished, angry, and unclean. I just couldn't send this devotion. It felt like a lie.

Right around that time light started. God sent shakers. My granddaughter Harper Grey Barrett was born. Sons, daughters, strangers, and friends in Christ prophesied new things and renewed things over us.  Schools, temples, spaces, expanded tents, and on and on were proclaimed. Joseph Will Williams leads worship. Magen Lowery substitutes for Sarah,  as Levi Martin Schofield was born. Jon Respaldiza interns  for us and finishes course work for his degree.  Many leaders, including Kenneth Forrester, bring Alpha to a successful ending.  Our little Julio steps up and collects communion cups. There is not enough paper to record the names or events. Good things continue.
 And now!?  The land is cleared and the trailers are gone. Our things are stored. The old sanctuary is secured and safe.  We have had a great stay at Embry Hills Club. Students and Mr. Brown of Warren Tech School have trimmed our hedges, and we are lending them our chairs for their graduation, tonight.  Money is raised and will continue to be raised for the new roof project and the Ezra Fund. The materials for the new building are arriving every day. The detention pond is in place and we are getting ready to pour the concrete foundation.  On Sunday, May 27th, we will celebrate our church picnic as New Covenant Community Church. The next Sunday, June 3rd, we will celebrate Jesus with our new name, Chamblee-Tucker Christian Fellowship.

God does things like that. A Virgin girl becomes a Virgin Mother. You have to call that new or at least, pretty rare. A barren woman has a baby and she becomes mommy and her husband becomes daddy. That is God's calling card, but it is something new to them. The old system of killing animals for mankind's sin is replaced. The "Lamb of God" is born and His blood will replace all of the old sacrifices. New! Good News! Unfulfilled promises are fulfilled. A new thing is come to pass! My son and daughter-in-law have a baby and this makes my wife and me, Gamma and Gampa!  Harper may change all of that.  This is almost as old as Adam and Eve, but it is new every time since then. God gives people new names. They become new people. From Abram to Abraham! From Sarai to Sarah! From Jacob to Israel! Simon to Peter! Saul to Paul! New names for new seasons, and new lives! New spaces, new places, new name, and new life in Christ! He remains the same: yesterday, today, and forever! "Behold. I am doing a new thing….. Behold. I make all things new"!