A New Year and New Opportunities !

The dawn of a new year always presents us with time for reflection and meditation. The old year is gone, with all its ups and downs, with all its victories and defeats, with all its progress and regress. Standing on the threshold of a new year we are presented again with the reality of our mortality and at the same time the opportunities that lie before us.
In my meditations on Scripture this week I have found myself thinking about Simeon in Luke 2. His messianic expectation was graciously fulfilled by God and the old saint rejoiced to hold the hope of the world in his arms as Jesus was presented in the temple by Mary and Joseph.
The comment of Luke regarding the Lord Jesus is significant and encouraging to think about at the dawn of a new year. Luke 2v32 'a light for revelation to the Gentiles...', Simeon is recorded here as quoting the words of Isaiah 49v6. The promised Messiah who was destined not only for the glory of Israel, but as a light for revelation to the Gentiles.
A few decades later the apostle Paul would recall this scripture in the face of Jewish hostility to the gospel in Antioch in Psidia, Acts 13v14ff. With the gospel beginning to have a substantial impact upon the Gentiles, the apostle remembered the words of the prophet Isaiah too in Acts 13v47.
What is remarkable about Paul's use of the prophet's words is that they seem to refer not to Christ directly, but to Paul and the witness of the apostles. This is of course in keeping with the fact that the apostles were indeed Christ's representatives to the nations declaring His gospel and establishing the Christian church.
As I pondered this use of Isaiah 49v6 by the apostle Paul I was stirred to realize that this is now the task of the church, to take the gospel of Christ to the nations, to function as a light for the nations, just as God intended.
With Christ as our King, and the apostle's doctrine as our teaching, we are called by God to move into the new year seeking new opportunities to bring the message of Christ to the nations ! What a privilege ! What a blessing ! What a challenge ! The new year brings us new opportunities ! May God guide us and direct us to maximize our opportunities to take the message of Christ to as many was we can ! May God guide us strategically to spread the message of His light that we may bring salvation to the ends of the earth !