I’m doing a wedding today in the Mountain Brook area of Birmingham. I enjoy performing them. It is hard to keep Billy Idol’s classic 80’s tune out of my head on days like this.

The chorus goes:
“It’s a nice day to start again
It’s a nice day for a white wedding
It’s a nice day to start again”

Now, I don’t want to spiritualize Billy’s song. He would probably give me that well-known sneer. But in it you see one of the main cries of mankind - “start again.” This is a common theme in the human condition. We desire to see renewal in relationships, vision, career, body and spirituality.

We all know that there is something wrong with us. We see that the world needs help. There have been amazing advances in knowledge, technology and wealth in the past few hundred years. Yet even with this, there are as much problems in the First World than in the Third World - maybe even more.

Consumerism reigns. Materialism has chains on the rich and poor alike. Addictions and vices affect the masses. Envy and jealousy separates families and friends. The grasp of true beauty has been lost due to Photoshop and airbrush professionals.

We are tainted. We are unclean. We are arrogant. There is a problem, and it has affected us too. We look for redemption and salvation from our world. We do not find it there. We put on the white mask, yet we know what is underneath.

Enter Billy again:
“Take me back home
There is nothin’ fair in this world
There is nothin’ safe in this world
And there’s nothin’ sure in this world
And there’s nothin’ pure in this world
Look for something left in this world
Start again
Come on”

Looking. Looking for answers. Looking for purity. Looking for meaning.

Enter Christ. Read the following from Colossians 1:15-22. Verses 15-19 talk about Christ’s supremacy, which shows how he renews us. 20-22 show how we are made new.

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

If you have not been born a second time by the Holy Spirit (See John 3) you are still an enemy of Christ. Warning! The wrath of God will fall upon those who do not give their lives to the Son. Surrender to Christ. Be free. You were made to worship God.

If you are already a follower of Christ then 20-22 applies directly to you. Take off the masks. Trade your vices for freedom. You are free. But you must choose to live in it (Galatians 5:1).

It’s a nice day for a white wedding. It’s a nice day to start again.
Go ahead and sing it… I am.

–
David Thew
Sojourn Founding Pastor

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David Thew
Sojourn Pastor
Thewblog