1. Life of New Creature in Christ
In Matthew 16:24, Jesus asked us to deny ourselves, carry our crosses and follow Him. Our lives and work should exemplify transparency, joy, truth, humility, good relationships, sincerity, selfless sacrificial service, leadership, trustworthiness, accountability, reconciliation, encouragement, generosity, timely fulfillment of obligations, proper use of time, money, resources, etc (basically the fruits of the spirit – Galatians 5:22-23). These are the values that ultimately matter and the values that we truly cherish (whatever else may be one’s social status, wealth, skill/talents/gifting, etc.
1.1 Growth by New Identity
These values grow, not just by “trying harder”, but as a result of our new understanding and the new identity in Christ in the new covenant: “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
2. New Year Greetings of a Different Kind
2.1 More Like Jesus Than Last Year
On the occasion of the new year, we should be able to greet each other, not just with a “Happy New Year”, but we should be able to greet each other that we have grown and transformed to be more like Jesus in the past year and that we will progressively transform to His likeness in the coming year with renewed strength, by God’s grace and help (“being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory” – 2 Cor 3:18)
2.1 Focus on Character Building
Let such character building, transformation, and carrying our crosses to follow Him, be our theme/focus for the upcoming year 2022. Please watch this short video of clippings on transformation and the new covenant: https://youtu.be/iueFgTIztfI (full message link in the description).