For years I thought I was a Christian. This involved bedtime prayers, Sunday school, striving to be a good person, and pleasing my parents. Christianity, to me, was the same as being a good moral American citizen. All my friends and family went to church, attended the bean suppers, and baked cookies for the church fair. If anyone asked me what religion I was, I honestly would say, "I am a Christian. " It never occurred to me that I wasn't. Talk about deception, But still this wasn't my greatest deception.
The irony of all this didn't occur to me until after I was convicted of sin, repented and asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. By faith, I was now a real Christian and growing to have a personal relationship with Jesus, through the person of the Holy Spirit.
For the first ten years, I struggled confessing my sin over and over again, trying to change myself. It was exhausting. My new Christianity wasn't much fun. I was more concerned about changing my behavior to be more like Jesus than a desire to know Him personally.
Then one morning in prayer, I heard this voice-thought,"My daughter why are you still trying to change your old nature? It is on My cross." What a revelation.
My greatest deception was, I had been striving in my flesh, to put a patch of Jesus on my old nature, forgetting that I had died in Christ. I was now a new creation in Christ Jesus. The old was gone and the new has come.
God's ways are totally opposite to this world's system. It feels so good not to have to patch up my old self and to know that Jesus is more concerned with my new nature. By faith I now live in His resurrected life and my life is hidden in Christ in God. (Col.3:3).
It is true freedom. I am no longer bound to the law of sin and death, but have been set free by the law of life in Jesus Christ (Romans 8:2). To be free from guilt and condemnation is the greatest blessing in my life. The Lord has given me a new heart of righteousness and the Holy Spirit to enable me to obey Him.
I thank the Lord for His grace and His mercy renewed every morning. Life doesn't get any better than to know you are loved and accepted by the most gracious person in the whole universe--the Lord Jesus Christ and that His Father is also excited about you.
There are times when I still make bad choices. I hate my sin. It cost Jesus His life., but I don't feel condemned, but convicted. I am so grateful for the gift of repentance and forgiveness. It is God's sustaining grace that will bring me home one day to Him. Until then, I will praise my Lord and worship Him ONLY.
Showing posts with label old nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label old nature. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Humpty Dumpty's Great Fall
I have to chuckle. Do you remember as a kid the old nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put humpty dumpty together again.?" What a great picture of the fall of Adam. Adam was all together, perfectly whole, until he fell from grace. I think we all can relate to Humpty Dumpty. We all have fallen short of the glory of God. However, the part about 'all the kings men COULDN'T put Humpty dumpty together again really spoke to me. Why am I trying to put myself together again?
I think one of the MOST deceiving scams of the Devil is for us as Christians to fall into the belief of striving in the flesh to put ourselves back together again with all the self help books and even reading the bible,etc. If it is possible, the devil will even try to deceive us into believing that God is upset with us and that He really doesn't care about the deep pain in our souls or how we feel when tragedy or abuse has occurred in our lives. We are led to believe that we are to keep a stiff upper and bear our burden. However, all that we really have to do is to look at the cross and see His LOVE for us. He did not leave us in our sin to struggle against this evil, dark world. He came to redeem and to bring us back to Himself.
We all were born into a fallen world and wicked things will happen to us, but that is NOT the heart of our Father.. In this fallen world, sinners will act out GOOD AND EVIL. The fruit of the tree of good and evil will be exercised.. As human beings we have NO idea how wicked we are and the evil that we are capable of inflicting on anyone. The nightly news will verify that truth!
Let's face it. APART from the Lord and His merciful grace, we are ALL LOST, very FRAGMENTED and don't know who we really are! Now that might sound a little ridiculous to you. Of course, you know who you are. REALLY? I was pretty confident that I knew who I was until after I became a Christian. Then the light bulb went on and I was really confused. I soon found out that I had no real identity. Oh, I could say my name and express the things that I liked and disliked. I could communicate with people, and I knew what I wanted to accomplish in this life. But as to who I really was as a person, I never realized that I was not a WHOLE person. I was emotionally fragmented. Physically, I felt healthy, ate a fairly good diet, and got plenty of sleep. But what I didn't know about myself was that I needed emotional healing. All the 'kings horses and all the kings men, could never put me back together again," UNTIL....by the grace of God, He started to deliver my soul from deep pockets of resentment, bitterness, self pity, covetousness and hidden pride that ruled my heart. It was then that I realized that I had a NEW identity and that everything was changing. The change would NOT come all at once, but I was NOT the same person.
I had no idea what the emotional effects of my past would have on my new found faith in Jesus. Hidden deep in my soul were pockets of sin keeping me captive to my old life. Resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, and self-pity had a strong emotional control on me. They had to be broken. Sin blinds us, but Jesus takes the blindfolds off so that we can repent and be set free.
As believers in the living God, Jesus our savior and Lord, we each have a redemptive story to tell. I don't want to spend time with mine, but to encourage you with the truth. Jesus is alive and because He lives, we live also.He has the power to deliver us and to heal us from our past. Jesus Christ is our WHOLENESS. He is the ONLY ONE who can' heal and make ' humpty dumpty' NEW! It is a miracle, because 'humpty dumpty became a NEW CREATION. There is no way all those shattered pieces could be put together again. 'Humpty dumpty' has a NEW identity.
When I started to BELIEVE that I was a new creation in Christ Jesus and that the old man in Adam was crucified in Jesus, I wanted to repent and turn away from my past. Satan was NOT going to deceive me any longer . It took time to repent, to forgive those who had hurt and offended me, to understand the word of God, to exercise my FAITH and to sincerely BELIEVE that God REALLY LOVED ME. He wanted to deliver and heal me. God was on my side!
I just want to encourage you today that if you are a believer and struggle in your faith, know that God is writing His own redemptive story in your life to glorify Himself.. It is an amazing story and one day you will look back and say, "God you are incredible. You have changed my heart to love and worship only you. I don't know how you did it or when you did it, but, all I know is that You are doing it all the time and it is a gracious mystery of faith."
I think one of the MOST deceiving scams of the Devil is for us as Christians to fall into the belief of striving in the flesh to put ourselves back together again with all the self help books and even reading the bible,etc. If it is possible, the devil will even try to deceive us into believing that God is upset with us and that He really doesn't care about the deep pain in our souls or how we feel when tragedy or abuse has occurred in our lives. We are led to believe that we are to keep a stiff upper and bear our burden. However, all that we really have to do is to look at the cross and see His LOVE for us. He did not leave us in our sin to struggle against this evil, dark world. He came to redeem and to bring us back to Himself.
We all were born into a fallen world and wicked things will happen to us, but that is NOT the heart of our Father.. In this fallen world, sinners will act out GOOD AND EVIL. The fruit of the tree of good and evil will be exercised.. As human beings we have NO idea how wicked we are and the evil that we are capable of inflicting on anyone. The nightly news will verify that truth!
Let's face it. APART from the Lord and His merciful grace, we are ALL LOST, very FRAGMENTED and don't know who we really are! Now that might sound a little ridiculous to you. Of course, you know who you are. REALLY? I was pretty confident that I knew who I was until after I became a Christian. Then the light bulb went on and I was really confused. I soon found out that I had no real identity. Oh, I could say my name and express the things that I liked and disliked. I could communicate with people, and I knew what I wanted to accomplish in this life. But as to who I really was as a person, I never realized that I was not a WHOLE person. I was emotionally fragmented. Physically, I felt healthy, ate a fairly good diet, and got plenty of sleep. But what I didn't know about myself was that I needed emotional healing. All the 'kings horses and all the kings men, could never put me back together again," UNTIL....by the grace of God, He started to deliver my soul from deep pockets of resentment, bitterness, self pity, covetousness and hidden pride that ruled my heart. It was then that I realized that I had a NEW identity and that everything was changing. The change would NOT come all at once, but I was NOT the same person.
I had no idea what the emotional effects of my past would have on my new found faith in Jesus. Hidden deep in my soul were pockets of sin keeping me captive to my old life. Resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, and self-pity had a strong emotional control on me. They had to be broken. Sin blinds us, but Jesus takes the blindfolds off so that we can repent and be set free.
As believers in the living God, Jesus our savior and Lord, we each have a redemptive story to tell. I don't want to spend time with mine, but to encourage you with the truth. Jesus is alive and because He lives, we live also.He has the power to deliver us and to heal us from our past. Jesus Christ is our WHOLENESS. He is the ONLY ONE who can' heal and make ' humpty dumpty' NEW! It is a miracle, because 'humpty dumpty became a NEW CREATION. There is no way all those shattered pieces could be put together again. 'Humpty dumpty' has a NEW identity.
When I started to BELIEVE that I was a new creation in Christ Jesus and that the old man in Adam was crucified in Jesus, I wanted to repent and turn away from my past. Satan was NOT going to deceive me any longer . It took time to repent, to forgive those who had hurt and offended me, to understand the word of God, to exercise my FAITH and to sincerely BELIEVE that God REALLY LOVED ME. He wanted to deliver and heal me. God was on my side!
I just want to encourage you today that if you are a believer and struggle in your faith, know that God is writing His own redemptive story in your life to glorify Himself.. It is an amazing story and one day you will look back and say, "God you are incredible. You have changed my heart to love and worship only you. I don't know how you did it or when you did it, but, all I know is that You are doing it all the time and it is a gracious mystery of faith."
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