Leaving the Past to Live in Christ

We all have made mistakes and sinned in the course of our lives. Some of them are serious and the consequences of those sins make our lives, hard to bear. Or maybe it was our parents, whose sins in raising us left us hurt and living life in the shadows of abuse and neglect. Maybe in a past relationship, we were damaged severely by someone else. Or maybe we were the one who has inflicted great hurt upon those we love or were supposed to love the most. But the answer to these things is not to spend the rest of our lives with anger, bitterness, shame, or self-pity. Not to the one who lives by faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Listen to what God says to us in His Word about the past.

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. - Isaiah 43:18-19

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. - Philippians 3:13-15 

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” - Luke 9:62 

When we become Christians, everything changes. Everything.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. - 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

No longer need we seek the approval of men. No longer are our sins held against us, thus we have no right to hold the sins of others against them. Reconciliation is the theme of salvation and this must become our message as well. And we will do more for the Kingdom of God by living our lives out in the joy of our salvation and by offering the same type of grace and mercy that God showed us by sending Jesus to the cross, to others than if we devote our lives to being a witness through our words. Our words matter, but if our lives do not show the lost world Jesus, then we are simply going to ignored.

Whatever and whoever we were before Jesus, is to be forgotten and now our identity is in Him.  Take some time today to dig into your Bible and see who you are in Christ. Then ask yourself this; Am I who God says I am? Or am I who the world says I am? 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. - 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

Let us live with hearts of reconciliation. 

The Christian Perspective on Self-Esteem

I have been reading a book on the Christian’s approach to self-esteem. How we view ourselves and in turn, others, is very important to walk carefully in. We are God’s great work, made in His image, so our perspective in judging both ourselves and others, needs to be Christ-like in nature. Think about this verse and consider working more on changing your heart than on sprucing up your appearance.

1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

It’s ok to dress nice and stay well-groomed, that reflects well upon our creator, but focusing on looks, which our culture is obsessed with, is not a Godly trait.

1 Peter 3:3-4
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

Though written towards women, the principle applies to all of us. Christians, we must get off this bandwagon of the world, we must think differently about both ourselves and each other, then the world does.

Spend some time reading God’s Word and discover WHO you are in Christ. That, my friends, is where we must find our esteem.

I Deserve Better - How Not True That Is

Aren’t you tired of how people treat you? Bad service at restaurants, smart comments from clerks where we do business, and generally speaking a lack of respect is now common in the world we live and do business in. Our family, our friends, and even the people at our church treat us poorly. We deserve better. We are worthy of respect and should be treated better. Who wouldn’t agree with that?

 I suggest if you call yourself a Christian that maybe you don’t deserve better. I suggest that if you were reading your Bible instead of listening to some Oprah-like TV show and seeking Biblical counsel instead of that Freudian psycho-babble the world’s therapists put out you would find that when you became a Christian you sold yourself into a bond-servant relationship in which you gave up those rights.

Start with Philippians 2:1-11

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Count others as more significant than yourselves? Wow! There’s a novel approach to how to be treated. In others words stop thinking about how important you and your rights are and just treat them better than you were treated.

Jesus let the world kill Him. But first He walked the earth for 33 years and did nothing but love and heal people. Oh, sure, He got on the Pharisees. But really He never did anything to them other than try and get them to see their own hypocrisy.

What you and I really deserve is to perish in eternal damnation and to burn in the Lake of Fire. You won’t hear that preached much anymore, but that’s the Biblical truth. The good news of the Gospel is that you and I are sinners and deserve that fate but Jesus Christ came down on earth of His own accord and took upon Himself the weight of our sin. He suffered terribly at the hands of His own people. They beat Him, they spit on Him, they mocked Him, and then they killed Him slowly on a cross. But even worse for Jesus was that He had to pay the price of our sin which is separation from God the Father, something which Jesus had never known through all of eternity. And you’re upset because your steak is a little too well done? You’re upset because you waited ten minutes to get waited on? You don’t like the way that bank teller spoke to you?

I get it guys; I am tired of bad service and mean people. We all lose our tempers at times, we’re only human. But we have got to get something right if we want to keep claiming our faith to a world that looks at us on FaceBook and sees our vitriol spewed out at everyone from the bank teller to our own spouses. We are called to be light to the world for Jesus Christ.

Jesus was clear in Matthew 5:14-16
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

It’s ok to moan and to groan. It’s ok to complain. But maybe we Christians need to be careful what we say on FaceBook and how we speak to the unsaved out in the world. If we need to let go of our frustrations we need to do so behind the scenes. Have a Christian partner who you can share your anger and your irritations with. Share with each other. Ephesians 5:19-20 instructs us how to respond. It says we should “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It’s hard I know. I struggle with the mess this world has become. But through the power of God’s Holy Spirit we can be light. I leave you with this scripture. It is a good place to start a new life of becoming like Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”

God Bless You.