Ministerial Musings for 082612
Last week I spoke about not ignoring the beginning of
Scripture. The point I was making was this: if we do not understand where we
come from, where we are or where we are going means nothing. We were all born
naturally. Human children of human parents in a fallen and sinful world, with
Adams sin stain on us. That is the basic truth of the Old Testament. Because of
that sinful state of birth we are separated from God. For most of us it was
decades before we came to accept Christ as our Lord and savior. All through
those years we led a life that was not perfect in the eyes of God; therefore we
had some things that we needed to repent of. Each one of us, who has accepted
Jesus as our Lord and Savior should have gone through something like this:
“Jesus I need you in my life. I am sorry for the things I have done that are
not pleasing to you. Please clean up my life, and make me new again.” The
process may be different for each of us, and the words are always unique
between someone and Jesus, but overall you probably went through something like
that. What seems to be at issue with a number of people is what happens after
that. I assume that when you prayed something like what is above, that you said
yes to Jesus in your life.
Therefore: 1)
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away and the
new has come! (2 Cor 5:17) The sinful part of you is dead! You are now a spirit
filled being covered in the Grace of God, through the mercy given to you by
Jesus Christ.
2) You
are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in
you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit if Christ, he does not belong to
God. (Romans 8:9) each one of you who said yes to Jesus Christ, and were
baptized in Him received the Gift of the Holy Spirit. That means you are no
longer a sinner (which means unsaved, unbeliever) but a saint, a child of God.
We know this because: “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and
brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have, redemption,
the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13-14) this happened the instant we said yes
to Christ’s saving grace and mercy.
3)
Unfortunately most people seem to have trouble with this thought. As Dr.
Anderson wrote in his book “Discipleship Counseling” “Nobody pushed the clear
button in our memory bank. In fact there is no clear button on the computer
operation going on between our ears. Everything that we previously learned and
experienced before salvation is still recorded in our minds.” Fortunately we
have the programing instructions to fix that The Apostle Paul, writing to the
Romans put it this way: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
(Romans 12:2)
I pray that each one of you will understand that when we
accepted Jesus Christ into our lives, left the old sinner behind. Through His
grace and mercy we became new creatures in Christ, and through the study of
scripture, prayer and God’s ongoing transformative power in our life can
reprogram our minds to be useful servants of the most High King.
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