“But now you yourselves are to put off all these: 

anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, 

filthy language out of your mouth. 

Do not lie to one another, 

since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 

and have put on the new man 

who is renewed in knowledge 

according to the image of Him who created him, 

where there is neither Greek nor Jew, 

circumcised nor uncircumcised, 

barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, 

but Christ is all and in all.”

my twocents…

we have all heard about being reborn through Christ, but what does that really mean? those who do not know Christ have heard Christians call themselves “born again”, but to an outsider, this term can seem idealistic, naive and self-righteous. but honestly, what happens when we truly give ourselves to Jesus is nothing short of miraculous. we do entirely die to sin, sin holds no more power over us, and we become new in Christ. the power in His resurrection was enough to pay the debt of billions upon trillions of people, and it was enough to give them all hope in a new life that lasts eternally. when we are blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit, we feel different. it’s almost as if a plumber switched bodies with a carpernter, and the carpenter goes to use the plumber’s tools (like he used to) and just has no clue what he’s doing. the tools don’t feel right in his hands, he doesn’t even know how to use them, and any plumbing job he attempts just flops. when we try to use malicious words or even think dark thoughts we are convicted by the Spirit and we feel the same way that carpenter felt using the plumber’s tools. it just feels wrong. thankfully, the Lord is gentle. He does not condemn us, but He is our Teacher too. He will teach us the new Way and we will learn. 

part of our faith journey is putting our faith into action, like Jesus did. we do this by loving others. this is what Jesus demonstrated to us years ago. the ways we used to go about things before knowing Jesus were fruitless and selfish. we didn’t know how to love, so we weren’t much help to those around us. it may have been easy to swear and be vulgar, to watch offensive movies, to overindulge in the pleasures of our choosing, to bully or gossip about the unpopular person, or lie to our friends, but it’s not easy anymore. we are renewed in knowledge, and the things we know about the goodness of God, we can’t un-know. His truth is so powerful - it cuts right through our hearts. His love is so great that all boundaries of racism and separation between peoples have been dissolved. we, together, are united in Christ and we are one as a body. the worldly lies that tell us how separated we are from eachother only apply to those who haven't surrendered to Jesus yet. fellow believers are our brothers and sisters, because we share the same heavenly Father who teaches us the same lessons and feeds us the same nourishment. let us move forward today seeing with eyes to see and propelling the actions that Jesus initiated until our family is so large that we need to move into a bigger house! 

4/4/23