The Old Me is Gone...The New Me is Free

The Old Me is Gone...The New Me is Free

 

Romans 6:1- 14 (MSG)
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

^3-5 That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.

^6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

^12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God."

 

I feel like this verse is the exact description of my new life.  It hit me like a ton of bricks! 

I think back to a little over a year ago and what was going on in my life.  Everything was so uncertain.  I didn’t like who I was; I felt empty and sick with despair of everything I had become.  I had absolutely no hope in anything.  And this was only a year ago, people!  I held on to that emptiness as if it was the only thing I had left.  Which doesn’t make any sense, because in reality, how could one hold on to nothing?  But I did.  I guess, in a way it all about my pity party.  I had struggled with not “feeling” anything as a teenager.  I felt no remorse, no sadness, no happiness, no love, and no desire to do anything with my life.  My life was governed by choices I had made and was still making.  I grew up in a Christian home.  I went to church twice a week, was involved in mission trips and church events.  But I never took any of it seriously.  I just played along.  Even now, it’s hard for me to admit that I just played along with the “Christian” thing.  But I did.  There was no real relationship with Christ because I was too busy thinking about myself.

When I was baptized for the second time last year, (yes, I did say second.  The first time was in junior high with a church event.) God really opened up my eyes to what I was living in.  I’m not sure if I really knew what I was getting myself into at the time of my baptism, but it would soon seep in.  My life, and direction that it was going, would do a complete 180.  Addictions were lost, feelings of despair were released, a new mindset was given and nothing could alter it.  Months later, I was blessed with a friendship that would teach me so many things about God and His merciful love for me.  It was such a treasured time in my life and I’m so thankful for it.  God was our firm focus and He revealed to both of us a different path.  But we were in His will and we knew that we had to let Him have it all, so we let go and allowed Him to work in both of our lives.  And, boy-oh-boy, has our God worked and is still working in both of our lives! 

God is real and He’s really inside of me this time.  Before, I couldn’t say that with very much confidence and do you know why that was?  Because I was still letting sin, “run little errands” in my life.  I still did certain things that would cause me to doubt God.  I didn’t give it ALL to Him.  I didn’t allow myself to be complete only with Him.  I looked for other things to complete me.  I looked for relationships, love, clothes, cigarettes, drugs, and things of this world, to complete me and make me “feel” something.  But it was never good enough, it never lasted.  Do you know why?  Because it was not God.  And still even to this day, I fall back to the things of this world to see if they can “complete” me and then I realize that it will NEVER satisfy.  It’s like having one of those “dope” (bang your hand against your head) moments.  That’s why I love God because His love for me never says, “Ok, Sarah, you’ve made far too many mistakes and you keep doing stupid things so I’m letting you go.” NOPE!  His love for me and for you is ENDLESS!  When does that end? 

NEVER! 

Woop Woop!

 Haha! 

 I’m so giddy right now; it’s not even funny… well maybe a little. 

So, now that I’ve gotten that all out maybe we should all go re-read Romans 6 and allow them to shed a new light on our lives. 
Do we still let sin run “little errands” in our lives? 
Is it worth it, living in that sin, or can we just let it go and let God have control?
It's time to really believe in Jesus, don't just say it, DO IT!

 

Looking for a Real Relationship? (not a dating ad)

Looking for a Real Relationship?

(not a dating ad)

 

So, I’ve been reading this book for quite some time now and every time I read just a few lines in it, I’m just blown away by what it is telling me.  The way it is written makes it seem as though God is standing right in front of me speaking to the depths of my heart.  I can’t help but break down every single time I read more and more of this book.  The book is called Captivating, Unveiling the Mysteries of a Woman’s Soul by John & Stasi Eldredge.  It’s not a super long book but for some reason I want to breathe each word in and study each thing that is being said.  A lot of women I know have read the book and they all say the same thing I am saying.  It’s “mind-blowing”.  What’s it about, you ask?  Well, exactly as it states in the title. 

While I was sitting in the lunchroom at work the other day, this man saw me reading and asked what it was that I was so intently reading over there.  I told him the title and he said, “Well that’s funny because you’re a woman already, you don’t need to understand your own soul.”  But that might be what a lot of people think when they hear the title of it or many may think that it sounds a little too “churchy” or “spiritual”.  This book is far from “churchy”.  In fact, I feel as though it’s a necessity for learning and growing in any relationship I have in my life, male or female.  We, as women, are more than what we think with our minds.  We are deeper than just human beings on earth trying to live their lives.  We have mysteries that even we don’t know about.  God designed us that way, so we would search for Him and draw close to Him.  We long for a “relationship”, a true and perfect relationship.  And sometimes we get distracted or blindsided by the world that we don’t even know what a “relationship" means anymore.

When I was living in, what I call my “dark times”, the word “relationship” was something that was abused and manipulated by all of my surroundings.  In high school, relationships were the thing to have.  Everyone had one and they changed all the time.  But relationships in high school weren’t even close to being mature.  In fact, what we learned in high school about relationships was that they change through different seasons and that it is all about the “learning experience” (this can be friendship or boyfriend/girlfriend relational).  What we learned to like or dislike in relationships, we learned to hold on to or let go of in the future.  Right?  It makes sense.  If we dislike something about a relationship we had in the past, we probably won’t go into another relationship just like that one.  Ideally, that would be logical thinking.  But most people don’t grow up and learn from their mistakes, so their meaning of the word “relationship” doesn’t change.  It stays the same and immature. 

In college, relationships were the thing “not to have”.   Really, because everyone who wasn’t in a relationship didn’t have all that extra baggage.  “We can live free and do whatever we want to do.”  Since our relationships stopped growing, we stayed immature during that time as well.  We lived like the Israelites in Judges did.  “At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing” (MSG). 

It’s true though, right?  When the word “relationship” is placed in the same sentence as God or Jesus, we just brush it off like we already know what a “relationship with Jesus” is.  But do we really know what a “real” relationship with Jesus looks like?  Try to think about the word relationship and not immediately think about something or someone that is of this world, its hard right?  God is not of this world, and it’s hard to think that we can be in a “relationship” with Him?  But if our mind is set on the worldly view of a “relationship” then we can’t imagine what a true relationship with Jesus Christ looks like, because it is still under “immature thinking.”  Once we begin to see God for all He has done and is doing in our lives, we can begin to understand what a “relationship” with Him looks like. 
Do you long for a relationship with some One that will NEVER change during a different season of life?  Aren’t you ready to put the “dark times” behind you and “grow in a relationship” with some One that will, not only direct your path straight, but love you more than you thought you could ever be loved?  Then lay down your immature thinking and take a hold of the promises He has for you!

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:14-15

“Do what God's teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves.  Those who hear God's teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror.  They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like.  But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God's perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God's teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy.” James 1:22-25

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:11-12

Blessings...in Disguise

Blessings... in Disguise

Today, I’m reminded that my treasure or my things here on earth are perishable.  In that, someday, that amazing car I want to get or that house I want to invest so much into will be wiped away as if it was never there to begin with.  Now, that’s not to say that I can’t have a house that I invest money into or even a car that I enjoy driving, but what do I value most in the things that I have?  Do I value my home or my car for building up myself to look good, or for building up my GOD to look good?

What does that mean anyways?  We’ve probably heard it a hundred billion times or maybe we’ve never heard it before, but what does it mean to use things of the world that God has given us for His Kingdom?  It seems kind of heavy, right?  I mean what could I possibly do with my possessions to help God’s Kingdom?  Well...When I am given the responsibility of something on earth, what am I doing with that?  Am I using it for my own glory or for God’s glory?  For example, my beautiful little girl, God gave her to me to do something great through her.  He gave her to me so that I might teach her about His Kingdom and all the wonderful things He has for us up there in Heaven.  That’s a big responsibility.  But we have been blessed with all sorts of things on earth and yet, we only see them for building up our own glory. 

Can I tell you how to fix that?  REMEMBER WHO GAVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!  You may not have a house to call your own, and you may not even have a car (or even a very nice car), but you still have something right?  You have life.  You have freedom so that you can worship God without being killed.  You have a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in.  We have been given all of these things, but we don't appreciate them.

Why do we take these things for granted?  I’ll tell you why, because we have never known a loss as having nowhere to sleep, or having to hide when we read our Bible for fear of being killed.  We take our lives for granted.  That’s the bottom line.  What if today you were to see everything you have for its value and Who gave it all to you?  Would you look at life differently? 

Today, I want to challenge you to write out some of things in your life that God has blessed you with and then next to them write what you could do to use it for His Kingdom.  I’ll post mine at the top.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in a steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where most and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in a steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21

Blessings

My Family

photo by CB Jones Photography

 

My Baby Girl

photo by CB Jones Photography

 

My God

photo by Me

 

 

 

 

What is Faith?

 

What is Faith?

What is Faith?  You have probably heard the word a hundred times, if not more.  What does it say to you?  Maybe it says “a high belief in something you can’t see”, or maybe when you hear the word “faith”, you immediately think of God or some sort of religious word…  BUT, there are many things we have faith in everyday that aren’t “religious”.  For example, we have faith that our cars are going to run all day, right?  Or we have faith that the sun is going to come up in the morning and that it will go down at night.  Those are all faithful acts upon which we live in every day. 

So, why do we have faith in certain things but not others?  Is it because they are consistent, or seem to work out for us for a solid amount of time?  We as humans love consistency, don’t we?  When something happens just the way we planned, it feels like the world is going our way, doesn’t it?  What if something is inconsistent?  Then we begin to feel like our world is falling apart.  It’s like if something doesn’t go our way, or if it’s inconsistent, unpredictable, unreliable, or even unbalanced we push it out of the way.  We try to get rid of it as soon as possible, because we know that with the unknown out there, it’s just not enough for us to “have faith that it will all work out.”  What if, for once, we decide to embrace the unpredictable acts of the world and cling to a certain type of “faith” that has a huge effect on our souls, as well as our lives here on earth?  It may be scary at times, and it may seem unstable, but if we take a look deeper into the Word of God and all He has done, we become filled with an overwhelming amount of peace. 

Take a look at my past blogs and you shall see, peace will only come from One thing and that’s complete and absolute faith in God Almighty, the Creator of the Entire Universe!  He is calling you right now to give it all to Him.  Trust in Him and He will make your paths straight. 

Proverbs 3: 5-8 (ESV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh^[b]
and refreshment^[c] to your bones.

Hebrews 11:1-2 (MSG)

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.