Tag: new creation

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To what are you being held hostage?

My pastor shared a story about saving a goose who had gotten entangled with some fishing line. He knew the goose was in trouble but couldn’t see why until he dove into the water. I learned two lessons as he shared.
It may not be fishing lines but, like the goose, there are things that restrict us from living our lives to the fullest. Look at your life. Is it all you want it to be? If not, what holds you back? Is it lack of confidence, fear, mistrust or like Romans 12:2 says, are you conforming to the world versus experiencing what God wants for your life. We may not even see what holds us back. Like my pastor did I helping the goose, we need others to help identify what is holding us back and then aid us with removing it. The scripture that comes to mind is when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2011%3A1-45&version=NIV If you read the story, Lazarus comes out of the tomb bound in dead clothes meaning his arms and legs were wrapped in material. Jesus speaks to his family/friends next saying “now take his dead clothes off so that he can go home.” The same thing happens when four friends bring a paralyzed man to Christ for healing. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%202%3A1-12&version=NIV I love that Jesus heals the man because of the faith of the four friends. This passage brought new meaning to me during my fight with Guillain Barre Syndrome. There were so many people who faithfully prayed for my recovery. I am certain my extraordinary recovery was enhanced because of the faithfulness of others.
Whether on your own or with the help in others, ask God to help you shed all that keeps you from the abundant life promised in John 10:10. Think about it. Lazurus came out of the grave bound in grave clothes. He had been raised from the dead. Like the four guys with their now walking friend, Jesus says to the families and friends, now take his grave clothes off so he can go home! Be encouraged. Today is the day you let go of what is holding you back. You are a new creation! Go out out and live that way ??

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What does it mean to be made new?

I heard a sermon yesterday where the pastor preached on 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. It talks about how through our trusting in the Lord, we are made a new creation. We are given the opportunity for our lives to be transformed. My recovery from Guillain Barre has given me a new appreciation for what that means. I have thought a great deal and now have written about how my life has changed because of my auto immune system going haywire in late February/early March of 2019. This morning in a devotional written by Randy Wolff he talked about how a friend of his is handling suffering. It communicates exactly what I have been trying to articulate over these last few months.  “Suffering woke me up! I am fully awake and aware of new lessons being learned daily. I just knew about the lessons before. Now I really know priority and who to depend upon.”Sometimes we all need suffering to make us fully awake and alive. I am now convinced of this truth. I have more faith because of what I have experienced.” This quote is exactly why I started this blog. I want to choose and encourage others to be thankful in all things, good or bad.

Sometimes we all need suffering to make us fully awake and alive.

What follows is the way I paraphrased 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 to personalize it for me. “Since my bout with Guillain Barre Syndrome I now know what it is to fear the Lord and why I now feel compelled to persuade others to do the same. I am not trying to commend myself to you but am touched and humbled by folks saying my faith and fight has been an inspiration. I am thankful that my recovery has given me an opportunity to answer those who dwell on what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. Christ’s love and the love shown to me and Dottie is what compelled us, because we are convinced that the one who died for all, Jesus, met us in what was indeed a nadir moment. So from now on I will strive to regard nothing from a worldly point of view. Though I believed Christ would be our rock no matter what, I now know it to be true. I speak boldly that Therefore, since I know I am in Christ, the new creation has come both physically and spiritually. I am learning the old has gone and because of what I have and am going through, a new me is here!  I am ,therefore, Christ’s ambassador, and God has given me a platform to make His appeal to you through me. I write to implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. Why? Because one never knows when adversity will come your way and you definitely want God at your side when it does.” God has showed up time and time again for me which has given me renewed confidence in a promise I have always known to be true and now has been verified.