Died To Our Old Life!


I took this picture many years ago of a man walking by himself.
As long, as he stayed on the path he was fine. Ocean on one side and a steep cliff on the other. The ocean can look harmless and very inviting. The cliff on the other side could also be enticing. If your on higher ground you can see more, it may be more fun and exciting. As you see the man is fixed on the path he’s on. It is like our walk with Jesus we can’t look at the world as we once did. We have been reborn made a new. We are just passing through. Heaven is our destination. And Jesus is the Reason!

“Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:14-15‬ ‭NLT‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.15.NLT

Eternal Life! 😇

bible.com/bible/1/1jn.2.17.KJV

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

‭‭1 John‬ ‭2:15-17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1/1jn.2.15-17.KJV

Imperfectly perfect

The other day while at the grocery store God showed me something that I needed to see. I was searching for some eggs and when I found them I opened them one by one to assess any damages as most of us do. One of the ones I had opened was missing an egg entirely. The next had multiple eggs that were cracked open. There was also a couple that had cracked eggs but not all the way through it had just punctured the shell but not the membrane that surrounds the egg. now normally I would have swapped the eggs around to make a perfect package and place the bad ones into an already damaged package. This time however was different I reached into remove the two slightly cracked eggs but stopped. It was like God showing me a message. I paused for a moment, closed the lid and placed the eggs in the cart. Even though we want to be perfect or think we are, we all have a bit of damage in our lives. We are all imperfect. It’s the imperfections in our lives that keep us coming back to God to strive for perfection. Let’s face it, if anyone can mold us into being perfect it is the all mighty King and Redeemer. Our mistakes and blemishes in life aren’t meant to be dwelled upon but stepping stones on which we are meant to hurdle. Placing God first in our lives helps us with these hurdles. Every time I go to the store now I pick up something that is damaged as a reminder of that. Thank you God for showing me that even though I am damaged, you have a special plan and purpose for me and that I don’t have to dwell on my imperfections.

A New Person In Christ!

2corinthians.bible/2-corinthians-5-17

“Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life emerges! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5:16-20‬ ‭MSG‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/97/2co.5.16-20.MSG

Lift Your Heart To God!

Amen!

Good morning Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your compassion, understanding our weaknesses, and Your patience with us. It makes me think about my lack of compassion sometimes, my failure even to attempt to understand someone’s weakness and enter that into the situation, even sometimes for myself. It makes me feel bad comparing Your patience with the lack of mine, even with the people I know that have great patience cannot come close to Yours. I know of no one willing to wait 40 to 60 years on someone. After a few hours, we have given up way too often. Thank You, Jesus, for being our Advocate, our Perfect example, our cheerleader, our Rescuer. Thank You for not giving up, for keeping trying to reach our hardened hearts, our closed minds, our blind eyes, our deaf ear. May You help us remember how long You work with us, that we may try to endure that long for someone else. May You guide us with each person in working with them and not turn our backs on them. Thank You, Lord, for Your love, Your perfect love. May it encourage us to love each other more as You love us. May we encourage one another. May we accept their faults as we expect them to overlook ours. May we be quick to forgive and ask for forgiveness than we ever have. May we tell someone how much our Jesus has done for us today, tomorrow, and the next day….I ask according to Your will and plans. In Your precious and holy name Christ Jesus, amen.🙏

Loved by God ❤️

You are someone God loves. You’re not your weaknesses. You’re not your sins. You’re not even your strengths. You’re someone God loves, enjoys and redeems. In Christ Jesus, you’re brand new, through and through. You don’t have to look back in regret or look down in shame. You can look up and honor the Name of Jesus, who lived, died, and rose again so you could live powerfully, abundantly, and eternally. Refuse to let your setbacks or mess-ups define you. They don’t. They can’t. They won’t. Walk intimately with God. Revere His Name. Do what He says. Trust Him to be the miracle-working God He claims to be. Be bold, be brave, and be happy in Jesus. He’s thrilled to claim you as His own! Have a great day. Susielarson.com

You’re someone that God Love’s!

1 John 4:9-11 (NIV) ~ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Take up your cross and follow me!

Look deep into your heart with Gods lens.

Luke 9: 23-24 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. I’m terrible at beating myself up over things that I’ve done. Sometimes it’ll beat up my brain so much that it feels as though a soccer team has practiced with it in my head. Paying attention to it leads you to believe that you are unworthy of God’s love and grace, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Keeping our eyes fixed on God, dropping the negative thoughts, picking up your cross, and following Him leads to victory. I’m not saying that it will be an easy journey, but Matthew 19:26 says, Jesus looked at them and said, “with human beings, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” The part I like most about Luke 9:23 is that it’s telling you that we need to pick up our cross “Daily,” not when we feel like it, but every morning when we wake up. Hit our knees and relinquish all doubts, worries, stresses, and fears to Him. We are pledging to God that we want to see how he sees, hear as he hears, and speak as he speaks—having only Him in our minds so that we aren’t paying attention to all the negativity that the devil is trying to place in there. If you would like to have this today, please follow me in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I want to look to you today. I want to have you in my heart, mind, and soul. Help me to be who you want me to be, Lord. Mold me into what is needed in this world for you. Please help me, lead me, and guide me? In Jesus’ precious name, amen.