new life

 "One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same category. He included everyone in His death so that everyone could also be included in His life. Because of this decision that He made, we cannot evaluate people by what they have or how they look. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, they are created new. All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between Him, and us and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God has given us the task of telling everyone what He is doing. We are Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and to 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 Cor 5:14-20 MSG)

Love changes everything. EVERYTHING! It changes our mind. It changes our actions. It changes our words…or at least it should.

God flat our humbled me this past year through a situation. It was a process He loving led me through to “test what was in my heart.” It is the reason for the wilderness. You see God intends this process to be a lonely time. You are driven (or should be) directly to His arms. It showed me how much grace I hadn’t been showing to others. Part of my problem was pride. Another part of my problem was that I was not willingly RECEIVING the grace God unconditionally wanted to give me daily. If you do not freely receive, you cannot freely give. This is crucial. Period.

DO YOU NEED TO GIVE OTHERS A FRESH START QUIZ?

Do you seek to be understood more than to understand?

Do you hold others to the same personal convictions God has asked of you?

Do you expect others to have the same personal freedom God has given you?

Are you sensitive to someone who may not have overcome the same battle you have?

If someone does “church” differently than you, do you feel they are “less” of a Christian than you?

Do you feel prideful because you don’t struggle with a “huge” sin like someone else may?