Sinner to Saint

A friend of mine gave me a book to read a few months back.  He wrote it and self-published it and was in the process of distributing it when he gave me the copy.  Well, I did what most books do in  my house it sat around.  I picked it up a couple of times and started it, but was never consistent and always had to start over.  A few days ago I picked it up again, but this time I started to search through the table of contents.  My finger froze on chapter 7 as I was scrolling down the list.  The chapter was titled “Discovering Your True Nature.”  I decided to start here and I believe God placed these words to cross my path.  God has been molding me intensely over these past few months and this chapter was an UPPERCUT to the jaw, WOW!

I have preached what I have read in this chapter so many times, but now I finally believe it for myself.  The truth for all of us who have accepted Christ as our Savior is that because of the Cross, I am no longer a sinner, but I am a Saint!  I am aware of my sinful nature but it has been put to rest.

Hebrews 8:12 (NKJV)

¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds^[a] I will remember

no more.”^[b]

He will remember our deeds of unrighteousness NO MORE! I have lived thinking, praying and asking for forgiveness, begging and pleading for freedom.  Then reading a few paragraphs into a book, in God’s timing, my life changes.  My faith in knowing God DID IT is what Freedom is, not hoping he will do it.  My struggle is no longer my struggle because I do not hope for God to intervene, I know HE will! That gives me Freedom as His son.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!

The Old things have passed and ALL things will become new. Therefore, understanding that Grace is enough lets me know to continue the path that God has me on now.  Allow myself to receive the help placed in that path and the people because none of that is a coincidence but God ordained.  I am accepting fully that I am a Priest of the Most High in God’s house.  My confidence is in Christ the champion who has already claimed victory and not in the challenger! Amen!

One Love, One King, All Christ!

Revelation

I can feel God’s hand molding and moving my mind.  For the first time I am aware of being in the Potter’s hand.  It is an amazing feeling but a difficult one. I prefer the pressure and pain of this embrace than the suffocating darkness I usually ran to.  I have been more aware of God’s voice and traps being set around me.  My heart is softening and my concerns are less about me and more about others.  My bondage has kept me so tightly wrapped for over 30 years, but now to finally feel the warmth of Jesus’ light and not run from it is soothing.

Trusting God sounds so easy and many times we say it as if it was as easy as brushing off our shoulders.  However, to truly trust him means believing without seeing.  Faith is the word I am talking about and it is so out of reach for us that Jesus says we just need Faith the size of a mustard seed.  He knows our chemistry and dependencies and the freedom that is stripped from us moment by moment.  For many of these years Satan did not need to do a lot to persuade me to sin, I did most of that damage to myself.  Now that I have decided to listen I can hear and see my bondage, that I am free from now, in others.  Do I let them learn the hard way?  NO.  God has been sending people to cross my path for years.  As I choose to see my son-ship in Christ it would be criminal and selfish to let those suffer, struggle and fall to the waste side.  I know I must continue to let God mold me as he prepares me for the plans he has set for me.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

For every moment

Today is a day of praise! Feeling, seeing and holding onto the beauty of Christ.  I realize this life is not about living day by day but it is about enjoying every moment.  Since finally believing that everything that was done in darkness has been paid in full and covered by the blood of Christ Jesus. I have been able to go back and pull moments that I thought I had lost. There were smiles, words of encouragement, and hugs I had forgotten, but God brought them back to me.  I have always held onto the bad or the hurt and that only led me to more pain.  I felt as my heart has hardened over these past few years or more.  As I felt it become callused I didn’t choose to stop it, but I fed into it. Now as my emotions and my mind are falling back in line and in love with Jesus, those layers of stone are being smashed one at a time.

Jesus has always had me in his hands since that moment, that summer, sitting and crying, as he let me know he loved me and I accepted him into my heart over 20 years ago.  I have recently felt like he was gone or too far away because of choices I made, however the truth was he was always in the middle of everything I had going on, good and bad.  OH, I ONCE WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE.  I see life for every moment and believe as I fall in line with God’s plan for my life, the desires of my heart and soul will come true because he says so.  You see his plan for me has never changed I just took detours of my own doing.  I’m tired and finally want freedom in Christ as much as I want to take my next breath.  I know and trust in His plan and my calling, my future wife(which I have a letter for), my future children and all he will ask of me will be done.  For every moment I get to see and enjoy, he will erase every moment that has made me blind and in pain.  I ONCE CHOSE TO BE BLIND, BUT NOW I CHOOSE TO SEE by his grace which is our gift! Amen

One Love, One King, All Christ!