The past week I collected my new ID card from Internal Affairs. Excited I pulled the card out of the envelope and cringed a little inside as I looked at the black and white photo representing me. I didn't cringed because I didn't like the photo (it's actually good). I changed. Yes, most definitely older than my first 18 year old snapshot! But putting age aside, I looked at the photo and knew within me: I changed. This is what people see!
I remember a little while ago how much it annoyed me when I met an acquaintance from my BC years (before I met Christ) and they exclaimed: "You look the same but you've changed somehow!" The annoyance came in, because I believed I am still the same person. You know, just me... I realized how wrong I was when I read 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" God taught me 2 important lessons from that verse - 1 He has promised to start a new thing in my life and the changes in my life is evident and can't be ignored even if I wanted to. 2 If I do not change to the new creation in Christ, I am not growing closer to God, but clinging on to my old self and worldly things. Every moment I grow spiritually closer to my Maker, I am becoming a new creation. I learned to change my annoyance to accepting a compliment every time I am told I changed. It is the highest compliment you can bestow on me when you tell me I've changed and see God instead of me.
My old things died (we didn't have a funeral, Jesus took care of everything) and I daily celebrate that I am new in Him. He gave me a new identity, a Christ identity where I can boast nothing but the cross of Jesus Christ. I carry the identity of the one who created the universe and still thought of me. I carry the identity of my eternal home: Heaven. I am a child of God, an Ambassador of Heaven, set free by the Blood and the apple of Gods eye. I embrace my new identity because I believe I am a miracle: born for this generation to be obedient to the one and only Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Do you believe you are a miracle? God doesn't make mistakes, we do. We choose to look at our own identity and think that we will never be good enough to walk through the gates of Heaven and embrace Jesus. We should be looking at our Christ identity and know that we belong to Him. We ARE His children. We ARE ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven. You ARE a miracle!
Shalom, shalom
Iriza
My old things died (we didn't have a funeral, Jesus took care of everything) and I daily celebrate that I am new in Him. He gave me a new identity, a Christ identity where I can boast nothing but the cross of Jesus Christ. I carry the identity of the one who created the universe and still thought of me. I carry the identity of my eternal home: Heaven. I am a child of God, an Ambassador of Heaven, set free by the Blood and the apple of Gods eye. I embrace my new identity because I believe I am a miracle: born for this generation to be obedient to the one and only Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Do you believe you are a miracle? God doesn't make mistakes, we do. We choose to look at our own identity and think that we will never be good enough to walk through the gates of Heaven and embrace Jesus. We should be looking at our Christ identity and know that we belong to Him. We ARE His children. We ARE ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven. You ARE a miracle!
Shalom, shalom
Iriza