There is a new TV series that I found very interesting and I recommended it to another one of our church people. But as soon as I sent the message recommending this to her, I was troubled. But I had already done this. How could I undo it?
She saw the episode and I realized it was not the better thing for her to see for it caused her to think on a part of her life which was more troubled. I apologized. It is my job to edify the church. I was very sorry I did this.
Many of us have previous portion of lives which were troublesome. When we think on these we can be pulled down a little until we reposition ourselves in our new life in Christ which God has given us.
Here is a scripture showing we could slip back into that previous life if we think on it.
Hebrews 11
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
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Instead of calling up our previous life, we need to focus on the fact that after we were born again we were changed by God into new creatures.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
So we need to go forward as that "new creature" which God has created in Christ Jesus.
The apostle Paul says:
Philippians 3
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded:
That old life which was before we were born again is over.
Press forward in the new life which God has given us, living as that new creature in the Word, focused on the word, refusing to dwell on the past which could damage us and could even cause us to slip backward.
We must discipline our mind. And we avoid those things or people who would recreate us in the image of the past which was unprofitable to us and even to others also.
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When my cousin was approximately 80, she said it would mean so much to her if I would come visit her. (When she said that, I seriously considered making plans to do that.)
But then she said: "We could talk about our lives at Broadview and past things. After all, your roots are there."
But my roots are not in the past nor in the place where I lived as a child.
My roots are in Christ, the Word!
(My cousin was not a church person at that time.)
So I just put out of my mind all thoughts concerning visiting my cousin and went forward in my life in Christ as assigned to me by God, thinking on the scriptures and exhorting the church in the ways of God.
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
(We are like that tree whose roots are drinking continually by that river of water. It would be hard to destroy that tree.)
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
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Colossians 2
6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in HIM:
7 Rooted and built up in HIM, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
(Thanking God continually and often for your salvation and those things HE has done in your life.)
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (The Word).
9 For in HIM (Jesus, The Word) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete in HIM, which is the head of all principality and power:
11 In WHOM also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12 Buried with HIM in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with HIM through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised HIM from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath HE quickened together with HIM, having forgiven you all trespasses;
My "roots" are in God and in Christ, the Word.
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When I was baptized the second time, the minister lowered me into the water and the Holy Spirit said to me: "This is like being buried with Christ."
When I came out of the water, the Holy Spirit said to me: "This is like being raised with Christ."
God spoke to me and I was changed into a new creature when God spoke to me and I believed what God said.
" Joan ... you know those mistakes you've been making all these years? Those weren't mistakes. Those were sins!"
"Sins!" I thought they were mistakes.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, shows us sins and then we know God and are that new born again creature.
And the Holy Spirit lives in us and leads us and guides us in the ways of God and we follow that which God speaks to us by His Spirit and we go in the way of God the remainder of our lives on this earth.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Now my life is hid in Christ, The Word.
I'm dead and my life is in HIM.
It is such a strange thing to me when people want to learn about their human ancestors. There is no power in that.
The only thing I would want to know about a relative is this: Is that person born again? For that is all that matters.
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My cousin called me to tell me her husband died.
She said, "Thurman reached over and patted my hand and fell asleep."
I told her that is what death is: Falling asleep.
She said she was going to visit Thurman's grave.
I said: "Why? Who are you trying to impress? Thurman is asleep and can't hear you or see you. He won't even know you are there at the grave. So who are you trying to impress?"
(There was complete silence as she sat and thought about what I said.)
Then she said, "Then it wouldn't matter where we were buried."
"Right!" I responded.
(I think my cousin might have been born again at that moment that she came to know the truth.)
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Paul said he would not want us to sorrow in death as the pagans sorrow who know not God.
Some Baptist women were going to the cemetery on the USA holiday, Memorial Day.
When I found out they were planning this I was shocked. Christians going to graves to decorate graves?
Don't they know what Paul said in the Bible? As a Christian we must think about what we are doing and not follow pagan traditions set up by men. Don't we believe in the resurrection?
I Thessalonians 4
13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep (dead), that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with HIM.
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them (go before them) which are asleep (dead).
16 For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
The spirit leaves the body at the time of death. We know the spirit sleeps in Jesus until the spirit is awakened by Jesus with a shout and with the sound of a trumpet.
James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead,
(At death the spirit leave the dead body and falls asleep in Jesus. The spirit of that person is no longer in that dead body in that grave.)
I never see my parents as being in a grave. I view, in my mind, that the spirits of my parents who were both born again, as being sleeping in Jesus as Paul told us they would in I Thessalonians 4:14.
So why would I want to visit a grave when that person's spirit is not in that grave?
Instead, I testify to all of their resurrection. They are not in that grave in that dead body. They sleep in Christ and when HE returns they will awaken. But neither of them are in a grave under that ground.
And my past life is dead and I "press forward" in my new life created by God in Christ.
