Old Pictures; Old Life; New LIFE and Shredders

Yesterday April did some deep cleaning in our craft closet and dug up some very old pictures of me (which I thought I had gotten rid of) from before I became a follower. At first I shook it off, trying not to let the memories of a former sinful life flood my mind and heart, but as the day pressed on more and more of the things I did before Christ came into my life began to haunt me once again. I prayed. 


This morning someone posted this on facebook: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" 


Thank you! Now, going over this entire chapter of 2 Cor 5 I see so much of God's great grace and mercy. I shredded the old picture as I read aloud our new purpose in Him. I say "our" new purpose, because I'm sure I'm not alone. In fact, it doesn't even matter if you've done really "bad" things in your life. This IS still true for those of us who call Jesus our Lord: 

¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! ¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. .. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. .. For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

How do we know this? We know it by faith!! We must believe this is true; it all starts in the mind and heart. Where does this faith come from? It comes from God's Spirit. We cannot muster up this faith, this belief. Even the belief itself is a gift from God. There is indeed nothing we can do; so we throw ourselves upon Christ's mercy and accept this gift from Him. In the accepting a new Way is born in us; a new look on life and a new licence to Live again. As I "received" once again this truth into my heart the picture of that old David became more and more foreign to me; more and more distant in my memory, as if I was looking at someone else entirely. And you know what? I was! So I shredded it. There's no need to keep pictures of strangers, after all.

What does this mean then, for our mission? For it's not just for salvation's sake that Christ came to carry my sins and your sins on His cross. There must be a greater purpose for my new man. And for yours. And there is! Reading again, and leaving in the glorious point of all this:

¹⁷ This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!¹⁸ And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. ¹⁹ For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” ²¹ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,^[e] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

So there IS a message which we now have -- Come back to God!  Our message is not "come to my church." Our message it not "come believe like me." Our message it not "come be my friend." Our message is indeed, "Come back to God." God makes His appeal through us, we speak for Christ. But again, we do not speak on our own, for our Father has deposited His Spirit in us, to give us the words. But it's not even words, it is the example of Calvary love; of loving one another as Christ loves us. For there is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for another. Thus we are friends in the Lord, and we are a church, a gathered people of God, laying down our lives for one another in friendship and looking daily for those whom we can serve. And so we follow our savior and our Lord; trusting in our new identity and accepting our new mission and purpose. 


Thank you Lord for old pictures that remind us of the once-alive-but-now-dead OLD man! And thank you Lord for your Truth, for your sacrifice, for you Love. 


And thank you Lord for shredders. Now Lord....Shred our old life completely and fill us up completely with our NEW LIFE in Christ our Lord!!!