Category Archives: God

The New Life is a Life of Surrender.

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I got married to Rich when I was 21. I had lived from the time I was 18 until I was 21 calling my own shots away from my parents and on my own. I did what I wanted, whenever I wanted to, and however I wanted. But when I stood at the altar to marry him and said “I do”… that was over. In order for my marriage to work I had to surrender to partnership. It’s kind of like a three legged race. I am connected to Rich. We have to run together, working together or our life together would fall apart.

I gave myself to him. He gave himself to me. It’s a surrender. Marriage isn’t a 50/50 thing that isn’t what works. It is me giving 💯 of myself to Rich and him giving 💯 of himself to me.

When we come to Jesus and receive His New Life. We enter into another relationship of surrender.

“And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord…”

2 Corinthians 8:5 NIV

In order for our relationship to work in our lives we have to give ourselves entirely, totally and completely to Him. Our days of doing what we want, when and how we want to have to end if we desire to have Him working in our lives. We have to surrender ourselves to Jesus 💯. In turn He gives Himself 💯 to us— His love, joy, peace, guidance, etc… We come to Him saying “All I have and all I am is Yours.” He in turn will fill us with His New Life.

This surrender is not something that only happens at an event or a special time spent praying at an altar of prayer in church. This surrender is required from the moment our eyes pop open in the morning until they close in rest at night. (Actually through the night too.) It is 24/7.

It is like we are in a three legged race with God, connected. But in order for us to win we must stay in step with Him and yield to His guidance. We have to be attentive to His every move. This surrender becomes a reality as we come to know Him. We know how He is going to move by spending time in His Word and prayer.

If your life isn’t working like you thought it should be after you’ve prayed and asked God to help you, check your surrender.

Does God have all of you, 💯? Are you surrendered to Him every moment of every day?

The New Life is a Life of Knowing God!

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We can KNOW God! That statement seems to be a little out there if we only look at it through our human eyes, but it is so very true. In fact, to KNOW God is what we were made for, anything short of KNOWING Him will end in death and eternal separation, or hell.

What is KNOWING God? It is first hand experiential KNOWING. It is living a life of intimacy/ closeness to Him. This is the kind of KNOWING that Jesus spoke of:

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3 NIV

This KNOWING is the New Life. It is eternal life. It is the kind of life we all long for and desire. But it will not be realized within us unless we allow Jesus into our lives. If we keep Jesus at a distance and are content to just do good deeds or live a “good” life, or be a good person, we really don’t know Him.

Jesus warned us of us “trying to be a good person” on our own without really knowing Him.

“”Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Matthew 7:21-23 NIV

What a sad outcome to a life! They never KNEW Jesus! The truth of the matter is what we do to make ourselves feel and look good are described as a bunch of “filthy rags” in comparison to a Holy sinless God. (Isaiah 64:6)

That is why if we want to experience the New Life that is eternal life, we must know God through a close and personal relationship. We must come to Him, believing in Jesus His Son, asking Him to forgive us for and cleanse us of our sinful lives. We must invite Him to come and live in us so we can KNOW Him. Then the New Life of knowing Him will grow. As we seek Him in His Word, He will change us to be what we needed to be all along. As we pray to Him, listen to Him, and OBEY Him, we will KNOW Him!

That KNOWING produces the promise in us New Life that is eternal. We will live connected to Him with no fear of eternal separation from Him or death in hell because we will KNOW our God and and His eternal life!

The New Life Begins With a Seed.

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Life begins with a seed whether a plant in a garden or a baby in the womb. Life starts when the seed is placed in an environment where it can grow. The New Life of Jesus begins with a seed as well. The seed that begins the New Life is the Word of God and the environment it grows is within our hearts.

“Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.”James 1:21 NIV

Our role is to receive or “accept the word planted” in us. The Word is supposed to grow there just as an earthly seed grows in the environment it is implanted in and fills it up completely. The Word is supposed to fill up the entirety of our Heart.

When we say to a person, “I have you in my heart.” We are saying that we hold them dear to us. We think of them often. We want to spend time with them. When we receive Jesus, the Word, into our hearts, we hold Him dear to us. We think of Him often, we want to spend time with Him. This seed of God’s Word implanted in our hearts becomes the focus of our lives. The more God’s Word grows in us the more of the New Life becomes our entire life.

God’s desire is to plant the seed of the Word in our hearts so it may grow. He wants His Word to fill us! Because He knows this is the only life that will truly satisfy us giving us His love, peace, and joy. So He comes to us asking for us to let Him fill our hearts with His Word so His New Life grows abundantly in us. The question is will we allow Him to?

May our desire be as King David’s. 

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Psalms 119:11 NIV

(Based off of “The New Life” by Andrew Murray)

The New Life Grows in Me!

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Life always produces growth. Think of a seed buried in the ground. All appears dead until the seedling breaks through the ground. The plant with proper care and attention grows.
Jesus told a parable in the book of Matthew emphasizing this point.

“He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The New Life God gives us is like that small mustard seed. It is planted in our hearts and it grows. It’s growth spreads out to every nook and cranny of our lives. It’s influence is within every thought we think, every word we speak, every action we take. It’s growth inside of us should not stop, because the New Life is meant to become the entirety of our lives.
If we are not seeing the growth and the influence of the New Life in our lives, we need to examine our hearts. Because we are not meant to have our lives with a portion of it dedicated to God and a portion dedicated to ourselves. We are meant for God’s New Life to be the totality of our lives. Our old ways of living that were dedicated to ourselves and our ways must go in order to make room for the New Life growing in us. Just as every weed in our garden that surrounds our new living and tender plant that we are attending must be pulled up and thrown out.
We are to live with this realized fully in our lives: The New Life, Christ in us, is our life now!

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

What is the New Life Given By God?

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There has been a lot said about having your own personal “come to Jesus” moment. What a wonderful moment that is! It is the special moment we realize that we cannot live rightly. It is the time we see that we are being destroyed by our sins. It is the instant we see we are dead spiritually in those sins.

That moment, when we see we need the gift of New Life, is when change in our hearts begins. However, we may lack understanding of what that means. If we don’t understand, we will never fully receive the gift we have been given. This is because when we are given New Life in Jesus, we are to live in this New Life! New Life means a new spiritual heart. New Life means new desires, new thoughts- centered on God’s Word, and new feelings — the peace, joy, and love of God.
This is how we are to live and experience the New Life. If we are living short of this experience, we are living short of the best that God desires for us.
Jesus described this New Life by a term that is very familiar, but must be realized in our lives for us to have the New Life that is offered to us. This term is to be “Born again.”
In John 3 there is an account of a religious man who had a “come to Jesus” moment too. He came because He knew Jesus was from God,and He knew what Jesus did was amazing. But He did not “Know” Jesus at that point. This is not much different than us today when we come to Jesus. We know Jesus is good and He does amazing things, but we don’t “Know” Him intimately.
Jesus immediately told the man this:

“Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.””
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says “To be born, is to be produced or brought into life.” We are all born physically into the life we are now living here in our flesh, but there is a New Life that “is produced or brought into our lives “ when we are Born Again. We are changed by this New Life in our manner of living and conduct. This is because God’s life- manner of living and conduct- is flowing in us!

This “New Life” isn’t just a life we get in eternity but it is life we experience now! What a gift!
May we not only have our “come to Jesus moment,” but may we be changed by it as we receive this New Life that is Born in us! Because Jesus says to us what He said to Nicodemus long ago:

“You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”
‭‭John‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That is where the New Life Begins!

Bible Reading Fun Fact Day 9:

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Reading the Bible and receiving it into your heart allows the Word of God to work in you.

When we really see ourselves for what we are without God, we understand how desperate we are for God to work in our lives. From the moment we are conceived sin begins its work within us. We are all broken by its effects. We understand the truth of these words, SIN DESTROYS! Because we all have experienced the fruit of sin— our bad choices and actions. But there is something stronger than the sin that can works in our lives. It is the Word of God, the Bible. It has an opposite effect on us. It gives life! But in order for the Word to work in is we have to receive it.

“And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” 1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV

God wants to break the power of the sin working in us. But we have to receive the Word of God in order for that power to be broken.

We can call out to God in prayer and ask for Him to work in our lives and to change us and that is good! But He does that work inside of us by His Word! This is why it is imperative that we take the Word of God into us by reading the Bible, thinking on what it says throughout our day, internalizing it by memorizing it, etc. If we want the Word to work we must take it in.

I’m doing laundry right now. I could run my machine all day long, over and over on the same load, just the water. It might help a little. But if I want the clothes clean I must apply the soap.

You and I can live our lives to the best of our abilities. But if we want to experience God working in our life we must apply the WORD! May we ask ourselves, what is at work in me sin that comes naturally, or the Word that must be received and applied?

Bible Reading Fun Fact Day 8:

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Reading the Bible Decreases the Likelihood of Living Your Life in Error.
When I was in high school I took classes on computer programming. In fact, when I started college it was my major (one semester of College Algebra and all the college level math changed my mind on that one… 😂) However programming I enjoyed!
Programming in the 80’s in Basic or Pascal languages was tedious. One little semi colon or asterisk off and the whole function you worked on would not work. It was in error!
Our lives as Christians are much like a computer program I would create in the 80’s. One little detail not built on the truth of God’s Word and we are in error.
Jesus warned against this:

“Jesus replied, “Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭12‬:‭24‬ ‭NIV‬‬

These words were spoken to men who thought they knew God and His ways. But their “error” came from not really knowing the Scriptures, or in our terminology- the Bible. They also did not know the power of God. Their “error” kept their hearts far from the God they thought they had figured out by their own ways and traditions.
Our culture promotes views of God that simply are in Error. Our traditions and our ways can put us in Error as well.
God does not fit into a box that we define and create for Him. Because God is the one who defines and creates. The only way to not be in Error in how we see God is to know Him by how He defines Himself. That would only be in Scripture!
The question remains… How do I know if I am in Error in my thoughts, my feelings, my life?

“For the kingdom of God is… of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭14‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Do you have peace? Do you know you are in right standing with God- no sin separating you from Him? Are you experiencing His joy?
If you live in God’s Kingdom, His rule and reign, this will be your daily experience.
If you are in turmoil, distanced from God by sin, and living in depression and sadness, ask God to show you if you are “in error”. Could this “error” be because you do not know God through His Word?
Reading the Bible daily, memorizing it, and practicing what it says is what keeps us from living our lives in Error.

Bible Reading Fun Fact Day 6:

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Bible Reading Lessens Your Chances of Sinful Behavior.

According to the study I have been citing, “Scientific Evidence for the Power of Four.”
“Christians who are engaged in scripture most days of the week have lower odds of participating in these behaviors. “Getting drunk= 57 % lower odds, Sex outside of marriage= 68% lower odds, Pornography =61% lower odds, Gambling=84% lower odds… For those behaviors where there is an effect for engaging scriptures two or three days a week, the effect is much smaller than four days a week.”

Sin DESTROYS! I am forever marked in my heart, by a time of reflection at an Ashes to Beauty Encounter Weekend. During a time of prayer at the prayer altars, I knelt in prayer with the woman I asked to go with me for that weekend. She looked up at me and through many tears she said, “I am an addict.” Her meth addiction had destroyed her life and it continues to destroy her life, as far as I know, to this day. She lost her kids, her husband, and her home The last thing I saw of her was a mug shot on Facebook. She could not get the strength to rise above her addiction. The key is “she could not get the strength.”

The truth of the matter is any lasting change in our lives is IMPOSSIBLE without the power of God! I personally know this is true. My struggles with anxiety were futile until I engaged them with the WORD of God. Because my struggles were just that “my struggles!” I can do nothing!!!
I want to be very blunt because the truth is the only thing that sets us free.

“”…Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””
‭‭John‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Sin will be an issue for us until we die. We will be tempted to go our own way over and over again. Relationship with Jesus is the only way to live free of sin! Reading God’s Word, Memorizing it, having it as the focus of your mind all day long is the only way to live free of the death, darkness, and destruction that sin brings. We need Jesus every minute of every hour of every day! We need His Word inside of us!

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭119‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bttbfiles.com/web/docs/cbe/Scientific_Evidence_for_the_Power_of_4.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0oUg-1EdoroXtn0fyEJ2mWvkE1dCccxh1aNtqK6UcS3H60HnZhMEAnbfc_aem_AUEvx9S4jFQ_8APUGd_-xIenueEig0bQBatGQmamRfhjbTlTHkKr4hp3O-3XeTae988&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

Bible Reading Fun Fact Day 5:

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Bible Reading can Be Attempted at Home! (In fact it is imperative that it is!)
To be honest with you I had not really seen just how important reading the Bible was until I started writing this series. I knew God wanted me to read the Bible. I knew He mentioned it in His Word. I read my Bible daily, but I did not really see what a priority God wants it to be in our lives. So much so that He inspired the Words of these verses that Jesus, Himself, quoted as the greatest command:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

He followed those words with the importance of us knowing, memorizing, and talking about the Word in our homes and to our children:

“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬-‭9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Why is reading, knowing, and memorizing the scripture so important to God? God is His Word and His Word is God!

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

That Word is Jesus! If we want to love Jesus with all of our hearts, soul, and strength we have to know Him. I cannot fully love someone I do not fully KNOW!
If we want our families to know Jesus we have to be the ones to introduce Him to them. That is why we need to talk about His Word as we go about our daily lives. We need speak of His Word in our homes. We need to set His Word before us at all times.
But here is the kicker. We cannot impart what we do not have. If we want our families to follow God and experience the benefits of knowing Him. We have to KNOW Him. It starts with US!

Bible Reading Fun Fact Day 4:

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Reading the Bible Is NOT Just For the Professionals.
Many people see the importance of the Bible as God’s Word, but feel like they are not qualified or “spiritual” enough to understand it. It seems important that the professionals (pastors) study the Word because it is necessary that it is preached in a church service. But studying it on our own may be more optional for a regular Christian.
This mindset will stunt your spiritual growth!
The Apostle Peter presents an analogy on spiritual growth that occurs when we read and study the Word as new Christians or simply as the ones who are not “the professionals.”

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Word of God is like the pure milk of a mother to her nursing child. It is exactly what we need to grow. Out of a Mother’s life she yields food for her baby. The Word of God is living. It is life to us! And there is nothing more tender than a baby, held close to its mother receiving exactly what that baby needs. Our God is tender towards us! He wants to hold us close to Him and will feed us tenderly with the pure milk of His Word!
Here’s the most beautiful thing about this illustration, Peter, says we are to CRAVE the Word of God! When Aaron was born, He wanted to nurse every 2 hours. He was wearing me out! Lol. He CRAVED the milk that would make him grow strong!

All of us come to God as Babies. We need to grow in our love for Him. We need to experience His love and tenderness! We need to CRAVE His Word! And like a nursing baby, once we figure out how to latch on, or receive the Word from God, by reading the Bible for ourselves, we will get a taste of just how Good it is! We will see how satisfying a daily, moment by moment relationship with Him is! We will CRAVE it! We were created to experience that kind of desire for God and His Word and we will not be fulfilled in our lives— living in joy, peace and love— until we truly taste and see how good our God is!

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭34‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Based on “The New Life”- Andrew Murray