The New Life is a Life Cleansed From Sin

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Janet

A few weeks ago I introduced the topic of the New Life. This is the life that Jesus suffered, died on a cross, and then rose from the grave so He could give it to us. It is a life of freedom from the chains of sin and darkness. It is a life no longer marred by the emptiness of our sinful choices to follow ourselves and our own way. It is a life full of God’s love.

We come to God well aware of our need for forgiveness. It is plain to see how short we have fallen of His holiness- His purity, His goodness. We know we have done wrong. We have the precious promise that when we ask for His forgiveness, He will forgive. BUT there is another part to that verse. He will “cleanse.” To cleanse is “to purify; to make clean; to remove filth” Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 ESV

God’s promise is not only for forgiveness, but to make us clean- free of sin! This enables us to be like Him, the very thing for which He created us.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:5-7 ESV

There are many who come to God wanting to accept the forgiveness He offers, but they neglect to walk as one who has been cleansed. They walk away from a time of asking forgiveness for their sins unchanged because they simply want to be free from the guilt they feel for the wrong that they have been done. But our God wants us to walk free from SIN that caused the guilt and darkens our life with its impurity. He longs to cleanse us! The question is “Do we desire to be cleansed from sin?” If we do, He gives us the power to walk free from the slavery of our sinfulness. May we not only accept His forgiveness, but walk as those who have been set free from our sin! May we live as those who are cleansed from our sins and full of His life and light!

The New Life is a Life of Forgiveness of Sin!

Posted on August 14, 2023 by Janet

Confession of sin and repentance of sin is like frequent weeding of a garden.

Sin is not a fun topic. In fact, I believe I’ve been harping on it a lot lately, but there is a reason for that. It is not to make us feel bad. It is to gain an understanding of how dangerous sin is. The simple fact is God hates sin. He hates it because He knows sin separates us from Him. He longs for us to be connected to Him. Sin makes us unhappy and miserable. Because the one thing we were created for was to be connected to God through relationship. Sin keeps us disconnected. We will never know our life’s purpose when we are bound and tied up in sin.

There is joy in coming to God with our sin and confessing it. There is joy in receiving forgiveness.

“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight!” Psalms 32:1 NLT

There is joy in turning from sin and loving God with all our heart all, our mind, and all our strength, displaying that love with our obedience to all He has commanded. (Matthew 28:20)

In fact, recognizing our need to be free of sin, coming to God regularly and asking God to show us anything that is not of Him within our lives so we can be close to Him is imperative.

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:23-24 NIV

Confession of sin and repentance of sin is like frequent weeding of a garden. It keeps the sin, that destroys the goodness of God growing in us, from taking root and reaping havoc in our lives.

God’s desire for us is freedom from the slavery of sin!

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1 NIV

The New Life is Loving and Being Loved by the Savior

Posted on August 13, 2023 by Janet

Growing up in a Christian home, my parents taught me that loving Jesus was a good thing. It is easy to have the understanding that loving Jesus and being loved by Him is good! Sometimes there is a lack of understanding of what exactly loving Him and being loved by Him means.

In order to understand what being loved by Jesus means, we need to understand why He came. The Bible talks about that reason:

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”” Matthew 1:21 NIV

Jesus’s mission was to save us from our sins. Why is this so important? Sin destroys! As Andrew Murray said, “Sin is the cause of our misery.” If you are miserable inside, there is sin inside of you! You can be free!

The problem is we come to Jesus wanting to get relief from the misery of our sin or its destruction, but not necessarily the freedom from sin itself.

Jesus loves us dearly. He wants us to experience what He freely offers, a relationship with Him. This relationship will not only free us from sin. But it requires one thing that we often find very hard to do because we try to do it on our own. This requirement is that we love Him in return. That sounds easy enough… but to love Him is to give ourselves entirely, totally and completely to Him.

This means one more thing- obedience to Him and His Word.

Jesus said:

““If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15 NIV

Obeying Jesus commands is hard if we do it on our own and in our strength. It is only when we depend on Jesus that we can live free. How do we do this? We come to Him knowing He loves us. We want to love Him and obey. We give ourselves fully to Him each and every day. Surrendering our thoughts, desires, and wants to His thoughts, desires, and wants that we see in His Word. He empowers us by the Holy Spirit to live Free and to love Him fully.

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 NIV

He loves us, we love Him. The evidence of our love for Him is our obedience to what He says.

An Undivided Heart

Posted on August 12, 2023 by Janet

“Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭86‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This word of this song have rocked my world, and the verse it quotes just so happens to be the WOW (Name of Bible Study I attend) verse of the week.
What do I desire more than anything? Or maybe I should say “who” do I desire more than anything me and my ways or God and His ways?
Do I love Him enough to obey Him no matter what? Or do I love myself enough to do whatever I please? When I gave Him my heart did I give Him all or do I reserve a part for me? Have I given Him a heart that is undivided?

The New Life is a Life of Surrender.

Posted on August 11, 2023 by Janet

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!

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Janet

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 is a Life of Faith.

Posted on August 4, 2023 by Janet

Jesus has offered us the New Life, His own life that is abundant. The New Life is more than we could ask, think or imagine. It is His life working in us!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” Ephesians 3:20 NIV

This Life is a life of faith. Faith is defined by Andrew Murray as being, “Nothing other than the certainty that what God says is true.” It is believing the truth of the Word. It understands that each and every promise in the Bible is for the one who believes, as well as each and every command. If we want to live the New Life and experience it’s fullness we must receive the Word by listening, reading, studying, memorizing, etc. Faith comes by the Word of God. We must believe it is true through faith.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17 ESV

When we truly receive the New Life in Jesus, we experience His intimacy and closeness, His power to break the chains of sin off of our lives, His freedom. When we are born again we have new desires. That desire is to no longer do things our old way following ourselves, but we desire to follow God. We want to please Him. We want to OBEY! This requires Faith. It requires seeking God in His Word.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6 NIV

The New Life is a life that is a life of Faith that seeks God first. It is not a passive life. It is a pursuit! It grows as we seek God and believe what He says in His Word: The New Life of Faith!

What is the New Life Given By God?

Posted on July 31, 2023 by Janet

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!

The Jesus Way: Mark 8:1-21

Posted on July 16, 2023 by Janet

Jesus once again feeds a large crowd with few loaves of bread and a few small fish. Then He sends the crowd away and gets on a boat. When he gets off the boat the religious leaders, the Pharisees, come to Him demanding a sign.

Keep in mind that the healings, the miracles Jesus had done, the teachings He spoke were all done in the open. The Pharisees knew about them and yet that was not enough.

“He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.”” Mark 8:12 NIV

A little later Jesus warns His disciples.

““Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”” Mark 8:15 NIV

Watch out for the influence of the Pharisees and of Herod. Yeast influences. It works it’s way through the flour and effects the way it acts. It causes it to change. The influence of the Pharisees teachings of salvation through works, following the law, and dependence on self was everywhere. Then there was Herod who did whatever he felt like another bad influence. Both groups lived their lives for self and self preservation. That was their example to their world. It is what worked its way into the very fiber of the Jewish culture. That is why the Pharisees wanted “a sign.” Jesus threatened their way by doing things God’s way. He followed the way of grace, forgiveness, love, and mercy. This was not the way of the Pharisees. Jesus challenged their realm of influence.

Our world is no different. When we come face to face with Jesus we must choose. Do we follow His way or do we go our own way as the Pharisees and Herod did? Who is your influence over your life yourself and your ways or Jesus and His way?

May we choose the Jesus Way!!

I want to encourage you to listen to this song. More than once. Close your eyes and contemplate what it means to choose the Jesus way.

Reflections on Mark 4:1-20: What Kind of Soil are You?

Posted on July 8, 2023 by Janet

“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭4‬:‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus often taught lessons by using parables, or short story illustrations. In this parable Jesus compares our hearts to soil and God’s Word to seed. He said there are different soils where seed can fall. Or there are different types of hearts that God’s word can come to. There is the soil on the path, hard and stony, as soon as seed falls on it birds come and eat it. It never takes root, or the enemy, Satan steals it away. There’s the soil in the rocky places where the seed falls. The word is received, but doesn’t take root. The soil in the thorny places where the word falls, but it is choked out by the cares of the world and desires for other things. That seed never produces fruit. Then there’s the good soil that is very productive.

The question is what kind of soil is your heart? How do you receive the word of God? In my life, my heart has often been the soil of the the thorny place. I’ve often let the cares of the world and desires to do things my way choke out what God wanted to have grow inside of me.

May our prayers be for our hearts to be good soil. Always receiving His Word, and letting it grow producing all the good God desires in our lives. That kind of soil only comes when we give our hearts to God entirely, totally, and completely!

Your Love

Reflections on God’s goodness in my daily journey

Category Archives: obedience to God