I Came from the Dirt, But I’m Heaven Bound

Psalm 103:11-14

      In Genesis 2:7, you see that God creates man out of dust and breathes into man giving life. Being that God created man, man is supposed to be in the image of Him. Image derives from the word “imagination” and our imagination is made to please us. Therefore, man was made out of God’s imagination to please God. Psalms 103:13 tells us that God has compassion for those who fear Him, like a father has compassion for his children. We know that parents love their children despite what the children may do, but to have compassion for a child calls for the child to act in a way that would acquire compassion from his/her parents. When that child who has compassion messes up, the parent will forgive the mess up (Ps. 103:12), because the parents know the child is bound to mess up (Ps. 103:14). However, when that child constantly messes up, less compassion is had for him/her.

      Shifting into the Spirit, we are that child to God. As a child we know no better, so we learn through trial and error. When we mess up we learn to never do it again and we grow into what God wants us to be. Now as the child grows, it’s maturity is also supposed to grow. Yet, it won’t grow if the child continuously tries to act like child doing childish things. Spiritually we are called to mature in God, but if you don’t learn from our trails and errors, our mess ups, or our sins, then we remain in our immature dust like state like the child. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death, and being in the grave, brings you back to dust. However, we fear the Lord, and we don’t have to worry about going back to dust, because God has compassion for us.

      The same compassion God had in His son Jesus in Matthew 3:17. So, if God has the compassion for us that He has in Jesus, then we have no fear of the grave because He rose Jesus from the dead. We have nothing to worry about when people bad mouth us because Jesus is king. We have no fear of hell because He ascended to heaven. /Yet, to acquire this compassion that does miraculous things, we have to grow into maturity in Christ, calling us to move from our child state. We may have come from the dust, but we don’t have to act as though we do. However, the question is are we willing to shake the dust off to acquire Gods compassion?

~TVB~

Overhaulin’

Romans 12:2

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

There is a TV show by the name of “OVERHAULIN’” that comes on TLC on Tuesday nights.  On this show there is a crew of car specialists that steal/borrow people’s cars and basically rebuild the cars for the people.  They do not just rebuild it, but they customize each vehicle and there is a guarantee that you will not find another car or vehicle like one of the ones that were done on that show.  The unique thing to me is that the owners get upset at the thought of something of theirs that was old and useless being stolen or taken away.  What they are unaware of is that they are being set up to be surprised.  The old useless car or truck is being OVERHAULED while they are upset.  We sometimes get upset when we find out about things that we will no long have.  OVERHAUL basically means to rebuild or RENEW…so when we go through our spiritual OVERHAULIN’.  This is much like our MIND and Christ.  We are the people with the old useless MIND that Christ takes away and OVERHAULS for us.  We give our lives to Christ, and forget that we need to be OVERHAULED.  Its not that we lose everything that we had, but there is just a new appearance and better use of the old useless mind.

Titus 3:5 speaks of a “regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”  This means that our RENEWING or OVERHAULIN’ is not just a one day process, but a continuous process.  God restores or redeems you on a daily basis through His mercies.  Renewing your mind allows your old memories to be replaced by new experiences.  Things that look like death (crucifixion) actually creates the opportunity for life (resurrection).  During the OVERHAULIN’ or RENEWING process of your mind and spirit there are 2 doors that opened: 1) a Waste Door (old memories and mindsets), and 2) An Entrance Door (for the New experiences).  We take in waste everyday in this world, but it is up to us to allow God to be our filter.  We are not to conform to the way of the world or what the world feeds us, but we are suppose to be transformed by WHAT?  THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND!  WHY?  TO PROVE WHAT IS GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE AND PERFECT WILL OF GOD.  So I ask your today, have you RENEWED YOUR MIND TODAY?

~CMJ~

Continuing to cover LOVE… we find that love is important in our walk with Christ, above all things!  We need to strive to understand love in such a way that it can be our character, not just a part of our character that comes and goes when WE want it to.  Let’s look at love a little bit more…        

We need to read 1John 4 in its entirety helps us see God.  1John 4:12 &13 reads, “No one has seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God abides in us and His love has been perfected in us, By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His spirit.”  Because God is love, when we display love, or show love, He abides in us.  Love is an opening door for God to come into our lives.  When love is present, fear is gone.  1John 4:18 reads, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…”  God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and of a sound mind (2Timothy 1:7).  God’s love brings forth a boldness that allows us to do His will.  Many times we do not do what we are suppose to do because we are scared of the consequences of our actions.  When you are doing the will of God, remember that God loves you, and in His love there is no fear. 

The love that God has for us more powerful than anything we can think of.  Romans 8: 37- 39 says, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God’s love is so powerful that the worst of life’s situations still could not take us from it and that we are able to overcome, better yet conquer because of this love!  The more we look at this Love of God the more we realize it is a necessity for our survival.  Loving God puts you on satan’s most wanted list.  We are enemies of the devil; we need a love of this magnitude to keep us, because this love NEVER fails.  Love brings forth a newfound confidence that we need to imitate Christ.

~CMJ~

1Corinthians 13:13

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

The Apostle Paul transitions from Spiritual gifts to Love in this section of Corinthians, stating that love is the most important thing of all.  What makes love more important?  Faith in itself is very important, Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”  Faith is what brings us to God, but Love is what allows us to IMITATE God.  John 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”  Loving God means to do what He pleases Him.  Loving God is not just calling yourself a Christian but it is actually living in a way that shows love towards Him.  How can we imitate God?- By loving.  For 1John 4:8 says “God is love.”  Since we were created in His image, we are also love.  Loving those around you is also loving God, or imitating God.  Many times in the New Testament we find that the Law is summed up or fulfilled by this “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:14, Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:37- 39, John 13:34-35, and more. 

1Corinthians 13: 4- 8 “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.”

                                                                                                          ~CMJ~