Therefore...

if anyone, if anyone, anyone, anyone, ANYONE

is in Christ, is in Christ, in Christ, CHRIST.

the old has gone! has gone! GONE!

BEHOLD!

the new has come! the NEW has come! =)

(Meditations on 2 Corinthians 5:17)

The BEHOLD! factor = Separates the old life from the new life. It's the turning point. Vision is everything! (BEHOLD=SEE)

He wants it all. He wants to transform, to revive each and every area of our life. This process of submitting to the King and giving over the control of our lives may be painful, letting go maybe painful. But once we let go. BOOM! (Behold!) He takes over and reigns in victory. We come under not just His authority but also His protection and provision. And once we taste and see His goodness we won't want to go back to living for ourselves.

I've heard many famous testimonies of turning points like that, stuff like people coming to the end of themselves hence they give up and call out to God and then God answers by setting them free from various addictions the moment they give their life to Him. Then in gratitude they live a life on fire for their Savior and boldly proclaim His goodness in word and deed. That's so cool! Just shows off God's mighty power to save even those who are seen as the "baddest sinners."

How about the people who don't have such a radical turning point? I guess they didn't fully Behold= SEE. It's all about vision/perception. What you see is what changes you. What your mind perceives, changes your heart, and changes the way you do life.

In other words, it's about the renewal of the mind affecting the state of the heart which then affects the confession of the mouth and your entire lifestyle. That group of people may say the sinners prayer and give their life to God and actually be genuine about it but they may not realize ("behold") that He actually wants all aspects of their lives, as in everything. But God is faithful and He accepts what we give to Him and He extends His grace to us as He lets us know that He actually wants all of us. So once the sinners prayer is said, that's just the beginning of a life of surrender as we come to an understanding that God is a consuming fire and He wants us in totality not just bits and pieces of us, He gives us grace to respond to His longing to have our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.

Thank You Jesus. Thanks for unconditional Love. Your grace is enough for me. Take more and more of me, until you take all of me. I won't turn back because You are my rock and my strength so you shall sustain me. And please restore to me everything that the devil stole from me when I fell for his schemes and took my eyes off You and looked at myself and the world. Thanks Redeemer! =)

A call for repentance.

For many people, me included, surrender is obviously not as easy as it sounds. Why is that? Has to do with strongholds which I'll address in future posts and how to overcome them.