Made New in Christ

          People worry from time to time about how their past may affect their future. Everybody worries about something. It’s one of the things that we all just do automatically. Sometimes it’s something really simple that is easily solved: “What will I eat for lunch, salad or burrito?” Sometimes it can be incredibly messy and complicated: “OH MY GOSH! LIKE, CHAD IS GOING OUT WITH TAYLOR, AND I LIKE CHAD SO THIS IS, LIKE, A MAJOR PROBLEM!” Okay, that was a bit over-exaggerated, but really, sometimes situations like that are troubling for people. But there is one question that really tends to haunt people: “Will everything in my past affect my future? Am I going to end up in the gutter or something like that?”

          Well, I have an answer. If you believe that God loves you so much that He sent his Son, Jesus, down to this earth to die on a cross in your place and then rise again; then you will be saved and spend eternity with God.

Romans 10:9 – “That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

         

          What some people might be still wondering is, “What does this have to do with my future?” When you have a relationship with God and have confessed your sins to Him and have asked for forgiveness, not one thing that you have done in the past matters to Him anymore.

2 Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

         

          Do you see it? With Christ, you are a new person. You are no longer that person from the past. With God, we don’t have to worry about what we have done in the past; it doesn’t matter anymore. God just cares about you, not what you’ve done. God will protect us and help us through every situation.

1 John 5:18 – “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.”

          
          “Well, if God is protecting me so that Satan can’t harm me, then why does all this bad stuff happen to me?” Well, that’s not what he meant, for starters. When it says that “God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him,” it means that because we are now part of God’s family, Satan has no power over us. He cannot dominate you or take control of your life anymore. Of course bad things will happen in life! I’m a Christian and a ton of really major bad things have happened in my life in the course of four years. But God uses those bad situations that we face to draw us closer to Him and better our relationship with him. He loves you so much.

2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

          God is waiting for all of us to come to Him. He loves us all so much that he is patiently waiting for all of us.

A lot of the time we look in the mirror and don’t like what we see, this is, most of the time, a daily struggle for me. We tend to see flaws that we need or want to fix instead of appreciating what we already have; this is an issue we have due to human nature. As humans, we take everything for granted and and have high expectations and hopes in the things of this world; technology is one of the best examples. We put so much trust in gadgets that store nearly our whole lives; we trust that they will keep all of our info stored.Why can't we trust God the way we trust computers? Why can't we tell God everything that goes on in our lives? God is way more reliable then that save button on the top of your Word doc.
We rather take time engaging in things of this world than engaging in Him. We have become enlightened and fascinated by the ways of this world. Heaven is our home and not earth, yet we build kingdoms on earth and worship them instead of worshiping and giving prayers to our heavenly Father. We don't find ourselves beautiful because we are constantly lied to by Satan and this world that we should look like this or look like that. Its all a scam; STOP finding flaws and look to God, your creator. He is perfect in every way and you were created by Him.You are perfect to him. The only reason we point out flaws is because we are not made perfect in any way, shape or form but when we build our kingdom in God, and thank him daily for our flaws, we become beautiful, inside and out we love ourselves. There is no such thing as a perfection except for God; we are children of the greatest king to ever live.We are worth so much, bought with the highest price, payed with blood; His blood, He DIED for Us. The king died for us! Praise Him, for He is the reason we are alive today.

Self Image

For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful
I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Psalm 139:13-15

Self-image is an idea that a lot of girls struggle with. We are constantly being told what “beautiful” is and how we do not fit the world’s standards. This puts a lot of pressure on young women to try and reach unattainable goals whether it be a pencil thin waist or flawless skin, the fact is that none of that matters. The only thing that matters is what God thinks of us, and He made us perfect the way we are. He knew exactly who we were going to be even before we were born. He put so much thought into designing our beings and He loves us more than we could ever imagine regardless of what we may look like.

I have loved you, so I continue you to show you my constant love. – Jeremiah 31:3

God loves us no matter what. God’s acceptance is the only thing we need, and we have that. Therefore it shouldn’t matter what we look like for God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, He looks at the heart.

Salvation

John 3:36

"Whoever believes in the son has eternal life: whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
       
              As I was reading that verse it hit some places a little hard. As God says, "believe in Him and you'll be saved," but if we just believe and keeping making the same mistakes over and over again are we really going to be saved?

             Its a real question daily if what I am doing is going to be enough to be saved?

            God says believe in him and will be saved, but not only do we have to believe; we have to follow and not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in.

            Steps to be saved:
1) YOU have to leave it to you and GOD. It's your guys's relationship.

2) YOU have to admit your a sinner. Ask yourself if anything has been more important to you than God? No matter how big or small your sins have been they are sins from stealing a piece of gum, telling a lie, to even using OMG. They all count.

3) Repent from your old ways. If your friends, family, or anyone who you spent a lot of time with makes an influence on you to sin, repent away from them. Don't spend time with people that are going to pull you away from the Lord.

4) BE GLAD- Don't be afraid to believe and rejoice in God.

5) Now you have to stay connected with the lord.

6) When you need help go to the lord. We often look for help in the wrong places and it gets us in even more trouble. the Lord will always be there for us, He will always help us and lead us down the right track.

               As Christians we sometimes forget the simple things. Not only do we have to keep believing, but we also have to follow and let our actions show it. We have to trust that God has his hand in everything and there in no need to worry about the unknown.

              Others might have fears and questions about the same things you do. No matter our mistakes and our past, God loves us. He will always love us. God will be the only person who will always be there to help us with all out dark times and never turn away.
         

Salvation is...

 Salvation

 When I was asked to define salvation in Bible class I answered: “Salvation is what God gives us when we put our trust in Him and believe that he is all powerful and died on the cross to take away our sins.”  I want to stress that salvation does not come from simply believing, but from a relationship with the Lord where God is father and we are the child. An active relationship in which the people involved talk to each other and grow together.  So I encourage everyone to take time out of your day, every day, to sit and have a conversation with the Lord. Those moments, even if only a few minutes, can make a big difference in your life and really draw you closer to the Father, who longs to talk to you and speak to you, but only if you listen.

“Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:17

I Try......

I think that salvation is only for when you do something really bad. You get in trouble with the law for it, and then that`s when you need God to save you. It`s really hard for me to tell if salvation is an important topic or not. I was never taught about God`s salvation and/or what it means. So it`s hard for me to come up with something to talk about. I feel like salvation is just a really hard topic for me to talk about. I don`t know if it`s because nothing comes to mind every time I really try to think about it, or whether it`s because I was never really was taught about it and don`t understand it that much. Salvation is important to a lot of people, and I get that. That is how they believe and how they want to understand. I totally get that. I just find it hard to put myself in different shoes and then they just don`t fit or feel right, if you know where I am coming from. To me, it`s not that important; to other people and their faith and their relationship with God, it`s extremely important to them and I`m not going to do anything about that, the way they grew up understanding that. I`m just kinda focusing on what I know and how I view things, I just want people to understand that sometimes it is hard but you have to push through; try to think how maybe others would as well.....