Devotional 121109

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. It was great to enjoy a day of Sabbath with Loretta. I feel refreshed and rejuvenated for another great day of service again. Time really flies. Thanksgiving Day is only two weeks away. During this season of thanksgiving, let’s spend time to count the blessings we have in Christ; the blessings of new babies, new couples, new believers, new ministry, new jobs and renewed marriage etc. We rejoice for all the great relationship we have in church, at work, at home and in our community. Treasure what you have and enjoy with the heart full of thanksgiving. Amen?

"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). What idea have you of the salvation of your soul? The experience of salvation means that in your actual life things are really altered, you no longer look at things as you used to; your desires are new, old things have lost their power. One of the touchstones of experience is - Has God altered the thing that matters? If you still crave after the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above, you are juggling with yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the alteration manifest in your actual life and reasoning, and when the crisis come you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing alteration that is the evidence that you are a saved soul.

What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13, or do I have to shuffle? The salvation that is worked out in me by the Holy Spirit liberates me entirely, and as long as I walk in the light as God is in the light, He sees nothing to censure because His life is working out in every particular, not to my consciousness, but deeper than my consciousness.

The born again experience begins with the mind. This new being in Christ cares for things above, sees things from Christ’s eyes, hears things from the Holy Spirit, and deals with things through the love of God the Father. It takes daily practice of surrendering our will to God, just as Paul said, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). The more we take captive of our old way of thinking and make it obedient to Christ, the more our new being become truly Christ like, because we no longer desire and think like our old self.

Surrendering our old self is not an easy thing to do. It goes against our nature; our nature will grumble and complain. We question ourselves from time to time whether this is too extreme. We have no certainty whether we are going toward a right direction. But when we press on just as Paul did to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us, then our old being will be liberated and transformed into this new being in Christ. May the Lord empower each one of us to enter into this abundantly new life that Christ has prepared for us to enjoy!

Love you in His mindset,
Lawrence