Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation
(a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!
(2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP)
Today I will live in the now! I will live in the now because I am in Christ and, in Him, I am continually renewed to new creation status. In my life, old things have passed away; they have died and have been buried. Today I will make the effort to rethink my own self-perceived identity by seeing myself as God sees me.
Today I will abandon stale and unproductive patterns of conduct. I will begin to forsake what is obsolete and atrophied in the way that I think, speak and act. I will seek the new. I will welcome what is fresh and vibrant with the enthusiasm of a happily excited child.
Today I will not shy away from those who challenge me or even disagree with me. I will gladly engage in vigorous conversation with others who stimulate me spiritually and intellectually and will be open to new ideas. I will not defend myself from those who would expose my predictable comfort zones and defense mechanisms, but will, in fact, thank God for their purpose in my life.
Today I will know no person according to the flesh, but will rather allow them the freedom to also be recognized as a new creation in their own right. I will see the butterfly instead of the caterpillar. I will help to locate and celebrate what is new in them.
Today I will walk in a deeper revelation of what it means to be “in Christ” and will thoroughly meditate on the prospect of it. The Scriptures will come alive in me as I am tutored by the Holy Spirit all through the day. My heart and mind will be open to significant words, phrases, ideas and paradigms that will further unveil the real Christ and will awaken in me a new dimension of enlightenment concerning Him.
Today my concept of the new creation phenomenon will bring a greater sense of wellness and wholeness to my soul. Healing, therapy and refreshing will be available to me as I realize more and more that my sins really are forgiven and my past really is behind me. The concept of the new creation is my reality.
Today it will be easy for me to receive miracles. I understand that the same power that translated me out of darkness into the Kingdom of light can do anything else that I need for it to do. My faith as a member of the new creation species will be strong today, and today I will live in the now!
Father, help me to live today like the new creature that I am.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
26 comments:
Very cool. I really love the butterflies. We are moving to another dimension. I believe we had to go through the hard time last year in order to see what we really have overlooked. The hunger for Him. A lot of times For myself I come to church because it's what to do. I sing because I'm in the choir. I pray for others but bypass myself. This Sunday I felt the hunger that I felt the first time I joined the church. I want more of Him. The River started to flow once again. The reign of His presence is filling this house.
Miracles are before us if we just reach out and take hold.
No more sorrow no more shame.
In Him renewed life
Overflowing abundance
a·bun·dance [ə búndənss]
(plural a·bun·danc·es)
n
1. large amount: a more than plentiful quantity of something
Florence, with its abundance of art treasures
there was food and drink in abundance
2. affluence: a lifestyle with more than adequate material provisions
3. fullness: a fullness of spirit that overflows
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Choose the Good
Separate yourself form those who stand in the way of your vision toward the Father.
Embrace your brothers who lift's you up and shine with the Light of The Father.
See past the outer
Seek the heart
For The Father lives in each of us
He is holding us close
Embrace every moment you have
with Him.
Today is a new day
Embrace what you have in Him
Earthly things can be replaced
Spiritual presence is what it is all about.
He's calling your name.
Will you answer back?
He wants us as much as we need Him.
Enter In
Beautiful pictures,beautiful words.
What more can possibly be added to that?
GORGEOUS photos!
Butterflies are some of the worlds best bird watchers.
I've cherished and enjoyed my original copy of AYITN and we even keep it on display for others to be positively affected by. The pictoral additions here on the blog definately add another dimension to it. I add my vote in favor of an edition that includes the accomodating pictorals. You can do it in your spare time and probably have it available in no time (humor intended).
I was reminded of a great point made in your teaching yesterday Bishop, by my sister Anita who with her husband Dan live on the SC side of Lake Oconee and stream most of the time. She remarked on the thought offered concerning the misunderstandings that can occur in an email from someone where you can not see their body language and hear their voice inflections. There is an even deeper thought on that subject that came to me in connection with today's AYITN.
Like most Christians, I identify with the change that happens in the chrysalis stage of the developing beauty in the butterfly and moth. As higher creatures, we humans need these kind of reminders often. It would be great if we could present ourselves with the attraction of that type beauty and imprint a memory in other humans that would prevent them from associating us with any negative memory.
Our more complex brains cause us to act more like a Sparrow that would fight to the death to protect its offspring. That was another beautiful point you made yesterday when you said that you would walk over anyone to provide for the safety of you children and that you would expect all of us to do the same.
We are yet even higher than the Sparrow that God is toughtful of in that we can discern the difference between an enemy and friend and we can also enjoy the beautiful butterfly without thinking of food.
Should we not also consider the kind gestures of a fellowhuman and not so quickly misunderstand them in an email? We probably should exept for an even highr order of thought that causes us to organize things in catagories of good and bad based on how it may effect our ability to provide for the best chance in the survival of those we care about the most.
I do not think in negative terms of being offended by anything you say in an email or anywhere else mainly because I know that I do not intend you or your family any harm. I am a friend and a brother to you that has proven my use of those words by a history of kind deeds toward you and your family and so it is also true that you do not recieve any thing coming from me as harmful based on a lack of visable body language because you know what part of the Body my language is coming from.
I live for the day, that is very soon coming now, when humans can enjoy the beauty of each other without thinking of food or the potential for harm either way.
I join you now in prayer for the expedience of that day.
JB
What a beautiful prayer. I love the rebirth that the butterflies represent. Throughout my life, I have been reborn over and over again. Each time made new, each time made better, each time made more aware. There are many things not promised in this world but it is true that God makes all things new. Each of us are living testatment of this.
Like many others, 2008 was extremely challenging for me. I had my share of bad days. Days where my faith was pulled to what I felt was its farthest point. On those days, I felt defeated, unsure, unloved, and hopeless. But, God was making all things new for me. Even when I couldn't see his plan my burdens, my trials, my tribulations were dying right before me. Being buried while my life was made new. Every issue that seemed so big, so futile to conquer, all of sudden became dirt under my shoe. A road I had already walked on. A path already taken. There were New things before me, around me. As bad as my There had been, This was that much better and more.
But that is the true magnificence of God - Life is never the same as it was then. Now is so much better, brand New and all mine. Life gives birth to death as death gives birth to life and we are all reborn day in, day out.
I was reborn this morning and I thank God for all of His blessings in my life. His Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Anon @ 9:16 AM, they actually feel the vibrations of the bird's wings batting the air in their own delicate wing structure. It is amazing to watch them quickly move out of the way of an attacking bird.
Perhaps if the advanced brains of humans could react in such a manner, we would have fewer wars.
It seems to me though that some wars are provoked, evoked or in some other way invited just so the guest part may show their own superiority over the attacker.
just wondering
anon 12:03,
I love to watch a butterfly survive an attack from a bird.
I wonder the same about the second part of your post.
Have a blessed day.
anon 9:16 am
Praise be to God in the highest. He is moiving us forward into the glory of His Kingdom and in doing so is removing all the things that hinder our vision and hinder our movement. Today I must sing of His love. Today I must glorify Him; magnify His name, and say GREAT is our God. Hallelujah!
word ver: doeth
Stephen Hawking Named Lifeboat Foundation 2008 Guardian Award Winner
KurzweilAI.net, Jan. 1, 2009
The 2008 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award has been given to Stephen Hawking. The award is annually bestowed upon a respected scientist or public figure who has warned of a future fraught with dangers and encouraged measures to prevent them.
The 2008 award is in recognition of his continuous warnings that global catastrophic risks will eventually come and therefore it is unsafe and unwise for all of humanity to be on a single planet.
"It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking has stated. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."
Now there's a way for the butterfly to avoid the bird!
NASA has a plan to intercept a large asteroid in 2012. Their intent is twofold. One is to drill into the icy core of the asteroid and harvest H2o that will be converted into both breathable oxygen and fuel for rocket boosters. This would make it possible to create a biosphere capable of sustaining life for a long space journey to another habitable planet. The other is to fasten the space shuttles (probably four to six of them) to the asteroid and manipulate the asteroid into an orbit around the earth. This would make it available for development as another human colony independent from earth. It would appear as a second moon.
All of this amazes and amuzes me. It is a viable solution to surviving a global catastrophe though.
Just that much more reason to pray for extended mercy and grace. My faith is that we will get past our differences and not need it but this does give another understanding to the prophetic creation of a new heaven and a new earth.
the gods are as good as the Creator,
JB
Selah.
Praise report:
My neice Mary has run the Bio-Chemistry lab at a major university since 2001 and received a performance raise every year. In the Spring 2007, due to the economic downturn, it was announced that there would be no increases in the 2007-2008 academic year university wide. However, following her evaluations, she received a performance increase. This past August, she submitted a request for a promotion and a raise even though it was announced that there would be no increases and that there would be massive cuts of previously planned budgets. Several people learned in the weeks that followed that their jobs would end in the spring.
Today, Mary was informed that the Board of Regents approved her promotion request - title change and raise - on top of a January raise.
She asked me to share her story with others, hoping it might "encourage all to keep trusting in the LORD who richly provides for us. It also just goes to show that with God nothing is impossible!"
I was shocked the last week of 2008 when something happened that gave me "butterflies" in my stomach. I even remarked to a family member that I wasn't used to that "butterfly feeling" anymore. Actually my exact words were "Ok, so I have got butterflies in the pit of my stomach and I'm in trouble BAD! These horrid little devils need to leave right now!!" It wasn't anything I had felt in years and surely didn't want them now. I'm a painter and made a preliminary sketch on the last day of 08 of a bunch of butterflies in a jar - contained - with little life left. My head just works that way... Anyway, I had searched the internet for inspiration on butterfly designs and found one that I hadn't seen before and put it in my drawing. So...today I check out the blog and what do ya know? Butterflies. Including that one in particular. My journal / sketch entries have already been intertwined once this week, here’s another.
This personal view of my earlier chrysalis is in compliance with my current view of who I am in Christ today. This testimony begins with language that may be offensive to the religious so if that is you, please disregard.
Mythology developed as a temporary way to satisfy our questions concerning the greater creative process in eternal flux that is essentially the same as the timeless Creator. The Creator provided the message that was observed and translated into religion as a study of what the Creator was saying.
The path taken by many, that has led to destruction, has not allowed religion to evolve but has used it as a tool for the created to control the created.
The closest anyone may come to not being controlled by the specific religion of another is to expose themselves to as many ideas and experiences as possible.
To escape being controlled by an entity no greater than ourselves, we have pursued a system of information gathering that can be studied through documentation. Our understanding improves as the documents begin to reveal a clearer picture of what the facts may actually be.
Various religions and other tales developed from myths have never let facts get in the way of a good story. For that reason science and religion have been at enmity since humans have allowed those enlightened with information that has a solid foundation to be heard.
What has been revealed recently by scientific study as the probability of the universe and various dimensions of it being unlimited strongly agrees with the idea of a limitless God or Creator.
Therefore we have come full circle from the earliest musings where mythology and religion were developed to the greater enlightenment of endless possibilities.
This seems to be encoded into everything we observe to be recognized for its value as pure truth in the soon coming day of our Lord. What an awesome thought!
Those liberties taken by well meaning writers of the good news really is inspired to show the message of perfect Love.
Thank you Holy Ghost, You are marvelous beyond imagination.
JB
Happy New Year!
First post this year here.
Love the butterfly pics(who can say there is no God?) and the statements posted with them.
It is a good thing to know that you are a child of God and a representative of His Kingdom even when you "feel" not a whit like it. Walking by faith.
Had a thought come to me yesterday as Bishop spoke during morning service. Thought of thinking "outside the box" and the various paradigms we have.
A crown of thorns was placed by wicked men upon the head of Jesus, mocking Him and in a way trying to restrict Him to an Earthly kingdom. They tried to box His thinking in with that crown. But God raised Him from the dead and no more mention of the crown...only the crown of the dominion of a King- a Heavenly crown.
This same battle is being waged in our minds today. Do we accept from the World a crown of their making(and the boundaries and bondage that come with it) or our rightful crown given by the Blood of the Lamb sprinkled on the Mercy Seat? We are the righteousness of God in Christ, or you could say: In Christ, we are the righteousness of God.
2009, the year of Covenant.
Blessings & peace to all,
Larry
JB,
Well put, but I expect no less from such a great communicator as yourself. Your wisdom always resonates within me.
If you trace the earliest usage of the term "religion", you will find one of the original terms to be "religare". RE, of course, means "again" and ligare means "connect", "link", or "bind". Ligare is also from the root that translates "ligament", which we know physiologically as the thing that connects muscle to bone or metaphorically, strength to stability.
Somewhere along the way though, the true definition of religion got lost in translation and is now perceived as the "enemy" that divides instead of that which reconnects or binds together.
With that thought in mind, maybe, contrary to current ideas, Jesus DID come to initiate a "religion".
Peace and Love,
PM
PS...I loved the Hawking post from earlier.
Now that I think about it, I don't think I have ever looked at a butterfly and wondered how ugly it once was when it was a caterpillar.
All I can think about it how beautiful and graceful it is as a butterfly.
BEAUTIFUL!!! I LOVE butterflies and the ones you posted today! =)
Brilliant color, vibrant life, new is the some of the many things a butterly speaks to me as well as innocence and pure joy! It had no idea when it was in the process~
Loved what you said yesterday, Bishop, esp about Christ saying, "This is MY body!" POWERFUL! Never thought of it quite like that and I just meditated on that yesterday. Wonderful!
Awesome abouth WBF and being in the paper! Just like God turned things around for Daniel~in the lions den...He IS turning things around! It's just so like HIM!
I am so excited about 2009 and too am focusing on the positive and negative energy has to go!
I pray refreshing and joy for all you lil peeps! =)
Love the picture by the women's restroom on the west end of the building. The picture of Diversity all the different butterflies. Yes we are a very diverse group of people with a heart for the Father.
There was a sweet spirit in the house tonight. Ready for tomorrow night. See ya then.
Laura -love your new pic!
Great word ITN today, I studied this section of scripture quite in depth while writing an article involving it. "Christ in All" http://www.completerestorationinchrist.org/Christinall.html
what I found on this particular verse was that the word "if" is equally valid and better translated "since" or "because" in keeping with the context. which changes the whole idea. I thought I was the only one who had seen this even after speaking with Dr. Lovelace about it; till I heard Bishop say that he has seen it that way also in a sermon last year. this was encouraging and also let me know once again that we are definitely on the same page. since then I was excited when I found "The Jonathan Mitchel New Testament" which has it this way
2Co 5:17 JM-NT So that if (or: since) anyone [is] within Christ ([the] Anointed One), [there is] a new (of different kind, character and quality) creation (framing; founding; act of creation): the original things (the beginning [situations]; the archaic and primitive things) passed by (went to the side). Consider! New things have come into existence (have been birthed; or: It has become new things; or: He has been birthed and now exists being ones of a different kind, character and quality).
It is amazing to me when I see the lengths that some have went to protect there pet doctrine of exclusive salvation.
Peace,
Dennis
I am so Glad we have sold the house!...I have spent the day renting a uhaul truck, changing addresses, having utilities turned on in my name in the apartment, renting another storage unit, and getting the boxes labeled and ready for the guys I have hired to move us tomorrow (I am not able to move much anymore) I am concerned about the possibility of freezing rain; but that is just something we have to put in The Lords hands. I am just glad for the financial relief and getting back to a one story home. I love this house and I built it to live in the rest of my life; but things do change and in the end we will see that it was always for a good reason and for our benefit. Since my injury and retirement this home has turned from beauty to burden physically and financially. But the Lord has worked it out Praise God! We have another house in town that we have rented and as soon as the renters can find another place we are going to give it a make-over and move in it. I always loved that place too, it is just a lot smaller, so I guess that is all we need.
God has a way of directing us and showing us what is best. He's pretty good at that.
My life is in His hands and I trust Him completely and He knows that.
Peace,
Dennis
I'm here...feeling quiet and pleasantly cocoon-like...but here...pondering "this is my BODY".
Wordver: parystho
Rather be in Paris,tho?
No, thanks. Paris in the spring maybe, but this cocoon came with a great promise...wings!
Tracy - Thank you.
Hey, Avatar...I feel you...butterflies are free to fly...ever wonder why some people think they can collect them?
I'm feeling the cocoon today as well Avatar. Great posts here today everyone. Reading them is such a blessing to me.
Pastor Dennis,
Just read your article you linked. Wow, it's so easy to forget that Jesus really has done it all. He is the complete fulfillment and payment of all the debt from the old creation. He is the complete arbiter and deliverer of this new creation, already present in all of mankind. The only condition is faith to see the Kingdom and what has already taken place. A few lines in this writing grabbed me in particular.
From now on I will see through spiritual eyes that can see the kingdom of God among and within us all. Jesus said that unless one is born of the spirit you cannot see the kingdom of God; you cannot see with spiritual eyes. He did not say you were not in the kingdom he said you could not see it
also:
We have now received the reconciliation, but most just don't know it or don't believe it. You don't receive salvation at some alter or in some ceremony or by some prayer. You have already received it, you just need
to come to a realization of it in your mind and believe it. Alters and ceremonies and prayers are all good I'm not knocking that, but they don't get you saved, Jesus did that, you just have to believe it. All these ceremonies are just tools that God uses to awaken our mind to the truth in a way that our fleshly nature in this physical realm can relate to what He has already done in the spiritual realm and believe its true for us for us personally. The good news is God has saved us all from the curse of Adam and brought us into the blessings of Christ which we inter into by faith believing that he did what he said he did. He said he was the Savior of the World and the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world; did he take away the sin of the world or not? Do you believe him? Or did he fail? Or did he just take away your sin and the people's sin at your Church?
Very in line with today's Blog.
It's finished. Theirs no if, it's since! Just awaken to Christ within you, the hope of glory!
It's so easy for any of us to lose sight of this and fall back into a works mentality. So easy! And so dangerous! Thanks for re-crystallizing the simplicity of the Gospel for me with that study. I'll pass it on. Praise God!
Post a Comment