Your Past, Your Shame, and Your Peace

[BenFTW]

How the past is but a thief when it lays sorrow in the present. The truth of what once was hidden as like a skeleton in a closet. Yet here I am, to tell you that there is no need to have such a closet. Its time for renovations! The past as bleak and dark that it may have been, with past transgression is just that. The past. It is a thing behind us, but if we let it, it will rob us and others. Shame. Hindering us as we mope about, feeling as if in each encounter with another soul we must place a mask upon the real self. Not true. The past is not the present you, the shame you feel need not be!

You see, there is no confession that needs to be made. No dark truth to be revealed. It is not their business and neither is it yours. Do not occupy yourself with what you were, but occupy yourself with who you are. Today is a new day. The sins of the past forgiven, and nearly forgotten in that they should not hold a stronghold upon your identity in the present. Do not let what once was, rob what is now. What matters is the present. Who are you today? Where is your love today? Would you today act in the same way that you did then? Be not ashamed. That is no longer you.

Now, you may wonder how wicked your mind and heart may be, to think that just maybe you might act in the same way. Possibly you still struggle with sins of the past. Have hope! God sanctifies, He sets free and gives liberty! The things that bind you, He has the strength to unbind. The chains around you, He can break. Simply know that you have been made new. God loves you. You are His child. What struggles you have are but opportunities for Him to show you His greatness and mercy. Don't see your problems as hopeless, rather see it as an opportunity to see God's glory.

Rid yourself of shame. This day is, again, a new day. You are not your past, but are here in the present. Sanctified by God, ever growing. Do not identify with your past transgression, rather identify with who God has called you to be. Walk in that reality, as this is who He has created you to be. To love. So this day, this moment, be just that. Think not upon the darkness of what you were, but be in the present, presenting yourself as who you are now. Not then. Once more, if the present isn't who you'd like to be, have hope. God sanctifies. This is where peace settles in.

 

[notuptome]

The god of this world your adversary has not forgotten your past nor will he allow you to forget your past. He will use your past to tempt you daily.

Paul always remembered he was chiefest of sinners. Our comfort and our peace is that our heavenly Father has separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. God has cast our sin behind His back and remembers them no more.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

 

[BenFTW]

The god of this world your adversary has not forgotten your past nor will he allow you to forget your past. He will use your past to tempt you daily.

Paul always remembered he was chiefest of sinners. Our comfort and our peace is that our heavenly Father has separated our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. God has cast our sin behind His back and remembers them no more.

For the cause of Christ
Roger

What a wonderful truth, if only people accepted it in the same breath they read the scripture it is found. Surrounding it are verses speaking of God putting His laws in our hearts, and they believe that it is representative of their current reality now. Why cannot they also receive the truth of Him holding not our iniquities against us, forgetting them, as actively and presently being the case as is His laws being written on their hearts? Its in the same context.

Our peace is that of the Gospel, all that Christ accomplished through His suffering on our behalf. It gives us hope, it gives us rest. His rest.

 

[J7]

A really prophetic word Ben.

 

[Grace777x70]

Amen Ben!!..hopefully this will help young or struggling Christians in their life now.

Guilt, condemnation and shame are never the tools of the kingdom and the Lord does not sub-contract out these to the enemy.

Guilt is a sub-conscious confession ( what you hear about yourself ) that you are not forgiven.

Condemnation is the sub-conscious confession ( what you hear about yourself ) that your life is worthy of judgment.

Shame is the sub-conscious confession ( what you hear about yourself ) that the thing you are condemned over is still who you are.

All 3 of the above are anti-Christ and anti-the finished work of Christ. These are not tools of heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (KJV)
[SUP]17 [/SUP] Therefore if any man be in Christ, he isa new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

[SUP]18 [/SUP] And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

[SUP]19 [/SUP] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

The above is our true ministry of the Lord to people. Brethren - don't let anyone or anything rob you of what your loving Lord has done for you. As you have received Christ - walk in Him - free to live and love as we grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus and our Father.

 

[BenFTW]

I'm glad that its resonating with those reading it.

 

[joaniemarie]

And also, if we would just think about it., the negative is all around us. Death is being spoken every day on this earth by the devil and by his followers and the earth is filled with it. So we too as Christians are effected by the death all around us not only from our past., but also the present and coming future.., and we must counter with the truth of life in Christ. We need to speak life while the world is speaking death.

Is it any wonder the church is weak? We live here and the ground and airwaves are full of the negative of life. Death is real and it's happening but if we believers were not wrapped up in it., we would be countering it as we have been called to do. To be salt and light. We would be watching our words that we were not repeating and re-building even in our scope of living the death that is being perpetrated on the world.

We would be doing as the Spirit says by following Jesus words and saying them instead of the worlds words. Jesus said "take no thought - saying" When we fear we don't take that thought and SAY it. When we see death we counter it with the words of life. When we fear we counter it with "Fear not for I am with you., be not dismayed for I am your God..." "what time I am afraid I will trust in Him." "He shall keep you in all your ways"

The enemy has some how gotten us to think words and sayings are not important and don't matter. When we say or hear things like "I'm dying for....." I'd kill for..." I'm dying too...." "The least I can do is...." The people in the world say "that's one hell of a..." There is even a cheese named "Hellova good cheese" or "what the hell?" And what about the other words that mean death and hell? Instead of life and Jesus and heaven? Repeating things the devil whispers to us is a direct attack yet one we have been unaware of the impact of his attacks on our lives. Repeating his words.... "I'm depressed... I'm a mess, I'm no good., I'm such a jerk., I'm a coward., I'm a failure., I'll never be like that.... I'll never do.... I'll always fail., I've always failed... I always mess up.... I hate that., I hate them, I can't stand that.... The enemy uses our personal pronouns so we make those words our own and convince ourselves doing his work for him.

How many of us are sick of mind and body? Could some of that sickness be because we have not enmeshed and protected ourselves instead in the words of life we have been given? How many word and life habits do we have that are just wrong and we have had them for years not knowing the counter productive effects they have had on us and continue to have on us because of our own ignorance?

I see it so much clearer now as I see the effects of negative speaking had in my life and the lives of those around me. And being part of this world, how we all learned to speak and how the world actually needs to say those negative words of death all the time because that is what the world understands. It can't relate in other words because they don't have the words of life.

The news and words on tv that we come home to after work and have turned into a ritual of hearing every day., and or the life of people even in social situations. Even when people are supposed to be de-stressing they are actually artificially medicating themselves with alcohol or cigarettes or tv or anything that gets them to find a relief from the stresses of this life the way they learned to cope.

But we Christians are called to speak the Words of life. We are called to something else now., not the words of the world. We can still be Christians that go to church and read our Bibles but be weak needy people. If we stay put in our old habits of life and living and never learn to be in the world but not of the world. And that is most often seen by the words we communicate to ourselves and others.

Saying words every day that are words of death the way the world talks is killing us every day. The power of life and death is in the tongue. But how many of us take that seriously? It's such a little "member" the tongue. Yet it steers the ships of our lives. And the lives of others. The little foxes? The huge things hidden in the little things we do each day and take no notice of.

When Jesus told us to "take no thought saying ; what shall we eat..what shall we drink, what shall we wear..., He knew the world asked and worried 24/7 about those things. But that is not to be so with us anymore. We have the words of life to think and say. They are life and health and peace if we use them every day. Just think how life could change if words of life were daily countering the words of death we are around every day? Just even on CC it would be a stunning change!

 

[Skinski7]

If you are still serving/committing sin in the present then you are a child of the devil and all the rhetorical feel good fluff doesn't change that fact.

jesus Christ sets people free from sin, He doesn't give them some positional "identity" of freedom which somehow cloaks manifest iniquity.

Genuine Christians don't "struggle" with sin, they overcome it through the power of God's grace.

 

[BillG]

If you are still serving/committing sin in the present then you are a child of the devil and all the rhetorical feel good fluff doesn't change that fact.

jesus Christ sets people free from sin, He doesn't give them some positional "identity" of freedom which somehow cloaks manifest iniquity.

Genuine Christians don't "struggle" with sin, they overcome it through the power of God's grace.

Way of the mark.

Genuine Christians do struggle with sin.
And they will do this side of eternity.

You say they overcome through the power of Gods grace.

No grace in your post.

I am assuming you don't struggle with sin (however you quantify it) given your post.

Yes Jesus sets people free but when we realise our identity in Christ, sin will decrease and Jesus increase.

 

[Grace777x70]

I believe that the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing when He had Paul write 1 Corinthians.

Some of them were going to temple prostitutes for sex, they were taking each other to court, they were in divisions and strife, they were not treating the poor amongst them right...etc.

Paul was saying that those in Corinth were acting like mere men and men of flesh - in other words not being spiritually minded.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 (NASB)
[SUP]1 [/SUP] And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.

[SUP]2 [/SUP] I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,

[SUP]3 [/SUP] for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

[SUP]4 [/SUP] For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men?


I noticed that in verse 1 Paul says that they are "babes in Christ".

- not that you are going to hell because you are sinning. Or that because they were sinning - that they are not born of God.

In some people's religion - they send baby Christians to hell.

Whenever Paul found sinning in the church, he always reminded them of their identity - who they are in Christ. Paul was very passionate about the believer living holy ( apart from the world's way of thinking ) lives that honored Jesus but he always taught them through their identity in Christ.

He never told them they were going to hell and not children of their loving Father now. That's a religion of self-righteousness and a works based false doctrine.

Preach the grace and love of God in Christ and believers will have the proper nutrients to grow up in Him and then the fruit of His life will be manifested in and through us so that others can see and know the love and grace our loving Father and Lord have for them.

 

[BillG]

I believe that the Holy Spirit knew what He was doing when He had Paul write 1 Corinthians.

Some of them were going to temple prostitutes for sex, they were taking each other to court, they were in divisions and strife, they were not treating the poor amongst them right...etc.

Paul was saying that those in Corinth were acting like mere men and men of flesh - in other words not being spiritually minded.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 (NASB)
[SUP]1 [/SUP] And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.

[SUP]2 [/SUP] I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able,

[SUP]3 [/SUP] for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?

[SUP]4 [/SUP] For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men?


I noticed that in verse 1 Paul says that they are "babes in Christ".

- not that you are going to hell because you are sinning. Or that because they were sinning - that they are not born of God.

In some people's religion - they send baby Christians to hell.

Whenever Paul found sinning in the church, he always reminded them of their identity - who they are in Christ. Paul was very passionate about the believer living holy ( apart from the world's way of thinking ) lives that honored Jesus but he always taught them through their identity in Christ.

He never told them they were going to hell and not children of their loving Father now. That's a religion of self-righteousness and a works based false doctrine.

Preach the grace and love of God in Christ and believers will have the proper nutrients to grow up in Him and then the fruit of His life will be manifested in and through us so that others can see and know the love and grace our loving Father and Lord have for them.

Thanks for the rep and yes I agree with you.

 

[Skinski7]

Way of the mark.

Genuine Christians do struggle with sin.
And they will do this side of eternity.

You say they overcome through the power of Gods grace.

No grace in your post.

I am assuming you don't struggle with sin (however you quantify it) given your post.

Yes Jesus sets people free but when we realise our identity in Christ, sin will decrease and Jesus increase.

That is just empty rhetoric and unsubstantiated opinion.

The Bible says...

1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

He that commits sin is of the devil. That is a pretty vlear statement.

Likewise...

1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Any truly born of God does not commit sin. A very straightforward statement.

Both the children of God and the children of the devil are MANIFEST in regards to what they actually do.

Very simple stuff.

 

[BillG]

If you are still serving/committing sin in the present then you are a child of the devil and all the rhetorical feel good fluff doesn't change that fact.

jesus Christ sets people free from sin, He doesn't give them some positional "identity" of freedom which somehow cloaks manifest iniquity.

Genuine Christians don't "struggle" with sin, they overcome it through the power of God's grace.

A child of the devil?

Very harsh words, I don't know if you drive a car. But let's suppose you do.
The speed limit is 30 mph. Lets say you drive at 34 mph. Your committing a sin, not obeying the law of the land.
Are you a child of the devil?

Lets say you get upset with someone and say something that's not of love.
Are you a child of the devil.

Lets say you judge by your thoughts and words that someone is a child of the devil.
That being the case you are playing God.

Are you a child of God or a child of Satan as you judge.

 

[Skinski7]

Jesus taught the same thing also...

Joh 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
Joh 8:35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

If you are "committing sin" then you are a servant of sin.

Jesus said that.

Jesus sets people FREE from committing sin.

To claim that the committing of sin NEVER stops is a denial of the freedom Jesus can provide.

Most of you here believe salvation is a sin cloak because you are opposed to a real deliverance from sin. It's a real shame.

 

[willybob]

the flesh loves devotionals, and places them above the Spirit of Truth, that's why they are so popular...however the bible contends that any doctrine that does not conform one to godliness and obedience to the truth is a doctrine of devils...

 

[BillG]

That is just empty rhetoric and unsubstantiated opinion.

The Bible says...

1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

He that commits sin is of the devil. That is a pretty vlear statement.

Likewise...

1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Any truly born of God does not commit sin. A very straightforward statement.

Both the children of God and the children of the devil are MANIFEST in regards to what they actually do.

Very simple stuff.

you need to get behind the text of scripture and is meaning.

Ok I'm going to put myself out here.

My understanding of your post is that a Christian who commits sin is a child of the devil, and that a Christian will not sin and will never sin?
Have I got you wrong?

 

[BillG]

That is just empty rhetoric and unsubstantiated opinion.

The Bible says...

1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

He that commits sin is of the devil. That is a pretty vlear statement.

Likewise...

1Jn 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

Any truly born of God does not commit sin. A very straightforward statement.

Both the children of God and the children of the devil are MANIFEST in regards to what they actually do.

Very simple stuff.

My rhetoric to you is just as rhetoric as yours is to me.

 

[Skinski7]

A child of the devil?

Very harsh words, I don't know if you drive a car. But let's suppose you do.
The speed limit is 30 mph. Lets say you drive at 34 mph. Your committing a sin, not obeying the law of the land.
Are you a child of the devil?

Lets say you get upset with someone and say something that's not of love.
Are you a child of the devil.

Lets say you judge by your thoughts and words that someone is a child of the devil.
That being the case you are playing God.

Are you a child of God or a child of Satan as you judge.

i am not talking about accidently going over the speed limit or bumping into someone or something like that.

I am speaking of CHOOSING evil. In other words this stuff...

Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

To equate thst stuff with going over the speed limit is foolishness dnd is just an attempt to create an impossible standard whereby you can give a pass for fornication becsuse you give a pass to speeding. Pure foolishness and if you are honest you know it.

John wrote...

1Jn 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Do you really think that the invention of speed limits negates John's plain statement? You just don't believe tge Bible is all.

 

[BillG]

the flesh loves devotionals, and places them above the Spirit of Truth, that's why they are so popular...however the bible contends that any doctrine that does not conform one to godliness and obedience to the truth is a doctrine of devils...

Hi willybob.

Are you free from sin? Are perfect just as Jesus is perfect?

 

[Grace777x70]

A child of the devil?

Very harsh words, I don't know if you drive a car. But let's suppose you do.
The speed limit is 30 mph. Lets say you drive at 34 mph. Your committing a sin, not obeying the law of the land.
Are you a child of the devil?

Lets say you get upset with someone and say something that's not of love.
Are you a child of the devil.

Lets say you judge by your thoughts and words that someone is a child of the devil.
That being the case you are playing God.

Are you a child of God or a child of Satan as you judge.

The sinless perfection in the flesh types will always have their own religion condemn them because when they sin ( and we all know they do from time to time ) - their own religion says that they are then the child of the devil.

The truth is that we have been circumcised with the circumcision of the heart where the body of the flesh has been "cut away" from the inner man in Christ where the law of sin is still in the flesh. Col. 2:11 This is why sin shall not have dominion over us.

It's in the renewing of the mind to the realities of the new creation is when we will walk free of the things of the flesh. We know in part and manifest Christ in part because of the infirmity of the flesh but we will manifest more of His life as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Him.

In the meantime we are safe in the Lord and He will perfect that which concerns us.