Lost & Found

I'm fully aware that my previous few blogs have been - shall we say - conflicting? That would be because I've been somewhat conflicted on the subject of Christmas. BUT there are things about which I have absolutely NO inner conflict ...the PRIMARY one being the concept of mankind's lost condition. 


When we humans became separated from God, several thousand years [and more generations than I can imagine ago], looking at it from GOD'S PERSPECTIVE, we became lost to Him. ... you don't 'FEEL' lost??  You think you know where you are and where you are going...   so what?  TO GOD, you are LOST. 


Oh, you need a better picture...


 ... hmm... 


Okay, try this. Have you ever had a pet that left home only to finally return after days, weeks or months had passed? To YOU the pet was lost, even though it thought it knew where it was all the time.  Bingo! ...lost and found.


Humanity left God way back when... Until we return we are 'lost'.... When individual humans return to God... they're 'found' (that wasn't hard to understand at all, was it?!) 


The God's Word, the Bible, uses "saved"... wonder why that is... what does a lost person have to be saved from? ever wonder about that? Now there's something to ponder! No, it's not saved from lions, and tigers and bears! oh, my! 


Let's return to the lost pet...YOU DON'T KNOW what happens to it if it never comes home!!!! It may have lived out its life with another family; it may have passed into eternity in an unknown place, with no one to love or bury it. 


But, there's a serious difference between the human and the pet. The pet is a soul that never had the Spirit given to it.... the human, on the other hand, when they went 'lost' HAD THE SPIRIT OF GOD REMOVED FROM THEM because God could not live in the same body with rebellion. So, what happens to a human if he or she never comes 'home' to God? They may live separated from Him, but when they enter eternity, they REMAIN separated from Him. We need to be saved from that separation! and from the rebellion that is not only built into each of us as a result of that separation, but was the CAUSE of it, as well. 


Don't any of you go thinkin' that it doesn't matter where you spend eternity... the description of the end of those who refuse to return to God ... taking the only way He made available... is NOT a pretty picture. The pain felt living here won't even come close! 


Don't take the chance.... God sent His only Son... to reconcile humanity to Himself... one heart at a time .... each of us has to accept the sacrifice of the Son of Man on his/her behalf, to avoid the only alternative. Come home! I beg you. 


Come home! 




Tags: salvation, reconciliation 


Tuesday 25 December 2007 - 07:50PM (EST)  | 2 Comments 

12 down & 12 to go...but who's counting?

I think you have to feel a little sorry for people for whom this upcoming event is merely another day to have a family get together... to do the 'traditional' things, but without any reason or meaning to it to make it special. All it is, is a specific traditional day to do certain things... Visit family, exchange gifts, hang out and talk, tell stories, watch the traditional movies, and have a fantastic dinner. They'll do all the pretty stuff, the colored lights, the tree, trimmings and all, but there's no Christ Child's birth... No angels visiting shepherds in the fields.... No travelers from afar bearing gifts. 


But it's Christmas! Those things that are WHY it was given the name Christmas in the first place (Christ Mass), even if the timing IS a bit off. We Believers are recognizing the FACT that He CAME -- what is the rest of the world 'celebrating' anyway?


Wednesday 12 December 2007 - 11:01PM (EST) 

Truth or Tradition?

I know ... most of you think I'm making a big deal out of nothing when I even remotely reference the fact of the matter regarding December 25th. But, somewhere along the line in my life, I was taught that truth was important. ...that lying is deception. ...that honesty was not just the best policy, but it was EXPECTED of me.  To be honest meant knowing what the truth was; which brings me to the need to know the truth about this date on our calendars that we celebrate as the birth of our Savior.


As Providence would have it, back in the early '80s I heard a radio teaching (which I recorded as much of as I could) by a Messianic Jewish woman who told us about things they (Messianic Jews) had brought down in their historical telling and re-telling of the birth of Christ, and all that surrounded it.  With that in mind, I went to the Scriptures to see if I could find the TIME of Jesus' birth.


My jumping off place was Luke’s 1st chapter, where Luke tells of Mary's cousin, Elisabeth, and her husband, Zechariah, both descendants of Aaron. Zechariah, we are told, was 'a priest of the course of Abijah,' and it says in verse 8, that Zechariah was on duty when the angel Gabriel appeared and spoke to him, so we need to know when that would fall during the year.  That’s where the trail takes us temporarily back to 1 Chronicles 24:4-19, where the courses (by lot) are identified, and their times explained, with Abijah being assigned the 8th course, in verse 10.


In this setting, (understand we're talking about the priesthood), so the calendar being used [there are two] would likely be the sacred calendar, not the civil one. With that in mind, note that each 'course' is 2 weeks in length, beginning in Nisan, which corresponds to March-April, and that Abijah is the 8th course. So all we need do is to count through the months, 2 weeks at a time, to get an idea of when it was he was in the temple. (calendars make this much easier, but)... counting... 
last 2 weeks of March, 
1st 2 weeks of April, 
last 2 weeks of Apr, 
1st 2 weeks of May (that's 4 courses)... 
last 2 weeks of May, 
1st 2 weeks of Jun, 
last 2 weeks of Jun, 
1st 2 weeks of Jul... 
so we get it that Zechariah's on duty in the temple during the 1st half of July... OK? You still with me?  We know the narrative here... Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and Elisabeth are going to have a son, what to name him ... Zechariah responds in unbelief, is rendered speechless, etc, and in verse 23, "...as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house." (KJV)


Verse 24 "And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself 5 months..." Zechariah would have gone home in mid July, Elisabeth conceived (from the way it reads, almost immediately!!!) so counting... mid Jul-Aug=1 month, mid Aug-Sept=2, mid Sept-Oct=3, mid Oct-Nov=4, mid Nov-mid Dec=5.


Now the telling turns to Mary verse 26. "And in the 6th month [after that], the angel Gabriel was sent..." So sometime during Elisabeth's 6th month (mid Dec to mid Jan) we have Gabriel's visit to Mary, at which time she's told she'll conceive by the Holy Spirit.  So it's entirely possible that this visit took place sometime during last two weeks of December. (I like to think so, anyway! ...why hold off till late in the month???)


As soon as the Angel Gabriel leaves Mary, it says she arose and went (in haste!) to see Elisabeth (who, upon hearing her greeting, referenced the 'fruit of her womb' in blessing her, indicating to me that her pregnancy was already in progress).  So Mary's baby would be born like about ... late September. But I jumped ahead of the chronology there... sorry... 


Mary stayed with her cousin Elisabeth 3 months (verse 56) till like mid February and returned home.  You know, I always found it interesting that she left just before the birth of John... amazing.  Anyway, Joseph sees her back home and notes the obvious 3 month 'baby bump', and plans to ditch the girl, till he's told not to, in a dream (for that you have to go to Matthew 1:18-25).


Oh, there was one other thing the Messianic woman added during the teaching: the Shepherds out by Bethlehem... those sheep they were watching over were raised for supplying a Passover sacrifice for out of town visitors who didn't have one, and they would NOT have been out in the field by night during the rainy season ... December!  She said the latest they'd have stayed out there with the sheep was late October.


Here we have the whole storyline is laid out clear as day, so what's with December 25th? ...just tradition... thanks to a whole host of folks down through the ages.


Does that explain it clearly enough? So... what are we celebrating? 
THAT HE CAME!


Tags: truth, tradition, Christmas 


Thursday 6 December 2007 - 04:49PM (EST) 

Contrasts

A broken and contrite heart is one thing... 


this leads us to apologize when we do the wrong thing, when we hurt someone, when we are all full of ourselves and finally realize that we're being self-centered and acknowledged that this has to change before things will get better. This, the Lord will honor. 


a broken spirit another entirely different thing... 


when all seems hopeless, without a solution in sight or even on the horizon - that we recognize, a depression that centers on one's own life and all the faultiness that comes with living on this planet, in a condition perhaps not even recognized as fallen-ness, or away from God, or simply out of place, the condition translated 'lost' in KJV. 


what then is the remedy? 


in my life, it has always been to move back to the first position... that of a recognition that I am not the center of even my own universe. that position belongs to the One who crafted the whole thing; spoke it into existence. at which point, it becomes clear, i've been being my own deity ... perhaps again. 
Lord, God, forgive me. 
Thursday 13 September 2007 - 08:55PM (EDT) 





The Art of Giving 
by Kent Nerburn.... Letters to My Son ...from a Celestial Seasonings Tea box
"Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance, and none can say why some fields will blossom and others lay brown beneath the August sun. Care for those around you. Look past your differences. Their dreams are no less than yours, their choices in life no more easily made. And give. Give in any way you can, of whatever you possess. To give is to love. To withhold is to wither. Care less for your harvest than how it is shared, and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace."
Sunday 11 November 2007 - 10:23PM (EST) 

To Your Health

For me, it started coming to my attention when I turned 35 that I simply had let life slide on by and that being conscientious about taking care of daily things might make a HUGE difference.


My first discovery was that the dreaded "acid reflux" (now so-called), could be eased by simply taking a digestive enzyme! It actually got rid of it for me. WOW! That seriously changed my outlook. There WERE things in my life I could control, and not allow them to become so bad I would need a Doctor's attentions. It was revolutionary. From that point, I began looking at other things I might take care of on my own. 


Have you ever wandered the RealAge.com website, and taken their little test(s) to determine your REAL age? It's quite revealing... especially if you answer honestly. That site showed me a number of things I could manage on my own, and others that would be better handled by "the professionals". But to be honest, it seems the more things I handle for myself, the fewer things are left to someone else to be responsible for. 


So my thought tonight is this... any time feeling good is important... wouldn't feeling better be a good thing? I like feeling better than I did when I was younger... this is fun!

Wednesday 21 March 2007 - 02:06PM (EDT)

Just thinking...

Wish I could remember what I heard Tony Evans say in that short (8 minute) sermon segment I heard... something about EMOTIONS HAVE NO INTELLECT; they only do what they are told. 

1. When we speak sorry things, they'll respond accordingly, and be "down". 
2. When we say hopeful things, they respond accordingly and leave us feeling "up". 

That made sense to me, and know it to be (from experience) true.


So why do we generally allow our emotions to “run the show” so to speak? What’s up with that? 
Upon awaking if we’ve had a bad dream, a scary dream, we’re in a bad mood and the bad mood runs (ruins) at least part of the day. Doesn’t that seem wrong to anybody? How about that rush hour traffic, the crazy drivers who cut you off then slow down abruptly… that tick us off, “make us just furious” and we want to run around being mad as if it is right that these outside influences determine how we will behave…. No clue…. Sounds like we don’t want to accept the responsibility for our own actions.


Following that was a Joyce Meyer teaching (which I also missed most of), in which she said that "I want", "I think", "I feel" statements are all soul statements... The will says, "I want", the mind says, "I think" and the emotions say, "I feel" ... each wanting to be heard for themselves (selfish at the core), but none has usually looked to the Spirit, to learn what the mind of Christ would say.  ...to which our spirit will say, "I believe."


Instead, we surround ourselves with sound... the TV, a radio, iPod, MP3, phone, etc. -constant chatter, constant sound.  We inundate our minds with images from TV, movies, internet...  and we think we're doing ourselves a favor.  When what we NEED to do is "to sit in silence with God... without making suggestions, giving directions or making requests." 

We seldom give ourselves the GIFT of time to allow peace to flood our souls... telling the mind, will and emotions to just HUSH!


Saturday 17 March 2007 - 02:43PM (EDT) 

Peace and Quiet

(Thomas Kinkade painting, A Peaceful Retreat)


Ah, this life is so noisy sometimes... and finding some time to get away into some peace and quiet can be so difficult. So where can I go to find it? 


To quote a song, "Wouldn't it be loverly?" ...to be able to trek off to say, a cabin, with a fireplace, by a river... out in the woods some where... just to ... get away from it all? Looking at such a picture offers a bit of the peace I oft times found fishing and camping as a kid, or hiking as a youth, riding my bike through the woods between the base and the town I lived in over in Germany in my 20s... 


Which brings me to a thought the Lord brought to me the other day, when I was somewhat unhappy with the number of different things that scream for my time and attention. How does that verse go? ... something about "he who loses his life for My sake will find it".... I had actually began wondering who I was anymore! So it shouldn't be surprising that I would feel the need to find that solitude place to renew my spirit, and just hang out with God, His Spirit and His Word. 


As it is, most times just being online, without any contact such as inSpeak or PalTalk, when I can sit here in my back room and listen to the fan blow seems to work okay. Other times, the empty sanctuary at church is a good place to find that solitude I seek... a place where God and I can be alone. 


It's just something I need more often than I get it. 

Sunday 11 March 2007 - 08:17PM

Go to the Rock

(Thomas Kinkade painting)

"Where can I turn... when there's no one else to turn to? 
Who can I talk to... when no one else will listen? 
Who can I lean on... when there's no foundation stable?
I go to the Rock I know that's able, I go to the Rock!"


In my experience, it seems frequently that no one can ‘hear’ the words I am ABLE to speak... But it is clear, that NO ONE can hear all my thoughts, sense all my frustrations, know all my cares. --- Thankfully, my Savior can and does. 


And while I cannot always seem to hear, sense or know His precise response to me, I can know without a doubt that His response is one of love and compassion. We have His Word on it.  And His Word has proved true and faithful for a LONG time now... what kind of fool would I be not to trust it? (a big one).


Yes, He has also given us one another for comfort and support, but those times when no one knows your trouble... your pain... He is the only place to go. and His Word offers the best comfort available.


Walk in the Promise and Be the Blessing God created you to be.



Friday 23 February 2007 - 04:25PM (EST) 
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTO5NZaSi40AzWpHdUNqc3HR382b9xVFFDcaeg6xAvUeCHVtRw 

Soul Nutrition

Late one afternoon, I was finally able to reach one of my ‘adopted’ granddaughters by phone. I'd been wanting to find out how she was doing, but for the last couple days, was having an extremely difficult time reaching her.  


During the conversation, the idea came to me to compare how we support our bodies by filling in the gaps left by our dietary choices through taking a multivitamin, to supporting our souls sub-consciously with the playing of Christian music or audio recordings of the Word of God. Those words enter our hearts when we are consciously listening to them or if they're just playing in the background... and can build our faith and trust in the Lord just by being given to us to hear. (Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.)

This was something I had done almost by ‘accident’ when I was a ‘babe in Christ’. Either I somehow KNEW I needed that support, or it was God’s Spirit leading me, but because music is such an intrinsic part of who I am, it just made sense to find a good, godly radio station. The same station was tuned in on the stereo in the living room, in my car, and on my desk at work. Over time, it helped me grow in ways I would be hard pressed to identify (we're talking mid to late 1970s here!), but I know that the words spoken and sung into my heart, and frequently into my head, helped me understand who I am in Christ, and what all He paid for on my behalf. And these gave me a firm foundation upon which my faith could grow.

So take a good, easily absorbed multivitamin, and nourish your soul and spirit with good, godly music and the spoken Word of God.


Wednesday 21 February 2007 - 09:22PM (EST)

TIME (reminds me of a song)

Where does my TIME go? I've been trying for days, to find some quiet time to post ANY-thing at all.  So often my time is consumed by talking with young people, with doing laundry or other duties 'round the house. Then there's that block of time spent sleeping! Sheesh... what a waste of time... NAH... It's a must, I discovered (at a very young age); rather like breathing and eating ... gotta have it. But QUIET time? 


The interesting thing to me is, that not so many months ago I had hours upon hours of totally quiet time. It could be DAYS before our phone rang again. Sometime in the past few months all that changed, and now it's almost NEVER quiet (except when I'm asleep ).


Anyway, here I am, FINALLY getting to say something, and brain is being uncooperative; like that's even close to right! Actually, there are too many different ideas and the like zooming around to corral just one at the moment. This is also a hindrance to blogging. Hmmmm... maybe later today a single thought will settle in as something that might be of interest. But for now... this is what my thoughts are humming about.

Hope your day is loaded with LOVE,
Blessed from ABOVE, and
FEARLESSLY lived.
Greta


Tuesday 20 February 2007 - 01:56PM (EST)     

the Life in Christ

In thinking about our life IN CHRIST, it seems odd to me that we don't SEE (or just don't WANT to see) that we have to give up our attitudes and self-centered thinking, and replace them with HIS views and thinking. We MUST start looking at ourselves as His Word tells us God looks at us. We MUST change our minds, “renew” our minds so that our thinking reflects God's view on all of life.


What I see when I look around, is that many "Believers" seem to think that Jesus can just be ADDED to one's life and go on as before. To me that just doesn't even make sense!!!


And then, to hear others making similar comments on this - for instance, just the other night, someone was talking about how we think (and act on the belief) that God needs our help healings and such. It was quite confirming to hear.


Thank you my friends. Bless you... 
and may you BE the blessing the Lord intends you to be. G.


Friday 16 February 2007 - 11:24PM (EST) 

Prioritizing Required

So much to do... and limited time. Picking priorities is vital to getting much of anything done. What criteria can be used to make these determinations accurately?  The questions then are: 

• What should be done without delay? vs. What is screaming for your time? 
• Which things need to be done whether anything else gets done or not? 
• Are there things getting in the way of that? 

Sometimes people use your time, just taking it up, what should you do about it? - Anything?
Sometimes, sharing your time with people is just as important as some of the other things that need to be done, so how do you make those decisions?


Of course I have other thoughts on the subject... but I want to leave it open for discussion for the moment... so I'll check back to see if any of my friends has any thoughts they'd like to offer on it first.

Well, it's been very quiet on this subject... so I'll mosey on with my thoughts...
To do the most important thing first seems sane... because the important things left undone, will then become urgent things screaming for your time. So get the important thing done first then get to the urgent... the urgent will get done... it will force the issue.
Blessings.... God's mercy & grace & peace be yours. ~~ Gma G


Friday 16 February 2007 - 03:02PM (EST)    

reference to old blog

some years ago, a young friend of mine convinced me i ought to have a blog... so she helped me make one first on yahoo! ...which was fun for awhile, but which quit working properly... so i moved on to livejournal.  the other day I went back to see if the pages were still there... and to my great surprise (and delight?) there it was,  www.maggi-lu.livejournal.com/  titled "it's only words" !


it's rather odd, to read something you've written 2, 3 maybe 4 or more years back ... sometimes you discover it still resonates as right and true, while other times... something about how you see the topic has changed, and the re-thinking opens up new dimensions.


i've been thinking about revisiting some of the older ones, to see how they read to me (and you) here in this decade... perhaps you'll be so kind as to post some feedback once i get them re-blogged into this location.  I'd appreciate it very much.

BALLOONS BELONG IN CHURCH ~ by Ann Weems

this is a wonderful poem

BALLOONS BELONG IN CHURCH

by Ann Weems

I took to church one morning a happy four-year-old boy

Holding a bright blue string to which was attached 

his much loved orange balloon with pink stripes...

Certainly a thing of beauty

And if not forever, at least a joy for a very important now.

When later he met me at the door

Clutching blue string, orange and pink bobbing behind him,

He didn't have to tell me something had gone wrong.

"What's the matter?"

He wouldn't tell me.

"I bet they loved your balloon..."

Out it came, then -- mocking the teacher's voice, "We don't bring balloons to church."

Then that little four-year old, his lip a little trembly, asked:

"Why aren't balloons allowed in church? I thought God would like balloons."

I celebrate balloons, parades and chocolate chip cookies.

I celebrate seashells and elephants and lions that roar.

I celebrate roasted marshmallows and chocolate cake and fresh fish.

I celebrate aromas: bread baking, mincemeat, lemons...

I celebrate seeing: bright colors, wheat in a field, tiny wild flowers...

I celebrate hearing: waves pounding, the rain's rhythm, soft voices...

I celebrate touching: toes in the sand, a kitten's soft fur, another person...

I celebrate the sun that shines slab dab in our faces...

I celebrate the crashing thunder and the brazen lightning...

And I celebrate the green of the world...the life-giving green...the hope-giving green...

I celebrate birth: the wonder...the miracle...of that tiny life already asserting its selfhood.

I celebrate children

who laugh out loud

who walk in the mud and dawdle in the puddles

who put chocolate fingers anywhere

who like to be tickled

who scribble in church

who whisperin loud voices

who sing in louder voices

who run...and laugh when they fall

who cry at the top of their lungs

who cover themselves with bandaids

who squeeze the toothpaste all over the bathroom

who slurp their soup

who chew coughdrops

who ask questions

who give us sticky, paste-covered creations

who want their picture taken

who won't use their napkins

who bury goldfish, sleep with the dog, scream at their best friend

who hug us in a hurry and rush outside without their hats.

I celebrate children

who are so busy living they don't have time for our hangups

And I celebrate adults who are as little children.

I celebrate the man who breaks up the meaningless routines of his life.

The man who stops to reflect, to question, to doubt.

-- The man who isn't afraid to feel....

The man who refuses to play the game.

I celebrate anger at injustice

I celebrate tears for the mistreated, the hurt, the lonely...

I celebrate the community that cares... the church...

I celebrate the church.

I celebrate the times when we in the church made it...

When we answered a cry

When we held to our warm and well-fed bodies a lonely world.

I celebrate the times when we let God get through to our hiding places

Through our maze of meetings

Our pleasant facade...deep down to our selfhood

Deep down to where we really are.

Call it heart, soul, naked self

It's where we hide

Deep down away from God

And away from each other.

I celebrate the times when the church is the Church

When we are Christians

When we are living, loving, contributing God's children...

I celebrate that He calls us His children even when we are in hiding.

I celebrate love...the moments when the You is more important than the I

I celebrate the perfect love...the cross...the Christ

loving in spite of...

giving without reward

I celebrate the music within a man that must be heard

I celebrate life...that we may live more abundantly...

Where did we get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?

Where did we get the idea that God loves gray and Sh-h-h-h-h

And drab and anything will do?

I think it's blasphemy not to appreciate the joy in God's world.

I think it's blasphemy not to bring our joy into His church.

For God so loved the world

That He hung there

Loving the unlovable

What beautiful gift cannot be offered unto the Lord?

Whether it's a balloon or a song or some joy that sits within you waiting to

have the lid taken off.

The Scriptures say there's a time to laugh and a time to weep.

It's not hard to see the reasons for crying in a world where man's hatred for

man is so manifest.

So celebrate!

Bring your balloons and your butterflies, your bouquets of flowers...

Bring the torches and hold them high!

Dance your dances, paint your feelings, sing your songs, whistle, laugh.

Life is a celebration, an affirmation of God's love.

Life is distributing more balloons.

For God so loved the world...

Surely that's a cause for Joy.

Surely we should celebrate!

Good News! That He should love us that much.

Where did we ever get the idea that balloons don't belong in the church?

At the Table

I heard the most interesting application of Exodus 25:23-30 today on 'Homekeepers with Arthelene Rippy' (1pm, CTN Ch 22, Tampa/Clearwater, FL).  

The lady Arthelene was interviewing has written a book on the Table God told Moses to build ... with purpose for all the details ... and comment on the fact that the height of the table is almost exactly what we generally use today for our dining room tables among many others. But toward the end of today's interview, the lady said something about offenses at the dinner table leaving scars on children that result in their own use of a dinner table when they are grown, and have the opportunity to share the Bread of Presence with their own families.

When I heard her say that, the image of having my dinner plate, silverware and glass of milk placed inside a box set on its side at my place at the table (to keep me from looking around and not eating [at the desired speed?]), literally JUMPED into my mind. and I realized... although my husband and I often do eat at the same time (and even sometimes have the same meal - I know, how shocking!) it is very seldom that we eat at the same table... much less at the 'dining room table'... usually special occasions, when we have guests... and it got me wondering about any connection between the two.

Guess I'll have to try and catch their conversation again tomorrow to see where it leads. 

P.S. Ah, well... I'll just have to ponder the concept, as I got no new input; the program subject was different the following day.

What's Your Personality?

And this is where one aspect of my morning query arose.  The query regarding personality.


What is personality anyway?  Is it other than the results of a collection of choices made in our formative years in response to the stimuli around us, merged with basic natural responses and instincts, and a small amount of DNA/RNA differences from person to person?


As a child in our world ...nation, state, county, village, and finally home and family... learns what ways work and don't work to get their needs met - for love, security, sustenance mostly - they make these choices - trial and error, trial and seeming success -  and as the child learns from these, little by little the child will settle upon a strategy for living which appears to work for him/her.  It will become the way they see themselves.  ... their, "This is how I function - how I interact with others" (be they elders, peers or their junior counterparts) - this becomes "who they are" - their personality.


BUT - if all this was built on a belief of god-less-ness AND THEN their heart embraces salvation through the finished work of Christ Jesus, will that ground work, those choices and decisions made before, not HAVE to be revisited in light of the new frame of reference?


Now, I realize this falls under the heading of renewing of our minds, but what I'm seeing in and around me, is people who are - yes, they really are Believers in Jesus Christ, and they faithfully read His Word, sing praise and worship songs (even hymns!) , many are Spirit-filled Believers - but if they are asked specifically about themselves, autopilot kicks in and they're describing the personality that was their "old man"! 


That representation of ourselves that was crucified with Christ should not be who we see ourselves as being! And we must get out of the habit of speaking of ourselves in those old, outdated terms.  That person died with Christ and was raised up a new creation - not a reworked version of the old one.


Look at Paul - he even went so far as to change his name to keep himself from the possibility of seeing his old self as his new self.  Sure, he still remembered what he had done, how he had behaved and even how to make tents, but I really believe his change of name was a deliberate move to separate the new creation from the old, dead works life.


It seems we resist allowing God to alter what we see as our "self" ... to alter our "who I am" ... to alter our personalities.  Was the "who-we-were" working that well for us that it couldn't do with the change?