This month has been Awesome! I have been praying lately that God would expand my view of Him, like the Bible story days, you know, just really blow my mind. And He has. We have seen over 800 people accept Christ as their Savior this month at Newspring - I mean close to 300 kids gave their everything to Christ last Saturday at our youth event called Pulse, wow! So what does March 6th, 2007 have to do with now, a lot, let me explain... On March 6th I was sitting at North Point Church in Alpharetta, GA listening to Louie Giglio speak. I remember thinking at the time what he was saying was awesome so I took notes. Well, this morning I came across those very notes, and they rocked me. Louie's talk was on two words, "in you - the two words that change everything." In Colossians 1:27 it talks about Christ in you, the hope of glory. Louie proceeded to explain... "God isn't saying "be perfect" or "get clean", Jesus just wants us to receive Him." Col 3:1 tells us that the gospel isn't about making people better, that's not our problem. The problem isn't that we were born bad, we were born spiritually dead. You don't need to be better, you need to be alive (reborn). Col 1:27 says Christ is in us and then Col 1:13 says that when we receive Christ into our lives, God takes us from our darkness, or death and places us into the kingdom of the Son. God picks us up from where we are and drops us into a new place, a new life. That is amazing.
How does an alcoholic daily overcome..? In Christ. How does someone struggling with a porn addiction stop..? In Christ. How does a single mom raise her child to be a Godly man without a husband..? In Christ. Through Him anything and everything is doable. So when you feel lonely or feel unloved, remember you are In Christ. Beautifully His. When you are feeling guilty about your past, remember you are "In Christ" - that was the old you. Col 1:22 says that we are reconciled to Christ through His sacrifice, so that you can be holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. In Christ you are loved, forgiven, made complete, you have the mind of Christ, you are His child. You have access to everything He offers - His strength, His courage, His love, forgiveness and power. It doesn't matter what you feel - act on what has been spoken. You have taken off the old and put on the new. So have confidence and daily act and walk in the truth towards your new identity. Smile, you are His.