Isaiah 1:18

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

it's here, it's here...

Spring is finally here! We are so excited to see it as the winter was unusually rough this year. It is so pretty outside today and I think it would be great just to go sit out on the patio and fellowship. Grab a glass of tea; plain is in the cut glass pitcher on the counter. The southern sweet (yeah!!) is right beside it in the yellow (for sunshine pitcher). Just put in some ice and fill up your glass. Meet you outside.
Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. You have the warmth, you have breezes, you have the long slow rain for the summer flowers, you have new buds on your trees and new flowers popping out of the ground. Best of all, you have beautiful green grass. Be mowing soon!! Even that doesn't stop me from loving this time of the year.
Spring is all about new life. New plants. New babies on the farm. Maybe even new babies in your family. To me, it means New Life exemplified in the Easter Season. Easter! What is it about Easter that excites me? Is it the egg hunts? Is it the family pulled up to the table for a nice meal? Is it the families visiting back and forth at each others homes? It is all of these but so much more.
Spring reminds me of new life. The new life that my Lord and Savior gave me before time began but I didn't experience until I was in my 20s. The new life that is spoken of in:

II Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (KJV)

This speaks of the new life that is offered to those who become a child of God. This speaks volumes in how your life will change when that change takes place in your heart. Until God calls you to be His own, you will not have this new life. As a natural man before God, you will be at enmity with God, you will not choose to search Him out. When He starts drawing you to Himself, there will be a point where you can no longer fight against the urge that He has placed in you. You will run to Him. At this point, you will experience a new life being made real in you. You will have a different outlook on life, you will have different pastimes, you will have different friends and you will have different emotions. There will be alot of changes but all of them are a positive. You will be a new creature in Christ. John MacArthur makes several important points in his Study Bible that helps clear up any misconceptions that we may have as a lay person or new Christian.
To be "in Christ" means to have security in Christ, the believer's acceptance in Him with whom God alone is well pleased, the believer's future assurance in Him and the believer's participation in the divine nature of Christ. This means that we can know that Jesus bore judgement for our sins and that we have eternal security in The One and the only one who can give us that guarantee of our inheritance (place) in heaven.
The "new creation" describes something that is created at a new level of excellence; it will also be called regeneration or new birth. This includes the forgiveness of sins paid for in Christ's substitutionary death. To be a substitute means that you are standing in someone elses place.
"Old things have passed away" refers to the changes that take place that others can see. Old value systems, priorities, beliefs, loves and plans are gone. Evil and sin are still present, but the believer sees them in a new perspective and they no longer control him.
"All things ...new" indicates that this newness is a continuing condition of fact. The believer's new spiritual perception of everything is a constant reality for him, and he now lives for eternity, not temporal. Temporal refers to this present life or world as opposed to the eternal which refers to everlasting time, time that doesn't end. It actually refers to time past, present and future.
All of this to say, that as a new child of God, you will experience many changes in your life. They are wonderful changes; changes that make you more Christlike. As we head into this Easter season, I do get excited about all of the changes that I see in my world as far as nature, the trees, flowers, grass and on and on. I get more excited about the fact that Christ made me a new creature and I am allowed to go to a church that will teach us more and more of what it meant for Christ to be so willing to go to the cross for me. I hope that if you are a Christian that you take note of what your Pastor passes on to you: information that can renew your love for the Lord. If you are not a child of God, I pray that He will soften your heart towards Him and bring many into your life that can help you understand what Christ has done for those He loves.
Note that our new Bible memory verse has been posted on the main page of the blog. It just so happens that it is the one that I have focused on today.
Until next time, be blessed!
Linda

4 comments:

  1. I love spring too. It does remind me of that very verse. Your words and pictures are a wonderful reminder of where our focus should be.
    Love ya, Christi

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  2. Linda, I've waited, and waited, and waited for spring and your blog. LOL. What a beautiful job you have done. Thanks for your beautiful pictures and , most of all, thanks for your beautiful thoughts. It was worth the wait. I love spring. It reminds me of new beginnings. Our world in Tenn becomes alive and renewed. Surely there is no more beautiful place in the world. It reminds me that Christ died for my sins so I can have life everlasting. We are so blessed. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Happy Easter. Love U, Sylvia

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  3. Eloquently and effectively said, Linda. Spring is the promise of new life! The hope of eternal life! A yearly reminder of the resurrection of our Lord and the hope of our own. Loving your blog:)

    Love ya, Joyce

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  4. Hello my dearest friends, Christi, Sylvia and Joyce. So glad that you came by and visited. It is lovely here for sure and even more beautiful today. Love you all, stay in the Word and remember what He has done during this most wondrous time...

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