Tuesday, January 20, 2009

MLK Day

In honor of MLK day, thought I'd share one of Martin Luther King's quotes.

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven will pause to say, 'There lived a great street sweeper who did his job well'."

Friday, January 9, 2009

New Creation

As the New Year begins I want to remind you that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are a New Creation.

The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:

17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Do you know what this means? This means that when you follow Jesus, you are a new person. The Holy Spirit lives inside of you and guides you. You are not a lowly sinner saved by grace (that's what we used to be), but you are a saint that sometimes sins.

As you begin this New Year, know that you are a New Creation. Know that when you decided to follow Jesus, you took on the following characteristics (compiled by Bob Warren in his Romans study):

• Crucified with Christ
• Not condemned
• Sealed in Him
• Holy and blameless before Him
• Raised up with Christ
• Forgiven
• Justified
• Glorified
• Perfected
• Complete
• In Christ
• Made a saint
• Washed
• Member of God's Household
• Citizen of Heaven
• Holy and beloved


In 2009, live knowing you are a New Creation. In Philippians 3:16, Paul tells us to "live up to what we have already attained." He is saying, you are a new creation, live like it!