I am a New Creation

 I have fought for some pretty stupid causes in my life. Causes that had no eternal value at all. I identified myself as a warrior, a solider for what I believed in. I have destroyed lives. I have destroyed relationships. I have caused pain. I have caused sorrow. I was an instrument of the Devil, believing his lies that I would somehow be rewarded and my life would finally be complete. But all of the things I once found my identity in, was just a smokescreen for my own anger, hatred and pain. I was angry so I took it out on those around me. I hated myself, so I hated those different from me. I was in pain, so caused pain to anyone I could, thinking that it would somehow take my pain away.

 In the midst of the life I was leading I would get glimpses of God and I would hear Him calling my name, but I never answered Him. I fought against Him, thinking, God is for the weak. "I can do this myself" I would say. But God is more persistent than I am, God is stronger than I am, and God is stronger than my sin and the sins committed against me.

 God grabbed a hold of me so tight one day, and this time He wasn't going to let go. By the Grace of God he put my wife into my life. I went to "Living Stones Church" with her one Sunday and it was a day that would drastically change my life. On that day I heard God audibly speak to me, and physically felt Him with his arms around me. He told me to follow Him, that he would heal my pain and fill the hole in my heart and make me complete. I wanted all that God was promising, but as I started thinking of the evil I had committed I had an overwhelming sense of doom. "How could God forgive me?" All that I had ever searched for was placed into my hands and then snatched away...or so I thought.

 I went months trying to work my way to this salvation that was preached every Sunday until I had exhausted my own power. I was at the end of myself,  ready to admit defeat and accept my punishment of eternal damnation. That is the point that I cornered one of our pastors after the service and told him all of the things I have done and that I was ready to accept what was coming to me. The answer I got from him wasn't the one that I was expecting though. He went through scriptures with me and showed me  that I hadn't gone too far, I hadn't done too much and that what God wants for me is greater than I could have ever imagined.

  My salvation wasn't based on me forgiving myself or by my own power. It is based on the work of Jesus Christ and the work He accomplished on the Cross. It was Jesus that bore my sins and the sins committed against me on the Cross. The wrath that I thought God had against me, Jesus took upon himself...for my sake. He lived the perfect life that I never could, died the death that I deserved and then resurrected from death to give me new life. He came to this earth to be the perfect sacrifice that paid my debt in full, but here was the kicker for me...Jesus' righteousness was passed onto me. Upon accepting Christ as my King and Savior I was made a new creation, God took my heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh and He now sees me as blameless in his eyes. All of the sins I have committed, commit and will commit are paid for. All of the sins that have been committed against me, that caused my anger and hatred against myself, that I then took out on others, were taken away in an instant. The chains that had made me a slave were shed that day and I never want to look back.  My past is now hidden in the body of Christ, and it is now through that power, that I am free to live the life, and be the man that he created me to be.    

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Jason