My New Birth
“I trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can mere men do to me? You have saved me from death. You have kept me from tripping and falling. Now I can live with you in the light that leads to life.”
It has been 14 years since the Lord gave me a new life in Him. I grew up in a works based religion that made me feel “safe”, but ultimately was leading me to hell. I went to church every Sunday, but lived an ungodly life the rest of the week. It was just vain repetition. I was deceived into thinking that doing “good works”could make me right with God, but the Bible says, “no one does good, no not one” Romans 3:10. I was once a slave to sin but by the grace of God I am now a slave to righteousness. I was spiritually dead for twenty-four years, until God’s sovereign hand awakened me by His Spirit.
The first commandment states, You shall have no other gods before me.”Exodus 20:3 My heart was not consumed with God, but filled with idols. An idol is anything that you put above God. Chasing other gods is exhausting , one pursuit after another ends with disappointment and dissatisfaction. God alone truly satisfies. Naturally, man is filled with a sense of his own importance, with his greatness and self- sufficiency. God calls these things pride. Man will glorify either in himself, or by God’s grace will seek to serve and please the Lord. No one can serve to masters. I was self-focused, filled with pride and sinfully serving myself.
Jesus said in Mark 8:34-36″…if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul.?”I praise God for the Mercy that was giving to me.
In February 1997, Christ became real to me. He became my Redeemer and Lord. He saved us not because of righteous things we had done,(all righteous acts are like filthy rags…Isaiah 64:6) but because of his mercy. I turned away (repentance) from my worldly desires and by faith turned to Him.
So now my passion is to spread the Good News of the gospel. What is the Good News? The Bible says God created all that exists including man. Man rebelled against God through disobedience that resulted in separation from God. But God sent His Son into the world, as a man who lived a life without sin, and died as a sacrifice and substitute in the place of His people. Three days later he rose from the dead to show victory over sin and death, and ascended back into Heaven and one day He will return and judge the world. This work of salvation is a gift from the Lord and comes by repentance and faith. Thanks be to God for His Gift, precious beyond telling (2 Cor. 9:15). What Good News!
John Pipers book called Finally Alive talks about this very subject.
Before the Lord saved me–I was a proud, thoughtless girl, fond of dress and finery. I loved the world and the things that are in the world. I went once on a Sunday to church, more to see and be seen–than to pray, or hear the Word of God. I thought I was quite good enough to be saved, and disliked and often laughed at pious people. I was in great darkness; I knew nothing of the way of salvation; I never prayed, nor was sensible of the dreadful danger of a prayerless state. I was tolerably moral and decent in my conduct, from motives of carnal and worldly policy; but I was a stranger to God and Christ. I neglected my soul; and had I died in such a state, hell must, and would justly, have been my portion!
But He who loved me with an everlasting love–drew me by His loving kindness, showed my the way of peace, and taught me that, while without Him I could do nothing–yet I could do all things through His strength!
I was convinced of my own guilt–and Jesus is my ‘Righteousness’.
I saw my corruption–and Jesus is my ‘Sanctification’.
I felt my slavery to sin and Satan–and Jesus is my ‘Redemption’.
