You are no longer a catepillar so fly!

" If anyone is in Christ the new creation the old has gone the new has come" 2 Corinthians 5:17.
When I read this verse, I always wonder how can I become a "new" creation. How does a person who has been one way their entire way become a new creation? Can I truley become a new creature, when I commit my life to Christ?

So I started thinking..... Are their  any expample in nature when one being becomes an entirely new creation?  Of course, the caterpillar came to my mind. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it becomes a completely new creation? Isn't that just a fasinating metophor of what Jesus does to us when we become christians? Have you ever walk up to a butterfly and said to it "You are still a caterpillar. Your not a butterfly. You were once a caterpillar you will always be a caterpillar." Of course not. That would be silly, and you would get some strange looks if anyone ever caught you doing that.

However, don't Christians do this to ourselves everyday? We look back on the past and let it define the person that we are to day. We allow ourselves to be overcome with guilt and condemnation for the person that we used to be.

Does this sound like you? Are you holding on to the person you used to be? Are you allowing you were define who you are today? I want to encourage you to let go of the person that you used to be. If unconfessed sins come to your mind, confess those sins and let them go. However, if confessed sins come to your mind ask Jesus to show you that the debt has already been payed for those sins. You are forgiven. Find scriptures that will remind you of the person that you are forgiven. A few you can look at are Romans 8:1, Hebrews 4: 16, 1 John 9,and Act 3: 19,

I challenge you to find a picture/sticker of a butterfly and put it in a place you can see it. Let it be a reminder of that you are forgiven, that you are a new creation in Christ. Don't look back at the times when you crawled in the dirt like a caterpillar. Allow Jesus to take you to new depths and dimensions as he continues to transform you.You are beautiful! You are Christlike! You are a butterfly!

The Most Difficult Decision

The most difficult decision you will make

One of the most difficult decisions you will make in your life will be concerning forgiveness. Even if it is not something you are dealing with at the moment at some point you will have to decide whether or not you will forgive the person who has hurt you. As you are reading this, someone who has hurt you may be coming to your mind, and you may be thinking you don't know what this person has done to me. They don't deserve my forgiveness. However, forgiveness is a choice, and you can choose to forgive that person no matter what they did to you.

Lewis B Smedes once said "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and to discover that prisoner was you." When we choose to resent another person for what they have done to us, we are not hurting that person, we are only hurting ourselves. Recently, I was reminded of that. I had chosen not to forgive someone who had hurt me. I had told that person that I had forgiven her, but I realized later that it was merely words and I had not forgiven her. I was carrying bitterness and anger towards her and was consumed with what she had done to me. I had a heaviness within me and I did not even realize the root of that heaviness. It wasn't until I finally forgave that person that that heaviness lifted and I felt free.

If someone came to your mind while you were reading this, I urge you to forgive that person, not so that they can be free, but so that you can. If you have resentment in your heart ask God to free you from feelings of resentment towards that person. Tell that person that you have forgiven them, and chose to forgive them, whether or not they accept your forgiveness and if they have forgiven you.