New Year's Truth

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! It's 2015, y'all! Whoot! A new year, a new beginning!

This morning, I started into one of my New Year's resolutions - to do an in-depth study on the topic of self-control. I took the first verse the online concordance gave me, little knowing it would carry a huge New Year's truth! God is so cool like that. :)

The verse was Acts 24:25. Sounds kinda random, doesn't it?

Paul has recently been taken into custody by the Romans after he was nearly murdered by the Jewish leaders. Now under the protection of Governor Felix, who is apparently familiar with "the Way", Paul gets several opportunities to share the gospel with Felix.

Verse 25 tells us about his first conversation:

"As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, 'That's enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.'"

 So Paul is going deep, not just skimming the surface of the Gospel, but getting personal with Felix and the governor's struggles (which involve having taken another man's wife), making him uncomfortable.

And here's the New Year's truth I took away from this passage - when discussing the gospel with others, or applying it to my own life, I have to remember that it's not just about my salvation, but that it's about completely changing my life!

Application - I need to speak the gospel to myself daily if I want to grow in self-control. Jesus died so that I CAN change, so that I CAN be new! Not by my power ('cause I don't have any!), but by His incredible power that was strong enough to defeat death! Wow!

I don't have to be a slave to sin this year, nor a slave to my fleshly desires.

Whohoo!!

And finally, I want to close with this great quote by Nancy Leigh DeMoss from her book "Lies Women Believe" (which I would recommend ALL Christian women read!!):

"Satan knows that if we believe we can't help the way we are, we will never change."

I CAN change and grow - not because I can pull myself up by my own bootstraps, or get a lot of good feelings from a New Year's resolution.

No, I can change because I have His power with me all year long. :)

~ Ellie

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 5, 2015 at 12:36 PM

    This is fantastic, Ellie! Thank you for sharing! :) This year, I am praying for opportunities to share the Gospel to others more. I feel that through my career as a fitness coach and meeting people outside of my "Christian circle of friends", opportunities will come in God's timing as He graciously shows me how I can glorify Him the best way I can by using self-control and taking care of my/His temple and helping/encouraging others to do the same. Sharing God's love with people is such a privilege...to let Jesus shine through us. I want to not only show people Jesus with my life, I desire to tell people about Jesus and how much He loves them, that He died for them and for their sin & my sin, and how He was raised from the dead on the 3rd day and was resurrected to the God, his Father & our Father and will come again. I pray for a spiritual awakening and that more and more people who are lost will have spiritual eyes to see how much they are really loved by God, our Heavenly Father. I pray for boldness to speak the truth as I aught. That is why I am here. Praise His Holy Name Forever!! All praise be unto Christ our Savior.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

People Matter

Image
Today was one of those first time experiences that I'll never forget. I've been a part of our local Church Body - Southwest Wake Christian Assembly (SWCA) - for right around eight years, and although we've had a dozen births and a handful of marriages, we've never had a death of one of Body members. One of our oldest members, Mr. Bob, was just transferred to Hospice this week with likely only a few more days to live on this earth. The whole situation was rather sudden - I knew he'd struggled with health issues for a while and was weak, but I didn't realize how close he's been to death. Today I got to visit him. Unfortunately, he was sound asleep the whole time, but I still got to talk and sing loudly to him. Even if he didn't hear anything I said or sang, I'm sure God will pass along the message when Mr. Bob falls into His embrace. I admit, I cried. It was emotional seeing him there, knowing he won't be here for much longer. I was also sad tha
Read more

Gracious Speech - Part 2

Image
In my last blog post, we looked at the attributes of Jesus' speech, seeing that we are to follow his example. One of those attributes is that he was submissive to the Father, both in word and deed. Today, we're going to look at some of those verses where Jesus submits to the Father, and by doing so shows his authority. ~~~ "Jesus replied, 'Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.' Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'" ~ Mt. 3:15-17 Sometimes, from our time in prayer, reading in the Word, and/or a rebuke from a brother or sister in Christ, we can wonder why God wants us to do something or do it a certain way. In following Jesus' example, we should be quick to answer
Read more

Dance Before the Lord

Image
Today I read 2 Samuel 6. This is when David and all of Israel are bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The first time is a failure (the dude touches the Ark and dies, David gets spooked, and lets some other guy take care of it for a while), but I focused my study on the second part of the chapter, when they're bringing it in again the right way. It says that David danced before the Lord (and subsequently all of Israel) with "all his might". There were shouts, and trumpets, and other musical instruments blaring, I'm sure. Then David began "leaping and dancing" in celebration and thankfulness before the Lord. Not only is David held in honor by the people for this whole-hearted display (as we find out later in the chapter), but David also blesses the people by giving them all food. However, David's wife Michal (Saul's daughter), despises and condemns David for his dancing, saying that he made an utter fool of himself before the people.
Read more