Now listen carefully. The people of this world are trying to live a life they do not have substituting religion for God. But then there are others who are in this world but not of this world anymore who have a new life they never live. That’s most Christians. Oh, they know Jesus died on the cross for them and that they get to go to heaven when they die, but they don’t know Jesus is also the new life within them.
What does the world call most Christians? A bunch of hypocrites (a hypocrite says one thing but does another), trying to live the Christian life in their own strength when it can’t be done. So it comes across as hypocritical. Sad to say we have many Christians living this way.
Example: I recently read a testimony of a man named Ed Miller in the Gaither Homecoming Magazine. It read something like this. “I was following earnestly the spiritual disciplines I had been taught growing up in the church: daily quiet times, Bible memory, assembling with the saints, actively ministering – yet in my life I was a defeated Christian. Finally, I crashed. I gave up the dream that I would ever improve as a Christian. In the merciful providence of God one glorious morning I found myself sitting at the feet of a Godly mentor.”
“I was told that day, as if I had heard it for the first time, the most precious news a helpless Christian could ever hope to hear. I was dead! God had not promised to improve me; He desired to replace me. I thought He would change me, instead He was offering an exchange – His life for mine. I had received Him as the One who died as my Substitute years before; I was now given the opportunity to receive Him as the One who wanted to live as my Substitute for the rest of my life.”
What life are you trying to live?
Scripture tells us “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone (dead); the new has come.” II Cor 5:17
Scripture also tells us “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is now your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” Col 3:3,4
There was a knock at the door. They shouted, “Who lives here?”
Reply: “Jesus lives here!”
They said, “I thought Martin Luther lived here.”
Reply: “He used to, but he is dead.”
The Scripture supports this: “Reckon yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in ChristJesus.” Rom 6:11
Christianity is not a self-improvement; it’s a self-replacement! (A Substitute): In other words, Jesus living His life in and through us.
LIFE LESSON: The Word of God is meant to be applied and lived out by the new life He puts in you at salvation; His Son’s life, Jesus Christ revealed in your mortal body, a life you live by faith.
Again, What Life Are You Trying To Live? Thank you for your support and prayers and helping us spread the gospel of the New Life within!
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