New Past, New Present, and a New Future

Revelation 21:5-8

How many times have we said, that did not work, we need to start over; I’ve done it at the family level, at the business level, and often at the spiritual level, and new beginnings are a good thing.  But in all of these you have the old history, the baggage, the hurts and the scars that make you look back on the past, or often I have been guilty of looking to the future, because where I am in the present is not working out the way I had hoped for.  I experienced a lot of windshield time in my life, driving from one project to another, and that can be a very good time to reflect on how you are doing, to pray for God’s direction, or it can be as it was often for me, to move into the dreamer realm of wishful thinking, looking for utopia; a desire to be the hero, and the sad news is after the time of dreaming you are still stuck in the reality of the now.

The sad news is that many of us who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, do not believe the “Truth,” but “Truth” has spoken, and Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46)  Jesus has told us that we have entered into Him, and He has entered into us, that by faith, and it not by your faith, but the faith that God the Father has given you, so do not get the big head, it’s all the grace of our Father.  This is what Jesus said about you, if you have entered by faith into a relationship with Him: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”  You and I have been given the ability to set our minds on whatever we desire to, that is truth, and Paul goes on to say; “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”(Colossians 3:2-3)   My dear friend Bill liked to ask this question, “How many sins did you commit 2000 years ago?”  The answer is none you had not shown up on earth, yet you are placing your faith in Jesus, who died for all your sins, because if He did not cover all of them, you do not have standing in heaven before God.  So just as you rightly believe that 2000+ years ago Jesus died for your sins, in like manner when Jesus died on the cross you also died, and you got a new past, a new present, and a new future.

From the Back Porch

Bob Rice