The past has a way of coming back on you. Apps like TimeHop and Facebook’s On This Day are double-edged swords. Reminding you of your growth, or lack of it, and painful memories. For my wife and I, Facebook showed us a three-year-old article about my arrest.
Going against my better judgment I decided to read the comments. One principle you can count on, the internet makes people “brave”. I never saw the threats come to pass though.
I had forgotten the exact date. My best friend didn’t, tagging me and another in a timely meme. It said, ‘When the past knocks, don’t answer.’ It’s true, especially since that guy died on August 10, 2014.
Dead!?
For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Galatians 2:19-21
This means when I, when you, gave our lives to Christ, the person we were before died. All our faults, screw ups, sins, everything placed on Christ on the Cross. He accepted them, because you can’t even live up to your own standards, let alone God’s, and bridged the gap. Jesus took the penalty for those sins, paid it in full, and rose from the dead new.
Your Name. Born: 5/2/83 Died: 8/10/14 Reborn: 8/10/14 Died: Immortal
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything;what counts is the new creation.
Galatians 6:15
Your heritage. Your deeds. It all counts for nothing. God shows no preference based on these, the new creation that you are through Christ is all that counts.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2nd Corinthians 5:16-17
You are a new creation–a fresh start–born again with a new spirit and a new nature. Before you were far from God, the One who created everything, and now He lives in you. You now have a relationship with God that doesn’t require ritual or religious pomp. Any time you want to talk to Him, just do it.
The Old Is Gone, The New Is Here
When your past knocks, tell it that person is dead, you’re a reborn, new person, living a new life. The
chains of the past have no power, sin has no power anymore. This will confuse those that bring it up.
“How,” they may ask.
We all have a sense of fairness and justice. Someone has to pay for their wrongs, even if they’re sorry. That’s where Jesus comes in. When you are actually sorry for how you’ve messed up and hurt others, when you turn to Jesus and ask, “Save me from myself.” He will.
He will accept your punishment. The Holy Spirit will indwell you, helping you to change your life. God will be your Father, and the angels in Heaven will rejoice. Glory and thanks to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
A Ronin's Journey 