Relationship Series Part 1: Eggshell

I suppose I can say that I grew up in church. I remember going as a kid and I continued to as I grew older. I was surrounded by Christianity not only in church but in school too. So, what I knew about God was mainly from Sunday school, youth group and school. My knowledge and understanding of God developed more in Suriname and Belgium between my late teens and early twenties. In this time, I began to understand God and the Bible more. God was no longer this far-off person and the Bible was no longer “that-book-that-I-couldn’t-understand”.

However, despite this progression, my life was not completely surrendered to Him. Sunday belonged for God and the rest of the week belonged to me. There was a disconnection between the girl who sat in church and the girl who swore and went clubbing until the wee hours of Sunday morning. I thought I could enjoy the best of both worlds but that was a lie from the very pit of hell. I blended in with other church folk externally but was empty on the inside, like an egg shell without it’s crucial internal components. Although I could fool others, I could not fool God. Christ was not the centre of my life.

It’s only by God’s wonderful mercy that I got out of that pit. He placed people in my path that planted seeds of truth that led to my liberty. 

I wrote this post to remind and warn that being a church-goer or in an open relationship with God isn’t real Christianity. The devil wants us to believe that it is okay to love both world and God; that we don’t need to choose one or the other. But that is such a big fat LIE! You can’t have the best of both worlds because you’ll love one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24), and loving the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). Choices have to be made, all or nothing choices. God wants all of us not just some of us. We are to love Him with everything that we are: all your heart, all your mind, all your strength and all your soul. 

So maybe you were once like me, and well I thank God that He got us out of that pit! Maybe you are in that pit now, if so, don’t lose hope! He got me out, He surely can do it for you too. All you need to do respond to His call for surrender and daily pick up your cross and follow Him. It doesn’t mean you won’t fall, you will but you’ll get up each time (Proverbs 24:16). 

Blessings

Masterpieces of Grace

Leuven is a lovely small city. Every year and in different places something is always under-construction, it can be anything but usually it is a building, a road or a roof.The same is true for other cities like Ghent and Brussels. Renovation can be considered as something typically Belgium. Just take a walk outside and you will hear the drilling machines, the sounds of hammers hitting metal and you will see the builders at work from early morning to late afternoon in winter, spring, summer and autumn and in all kinds of weather too. Their dedication is visible. They want to see the project complete and to admire the beautiful result of hard work.  

Apart from Belgians, I  know Someone who is an expert and incredibly skilled in all things regarding restoration, renewal and rebuilding and He works on people. His name is Jesus. You might think and be convinced that people do not need repair, but we do. We are not in our original state. We used to be, until the fall and are in great need of restoration. Let me be explain further.

When God created the earth and made the first humans (Adam and Eve) in His image, it was very good (Genesis 1:31). But Adam and Eve went against God by disobeying Him. This lead to what we call sin, and every human being after Adam and Eve is born with it (Genesis 3). The problem about sin is that it destroys and disfigures us; it has stolen our true identity and left us empty and separated from God. Sin has made a mess of life. But the good news is that God has given us a solution to this sin problem. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who was in every way human as we are but without sin. He lived, died and rose again. In dying all sin was laid on Him and in rising up again from death, He destroyed the power of sin and all it's consequences such as death for example (Hebrews 2:10-18). So when we accept and confess our sins and  trust that Jesus did this for us, we are saved and we receive eternal life, new life (John 3:16, Rom.10:9; 2Cor 5:17).

This new life consists of a lot of restoration, God bringing us to be like His Son; so in a way taking us back to our original state. He intends for us to be as holy and blameless as He is. So Christians are in fact people under-construction, this project lasts for a lifetime and ends either when we die or when Jesus returns (1Cor 15:35-58). Jesus through His Holy Spirit and our effort is slowly but surely changing our hearts and giving us new habits, new goals, new attitudes (Titus 3:5). Some habits are easier to break than others, some new characteristics will take more time and energy to learn. Some wounds are harder to heal, and painful to treat but they will be healed completely because God is not the type who doesn't finish His projects (Philippians 1:6). However, we should not use this fact that we are being renovated as an excuse to fall back into old destructive habits but as a propeller that energizes to seek to work and cooperate with God. 

And the great thing about this restoration is that, God is not only restoring human beings but everything and one day there will be a new heaven and earth (Revelation 21).

Salvation is only the beginning and Christ is making all things new!

Share your story in the comment section below or with a sister or brother, what new habits has God placed in you? What old habits has He taken away? 

For further reading on this topic, check out the links below (the short list) ;)

http://odb.org/2016/05/01/the-restoration-business/
http://odb.org/2016/05/04/out-of-the-ruins/
http://odb.org/2015/12/02/glass-beach/
http://odb.org/2016/02/03/training-for-life-2/
http://odb.org/2015/06/03/something-new/
http://odb.org/2015/07/27/the-checkup/