Thoughts Heavily Derived from Romans 6:1-10

It's still a difficult task to daily walk in newness of life. Despite the fact that we have been buried with Christ through baptism into death, despite the fact that we share in the likeness of not only his death but also His resurrection, and despite the fact that we're to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, it remains a constant struggle to live new lives. We find ourselves dwelling, and even delighting in the things that we've supposedly died to, and more than that, the things that were part of our old self we supposedly crucified. It is amazing how powerful sin is and how tenacious the old self is that even after tasting, feeling, and drinking deep from this new and eternal life we still return to our former state. Do we not know that if we have been baptized into Christ Jesus we have been baptized into His death? Do we not know that being baptized into His death means we also share in His resurrection? Do we not know that resurrection leads to a new life? And do we not know that a new life is inevitably followed by a new self? How lightly we take the call, the privilege, of living as new creations in Christ Jesus. How loosely we hold onto the precious life we've been granted by His blood, death, and resurrection. And how tightly the old man keeps his hold on us, strangling our attempts to breathe in the hope we have in Christ, covering our eyes to the Glory of our King, stopping our ears from hearing His promises and Love. What a struggle we have with ourselves, with our sin. And yet what Hope, what Help we have in Christ Jesus. Our Rock, our Deliverer, our Salvation, and our Life.

Our First Love

Once we've been resurrected into new life in Christ, we are born into love. And that love exists entirely in God, in the Father, in the Son, in the Spirit; He is our first love of this new life. And He is deserving of every ounce of faith, every piece of our hearts, every bit of our desire, and every breath of our lives. And like faithless Israel, we turn away and forget our first love. We forget the love that came down to save us out of death and into life and out of darkness into light. And while the love that He showed us the moment He resuscitated our stone hearts burns as bright now as it did that day, our love flickers like the sign of a cheap motel in a hurricane. But thank the Lord our God our Savior our Hope that the only fitness he requires of us is to feel our need for Him. I had a moment of prayer today where I looked at my life and my accomplishments and my possessions and my relationships and my all, and it was telling me "you're nothing without Him." And at least for that moment, I felt void of all pride, I felt indifferent toward all vanity, I felt needy of all things, I felt God in my heart in a way that I can't recall ever experiencing. I felt like a true child of God, dependent on Him for all things. I felt like I'll never need anything else in the world. This love knows no bounds, this love is beyond compare, this is true Love.

Psalm 113:5-6

Who is like the LORD our God,
Who is enthroned on high,
Who humbles Himself to behold
The things that are in heaven and in the earth?

Our God is so awesome that He has to humble Himself even to look into the things that are in heaven. He is above even the most perfect and holy of all tabernacles, and He has to lower Himself to even look into the paradise we can't comprehend. That is the God I want to worship.