Transformed

After many changes in my life, I am finally settled into my new home and the groove of my new routines. I went back to Nebraska for a surprise visit this weekend, which was amazing! I got to visit my old church, and I started to realize just how much I have grown and changed just over these past couple of crazy months. Which finally brings me to this, my next long-awaited Identity in Christ!

To kick it off, here is a song about Extreme Make-Over: Spiritual Edition! (Yes, I am cheesy, but I make you laugh!) Make-Overs are all about taking something that is out-of-date, run down, broken, inadequate, dysfunctional, or all of the above and changing it into something totally different, improved, better! That's what this song-- and this blog post-- is all about.





2 Corinthians 5:17 is a popular memory verse for small children-- for us children of the 90's, it had a slightly obnoxious song to go with it, but it tells us: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" When Samuel anointed Saul as king, he told him that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon him and change him into a different person (1 Samuel 10:6). The same thing happens to us when we are saved: the Holy Spirit comes into our lives (John 7:38-39, Acts 2:38). The Spirit is what comforts us when we are hurting, what guides us when we are confused, what convicts us when we stray, what refreshes us when we are weary. But not only do we have this friend and counselor to help us out with this great journey of life, we have this very Presence of God living in our hearts... That in and of itself is enough to transform anybody!

But this identity comes with a challenge. This transformation happens inside our hearts, and we are given the power and the help and everything we need to live out this transformation on the outside, but so often we fight it so hard for a myriad of reasons: we're afraid of what people will think, we're afraid of giving up pieces of our old life, we think that if we're going to try at all we have to get it perfect or else there's no point, and let's just face it, it's tough! But Romans 12:2 tells us to "not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." We have to stop letting the influences of the external forces of this world trump the power of God that is in us that transformed us the very moment we chose to believe!

In the book The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee, he uses the illustration of a trapeze artist. As they move from one bar to the next, they have to let go of the old bar. That's what we have to do in order to "put off our old selves" and become our "new selves, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness," (Ephesians 4:22-24). We have to make that choice: Are we going to live the life that we had before Christ transformed us? Or are we going to let the power of the Holy Spirit seep through the seems of our souls until His colors bleed through the surface for the rest of the world to see?

Beside 2 Corinthians 5:17 in my little blue Bible, I have written a quote from a sermon long ago: "The butterfly is not content to crawl along the ground." That's all the caterpillar can do, but once that creature breaks free from the cocoon as a new creation with big, beautiful wings, nothing can keep him from flying, because that's what butterflies do. As Christians who have been transformed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we shouldn't be content to crawl on the ground. We should rise up to this challenge to live a life reflecting the miraculous transformation that we have undergone!

We are no longer the people that we were before Christ saved us. Past mistakes, fears, and weaknesses do not define us, and we have the power within us to conquer those things from our old selves. Will you unlock the doors of your heart and let the Lord and Savior of the universe make you into a person who reflects this change that He has done in you?

~ * ~

Redeemed

If you look up the definition for the word “Redeem,” you will understand the length of this post! These are just a few of my ideas. If you really want to go deep, I would encourage you to copy down each definition of the word and journal through it. What does each definition mean to you? How do you think it applies to your identity in Christ? Let me get you started!

I heard a story once about a little boy who saw a toy boat in the window of a toy store. He saved up all his money for weeks until he could finally afford that toy boat. Proud of his purchase, he immediately took his toy boat out to the pond to sail it. Sadly, the string broke and the toy boat drifted away from the boy, and he couldn’t get it back. It seemed that his toy boat was lost forever.

A few days later, he passed the toy store and there in the window was his boat! Someone had saved it from the pond, and it was for sale yet again. So he went home, and saved up his money again, and he bought the boat a second time. When he walked out of the store, he said, “You are truly mine now! I’ve bought you twice!”

The first definition of “redeem” is “to buy back, repurchase.” The little boy redeemed his toy boat: he bought it back.

~ * ~

Another one of the many definitions for “redeem” is “to make good on, fulfill.” The first thing that comes to mind on this one for me is a coupon. Say you have a coupon for, oh I don’t know, there are coupons for everything! How about: “Buy one toothbrush, get one FREE!” Maybe you’re a mom and both of your kids are due for new toothbrushes, or you’re like my grandparents and you keep a stash because your daughter’s family inevitably forgets to pack their toothbrushes every single time they come to visit, or maybe you’re trying to send a subliminal message concerning hygiene through your stocking stuffers.

Anyway, that little square of flimsy paper has value: it is worth the price of one toothbrush. So you take it to the store, you pick out your two toothbrushes, and you hand the cashier the toothbrushes and the coupon, then you only have to pay the price of one of them: the other toothbrush is free. You have made good on that coupon, you have fulfilled its original value. You have redeemed that coupon.

~ * ~

Redeeming something also means “to release from blame,” or “to repair or restore.” If you’ve ever had an ex, you understand that annoying tendency of certain things like songs or places to remind you of your ex. As my ex was part of my own identity crisis, I took this tendency to the extreme. Songs, places, movies, actors, smells, words, accents, the armed forces, certain outfits, I swear just about everything was an excruciating reminder of what I viewed at the time to be a gaping hole that had been ripped in my life. It was pathetic almost to Twilight Saga extremes.


I had watched Despicable Me in theatres on a date with my ex, and so when it was plugged in at a friend’s house with my family there, the first thing I did was think about him. But once the minions appeared on the screen speaking their squeaky, gibberish language, my brother (who is three years older than me, and therefore supposed to be some kind of serious, responsible adult) just about died laughing. We finally had to stop the movie because we were all laughing and wondering when he was going to start breathing again. Suddenly, that hilarious, adorable movie was no longer linked to memories of my ex, but memories of my brother’s nearly-fatal laughing fit, and I could enjoy the movie. This is good, because it’s a hilarious and adorable movie!

After making this discovery, I started no longer avoiding things that reminded me of my ex (which was an impossible task anyway), but instead seeking them out to create new memories to link them to. Sonic became a place to park the car and study between school and work, RED became a good movie that I watched with my parents, and the blue dress that I wore on a particularly disastrous date was the dress I wore the day I graduated from Metro with my Associates degree. All of these things that I thought would be eternal reminders could be released from connotations to a boy that was merely a small part of my childhood, they could be restored to what they were before the break-up messed them up and be simply good movies, fun places, and cute clothes. They could be redeemed.

~ * ~

Ephesians 1:7-8 says this: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” Because of Christ, we are released from blame for what we have done. We are repaired and restored to the creations that God originally made us. We fulfill the purpose for our existence: to be pleasing creations of God that bring glory to Him. We are the toy boat that the little boy bought twice: once when God created us, and again when Christ died for us. God bought us twice, so we are truly His. We are redeemed!

Justified

My trusty dictionary tells me that "justify" means "to prove or show to be just, right, or reasonable." I went a step further with this one though: the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. It’s a four-inch thick book that’s been sitting on my desk waiting for me to have the time to write this blog post (sorry folks, I’m a college student. I’m aiming for at least one post a week, but as demonstrated, it isn’t always going to happen). Anyway, according to Strong’s, the word that is translated as "justified" comes from the Greek word "dikaioo." It talks about how it means to prove, show, render, or regard as just, innocent, or holy. So what does that mean for our identity?

Homework and midterms aren’t the only thing that have delayed the posting of this identity. It turns out, summing up our justification through Christ in a couple of concise verses isn’t so simple. I would encourage you to read Galatians 3:1-25. I know, I know, that’s quite a bit, but it walks you through the process, and does so in God’s words, which are infinitely more valuable than mine.

In simple terms: we all sin. We’ve been over that. If you need a refresher’s course, Romans is located in the New Testament and the Ten Commandments are in Exodus 20. We’ve also discussed how that sin separates us from God, but how He desires to have a relationship with us anyway. Which still blows me away; God’s patience will never cease to amaze me, but beyond patience, He still wants to love us and talk to us and have us come to Him? Wow.

Before Christ, God gave us (specifically the Israelites) the Law. The Law is a whole slew of rules and regulations: don’t do this, you must do that, when you mess it up you have to do this, that, and the other thing in payment for it. Here is an example: "When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands…" [then God breaks it down for them: it’s different for the anointed priest, the whole Israelite community, a leader, etc., so let’s see how it goes for "a member of the community"] "…When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering," [which is a whole ‘nother procedure]. "Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the alter. He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering," [which is yet another different procedure] "and the priest shall burn it on the alter as an aroma pleasing to the Lord. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven." (This whole thing is in Leviticus 4).

That was the way God gave them to maintain a relationship with Him. They were bound to a set of rules and there were specific forms of sacrifice to atone for the ways that they fell short. Usually, this was done in the form of blood. So let’s check out Hebrews 9:22: "In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness."

But this wasn’t God’s final plan. God’s final plan was for Christ’s blood to pay for all of our sins. As Galatians told us in those 25 verses that I still strongly encourage you to go take a look at, we are no longer held to the law, because our sins are paid for with the blood of Christ and through our faith in Him, we are justified.

So now we’re back to this question: what does that mean for our identity? Well, let’s break it down. What are your sins? No, you don’t have to tell me, just think about it. What lies do you tell on a regular basis, to yourself or to others? Do you commit adultery through the lusts of your heart against your spouse (whether you’re married yet or not)? Are you disrespectful to authority? Do you disrespect God? Are you a poor steward of anything that God has entrusted to you (finances, property, spiritual gifts, your body)? Take a look at the Ten Commandments… an honest, in-depth look.

Guess what? If you have placed your faith in Christ, then the Bible tells us that through our faith (not the Law), His blood atones for your sin. Christ’s blood atones for my sin. It’s paid for. We are proven, shown, rendered, and regarded as innocent and holy. God doesn’t see our sin anymore, because we are justified.

Reconciled

Christians have a lot of big words that they like to spout off without really knowing what they mean to sound smarter and holier. Seriously, how many people honestly know what the word "propitiation" means? I’ve had this beef with plastic Christianity for a while now ("plastic Christianity" referring to the "holier than thou" Christians who would have people believe that they have it all together, paint a pretty smile on their faces for church, and let their negative attitudes, lusts, and judgement of others grow like a fungus in the darkness of their "protected" souls… but that’s for another blog post). Both as an English nerd and a Christian trying to learn to stay real, I try very hard not to use words that I don’t really know what they mean. So when I looked at my list and saw that the next identity I’d have to tackle is "reconciled," I have to be honest I cringed a little. So what does an English nerd do when faced with an uncomfortable word? I head for a dictionary! Especially this one!

I feel the need to begin with the second definition that Merriam Webster gave, which is this: "To make consistent or congruous." In the previous post, I mentioned God having an original plan when He created mankind. It was a plan to have a deep, meaningful relationship with us, completely pure and free of shame. The Bible tells us that He would walk with Adam in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden—this perfect paradise of a place that He gave the first couple to live in. I also mentioned that He allowed that original plan to die at the hands of the free will that He gave mankind. Through salvation and by this second definition, He reconciled current reality with that original plan! He made it possible for us to have a relationship with Him that is "consistent or congruous" with that original plan. Colossians 1:22 puts it this way: "But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation." We are now in line with that original plan, because Christ paid the penalty for our sins so that we can have that pure, perfect relationship that God always meant to have with us!

The first definition provided was "to restore to friendship or harmony, settle, resolve." Romans 5:10 tells us "For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!" Sin made us God’s enemies, it put us against Him, we were at odds with Him. In this sense, reconciliation is removing that conflict that sin created. Our struggle against God has been settled and resolved through the forgiveness of our sins, and our friendship with Him is restored!

In Christ, I am reconciled. The sin that separated me from Him is paid for and forgiven so that I can have that perfect, pure relationship that God originally intended to have with mankind. I am holy in His sight, I’m without blemish and free from accusation, and I can walk with God in the garden in the cool of the day. And if that’s not something to get excited about, then I don’t know what is!

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed us to the message of reconciliation."
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

A New Identity

The previous post was about how we are created by God, which applies to every human being. The rest of these identities however need a little extra background information.




When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in the Garden of Eden. It was situated between two rivers and abundant in both plant and animal life. Adam and Eve were given authority over the garden and provided with everything that they needed. They worked together and God walked with them in the garden. Many of us are familiar with the Sunday school coloring sheets of Adam and Eve grinning those perfect grins as they stand so conviniently behind trees and bushes while Eve’s hair is always in front of both shoulders, but when you really stop to think about it, that doesn’t really paint an accurate picture. There was a purpose for their existance, they had everything they could ever need, they had each other, and they had a relationship with God. There was no pain, no suffering, no shame. The coloring sheets are careful to cover up their nakedness for the little eyes in our churches today, but Adam and Eve didn’t have to worry about it. It was how God created them. It was God’s original intent.


But God didn’t want slaves or robots. He didn’t want pets that only stayed because they had no where else to go. No, God wanted a deeper relationship than that. So, He introduced this little thing called free will. He placed a tree in the Garden of Eden and told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat of it. Well, we all know how well that went over. Adam and Eve disobeyed this one rule that they were given, and thus God allowed His original intent to die. Sin and pain and death came onto the scene. God had to clothe Adam and Eve because now there was shame. He sent them out of the garden, and out of His presence. The relationship was broken.


God doesn’t give up that easily, though. He still wanted a relationship with us. He still wants it today. But there is a dilemma. God is a perfect God, and sin is a serious thing. The Bible tells us that "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). We all know that nobody is perfect, so there is no way that we can earn our way back to the glory of God on our own. The Bible also tells us this: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23).


As that verse eludes to, God had a solution to this dilemma. In the Old Testament, people paid for their own sins through sacrifices. Blood had to be shed to pay for all of the ways that they fell short. To restore the relationship, God provided The Ultimate Sacrifice that would cover everyone’s sins for all time: His Son, Jesus. Jesus was born of a virgin, therefore pure from sin, lead a perfect life as an example, made no mistakes, committed no crimes, was hated, mocked, spat upon, and executed on a cross as a criminal. Jesus suffered through God’s judgement and death in our place. Then to prove His divinity, power, and authority, He didn’t stay in the tomb. He rose again three days later, because He was greater than death itself!


And so we have an answer to the dilemma of sin’s separation between us and God. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16). I grew up in the church, was saved at the age of 8, have heard about sin and our need to be saved from it at least ten different ways, and have heard/presented the "process" of "getting saved" at least five different ways. But the whole thing is quite simple and easily summed up in one verse: "If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9). There are lots of prayers and processes and tools out there that are all powerful things, but that verse sums it all up. If you openly name Jesus as the Lord of your life and believe what the Bible says about our need for a savior and how God provided one in Christ, then that’s it. Your sins are paid for, you are forgiven, you have that relationship with Christ, and you are saved!


To become a citizen of the United States, one must go through a naturalization process before being identified as an American. The identities that I’m going to delve into through the rest of this blog are similar. This is about identity in Christ. If you are not saved, then you do not have this identity any more than a Mexican isn’t an American (sorry, couldn’t help it!). If you want to know more, feel free to shoot me an e-mail, or talk with a friend who you know is saved, or read the Bible to find more for yourself.


If you are already saved, then from here on out, this blog is all about who you are!

Created

Our identity begins with creation—as do the lies that modern culture tell us about our identity.

We live in a society obsessed with information. Scientists wear blinders and try to stuff the origins of the universe into numbers and data and concepts that fit into finite human comprehension. After all, knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. Be evil. But I digress. Scientists, biology classes, "intellectuals," and many others bombard us with theories of chemical reactions and adaptations producing life on earth and therefore there is nothing beyond what "reason" can explain.

This opens up discussion for a wide array of topics, which could quite easily lead to an entirely new blog (a project which I shall leave to someone who is actually good at science… I’m an English nerd, science is not my calling). But here in this blog on our identity, this is the point I’d like to point out. This clip features William Provine, whose ideas are echoed by Richard Dawkins. Both men are evolutionists and avid atheists. Listen to what Provine himself has to say about the implications of evolution.



So basically, the "intellectuals" of today’s culture tell us that we just kind of happened as an accident of chemical reactions and organisms learning better ways to survive, we’re born, hang out on earth for a little bit, and then we die and that’s that. Provine even goes so far as to say that we don’t even have free will while we’re here: everything we do is simply a natural reaction to stimuli. What an empty and pointless existence.

The Bible tells us otherwise. The Bible tells us that we are created in the image of God.

"Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:26-27).

We were created in the image of God and given authority over His creation. Beyond that, God did not create us simply by speaking, as He did the rest of creation. No, the Bible tells us that He hand-crafted Adam from the dirt with His bare hands. God did not see Adam alone as complete: man needed woman in order to totally reflect God’s image. So God hand-crafted Eve from Adam’s rib. God put more effort into the creation of mankind than any other thing in the universe.

This isn’t just humanity though, it doesn’t stop there. God didn’t create Adam and Eve, program them with reproductive tendencies, and leave the rest of us to biology. God created me. God created you.

"For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body." (Psalm 139:13-16a).

I was first shown this passage at an Acteens retreat, and the discovery I made that day is still written in black ink in the margin next to that passage in my little blue Bible: "I am not a mistake!" God creates life: Not humans, not accidents, not mindless and undirected biological processes.

I was carefully crafted in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I am created in the image of God!

Identity in Christ

Identity is an important thing. It defines who we are, what we do, and how we interact with others as it either limits or builds our security and confidence. According to www.meriam-webster.com/dictionary , identity is "the distinguishing character or personality of an individual, individuality, or the relationship established by psychological identification." When someone asks to see your identification, you usually pull a card out of your pocket, wallet, or purse that describes you with a set of statistics: height, weight, gender, some kind of code or number, hair color (as if you can’t already tell that I’m blonde), and so on.

We live in a culture that tries to tell us that our identities are defined by our actions, our experiences, our achievements, our education, our bank accounts, or even our appearances. This world has a set of standards that it uses to measure us, and make certain that when we don’t measure up to those standards that we know it.

But did you know that, as Christians, we have a special identity in Christ? Sure, I’ve always known that. "I’m made in the image of God, I’m the daughter of the King of kings, I’m precious and loved, and He sent His Son to die for me so that I can be forgiven." It’s the stuff I’ve spouted off since Sunday School when I was four, of course I know that!

Then things started happening in my life that showed me just how insecure I was in this identity. I found myself letting the culture I live in identify me. To help solve this identity crisis, my counselor gave me a list of words that God uses in the Bible to describe me with the reference for the verse where each identity is found. As I started to look at who I really am in Christ, there were several other people in my life who were simultaneously studying the same thing… and each of them had another list. As everybody continued studying and collaborating, and as I continued compiling everything that I was learning, I quickly realized that I wanted to go into more depth with this identity that I was learning about. There is so much more to each item on this inexhaustive list than just a couple of memory verses.

As I continue to learn who I really am in Christ, I invite you to join me on this journey. I’m going to use Bible verses, Biblical stories, research, music, videos, art work, poetry, anecdotes, largely worthless statistics that you’ll never remember once you leave this page, and whatever else I possibly can to create as deep of a definition as I can for each of these things that we are because of Christ. I encourage you to apply each one to yourself, and share with others what you’ve learned. There are few things in this world as powerful as when Christians join together to learn things with each other! If you’d like to share what you feel something means to you or if you have something to add, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail. I’d love to hear from you! Let’s team up and learn together!

So grab your Bible, highlighter, pen, note pad, and coffee (or Mountain Dew, for those of us not patient enough to "acquire the taste" for coffee), and join me on my adventure to discover our true Identity in Christ!