| January 9th, 2001 - Friendship with God (Part 1) After coming to Christ I was under conviction by the Holy Spirit about a lot of things. Some things seemed to drop off right away and there was little or no desire to revisit them. But other things seemed to hang on to me. I was in the Navy at the time and I remember smokng cigarettes and talking to people about Jesus. I remember experiencing horrible shame about being tempted to peek at some of my shipmates' Playboys and other nudie mags. There was also much in my mind about how I viewed God that needed to be revised, even though my spirit was made brand new. "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new, And all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation..." (II Corinthians 5: 17,18) "And do not be conformed to the world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans 12: 2) Yes, I was a new creation but my soul was still in need of some major renewal and transformation. My mind had been molded by it's surroundings, inflluenced by its environment. For example, my mind was so religiously oriented that I had a performance based mentality in most of my relating to God. I felt that I had better do right or else! Or else there would be trouble! Big trouble! If I hurt myself or if anything bad happened to me my mind would immediately recall some recent sin that I had committed and think that it must be God punishing me because of that. This obviously was my own distorted thinking and not the conviction of the Holy Spirit. "For this is as the waters of Noah to me (the flood): for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth: so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you." (Isaiah 54: 9) Now, twenty-two years later, after having walked this road with God for a little while, I know nothing could be further from the truth. God simply doesn't operate that way. God has released all of His wrath against sin, once and for all, upon Jesus Christ at the cross. There is no more sin blockage to complete communion with the Creator God. So intimate is our union with Him that we become one spirit with God! He now lives inside of you, if you have come to Him by Jesus Christ. The biggest area the Holy Spirit was leading me and convicting me about was this: I needed to be open about how Jesus had changed my life. To confess Christ as my Lord in front of others and help them to see that this is something that God desires for everyone was of great importance to God. Why is that? We'll look at the answer to that tomorrow (in the January 10th study). |