Prompt Response: Newness of Life 🆕🧬
with help from Gemini Nano Banana and Photo Studio Pro
What’s a moment in your life that made you feel truly alive?
Life has a number of definitions. From simple existence to abundant living to thriving, life can be lived with or without much pomp and circumstance. Some are happy just to breathe in and out while others require a steady stream of stimuli to feel as if they are truly alive.
For me, I’ve had some wonderful moments of feeling truly alive, like the day I married the love of my life 35+ years ago. And most of those moments followed a moment I felt truly alive; the moment my old life and sin was washed away in baptism, and I began to walk into a new life beside my Savior. Read that story on my July 17th post.
When Paul speaks to the Roman believers about baptism, he says…
“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.”
A few different translations use the words walk in a new life but most seem to agree with the Berean translation to walk in the newness of life. In other words, before that moment, it was not life even if you were existing and breathing in and out. So life from a God’s Word perspective means walking with our Creator and Lord.
That definition also works with the definitions of eternity that assign us to either eternal death or eternal life. Eternal death is the place where not even a worm dies and yet it’s called death, so it seems it’s the lack of the presence of Yahveh Almighty that makes it death. But that doesn’t have to be our eternity. We know from His own words that YahShua (Jesus) is Life.
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
He also says that He is The Resurrection.
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’”
In His Gethsemane prayer in John 17, YahShua says…
“Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”
And this is echoed by John the Revelator in 1 John 11-12…
“And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Finally, in the spirit of the beautiful fall season now gracing the Northern Hemisphere, remember that real life is filled with color. The verdant leaves of spring and summer are basically putting their dinner plates out for the world to see what they’re eating: a diet of chlorophyll. But before they take their winter naps, the green gets fully digested to reveal the true colors that mark the life of each leaf.
🍁🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍁
And isn’t that just a beautiful glimpse of Heaven? There, our true colors will shine for eternity and glisten in the Light of His eternal grace! THAT must be the very definition of feeling truly alive.
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Aesop’s Fables Month: The Cat Maiden 🐈👰🏼
Recently, there’s been a commercial running that includes a woman making videos as a “mom-fluencer” even though she has no children. The idea that people so trust what is on the outside to influence them is truly sad because it means we’re living in a shallow society that has a seared collective conscience. We are just as apt to believe a lie as the truth when we become focused on the outward appearance as our primary means of judgment. The following fable deals with the idea of change being only on the surface rather than inside and out.
The Classic Fable Retold: The Cat-Maiden (Perry 50)
A sleek, beautiful cat lived in the home of a young man, and over time, she fell hopelessly, desperately in love with him. She spent her days watching him with adoration, wishing with all her heart that she could walk by his side as a companion rather than a pet.
Hearing her persistent cries, the goddess Venus took pity on the creature. With a flash of magic, she transformed the feline into a stunning, elegant young woman.
The young man was utterly captivated. He saw her grace, her beauty, and her fine gown, and within a short time, they were married.
On their wedding night, as they retired to their bedchamber, Venus decided to test whether the bride’s nature had truly changed along with her shape. She released a tiny, scurrying mouse right onto the floorboards near the bed.
Forgetting her bridal veil, her vows, her fine linen, and her human dignity in an instant, the bride dropped straight down onto all fours on the Persian rug. With wide, wild eyes and bared claws, she scrambled across the room in a fierce feline crouch to corner the mouse.
Disgusted by this utter lack of true change, Venus raised her hand. With a billowing cloud of magical smoke, the human bride vanished—replaced instantly by the original white cat, pouncing triumphantly over the mouse while the bewildered groom stood frozen in the doorway in absolute shock.
Walking in Newness of Life vs. Wearing a Costume
You can change a person’s clothes, put them on a pedestal or in front of a camera, or give them a brand-new title. But a costume change does not change a heart. Just like the cat-maiden, people can put on a brilliant performance for the public square, but when the unexpected “mouse” of life startles them—when pressure hits or temptation creeps in—their true instinct takes over.
We see this in spiritual spaces, too. It is dangerously easy to adopt the vocabulary, the aesthetics, and the surface behaviors of faith without experiencing an actual transformation of the soul. But God is not fooled by a costume change.
Scripture reminds us that true faith is never about slapping a new exterior onto an old nature:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come!”
— 2 Corinthians 5:17 (B.S.B.)
God doesn’t just hand us a bridal veil and hope we can fake our way through life. Instead, He offers a complete heart transplant. As Paul writes when describing our spiritual birth and transformation:
“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.”
— Romans 6:4 (B.S.B.)
And through the prophet Ezekiel, God contrasted surface religion with His ultimate heart-renewal:
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
— Ezekiel 36:26 (B.S.B.)
The Real Deal
Today, let’s look past the curated “mom-fluencers,” the social media filters, and the polished performances of this world. Let’s ask the Lord to examine our own hearts.
May we never settle for a superficial costume change or a religious disguise. Instead, let’s embrace the deep, authentic work of the Holy Spirit, daily walking in the true, lasting newness of life!
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Same but Different
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
If you’ve known me for any time at all, you know I have a real thing for butterflies. A lot of my text and Messenger signatures have butterflies in them, and my uncle once asked me why I added it.
Many years ago, I was a member of a group called Ala-Teen. It’s where I first encountered the 12 Steps. They are a path of realization and healing that can help anyone. I believe my time studying and applying the steps in my own life set me up with a better attitude for understanding deeper biblical principles when I began walking with The Lord. Though the 12 Steps I’ve linked to, are related to alcohol, they’ve been adjusted on several platforms to line up with healing goals. Like, “We admitted we were powerless over gambling,” or “drugs” instead of “alcohol.” They can be applied as needed because the principles work for all of us made in the image of Our Creator—that is; having a body, a soul, and a spirit.
There’s even a great set of 12 steps for Bible believers that say, “We admitted we were powerless over our sin—That our lives had become unmanageable.” That one, and the other 11, are in a book called A Hunger for Healing by J Keith Miller. It’s on Kindle (including Kindle Unlimited at the time of this writing), but I also recommend the workbook which is better in print format. (Used affiliate links for tracking purposes.) Step 1 in this book and study are based on Paul’s words in Romans 7:15-20…
Romans 7:15-20 WEBUS
[15] For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
[16] But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
[17] So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
[18] For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
[19] For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.
[20] But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
https://bible.com/bible/206/rom.7.15-20.WEBUS
I separated the verses to make them easier to understand, but here I also want to share this in “The Message Bible” because it reads more like you would expect someone nowadays to speak to you.
Romans 7:14-20 MSG
[14-16] I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
[17-20] But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.7.14-20.MSG
Anyway, somewhere in all of my 12-step discoveries, I was introduced to the concept of metamorphosis as represented by the change a caterpillar makes when it turns into a butterfly. It is literally the same “bug” it was born as, but after the struggle and change, it’s a more beautiful version of that bug.
Knowing that all of us who have been created by God are essentially the same in our most basic ways, and knowing we are all (as King David points out) “born in sin and shaped in iniquity,” means a few things. It means we all need to go through a change (metamorphosis) to become our best; it means we are all able to change; and it means that God loves each of us enough to offer us His mercy and grace before the change along with the love and strength we need to become new rather than staying trapped in our old selves.
So my butterflies mean, change is possible! And for me, they mean change has happened in beautiful ways. The saying goes something like, “I know I’m not yet what I want to be, but I thank God I’m no longer what I used to be.” 🦋
And if you’re interested in an outline of all 12 steps as applied biblically and with a bit more detail, you can visit the Uncuffed Ministries site for what they call “The 12 Steps of Christian Discipleship.”
This next image should bring home what I’m saying. I used exactly the same prompts but a different filter. It’s the same, but yet it’s different. I don’t know how many different filters God used during creation, but I know that He is the common denominator. And HE (His Spirit) is also the filter by which we can change our entire lives into something better and more beautiful. He knows us as we are, He laid down His life for us while we were yet sinners, and He is ready to help us to experience the change that will allow us to rise up to walk in the newness of life.
Just for your information, here are the 12 Steps as applied to sin aka the 12 Steps for Overcomers…
1. **Step 1** – We admitted we were powerless over sin—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. **Step 2** – Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. **Step 3** – Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. **Step 4** – Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. **Step 5** – Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. **Step 6** – Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. **Step 7** – Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. **Step 8** – Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. **Step 9** – Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. **Step 10** – Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. **Step 11** – Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. **Step 12** – Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
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Not One Who Kneels
No Share in God’s Glory w/o the Cross by Flickr User Art4TheGlryOfGod, CC License = Attribution, No Derivative Works
Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original image and to access the user’s full photo stream at Flickr.
Have you ever read the lyrics to all the verses from Frank Sinatra’s classic hit My Way? In case you haven’t, here are the words for verse three…
For what is a man what has he got
If not himself then he has not
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way
Notice the words of the fourth line. For all the confidence-building and encouragement the song is supposed to inspire in those who may feel a lack of personal empowerment, it lacks real power. Real power, like so many things, begins with an acknowledgement of who and where we are and what we need to move forward. Think of the Twelve Steps in multiple anonymous programs. They all start with the first step and the words “I admitted I was powerless.”
What has changed in the modern church world? There’s more preaching about power than powerlessness. There’s more push to gain and be the head and not the tail than of losing ourselves to make Christ the Lord and head of our lives. There’s too many messages about what God can do for us, and not enough messages about the blessing of giving our all for a God who already gave it all for us.
I think the problem is from a lack of blood flow (aka Calvary). We want to go right from sinner to saint without stopping to kneel at the cross first. We tell people that with a few minutes at an altar, or a simple confession of Christ, they are saved. It’s like hiring someone for a job without checking any qualifications or doing any training. What will an untrained person do when he faces a struggle for which he is not prepared? What will a new Christian do with temptation if he has not left all his sinful desires under the blood of Yeshua and made a decision that all sacrifice is worth it for his loving Creator?
We’ve got the proverbial cart before the horse when we introduce someone to Heaven and future hope before we teach them how to live for Christ on earth right now. And if we try to teach an unrepented soul how to live a new lifestyle before he has died to the old one, we’re doing it again. When we plant a seed in the earth, the seed dies before it sprouts to new life. How do we claim a new life until we have died to our old life? As Scripture says, we can’t put new wine into old bottles or they will burst.
Do we trust that what God has to offer is better than anything anyone on earth can offer us? If not, we can never die out to doing things our own way. If we don’t die out to our way and our old ideas and skewed understanding, we can never rise up to walk in the newness of life. If we want God’s glory, we must give up our personal glory and be willing to kneel before our Eternal Creator. We must choose to fall in repentance at the cross of Yeshua and let His blood wash over and cleanse us, and then we must take up our cross daily and follow Him. Once we do that, we can rewrite the words above to line up with the Scripture from Mark 8:36-37 (NKJV)…
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
The new words might read something like…
For what is a man what has he got
Without The Lord then he has naught
To think God’s words and to Him yield
And be a man who repents and kneels
His sins will go under the flow
When he’s walking God’s way
And if you want to hear another person’s version of the whole song, sung to the tune of the original, here’s a video I found at YouTube…
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Do You Bounce?
Some things hit the ground and go splat. Some hit and shatter. Some bounce. Obviously, bouncing is the best response because it means that instead of staying down, you will rise back up. The fancy word for this is resiliency. Resilient people can bounce back like cartoon characters who never seem to find a permanent splat even if they have to pump themselves back up. It’s an important characteristic that some have naturally, but which we can also learn.
Yeshua knew the ultimate bounce–from death to life. Today’s Infinite Supply talks about how Yeshua’s resiliency can help us bounce too.
Infinite Supply Image for November Twenty-Fourth by The School of Christ Click image to open a new tab/window to view the original article at The School of Christ dot org website.
November 24
Accomplished Through the Cross
“We were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
ROMANS 6:4
The Cross is the means by which God reduces us to Christ, that we may be raised to new Life. What cannot be accomplished in a lifetime of self-effort is easily accomplished in God through the Cross.
We may take many shortcuts along the way and attempt to escape the inevitable, but the day we cease striving and meekly accept the Cross we find everything is done for us.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
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The trick Yeshua used to bounce back is found in The Holy Spirit. Yeshua didn’t have to fear dying to His earthly self because He knew He would rise again in both body and spirit. He knew death was not permanent, and He knew His new life was worth more than His old life. He also knew the true value of His death–a new life for all those who trust in Him.
I find that people who don’t know The Lord are typically either hopeless or put their hope into things that are likely to destroy them in the end. If they choose the latter, they may look happy in the midst of their partying, but take it away from them and you’ll see how unhappy they are on the inside. If people put their happiness and security in anything this world has to offer, they are only happy as long as they are comfortable.
To the contrary, people who intimately know Yeshua as their Lord, Savior, and Best Friend have hope in spite of discomforts in their lives. The blood of Christ covers us like “Flubber” and helps us both endure and bounce. Serving and loving God gives us the resiliency to bounce back if only to rebound with enough hope to trust in the eternal life He has prepared for our future.
If you are on your way down and know you won’t bounce, it’s not too late to get covered by the blood of Christ in repentance and baptism. Accept the cross and fall at the feet of the Lord before you fall to the bottom of your life, and you can bounce up to a new life and a new hope. When you die to yourself, you open the door for God to raise you up to the newness of life. There’s nothing more resilient than resurrection. Do you bounce? If not, feel free to write to me and ask for more information.
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