New Beginnings

"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 live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with . . . because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."  Romans 6: 4-8

There is something about a new beginning that brings joy and anxiousness.  Whether it be a new job, a new book, or a new relationship, we can get excited about what lies ahead but a bit nervous about the "what ifs".  What if I am not as qualified as I think I am for this job?  What if this book isn't as good as I heard it was?  What if this isn't the right person for me?  Beginning something new has its challenges.

When we have conflicted feelings, many times the negative runs way ahead of the positive.  We can run the risk of talking ourselves out of something long before we give it a chance to succeed.  I know I have experienced this in my life.  Whenever I begin a new project around the house, I have a very strong "vision" of what it is supposed to look like.  As I venture along the project, I begin thinking, "What if it doesn't turn out the way I envisioned it?" and I begin to see the flaws versus what has been accomplished.  These runaway negative feelings of something new can overcome us.

In walks Jesus.  Whether you are a lifelong Christian or a new Christian, Jesus provides plenty of references throughout His Word for us to have a new beginning with Him.  Each time we have an opportunity to reflect on His awesome love and salvation, we have a chance to have a new beginning with Him.  With each new Bible Study, with each new hymn we sign, with each new sermon we hear, we have a new beginning in Christ.  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.  

The best part about new beginnings with Jesus is that there is no need for anxiousness, only feelings of joy and praise!  Don't think I measure up?  God accepts ALL sinners, including me!  What if His salvation isn't that great?  Nothing is sweeter than the room that awaits us in His kingdom!  What if I can't give all that He is asking for?  We get to come to Jesus just as we are!  Accepting His salvation is all Jesus asks of us.  That's it!!

Understanding that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and loves us unconditionally is the easiest and greatest new beginning you will ever have!  Yes, it is truly that simple.  Simple Faith in Christ provides us a new beginning in His world every day.  Cherish this new beginning above all else.  For as each new day dawns, we have the privilege to be called His Children.  Blessings~~

Dearest Jesus:  To be united with you through your death and resurrections helps us to see new beginnings with you each and every day.  May we relish in the thoughts that because I know that My Redeemer lives, I have a new beginning.  Please bless each and every new beginning in you by helping us to know that through simple faith, this is possible.  Amen!

Peace in Repentance

"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 live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with . . . because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."  Romans 6: 4-8

Happy Easter!  This is truly a day to celebrate.  A day that, as Christians, we know to be the most important day to celebrate.  Without our Jesus Christ rising from the dead, we would be lost souls.  Without Jesus rising from the dead, our sins would never be forgiven.  Without Jesus rising from the dead, we would have no peace.

Peace is born in repentance!  Peace is one of those words that I cherish.  I have lived a part of my life with a lack of peace.  My soul struggled for many years with the "whys"!  The "Why do I have cancer?"  "Why isn't my marriage working?"  "Why did my dad have to die?"  The list goes on.  The peace that I so desperately sought was not within reach.  It was as if God forgot about me - after all these years.

Yet, peace returned the day I repented!  Throughout all of those things, I felt my thoughts and actions didn't stand up to what God wanted from me.  Especially with my divorce, I felt like I had let God down and that I wasn't worthy of peace in my life.  Enter in Easter!  As I sat in church that particular Easter morning, I heard the words of Pastor and realized that God WAS on my side.  God, did love me (enough to lay down His life or me).  God did forgive me!  

The newness of Easter sprung a new sense of peace.  Although I have had struggles since that Easter Sunday so long ago, when I walk into worship, my soul finds peace.  For as the old hymn says,                   "When peace like a river attendeth my way,

                          when sorrows like sea billows roll,

                          whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,

                          It is well, it is well with my soul."

When we comprehend what our Lord did for us over 2000 years ago, we are able to gain the peace that only comes when we fully understand that our sin has been washed away, and we will live one day with Jesus in paradise.  There is a phrase that will always bring peace to my soul.

I pray that each and every reader has a wonderful, repentant, and peaceful Easter.  May the newness of life in Christ bring your soul an ever lasting peace.  Blessings!!

Dearest Jesus, The joy of Easter reigns with all of us.  The empty tomb fills us up our souls with sins being released and life everlasting with you.  There is nothing that will produce greater peace.  Thank you for never leaving us and bringing us peace in repentance.  Amen!

Death Brings New Life

"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 live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with . . . because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."  Romans 6: 4-8

"I need a new . . .!"  I can't even begin to count the numerous times those words have come out of my mouth.  When work has been tough, that phrase has been completed with "job".  When aches and pains have overcome me, "body" has ended the sentence (oh by the way, I added "thinner" to that one).  When life seems to get hard, I want it to be "new", easier, brighter, shinier, etc.  

When we look for something new, what it is replacing needs to die, get out of the way, become no more.  Here we stand, with Jesus, as we read our verses for today.  The only way something new can be bestowed upon us is if we are willing to let the old die.  In this case, it is our sin that needs to die and get out of the way, so we can revel in a new life.

As I reflect on my habits, my thoughts, and my actions, I realize there is much that I would like to throw away.  My habit of eating what I shouldn't, my negative thoughts and certainly my poor choices.  Looking at those things makes my heart drop and I know I need to change.  Flipping that switch isn't always easy.  I have found that there has only been one way that I can put off the old and jump into the new - with Jesus!!

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, He heard the Hosannas and praises of those around him.  What joy that must have brought to his heart!  Yet, as the week progresses, we know that by Good Friday, the praises and hosannas had been replaced with jeers and rants of "Crucify Him"!  How could something change that fast?  It was God's plan to have his Son come to earth for us.  It was His plan to have Jesus take that walk to Calvary.  It was His plan to have him die a horrific death for us!  Yes, His death gave us new life.  By Jesus' journey, he took our sin, our death to sin, with him.  With Jesus' walk, our death to sin changed that fast, to a new life. 

The only way we can live a new life is to believe that our sins died on the cross with Jesus.  Our repentant sins have been washed away for a new life - a life everlasting.  There is such joy and glory in that sentence!  Death isn't the end, it's just the beginning.  When we think about needing something "new", may we know and understand that the only new thing we need is to have simple faith in our Jesus, the one who died to bring us the new everlasting life that will keep us with him in paradise.  Only with Jesus can we jump into the new life; only with Jesus can we be brighter and shinier!!

Dearest Jesus,  As we begin Holy Week and reflect upon your journey into Jerusalem to the journey to the cross, may we also reflect on our own sin.  Help us to realize that the only way we can have new life in you is to understand we need to put death to our own sin.  YOU DID THAT FOR US!  Through your journey, you brought us death to sin for a new life in you.  May we always remember that as we walk through our daily lives.  In your holy name we pray, Amen.

New Life

"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 live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with . . . because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."  Romans 6: 4-8

In New England we wait for days like this weekend.  The air turns warmer, the birds start singing, and the purple crocus start to bloom.  After long cold winters, we can rely on spring always returning and bringing new life back to us.  This new life I see around me energizes me and wakes me from the hibernation of winter into the vitality of spring.  It also reminds me of my own new life.

Seven years ago I received a new life.  Seven years ago my life was spinning chaos.  Job, children and marriage left me with balls of stress on each shoulder and a mind that was spiraling with things to do, never mind finding a purpose.  As always though, God provided!  I knew I needed to find a way to cope with the life I had been given, so I turned to an online Bible Study.  I never had taken that leap, but what did I have to lose?  Just at the right time, the study was on Stressed-Less Living.  Yes, God provides.

Week after week, I found that I wasn't the only one dealing with chaos.  I found that I could turn all of this around for good.  I found that others searched for purpose.  I also found MY purpose.  Isn't that just like God to bring clarity and purpose among our chaos?  Seven years ago God spoke to me and said, "It's your turn to give."  At first I thought, "How much more do you want me to give?"  He knew what He was doing!  Yes, I needed to give to find my purpose.

Seven years ago, Simple Faith Today was born.  Each week since then, albeit sickness, vacation or busyness, I sit to write.  That day God gave me a new life - a new life in him. With that new life I have experienced joy and sorrow.  I have shared the darkness that I have known.  I have also shared all the glory God has blessed me with.  Many of you have reached out to me to share your stories, blessings I feel honored to hear.  This was never a life purpose I thought I would experience.  Yet, God provides!

During Lent, we walk with Jesus as he takes the long journey to the cross.  Each year, something different touches my soul as I take that walk.  This year, during our recent study, what has touched my soul has been the great weight that sin brings onto us.  Yet, there is glory in sin.  Really?  YES!  Through our sin we die united with Jesus.  Our verses this month begin by focusing on our baptism.  In baptism we know the sin that we live with dies the death that Jesus died.   All that sin, all that guilt, all that dirt, dying with Jesus on the cross.  Glory be to Jesus!  May we begin our new life in Jesus!!

I would like to take a moment and thank all of you who lovingly read my blog each week.  It means the world to me to know that we can share God's presence together.  I am truly blessed by all of you and pray that we can continue to march into our new lives together.

Oh Jesus, your death is my life.  By you taking the walk to the cross, you brought my sin with you.  My sinful life was there with you on the cross so that I can have a new life in you.  Thank you will never be enough to share with you how deeply I appreciate what you did for me.  I pray my purposeful life will bring you joy as you have brought joy to my new life.  Amen!