Truly Re-born

Truly Re-born

This morning I am struck by what it actually means to be a born again Christian. God saves us from this world, pulls us out of the darkness, gives us completely new natures, and then gently puts us back into the world as vessels of His spirit to be given away to those who still haven't found Him yet and to those who have but need more.

I know that this is a very basic message that we have all heard a hundred times before, but today is the day that I actually get it. Today is the day that the Lord has shown me the whole picture of the contrast between who I am today and who I was even just 5 months ago, all because of Him, and I am overwhelmed.

I used to be a very melancholy person, not depressed, but just never really happy. There just never seemed to be much meaning behind the things that I was spending my time doing, so I just didn't really care about anything. Now that I have given my life into the Lord's hands and am following His will for my life, I am truly so joyful seriously almost all the time lately that I for real have been given to spontaneous bouts of jumping up and down when I am alone because I have so much crazy energy that I have never experienced before and just can't keep inside me.

I used to be a pretty quiet, dull person because I just didn't have anything to say, which stemmed from my above comment that I just didn't really care about anything. Now I am so happy that I have almost gone to the other extreme and just can't keep my mouth shut!

I used to never really want to meet new people because I didn't have anything to say to them anyway. It wasn't really due to fear of them not liking me or vice-versa, I just didn't care. Now, I look at each new connection with someone as a new opportunity to experience Christ's love - either by listening to what God has been doing in that person's life, sharing what He has been doing in mine, or by connecting with a non-believer in a way that we can share each other's lives and allow Christ's love to break in to their world. Now I truly crave being around people!! That could only be God :) .

I used to be pretty lazy and selfish - I never really did anything for anybody else because I wasn't happy, why would I care about trying to make someone else happy? When I saw things that needed to be done, I never did them because I really didn't care and I knew someone else would do it. But my new nature is just so good that it drives me to want to fix the disorder around me whether it be dirty dishes at a party :) or people hurting.

This is simply the most awesome thing I have ever experienced - to all the sudden feel this goodness inside of me that wasn't there before. This is truly a supernatural experience because something larger than myself placed something inside of me that changed me completely, and that something is driving me to change the world around me. And I can feel it happening! There are just no words to describe it. The magnitude of having such an interaction with the Living God changes you forever because He places more of Himself into you, so you have this bond with God that just gets stronger and stronger the closer you walk with Him. You have a connection with the Living God that He uses to reach out to those around you that only you can uniquely reach. What a life! What an adventure!

I guess today I am just struck by all the endless ways that we can communicate the joy of the Lord to the world around us, and how fun and unifying it is to do it together. I'm just thankful that God has given me the desire to bring to this world whatever part of His Kingdom I have been uniquely created to bring.

You're invited

I think we all can recognize the special feeling when you're invited to be a part of something. When someone takes a moment to simply extend an invitation to another. "I'd love if you could come to my party." "Would you like to come over and have dinner?" "A bunch of people are getting together to watch the game. Do you want to come too?" There's just something about being invited. Regardless of if you were able you just can't help but think, "Wow. They wanted to spend time with me." At some point we've all experienced that feeling and been blessed because of it.

There is a flip side to an invitation. It takes someone to be the inviter and often that's a challenge because it means being vulnerable. For example, have you ever invited someone to critique work you've done? You are opening the door to being really encouraged or potentially hurt. There are many other fears people might have. What if they don't want to spend time with me? What if they aren't interested in the activity?

Eventhough we know how good it feels to be invited it's often hard to think that someone else would love that same opportunity that you found such a blessing. I often have to stop and think about how many times God invites us to have a relationship with him and spend time with him. He gives us the freedom to reject that invitation yet he continues to invite us over and over again. If he does that with us then it helps me understand the importance of becoming an inviting person means.