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Romans 6:6, consider a prisoner who has been living in a cell that has been unlocked for years, the war ended, the door swung open, somebody won, but nobody told him or he heard it and did not believe it. So, he keeps living like a a captive, he keeps his head down, he keeps his routines, he...

2 Corinthians 5:17, Ezekiel 36:26-27, do you hear the promise, not a new coat of paint, a new heart, not a behavior modification program, a new spirit, the prophets were not promising that God would help people try harder, they were promising that God would change people from the inside out...

2 Corinthians 5:17, the already and the not yet and completed at the end. The already, in Christ you are a new creation, right now, not when you get your life together, not when you finally conquer that habit. Right now, you’re standing before God is settled, the old verdict has passed away...

2 Corinthians 5:17, here is the thing that most people completely miss, 2 Corinthians 5:17 does not sit alone, it sits inside one of the most important passages Paul ever wrote and when you see the passage around it, 2 Corinthians 5:17 gets even bigger, because Paul is not just talking about...

2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul explains in Romans 6:4, when Jesus died on the cross, the old self died with him, not the old self as a project to be managed, the old self as a verdict, the old self as an identity. And when Jesus rose from the dead, a new self rose with him, that is what it means to be...

A life filled with the Spirit does not first manifest in extraordinary gifts or in private mystical experiences, it manifests in the way the person relates to others, in the music that springs from the heart, in the gratitude that becomes a way of life, in the willingness to serve that replaces...

2 Corinthians 5:17, the Greek word for new in 2 Corinthians 5:17 is kainos, not neos and this is not a technical footnote, this is the whole point, the Greek language had two words for new. Neos means new in time, something that just came into existence, but it is the same kind of thing as...

2 Corinthians 5:17, consider 2 Corinthians 5:17 again slowly, the way it actually appears, here is what most people never notice, the way you usually hear this verse, it sounds like a self-improvement program, be new, act new, try harder to feel new. And if that is what the verse means, then it...

Ephesians 5:16, the phrase “making the most of,” comes from market vocabulary, it means to redeem, to buy back, to acquire at a price. Paul is not simply telling people to be productive or not to waste hours, he using a language of redemption, as if time were something that has been taken and...

2 Corinthians 5:17, if you are a new creation, why do you still feel like the same you? That question is not a lack of faith, that question is the doorway into what 2 Corinthians 5:17 actually means, because most people read that verse and hear one thing, a fresh start, a clean slate, God hit...

Luke 15:11-32, that is why Jesus said the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the Kingdom ahead of the Pharisees, not because their sin was smaller, because their awareness of their sin was bigger and awareness is the door to repentance and repentance is the door to the feast. Be...

The future ahead and yet, everlasting life is often misunderstood as something that begins after death, Jesus meant far more than that. Eternal life in the language of Jesus is not defined by duration alone, but by relationship, it is life connected to God, life as it was always meant to be, it...

The word “whoever” still echoes today, it stands as an open door, not a pressure tactic, God does not force belief, love invites and belief becomes the point, where divine grace meets human response. Jesus speaks of perishing, a word many prefer to skip, redefine or ignore, but Jesus did not...

So, here is the truth that sets you free, you are not a failure, because you still struggle, you are a new creation who is still being renewed, the struggle does not cancel the identity, the identity is what makes the struggle survivable. You are not fighting to become new, you are fighting from...

2 Corinthians 5:17, you have been reading your whole life is the same promise God makes at the end of the whole story and this is where the picture gets enormous, because the new creation was never just about you, it was always about everything. The prophets promised a new heavens and a new...

Romans 8:9, consider the name, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, but there is something else hiding in that name. This is worth sitting with, because it is reflection, not a doctrine you will find spelled out in a dictionary, the Spirit of Christ is...

Romans 8:9, in Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul says that when you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance, sealed, pledged, and in 2 Corinthians 1:22, Paul says God sealed you and gave you the down payment of the Spirit in your heart, a down payment...

Romans 8:9, the Spirit of Christ is not a new idea invented in the first century, he is the fulfillment of a promise God made centuries before, consider what the prophet Ezekiel wrote hundreds of years before Jesus was born, Ezekiel 36:26-27. A new heart and the Spirit within, that was the...

Romans 8:9, in Galatians 4:6, the Spirit of his Son, there is the phrase again, the Spirit of Christ and what does he do, he cries, abba. Father in your heart, the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit who makes you know God as your Father. That is not a feeling you have to manufacture, it is the...

Romans 8:9, go back to Romans 8:9, but consider the way Paul meant it, but if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. The Spirit is the mark of belonging, not your church attendance, not your knowledge, not your family background, not how you feel on your best day, the Spirit...