Crucified with Christ

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20

On 2/20 of this year 2011 I was baptized. This declaration is an outward symbol of what inwardly took place when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I was crucified with Christ as I went into the water and I emerged reborn, renewed and reawakened in Him. The death of my old life came. 

The person I was doesn't exist anymore. I have been resurrected from death to LIFE. Christ now lives in me. Just saying, knowing and feeling that is the most beautiful and awe inspiring thing I have ever experienced in my life. God's Grace and Mercy are like no love I've ever known.

Jesus Christ is my Savior, to whom I'm madly in love. He pierced my heart and made made me white as snow.  

Isaiah 1:18 

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
   says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
   they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
   they shall be like wool. 

Sin. No one wants to talk about sin. No one even wants to hear the word. Well let me just say this. I was one of those people who didn't want to hear it, not just that; I didn't even believe in sin. I would try reasoning with everyone I knew that was "christian" after going to a Judaism 101 class that sin directly translated from Hebrew only means missing the mark. "See!!" I would say "Sin isn't a condemning thing". "It just means we are missing the point. We are missing the purpose that God has planned for us, that isn't so bad. Plus how can I ever love a God that would condemn anyone anyways?" "I can't. My God is the God of love!"  I would say. "My God would never do that!!" 

But as I looked out at the world. As I looked at my relationships, and what I had become in relation to the people I loved in my life. I saw that missing the mark aka sin, is horribly, horribly wrong. This world and my life was nothing to the perfect heaven I imagine we would all be apart of through the "consciousness of Christ" It didn't even come close.

All at once I realized that there was no way to know how to get to that perfect place except through whom the phrase "Christ Consciousness" is inspired; Jesus Christ. 

I started to contemplate this. Jesus is Christ, so why wouldn't I look to Him?! Why would I just pass over His life and purpose and teachings?

Then it hit me; Jesus never sinned. Not once. How could someone come into this world and not sin?! How could someone come here and do exactly God's good and perfect will? Not just that, how could he know for sure what Gods perfect will for his life was? He HAS to be supernatural. And in fact; He was. He couldn't have done it any other way then being created exactly for this purpose. God created his Son Jesus Christ to come to this world and be completely pleasing and perfect. God created him to be perfect because he loved us so much. Jesus died on the cross so that we are redeemed to God. And he was raised from the dead so that we ourselves could defeat death aka sin. You see God cannot be in the presence of sin. Kind of like a saying; where light exists, darkness cannot. God is light, so therefore cannot be in the presence of darkness also known as sin. We cannot be in the presence of our creator when we walk in paths of darkness. We are turning our back to God every time we miss "the mark" the purpose of our lives. So because God loves us so much and wants to dwell among us everyday, all the time, He created Jesus so that he took the punishment for all of us turning our back to God and he died on a cross and was raised from the dead three days later. Not only did God create Him to do just that, he created Him before the beginning of time and he did it so that all we need is to believe. 

Faith that we are redeemed through God's Son Jesus Christ. Immanuel; God indwelling. 

That faith brings Grace and in that grace we experience mercy and when we surrender we also receive a beautiful gift. That gift is the Holy Spirit. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit it is the most amazing feeling of purity and peace you have ever felt in your life but you also become Christ like. In this instant you no longer enjoy being in the presence of sin. You crave holiness and union with God. It's the most amazing experience I've ever had in my entire life so far. I've never been so happy and fulfilled. 

Light of the world, you stepped down into darkness.

All at once, I understood and I saw God's grand design. Jesus is the Messiah. My Savior from sin, Our Savior, the one that died for us, the one that died for the many and then rose from the dead so that he could ascend to Heaven so that we got the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we could live a pure life like Christ, separated from sin. Not because we had to, but because we wanted to, because we loved Him and He loved us that much.

Jesus bore all the worlds sin. Think of that --- one man, a human man but also God, who never came close to sinning, hung on a cross, to die and bare every sin. Every horrible thing that comes out of this imperfect world. No wonder he says: (Matthew 27:45-46) From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”)  This is when He had to bare all of our sin and when God had to turn His back on His own son because He couldn't be with him in the presence of sin.

After this, I knew Jesus was the son of God and that my old life would change forever. I quit smoking cigarettes and all things involving nicotine (which is a miracle even to myself, I truly never thought I would) I quit everything that was in anyway polluting my mind. Drinking, drugs, ect. This was all done by the Grace of God. It's not me, and I won't take credit for it. I have tried, by my own will, so many times to become pure and holy and I couldn't do it on my own. Only God and the Holy Spirit has that power, and only by believing Christ died on the cross, so that I was forgiven of every sin, gave me Gods power, glory and love.

I used to believe we needed the darkness in order to know the light. We needed to experience it in all ways so that the darker we would go, the more potential of light there would be for us to go too. 

I now know, that was a beautiful lie. 

I will refer to this "Beautiful Lie" about the New Age of beliefs that have come into this world and become so "true" to so many people of the world, in many of my future post's. I may lose friends because of what I speak about and say about this "Beautiful Lie" and of course that will sadden me but to be honest; truth and salvation are more important than believing a beautiful lie. John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.