The Outreach
Dear Outreach Friends,
As I sit here typing this letter to you and looking out my window, I can see our first snowfall in the valley. We have had snow on the tops of the mountains for a couple of weeks, but now it has made it down to the floor
of the valley and I have from 3" to 4" of nice wet snow. Those of you who live in the warmer parts of our country may think that it is cold and uninviting, but I love it! We need all the moisture we can get and also this helps protects the plants and all the things in the ground.
As I was eating breakfast this morning and looking outside the verse in Isa. 1:18 came to mind, “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” To think that God sees our sins through the cleansing blood Christ shed on the cross and they are clean, they are white and in Ps.103: 12 David says that, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us.” that is great news for He will never bring them up before us again and again once we have confessed them to Him and accepted His forgiveness for them. Now if we repeat that sin that is different, that we can be judged on if not confessed to Him. We have a loving Saviour but also He is very fair in His judgements of mankind. He will forgive but we need to change our ways and turn away from the desires of the world. We are not to live like the world for we are now a new
Colossians 3:5,8 &9 lists several of those sinful habits of the world. It is like our going to the garbage can and getting out of it some food to eat that is spoiled and rotten and we eat it. “Eeeuw, yuk!”, you say but that is exactly the same thing. The habits that we take back from the worldly nature are spoiled and rotten and not good for us to be doing or partaking of. Verse 10 tells us that we are to “put on the new man” (the clean Christlike nature that God gives us). We are to live a changed life. We are not to live like the world in every aspect of our lives. If we still do the things that the world does how can the world see a difference between us and them?
So in this new year make it a “New Year” and put to death those worldly impulses and live a life that is glorifying to God. Having put on the new man, our new nature that is “Godlike”. He will give us the strength to overcome those worldly impulses and live a life that is free from the impulses of Satan. Yes, that is where the control over our lives really is when we give in to the worldly impulses. Galatians 5:16 says that if we live habitually in the control of the Holy Spirit then we will certainly not gratify the cravings and worldly desires.
Like the winds of March blow, let’s let the winds of the Holy Spirit blow over our lives and bring a refreshing breath of fresh air into our souls that we may experience the love afresh and anew that He has for each and every one of us.
Christ’s love is so great that each one of us can be filled to the fullest extent and overflowing that others will experience the greatness of His love. From His love we also experience forgiveness, mercy, grace, peace, joy, kindness, and are given faith to trust Him more and believe that what He says is true. He will always keep His promises. We have been given all in verses 22,23,&25 of that same chapter we are told that if we live in the Spirit, ( born-again believers) we are to also walk in the Spirit (our manner of living) and the fruit of the Spirit (the things we receive from the Spirit) is love, joy, peace a character as an inward state; patience,
kindness, goodness a character in expression toward man; faith, meekness (humility and gentleness), and temperance (selfcontrol) a character in expression toward God. Taken together they present a moral portrait of Christ. As Paul stated, “not I but Christ” [Scofield Bible foot notes].
May this fruit strengthen and sustain you through out the coming year.
Have a great New Year, Your Outreach Friend,
Christa Craig
Winter, 2016
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