Bury Your Past...

I want to share a devotion from Bob Gass, if you like what you read, you can hear these devotions read by going to this website...

http://www.hearbobgass.com/

There are two parts, one from yesterday and one from today, read both, they are great counsel for the new year...

Sunday December 31, 2006

"WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE." ROMANS 6:4 NKJV

Bury the past Part 1

Some people stay up until midnight to welcome the New Year. Others stay up to make sure the old year leaves! Seriously, as you enter this New Year you can't afford to let your past infect your present, or sabotage your future. That's why certain things that refuse to be healed, must be forsaken and forgotten! There are people praising God in church every Sunday who lie awake in the privacy of their homes digging up bones, picking at scars and reliving old memories. You need to accept that some issues will never be resolved, and if you let them they'll take up residence in your head.

Thank God Paul was honest enough to admit that he still struggled in certain areas. Unlike those with a pharisaical spirit who condemn others for doing the very things they do themselves, Paul says, "I know the law but...can't keep it...sin...keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I...need help...I decide to do good, but...My decisions...don't result in actions. Something...gets the better of me every time" (Ro 7:17-20 TM). "Thank you Paul" from the rest of us who mistakenly thought that once we became Christians there'd be no more struggles! Then he goes on to say, "Consider yourselves to be dead to sin" (Ro 6:11 NAS); "Just as Christ was raised from the dead...we also should walk in newness of life" (Ro 6:4 NKJV). In other words, stop pursuing dead issues; admit them, quit them and forget them! Instead of struggling to change what can't be changed, let God's transforming power sweep through your life and sever the ties between you and all those tormenting thoughts from your past. Let them go today in Jesus' Name!

Monday January 1, 2007

"WHO WILL RESCUE ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH?" ROMANS 7:24 NIV

Bury the past Part 2

In New Testament times capital punishment was sometimes carried out by tying a murder victim's body directly onto the perpetrator's back. That way wherever he went he was literally weighed down by his crime, with no way to escape the stench of decomposing flesh. Eventually the bacteria-filled corpse infected him too and he died an agonizing death. Some days Paul felt the weight of his old nature pressing in, reminding him of things from his past that he couldn't change or eradicate. And recognizing how past events can color the present, Paul describes himself as "a wretched man," and asks, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

The fact is, you can't move ahead with "the old man" still clinging to you; you must bury him. Even death doesn't have the finality that burial does; part of coming to closure involves disposing of the body. Funerals are for the living; they give people an opportunity to accept that their loved one has gone and that the relationship as they knew it is over. So, as you embark on this New Year, isn't it time you stopped carrying the past around on your back - and on your mind? Paul says, "Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead" (Ro 6:13 NAS). In other words, refuse to let old memories negotiate a deal with you! Bury them, and do it today. You can't afford a secret love affair with a corpse! It's time for an epitaph, not a revival! There are things in life worth reviving, but not past sins that Jesus paid for and forgave long ago.

Hope these have been a challenge and a blessing...