The Day Your Old Man Died – ANOINTED WORD MINISTRIES

“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

–Albert Einstein–

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There was a song that came from the movie The Wizard of Oz, wherein the characters were celebrating the death of a wicked witch. It went something like, “Ding Dong the witch is dead, which old witch, the wicked witch…”

Patience grasshopper, you will see the point of that in a minute.

So, have you ever found yourself acting in a way that surprises you? Maybe doing or wanting to do something you used to do before you were saved? Or acting like a total heathen, yelling, throwing things, and pouting? No, I didn’t think so; me, neither!! But some Christians still struggle with things like that.

As Christians you might hear someone say, “But how can He love me? Forgive me? Use me? You don’t know what I’ve done” when thinking about their past before they met Jesus. They are focused on the guilt and often can’t get past the memory of how bad they think they were because of that guilt.

They don’t realize their old man and everything he did, died. Everything. It is gone as far as the east is from the west. AND He promised to never remember it again. So if you go to Him in prayer and say, “Hey, God. It’s me again. You remember when I used to do that sin before I was saved? Well, I did it again.”

God would HAVE to say, “What sin?” in talking about before you were saved because by His own Word He says it’s gone and He won’t remember it. So why are you?

The Bible says that the ball and chain that was our old man (the way we used to be before we were saved) was crucified with Jesus so that we are no longer slaves of sin and no longer have to act like that old man we were. It also says that while we have put off the old man with his deeds, we ALSO have put on the NEW man.

This is where most Christians miss it. Many of us keep acting like the old man got out of the grave and is still bossing us around, and we can’t figure out why. Instead of soaring like an eagle, we are still living underground like a mole, not seeing very well in The Light! (Nothing against moles!). We aren’t walking in the freedom Jesus purchased for us. Most of us don’t know how.

Bottom line: YOU put on that new man. You do that when you renew your mind by learning to be like the image of God. You renew your mind by reading and studying the Bible.

The Living Bible translation says it best: “You are living a brand new kind of life that is continually learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who created this new life within you.”

If we never crack open our Bible, read it and apply it into our lives after the day we make Jesus our Lord and Savior, our old man will keep getting out of his grave and telling us what to do and how to act; and we’ll listen to him! We’ll constantly try to walk right and constantly blow it. Reading the Bible gives us strength! The Word is powerful.

Next time the devil comes around and whispers in your ear that you are a terrible Christian and you’ll never act right, do two things:

1.Remind the devil when your old man died** and that the old man is not bossing you around anymore – and

2.Get into your Bible, continually renew the way you think and act so that you think and act more and more like Jesus!

Ding dong the old man’s dead – which old man? Our bad old man! Ding dong the old man is quite dead! (I loved The Wizard of Oz!)

Sharing the goodness of God with you:

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*Mark, or goal, of acting and talking the way God wants you to

**The day you got saved (made Jesus your savior)

Psalm 103:12, Jeremiah 31:34, Romans 6:6-7, Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 12:2, Hebrews 4:12

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