Your almost there; Don't look back

Cool people don't look back right? In all the action movies when there is a explosion I've noticed a continuing pattern, nobody looks back. They often show a clip of the main character walking away from the explosion with their back to the blast and they don't look back- not even a quick glance.

So I'll say it again- Cool people don't look back right? I imagine if they look back it would take away the effect/make it much less dynamic.

Well this is what we as PEOPLE should be doing. not just us Christians,but the entire human race. In fact we should take it one step further and not walk all calm like nothing ever happened- we should be running  for dear life from the explosion.

Imagine this with me for a minute- the explosion is our past sin; constantly right on our tail- attempting to make itself loud and clear.. Attempting to make it so that we never forget it.

We all have a past. We all have a past filled with joyful happy memories, we all have a past filled with anguish and sin. Everyone wants to move ahead from that past. They want to move on to something bigger and greater.

Let me make this clear: You CANNOT move forward unless you let your past go. It may work for a while to avoid it and attempt to erase it from your mind, but somewhere, somehow you are reminded of what you once did. And more often than not, the time you are reminded of your sin is terrible- you feel like the timing couldn't possibly have been any worse.

Let me put this in a better example- you know when you get a new shirt and it has the annoying tag you have to cut off? Imagine NOT cutting it off. It would drive you insane. Every time you move you can feel it causing you pain. You would get so used to that stabbing pain because there's nothing YOU can do about it, so you eventually forget what it's like to live without it and just conform to it.

This is what holding on to our sin does. It causes us pain, annoying pain. It's constantly on your mind, it's always trying to make itself known. Before long you just decided to give up or sometimes you might fight it like crazy and tire yourself out and eventually end up giving up. The theme is you almost always give up and just quit.

The bad part about giving up? Your broken and sometimes it so severe that your just trying to find a way to live one minute to the next.

The good part? In the brokenness you can find wholeness- there is someone who died for YOU. We use the term 'to die for' almost to lightly sometimes- like this "That dinner I had the other day, was amazing. You had been there, it was to die for."

Someone I know once said "Someone saw something inside of you that was good enough to die for." and he meant those words.

God saw something inside of YOU that was good enough to die for; He saw the value inside of you, so He sent his son Jesus to die for that. Jesus saw that very same value inside of you and loved you so much He went through with the unimaginable agony just for YOU. He knew you would struggle with whatever your struggling with now, but He died so that you can get through it and LIVE and embrace that value and use it to serve God.

I know that letting your sin go is easier said than done, I really do. It took me a few times of falling flat on my face to get it. But I got it, and it's never to late to change.I found strength and hope in Jesus to keep going on and giving my sins and burdens to Him. It's not just a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It's daily. Everyone sins daily, the important thing is giving them to Jesus to deal with. After all He was the one who died for you.

Sometimes there are consequences that come along with dealing with that sin. People call it 'God punishing them', That's not what it is at all. A father disciplines the one He loves. If you don't get told it's wrong how will you know to not do it again?

God wants to be there for you. But sometimes you need to realize that you are sinning by not letting your past sins stay dead, where they should be. Then you realize that you NEED to change your patterns and take my advice and change them like your life depends on it, because sometimes it does if that sin is serious enough. It's NEVER to late. No sin is to small OR to big for God. He can move mountains. It's between God and you what that sin is, but trust me. God is stronger than that sin, He's strong enough to save you. So much stronger.

Do your best and lean on God to take care of the rest and ask Him to help keep you out of that sin. Once you do that and believe it 100% then your slate is clean.

Ezekiel 36:26-2"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove you from your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

Your sin has NO power over you anymore. It is just an attempt by Satan to take you off the path God has put you on. The power that raised Christ out of the grave lives in YOU.

I mean these words with everything I have in me- YOU are the redeemed. Live like it.

Do me a favor and listen to this song after you've read this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ0zxQ-fmfo