Inside Out // Week 1

We are back in business with Alive posts! Hope everyone had a relaxing, yet fun, Spring Break! All about our Spring Break mission trip to Jamaica will hopefully be up soon!

Last night we started Inside Out. The majority of issues that we face in life can be traced back to one place...the heart. If we want to change ourselves on the outside, it has to start on the inside - and Jesus has to be the one that does it because he works from the inside out.

"Therefore, if ANYONE is IN Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17

Jesus always gets to the heart of the issue. He always addresses the soul-threatening issues FIRST! [If you have a brain injury and the Dr. also tells you that you have a broken finger & wants to fix your finger first...we would think he's crazy.] Jesus wants to address the one thing that could be of eternal value to you. Your heart.

Where is your heart? Jesus is more concerned with the INternal & the ETernal.

No one is excluded from salvation. If ANYONE is in Christ. 

It doesn't say if anyone is AROUND Christ. Or if anyone KNOWS a lot about Christ. You have to be IN Christ. Abiding in Him, depending on Him, living your life according to Him, having an intimate relationship with Him. 

When you put your faith in Christ, you are a new creation. [Like a butterfly. Once a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, it can't go back to being a caterpillar.] Once you're a new creation in Christ, no one can take that away from you.

Do people question if you're a Christian or not? Once Christ lives IN you, He should be portrayed outside of you.

It's hard to look like Jesus if you never spend time with Him.

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm 51:5

The old you is gone. Quit allowing the enemy to try and bring it back. 

The enemy knows that He can't steal your salvation. So, he will try and steal your mind. He knows he has no future so he wants to remind you of your past.

Never judge someone based on their past. They don't live there anymore. And neither do you.