Welcome to Hank’s Place –
VOTE! Please vote for the unborn. Vote for the Constitution. It’s the best there is. Vote for those believing God created us man and woman and knew what He was doing. Vote for the people believing merit, skill and ability should be rewarded! Vote!
The takeaway of today’s Hank’s Place is this: human beings behave according to who they believe they are, and your identity is that of God’s child. Believe you are a failure? Unworthy of blessings? An outlaw? A rebel? You’ll begin that way. A blessed, favored child of God? You’ll begin acting that way.
It’s no wonder the epistles point out who we’ve become. Born again. Transformed. New creations. Righteous. Sons and daughters of the Living God and much more. Paul expresses the resulting new living as ‘putting off the old way, putting on the new.’
Peter also understood this, and in first Peter he begins by telling us who we are, and then speaks of our new manner of living. We are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, he says, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION. Once we were of Adam’s family, but then we were chosen and given a new identity as a child of God.
Hear that? A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, a child of God.
We have been bought with a price; we belong to God. Our welfare is His concern. We are a treasured possession because God loves and treasures us, not because we kept the Law. Once we were nobodies, but now we are THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
Therefore, how do we live? In chapter 2 verse 11 Peter says, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
Beloved. It means dearly loved, esteemed, favorite and worthy of love. Well pleased, fond of, contented. This word captures God’s heart for us! Our heavenly Father is fond of us. We are His esteemed favorite in whom He is well pleased. He looks upon us with a feeling of deep contentment. We are His dearly loved children.
Peter ‘urges’ us. If this was old covenant, he would command us. But under the new covenant of grace, Peter urges, implores, and exhorts us to live like aliens and strangers to this world for we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom.
Avoid sin he says, not in order to BECOME holy, but because in our new identity we ARE holy. Let’s aline our behavior with our new identity!
The devil would love it if we would reclaim ownership of those old habits, but a better response is reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Yep, let’s count ourselves dead to sin and sinful ways and alive to God.
My friend, soon you’ll find you are living the life of someone who has
VOTE! Please vote for the unborn. Vote for the Constitution. It’s the best there is. Vote for those believing God created us man and woman and knew what He was doing. Vote for the people believing merit, skill and ability should be rewarded! Vote!
The takeaway of today’s Hank’s Place is this: human beings behave according to who they believe they are, and your identity is that of God’s child. Believe you are a failure? Unworthy of blessings? An outlaw? A rebel? You’ll begin that way. A blessed, favored child of God? You’ll begin acting that way.
It’s no wonder the epistles point out who we’ve become. Born again. Transformed. New creations. Righteous. Sons and daughters of the Living God and much more. Paul expresses the resulting new living as ‘putting off the old way, putting on the new.’
Peter also understood this, and in first Peter he begins by telling us who we are, and then speaks of our new manner of living. We are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, he says, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION. Once we were of Adam’s family, but then we were chosen and given a new identity as a child of God.
Hear that? A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, a child of God.
We have been bought with a price; we belong to God. Our welfare is His concern. We are a treasured possession because God loves and treasures us, not because we kept the Law. Once we were nobodies, but now we are THE PEOPLE OF GOD.
Therefore, how do we live? In chapter 2 verse 11 Peter says, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.”
Beloved. It means dearly loved, esteemed, favorite and worthy of love. Well pleased, fond of, contented. This word captures God’s heart for us! Our heavenly Father is fond of us. We are His esteemed favorite in whom He is well pleased. He looks upon us with a feeling of deep contentment. We are His dearly loved children.
Peter ‘urges’ us. If this was old covenant, he would command us. But under the new covenant of grace, Peter urges, implores, and exhorts us to live like aliens and strangers to this world for we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom.
Avoid sin he says, not in order to BECOME holy, but because in our new identity we ARE holy. Let’s aline our behavior with our new identity!
The devil would love it if we would reclaim ownership of those old habits, but a better response is reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Yep, let’s count ourselves dead to sin and sinful ways and alive to God.
My friend, soon you’ll find you are living the life of someone who has COME ALIVE!
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