You Need To Stop Living In My Past

There are names out there who have come to conjure up various images. I remember hearing a tale, whether true or not, where a Dr. Samuel Mudd gave medical help to John Wilkes Booth when he broke his leg escaping capture after he shot President Lincoln. Apparently, he was convicted as a conspirator of Wilkes Booth in the murder even though he had nothing to do with the assassination but the name stuck. Once your name is tarnished, your name is mud. Now whether or not that story is correct, there is an unfortunate result of our past that is very representative of that saying. Once a person has been labeled, it generally sticks. Face it, everyone is guilty of labelling. Labels are based on race, religion, colour, gender and the list goes on and on. Yet there is one thing that is perfectly true; we are all God’s children whether we believe in Him or not. His label for us all is that we are His children and that will never change.

There are people out there who judge me for my past going back decades and yet I have changed. My name was synonymous with the stupid acts I did when I was younger yet for those who know me now,  they perceive me as something else and my name no longer means what it used to for many people today. The label of the past was washed away the day I cast off my past and let it go. When Christ became the centrality of my being, I took on a new title, a new name. I am a Christian, filled with the newness that Christ bought for me on the cross. When I took on the name, the hardest one to convince of the change was myself. How can my Father in Heaven look past my selfish past and call me His own? I am way too unclean to even consider being in His presence much less call myself one of His own and yet He has. The people of my past who call me mud live in the past but my Father sees past all of that and has given me a newness. This is not just for me though, this newness is available for all who put on the fresh new robes He has provided and claim Christ as King and Saviour. The time has come to quit compartmentalizing those around us and rejoice that we are all children of God.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Matt 16:13-16

Claim the love of God, claim His name to be Master and Saviour and be blessed. This Sunday, we welcome Rev Bob Hillock and members of Cowboy Church. We invite you to join us if you can at 10:30 MST on Sunday or watch live online on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MainAvenueFellowship/ ) or view it afterwards on our website (www.mainavefellowship.blogspot.ca).

Blessings
Pastor Todd