Lifetime Resolution

Well... it's a brand new year.  Many times, we are thankful for a new day which is definitely something to not be taken for granted but to make it through a whole other year? Is more than a blessing.  When ringing in the new year, many of us want to have a New Year Resolution.  We start the New Year with different goals and try to have a certain mindset when in actuality, it should be more than just a New Year "Resolution" but should be... a "Lifetime" Resolution.

Last year I attended Winter Camp with my Church back home in the Bay Area at Lake Tahoe and it was more than what I bargained for.  I would like to share with you what I learned as I entered the new year at this time last year.

Our weekend verse was...

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of GOD's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to GOD - this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what GOD's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will

Are you going to let your past effect your future? Are you ready for change?

D - DISABLES OUR FEELINGS

E - ENERGY THAT IS LOST (Worrying about the past and NOT Thinking about the future, can ruin the plan GOD has for you)

N - NEGATES GROWTH

I - ISOLATES US FROM GOD

A - ALIENATES US FROM OTHERS

L - LENGTHENS THE PAIN

DENIAL is the very thing that extends our pain however, the Revealing of Feeling is the Beginning of Healing.

Ephesians 4:25-27

So STOP telling lies.  Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.  And "don't sin by letting anger control you."  Don't let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.

Throughout the weekend, not only were we ministered to by receiving great words of wisdom, but we did many exercises in which got us to really see us the way GOD sees us.  We did whats called a 5 word Story and Pastor Lem asked us to write 5 things down in which we really felt about ourselves in the eyes of GOD.  My words were... Unworthy, Screw Up, Scared, Sinful and Idiot.

In Romans 12, there are only two types of formation.  You decide whether you are being Conformed or Transformed. Translation: You choose whether you want to like JESUS, or Not.  You can be conformed by the external forces of the World, OR you can be transformed by the Holy Spirit with the renewing of your mind.

At the end of the weekend, we did another 5 word story except... we were to give our book to 5 other people and they were to write 5 positive things they saw in you.  I looked back in my book and my friends wrote... Compassionate, Gifted, Talented, Loving, Humble, Encouraging, Strong and Humorous.   I can honestly say, I had no idea that the same people I look up to in all ways of life, saw that in me.  My eyes began to water because I didn't see myself as many of the things they labeled me as.

1st John 4:18

Such LOVE has no FEAR, because perfect LOVE expels all fear.  If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have NOT fully experienced his perfect LOVE

Notice in this picture, on the left side, it's more dark and cloudy where as the other side, it more clear and bright.  Like this picture, there is a pattern to a transformed mind.  After every storm, the sun always comes out.  Being a child of GOD, you can overcome the world... because of LOVE.  For the Inner voice of a transformed mind is KNOWING that GOD says "You are my beLOVEd".  I write and share all this with you today to say that though what I learned took place around this time last year, it still rest fully in my heart.  That what I learned and what I use to beat myself up for, I did not want it to be just a New Years Resolution, but a Lifetime Resolution.  So know and be encouraged that all you've been through doesn't have to be just for the year of 2011, it can be for the rest of your life.  

GOD is LOVE