ANOINTED WORD MINISTRIES :: Your Old Man is Dead

DING DONG
YOU'RE OLD MAN'S DEAD

JoyUs Musing
Edition #10-17

Have you ever heard someone say, "But you don't know what I've done" when thinking about their past? They are
focused on the guilt about how bad they were before they came to know Jesus as Savior. They often can't get
past it because of that guilt. They don't realize their old man died.

How about trying to stop a bad flesh habit* such as smoking, drinking, or cursing? Again the devil is there to
remind us that "real" Christians don't do that. And a lot of times some Christians are right there agreeing with him,
working to make us feel even worse than we were feeling.

Romans 6:6-7 says that our old man (the way we used to be before we were saved) was crucified with Jesus so
that we are no longer slaves of sin (missing the mark*). We are no longer that old person we were. The problem
is that we don't put on our new man.

Our old man was crucified. We bury him because he is dead but we also have to put on the new man. This is
where most Christians miss it - they may have buried their old man but they never put the new man on. Many
keep acting like the old man is bossing them around and can't figure out why.

Bottom line: YOU put on that new man. You do that when you renew your mind by learning how to be like the
image of God. The Living Bible translation says it best: "You are living a brand new kind of life that is continually
learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who created this
new life within you."

If we never crack open our Bible, read it and apply it after the day we make Jesus our Lord and Savior, our old
man will keep getting out of his grave and telling us what to do and how to act - and we'll stand there, listen to him,
to go do what he tells us to do! We'll try to walk right and constantly blow it.

Next time the devil comes around and whispers in your ear that you are a terrible Christian and you'll never act
right, do two things:

1.Remind the devil when your old man died*** and that the old man is not bossing you around anymore - and
2.Get into your Bible, continually renew the way you think and act so that you think and act more and more like
Jesus!

Ding dong the old man's dead - which old man? Our bad old man! Ding dong the old man is dead, dead, dead!
(I loved The Wizard of Oz!)

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*A flesh problem is just that: a flesh problem. It isn't a "you can't go to heaven because you smoke" thing; it is a "you are destroying
God's temple with a fleshly habit and may die before your time" thing. There is only one thing that keeps you out of heaven and that
is: NOT believing that Jesus died on the cross to redeem you from sin and make Him your savior.

**Mark, or goal, of acting and talking the way God wants you to

***The day you got saved (made Jesus your savior)

Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 12:2

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Musing Copyright © 2010 Nan C Loyd
All rights reserved. Used by permission.