FINDING YOUR TRUE IDENTITY

I was reading a story the other day about a man who had a very strange encounter with his own personal identity crisis. He found out that he had been given up as a child by Jewish parents to save his life and spare him from the concentration camps during World War II. Upon finding out that his birth parents were sent to their deaths themselves, he was of course deeply shaken... and with his new found knowledge of his past, he immediately experienced an identity crisis. 
As he learned of his Jewish decent, he began wondering if he should feel different concerning certian things. Should he act differently.....think differently....and should he become a practicing Jew or not. His questions provoked some possible major changes that could be taking place in his life in his near future. This man had his world rocked by news that brought new information concerning who he now was; and change into his daily life.


This story reminded me about how I felt when I first came to Christ. How learning that I was a new and different person upon accepting Chirst into my life, I had become as a new creation, the old in me was gone, my world was rocked and changed as well! That change also  touched and effected others around me that knew me as well.  It also reminds me about another person who like the  man in my introduction, was given some important information one day and he had to decide what to do with it. The information was so important to the man that it literally changed his life. While he may not have understood all the demographics and theology of the questions that were being ask of him, and the information that was being given to him, he simply took what he knew and allowed it, to change his life.

JOHN 9:1-7  1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam”. So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

Having been born blind, he more than likely had been ostracized all of his life. For that is how they treated people with disabilities during that time. He had also been made to feel like his parents were the attributing factors to his blindness, because of some sin that others felt that they may had committed. Even the disciples thought so. While everyone around him was trying to trick him into making a false confession, he stands by the truth that he had and the One who had given him sight. He doesn’t get into complicated theology. He just told them what he knew... for that is all he could do; and knowing what he knew,...  no one was going to change it.

In the story of the blind man, there were many characters involved other than just Jesus and the Blind man...there were his parents, his neighbors, his religious leaders and all the people at the local temple. In your life and mine there are also other characters involved in our lives in our own moments of crisis, and they are watching us and wondering what we will do, how we will respond, what facts do we know that will bring us to be steadfast during those hard times. They may even ask us and question us in how we are responding to what God is allowing or doing in and through us.

It’s not always  easy to be a witness for Christ. Being a witness doesn't mean we have to have all of the answers, but rather simply to just tell people what Jesus did for us and what we do know about Him. Becoming a Christian doesn't just rock or touch our world, but also those in our family and friends; who often don't know what to make of our conversion and witnessing, and they may feel uncomfortable with us. Possibly because of their being uncomfortable with us they may even "cast us out" from their friendship and no longer have anything to do with us for they no longer have anything in common with us. They may no longer want to be our friends, because Jesus has not yet opened their eyes; and that they can not see Jesus the way you do or like the blind man did.

You see the scriptures teach us that not all will know Him, it tells us that each man will give an account for what he chose to do about Jesus....and for many, God will say, "depart from me for I never knew you....." they will respond by saying things like....but look what I did in your name.....yes, even religious leaders and good ole folk will not be allowed to enter the kingdom of heaven on their own merit.

It is one of the saddest thoughts I have ever had, as I think about those who will have to hear those words , "Depart from Me for I never knew you..."   It is sad because there will be many, many people that believe like the religious leaders did, that they had it going on...them and Jesus had their own thing going....yet, they were so far from the truth. Because their faith was base on man's rules and regulations and not what God sees as truth.

For many people, their faith is based on some bits and pieces of what they have heard or read. Theology that fits their lifestyle. But is so very far away from what the Word of God teaches and so very far away from how a child of God should live. Yet they hold on to the fact that they believe in Jesus....and that is enough. To simply believe that He was real and lived on earth.

However, satan himself believes that Jesus is real, yet he has chosen the life that he wants to live. The Bible tells us that whatsoever a man thinks in his heart ...so is he!

Salvation requires more than an intellectual knowledge of Jesus. It requires a repented heart and lifestyle change that only comes thru the new birth. If there is no lifestyle change, then reconsidering the fact that a genuine conversion in Christ ever took place would be well worth the effort in pursuing. .

Confronting and confirming your spiritual identity is well worth finding out. Don't let the sun go down without knowing for sure where you stand in Christ. He is waiting ...run to Him!.

Loving you and praying that you settle whatever it is that you are seeking from God,
Bren