Gosh Mr. “B” , I’m almost getting goose bumps as I read your response. You posted this while I was writting my response in "Microsoft Word" and then pasting it in. I wonder how many others feel the same.
Yes for me as my life in Christ has grown….my worldly attachments are seeming to distance themselves further and further from me. By worldly attachments I mean neighbors, friends, relatives, business associates that I frequently socialized with in my pre-saved days have either distanced themselves or as frequently happens I am the one to put distance between myself and them. Neither side being rude or impolite….we just seem to drift away.
I found an insatiable craving for the fellowship of others that proclaimed their love for God as loudly as I. I found myself no longer wanting to engage in “manly rites such as course jokes, drinking, chewing Copenhagen snuff (yes you read right) , and having my fun at the expense of others.
This meant for going ritual hunting or fishing trips with the friends of old. I had to over time chose carefully who I wanted to go trail riding and horse camping with.
The most agonizing reality was that the closer I got to God the more obvious it became to me how much more of a sinner I really was. Things I did and thoughts I used to think that I never felt any thing was wrong with….were now as foreign and repulsive to me as I could imagine.
I was ashamed of myself in a way I had never considered. For some reason all my unbelieving life I felt I had been a “good person”. What a joke. Then I knew that I wasn’t the one changing…I hadn’t done a thing….the more I wanted to know about my God , the more undeserving I felt.
Good gracious I thought what could be happening. Here I am doing my (pathetic) best to get to know Him better…. the more it dawns on me that I shouldn’t even be allowed or deserve such a relationship with a force I didn’t understand that was so pure…so Holy that sin wasn’t even allowed to approach.
Then one morning in my quite time I realized (mini revelation) that this was the part in Galatians that told me I had died or been crucified in Christ…I was dead (to the world) but alive through Christ. That was a mile marker for me. I could go on…I just feel compelled to share my thoughts as they relate to my Sovereign Creator.
Tacky part is …yes I’m still a sinner…but now I’m a saved sinner who is changing through the Holy Spirit. It’s wonderful when you know and can feel Him working in you! My change is evidenced or can be seen by those around me by the friends and family I associate closely with. By good works that are produced in me by the Holy Spirit and not of my own volition. And even though I feel even more the sinner than before; the desire to cling closely with Abba my Father is stronger than ever.
I find time to seek out my church family more and more. I never had a church family before. I find myself wondering how to reach out to others and try to share the JOY I have been privileged to discover.
Summary: Before as unsaved sinner I felt that I was a pretty good person. I hadn’t murdered, or been unfaithful, or robbed a bank or anything. Now that I’m a saved sinner I have to smile when I read Paul state that he is chief among sinners….cause Paul didn’t know me.
A few of the Scriptures that helped me to affirm or guide my thought process. Or made me to feel I was being led by the Spirit.
__________________________________________________ _______________________________
Eze 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
Eze 11:20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________
Gal 2:18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
Gal 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me, and gave himself for me.
__________________________________________________ _________
Gal 5:16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation--but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Romans 8:12-14 NIV
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
And He said to them, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life."
Luke 18:29,30 NASB
__________________________________________________ ____________________________________
So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don't be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry. God's terrible anger will come upon those who do such things. You used to do them when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language.
Colossians 3:5-8 NLT
__________________________________________________ ______________________