2 Corinthians 5:1-5; 16-21
“1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from GOD, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened-not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
5 HE WHO has prepared us for this very thing is GOD, WHO has given us the SPIRIT as a GUARANTEE.”
“16 From now on, therefore, WE REGARD NO ONE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. Even though we once regarded CHRIST according to the flesh, we regard HIM thus no longer.
17 Therefore, IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, he is a “NEW CREATION”. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from GOD, WHO through CHRIST reconciled us to HIMSELF and GAVE US the MINISTRY of RECONCILIATION;
19 that is, in CHRIST GOD was reconciling the world to HIMSELF, NOT COUNTING THEIR TRESPASSES AGAINST THEM, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for CHRIST, GOD making HIS appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of CHRIST, BE RECONCILED TO GOD.
21 For our sake HE made HIM to be sin WHO knew no sin, so that in HIM we might become the righteousness of GOD.”
People who have known me since before July 09, 2007 can verify that I am different in many ways since the Hemorrhagic Stroke. It is not that I determined that I was going to be a better person since GOD chose to leave me on earth awhile longer. The changes were made by THE LORD while I was in the seventeen day coma without any input from me. GOD knew that if I were sedated I could not take credit for anything that HE accomplished in my life! HE has a Plan, and now I understand that!
The “tent” that I have lived in for almost 60 years has required a few modifications in my lifetime, but the changes GOD has made, not to the “dwelling” but the “dweller, are difficult to ignore. Sometime around 2010 I met Bishop Robert E. Smith Sr. who introduced me to a passage of Scripture that I had never been adequately exposed to, 2 Corinthians 5:17. His personalized license plate is 1NEWMAN. He explained to me that since he was IN CHRIST, he was a “NEW CREATION”, no longer to be known by his flesh! Bishop Smith, along with every Believer, is a “NEW CREATION” because he is IN CHRIST, whether the carnality of the human mind can accept that or not. What he is IN CHRIST is not determined by what others understand about the BIBLE, but on GOD’S WORD! Our finite minds are incapable of grasping the magnitude of the POWER of GOD!
The verse above that is so convicting to me is “From now on, therefore, WE REGARD NO ONE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH.” When society calls me a “white man”, it refers to me being a lighter tone of skin than those who have a lot of melanin in their skin. Being fairer skinned is NOT a privilege, especially when I am in the sun for an extended period of time. Being known as “poor white folks” was what the people we admired were called growing up! I’ve heard people say that “we didn’t know we were poor”! We knew it and were reminded about it every time a birthday or Christmas came around and we didn’t get the things other children were blessed with. It took me a long time to REGARD NO ONE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, not in a haughty way, but looking up from the hole I placed myself in as “poor white folks” as a child! The discrimination I was dealing with was mainly self-imposed as I had an extremely poor view of who I saw myself as.
In a synopsis, from now on, therefore, IN CHRIST, I am a “NEW CREATION”! The old man I used to be is now a NEW MAN! GOD could have taken me to Heaven in July 2007, but HIS Plan for me wasn’t yet fulfilled. It is difficult to SEE myself as “poor white trash” when the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSES died for me on Calvary! That is who I am, an adopted child of GOD! In CHRIST, I am a “NEW CREATION!!!”
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