Don’t I know you?

Don’t I know you?

Haven’t we meet before?

I recognize you, it’s you! I knew it!

I have seen you before, friend!

I have seen past the faults and flaws and imperfections, and I have seen you, my friend.

I have seen you because I recognize your love, your value, your heart that shines in their words and their actions.

And I recognize your love,  because I am familiar with it crying out in me as well. It is a light that warms our very souls.

And yes, unfortunately, our love, our Spirit, our heart is not yet completely free from the trials of this life. So we are still a living and growing soul in the midst of a dying flesh, and we can recognize those imperfections and faults in ourselves – and even in others.

But I know that you are more than those imperfections. I know this about you,  because I know this about Him who lives in me.

He lives in you too,  doesn’t He? I thought that I recognized you,  friend. Thank you so much for letting me see my love,  my Savior,  my Lord,  my Savior, in you. It is such a blessing to spend time with Him, with you.

But if you are not sure, if you are weak or unsure – this is not knowledge that I gained from a man,  but wisdom that I have received from the Lord God Almighty. He declares that you are not defined by your faults – that we can lay down those chains and heavy burdens at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ,  and be washed in the blood of Christ,  so that we can walk in clean garments of white,  so that we can live upright and righteously, as we sweep His temple free of wickedness, and as He comes and dwells with us,  teaching us and guiding us and perfecting us until we too will find the stone rolled away from the death of our fleshly tombs, to find we have walked through the narrow gate, and along the narrow path until it has brought us to the face of our Lord, our prize,  our portion – life eternal in the presence of God. This is our purpose,  this is our value, this is our destination, children of God. You who have ears, you who are spiritual, you who wish to live, hear the Word of the Lord.

Do not turn back.

Do not believe the lies of the enemy.

Do not define yourself by your past or your imperfections. Lay them down. Repent of your sins, seek His Kingdom and His righteousness in your life, know His mercy and His grace, and walk in victory.

Does He live in you as well,  friend? Haven’t I recognized His light shining in your life?

Thank you, friend.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he  is  a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to  be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
II Corinthians 5:17-21 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/2co.5.17-21.NKJV

Do not lie in wait, O wicked man,
against the dwelling of the righteous;
Do not plunder his resting place;
For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again,
But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him,
And He turn away His wrath from him.
Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the wicked;
For there will be no prospect for the evil man;
The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
My son, fear the Lord and the king;
Do not associate with those given to change;
For their calamity will rise suddenly,
And who knows the ruin those two can bring?
These things also belong to the wise:
It  is not good to show partiality in judgment.
He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,”
Him the people will curse;
Nations will abhor him.
But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight,
And a good blessing will come upon them.
Proverbs 24:15-25 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/pro.24.15-25.NKJV

The soul who sins shall die.
The son shall not bear the guilt of the father,
nor the father bear the guilt of the son.
The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself,
and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
“But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed,
keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right,
he shall surely live; he shall not die.
None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him;
because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live.
Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God , “ and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
“But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live?
All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die.
Ezekiel 18:20-24 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/ezk.18.20-24.NKJV

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!
How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in  the  likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the  death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the  life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
Romans 6:1-15 NKJV
http://bible.com/114/rom.6.1-15.NKJV