My identity. Who I really am.

Every year a sister church of ours has a family camp in John Day Oregon. Our family has missed it over the years we have been attending New Hope. This year we decided to go. It was a last minute decision but none the less we packed up the car with all that is needed to camp for the weekend and headed over the mountains to Eastern Oregon. What was supposed to be an 8 hour trip took 10 for us as we were carivanning with another family. Between the two of us we had 4 children under the age of 6 and 4 teenagers. The winding mountain roads heading to John Day didn't get us there any faster either. Thankfully no one got car sick and we rolled in to the camp just before supper was on.
The tents went up well and we were set for the first meeting. The theme for the first meeting was "Purpose:Finding Life's Purpose".
In a nutshell, what defines us is what our experiences have been but our true identity is HOW GOD SEE'S US. We were made in His image, this is a big clue. But when Adam and Eve sinned the human race was separated from God. They no longer had the privilege of walking personally with Him in the garden.
From then on God has been working overtime to redeem what was lost. Relationship and our true identity. He wants us back walking with Him again. Unfortunately we now have to learn the lesson's of life the hard way.

So, to try to fit this all in the nutshell I will skip and go to redemption. Jesus.
We now can see a glimpse of God through Jesus and we are to pattern our lives after Him. Following Him.

One of the things that really stuck me was a illustration of Our identity.

Who we really are
identity
WE ARE LOVED
WE ARE SPECIAL
WE ARE ADOPTED
WE BELONG
WE HAVE PURPOSE
WE ARE BRETHREN

Lies we believe (Satan's lies)- assault on our identity
incompetent
always look stupid
unworthy/unlovable
piece of trash/ worthless
only good as your performance
abused/guilt pain

The purpose of the enemy is to steel our identity. Every day of our life is a battle to see ourselves as God See's us not man or Satan. Keep your eyes up!

Another concept stood out to me as well from Romans 6:6.

Old self is crucifies when you accept Jesus' love and forgiveness.
It is a one time accurance (hang in with me on this one!)
When Jesus died on the cross He said "It is finished"
We then experience a new birth (John 3:3).
Old man dead, new man born.
So then why do we still struggle with our old problems and sin's. Dead men don't sit up! but it seems that way doesn't it? We need to change our thinking and not look at it as our old dead selves making an appearance but our new ones growing. A baby is not born with it all together walking and talking and doing the jig. He has to learn by trial and error. Here we are. learning, growing, making mistakes. But if our hearts have made the decision to have a relationship with God and we sincerely are making those steps however slow or sloppy, God is loving it. He is celebrating every triumph and standing with us through every trial. It is a daily process. The big words are sanctification and redemption. They are a process. We are working towards getting that close walking relationship back with God. When we focus on Him we are closer to it. When we see ourselves as He sees us we are seeing ourselves through the grace that He has so beautifully given to us.
Let's allow ourselves to live in this grace. There is no guilt in grace, picking ourselves up and moving forward. It is finished, no guilt, just growth. Moving from the death of Adam to the life of Christ.

What do you stake your future on? God or man?

Well, that was a big nutshell and I didn't even scratch the surface.
Even though I have been a Christian for some time now, I really needed to be reminded of all this. I get so caught up in life that my relationship with God gets distant. I then forget about grace and how God sees me and start listening to lies. I want that tunnel vision looking straight up.

Hope I made some sense in my nutshell. Wish you all would have been there.

May you feel the grace, peace and love of God today and everyday,
Lori