its been quite a while but, here goes....
I'm surprised that i haven't just completely forsaken posting in or checking this thing, but i suppose i cant help but be just a bit nostalgic every once in a while, plus i'm kind of curious as to what kind of trouble people have gotten into over the past couple months. All in all though, im quite satisfied being almost completely divorced from
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I know that the change that has happened to me is probably hard for everyone that i know from the region to understand. Most people have made the observation that im a completely different person than i was before i left, and that is honestly the truth.
it says in 2Cor. 5:17 (Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new). I havent simply changed my habits, and adopted some new set of ideals or morals. I really am a COMPLETELY different person than i was before. The thing about being born again into Christ is that who i am according to the flesh is no longer really my true identity. The 'new birth' as it is called is not a metaphor, something actually happens when you are born again into Christ. Who i am is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3) I have been raised to sit in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 2:6). I have become a "new man", i have been given a new heart, and mind.
My body is simply a container in which my soul resides for the time being, my essential person in no longer associated with it. I feel as if i have known you long enough to be honest with you. and as hard as this might sound, the Matthew J. Cobb that you knew so well no longer exists
As far as me wanting to divorce myself from my past goes, I simply don't see any profit in remembering things that i was involved with that God hates. God no longer holds them against me, theyre no longer associated with who I am. I am looking forward to what the future holds for me. The important thing really is more what i have been delivered unto rather than what i have been delivered from. I am "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things which are before" that i might " press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14)
On another note, i wanted to say something about this being "judgemental' so to speak. Since i have been born into Christ, my will has been brought into accord with the will of God. Therefore, if God hates something, i hate it,and if God loves something I love it. When i observe something that is going on that God has made a specific effort to express how he feels about it and i have a chance to say something i will. Not because im exercising my own personal opinion on someone else, but Simply because i am informing them of the judgement of God. Whether people want to say it or not, there are behaviors that God hates, there are people that God hates. For me to tolerate wickedness when it is right before my eyes or for me to go out of my way to stay in touch with people who do things that god hates would pretty much be in contradiction with everything that i have become. To be honest, i have avoided seeing alot of people because i know when i see them i'm going to have to say something to them and they're not going to like it.
Im not going to tolerate that kind of behavior when im confronted with it, but am i going to tell them that they're going to hell?. No im not. Simply because it's not given to me to know whether or not they might be saved. But what i am going to do is tell them that if they continue to walk in the way that they are walking, they will. I am going to exhort them to Repent, and get right with God. Whether or not this offends someone is really not my conscern, because i am simply trying to bring to their attention that they are in a very real life and death situation. If i were to not just sit back and not say anything, that would actually mean that i didnt care at all about the person. If your best friends house was on fire and he was sitting on the couch in the living room and wouldnt' get up because he didn't believe his house was on fire would you just let him sit there and die because you didn't want to offend him? NO, of course not, you would do everything in your power to show them that if they continue to do what theyre doing, theyre going to die.
When it comes to a spiritual battle this is actually more of a difficult task, and all i can hope to do is present people with the facts. Its not within my ability to convict a man of sin anyways, that's the Holy Spirits job, but what i can do is present the facts, and give the Spirit something to work with.
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Anyways, all that to say this. Am i going to stop talking to you completely? No. but, am i going to go out of my way to stay in contact with you and talk to you? Honestly, probably not. If im in town, if you want to go to coffee or something and hang out and catch up i've got no problem with that, but as far as me going out to party with you or something, thats completely out of the question.
I'm sorry if this isn't the answer that you wanted to hear, but I wanted to be honest with you, im not going to lie and say that I think what you're doing is ok, and im not going to not say anything about it when i see you. If you don't have a problem with that then we'll get along famously, but if its going to offend you i figured you might as well know up front so you can decide whether or not you even want to keep in touch with me. This is who i am now, and i hope that you can receive It. I love God and im not at all ashamed to say it.
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