Before And After

An email arrived from a store that I ordered from only a handful of times.
They were ready to ship my bike.
There was one little problem: I never ordered a bike!

My husband called our credit card company.
Sure enough, there it was…a fraudulent purchase.
Someone used my phone number, my credit card, but his California address.

You feel violated when something like this happens.
Someone pretended to be me in order to buy a bike.
Old credit card canceled; new credit card issued.

Thankfully, that was the end of it.
We were not responsible for the purchase.
The store had a name and address.
They were going to intercept the bike since it had indeed shipped.

This morning, I had to place an order with the same store.
I was ready to check out with my three items in my cart but had trouble logging in.
I reset my password, just in case.

Success!
Until my information came up.
It was still the name and address of the California man who made the bike purchase.

It is so disconcerting to see my phone number, but a different name and address.
I printed a copy of the fraudulent information.
I went into my account and changed everything.
I had not been on the site since the incident happened this past summer.

What a way to start the morning!

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though once we regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:16,17)

We often see before and after pictures in magazine advertisements.
In the before pictures, the person is not smiling and they are standing with poor posture.
In the after picture, the person is smiling, standing straight, full of vitality.
Often, it is a marketing technique to show a vast difference between the two.

There are before and after pictures of our faith journey as well.
Before Christ…After Christ.

There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:10-18)

That is our before picture.
Not very lovely at all.
We want no part of God, in fact we are God’s enemies.
We do not have the faith to believe and we cannot muster up that faith on our own.

But God…

God the Holy Spirit changes our heart.
Our old heart of stone is removed and in its place, He gives us a new heart of flesh.
A new heart that can love God.
New eyes that can see Him; new ears that can hear His voice.

We are a new creation.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body…Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children…For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
(Ephesians 4:22-25 and 5:1, 8-10)

That is our after picture!

We are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We are to be imitators of God as dearly loved children.
We are children of light in the Lord.

No more fraudulent life apart from Christ.
No more fraudulent identity veiled by the enemy’s lies.
An abundant life in Christ; the Life that is truly Life.
In Christ, we are a new creation!