And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
(Ephesians 2:1 KJV)
When I was a kid I used to bite my fingernails. I dont know how I got started at that, but at a very young age I remember gnawing away at my nails. I carried the habit through adolescence and into adulthood. Finally at a point I realized that biting my nails was not cool and I just quit. I had no problem quitting because it was just a habit, I dont think it was a severe nervous disorder, just a bad habit. Today my nails show evidence of some kind of trauma. They are not long and only grow close to the tips of my fingers. I suppose this is from being trimmed back close for so many years. I can remember as a kid getting my teeth on a small bit of nail and pulling at it until it would tear. Then I would continue to work at it and get it to tear all the way across the top end of the nail. Many times I would tear the hard lifeless part of the nail away from the soft red under part of the nail known as the quick, exposing the red flesh. Often my nails would bleed. I knew exactly when I had torn the nail too far. Pain used to shoot through my whole body, and many times would ache and throb for some time. I have not painted a pretty picture here, but that is how I related to the way the apostle Paul describes the way we were, what happened, and the way we are now. There is a big difference between the hard dead part of the nails, and the soft full of life quick underneath. As I look back over my life I realize that there was a time when I would consider myself to have been hard, calloused, and dead to the feeling of others and myself. Hard and dead, thats what I was. You could trim a little bit of me away by taking my freedom, your friendship, and my money and I didnt care. It didnt hurt; I was dead to spiritual life. Trespassing didnt bother me, I could walk all over you and it didnt matter. The Greek word that the apostle Paul uses for sins is harmartia and it paints a different picture of how we think of the word sins. It means to miss the mark, always in a moral sense, a sin of thought, word or deed. When I was dead to spiritual life my life was lived missing the mark. I didnt even try to hit the mark and live life as I should, caring for the lives and feelings of others. The kind of life I lived, living only for myself, collapsed in on itself and left me nowhere to turn but up. Reaching up for help God sent Jesus to show the way. Jesus through the forgiveness of my sins put me in the quick of my life, not the old hard dead part. Now when I miss the mark I feel I feel the sting and pain of not living in Gods will for my life. I have been quickened. Being quickened sometimes hurts, but it reminds me that I am alive. Thanks for letting me share, God is doing for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).
Ephesians 2:4-5 KJV
(Ephesians 2:1 KJV)
When I was a kid I used to bite my fingernails. I dont know how I got started at that, but at a very young age I remember gnawing away at my nails. I carried the habit through adolescence and into adulthood. Finally at a point I realized that biting my nails was not cool and I just quit. I had no problem quitting because it was just a habit, I dont think it was a severe nervous disorder, just a bad habit. Today my nails show evidence of some kind of trauma. They are not long and only grow close to the tips of my fingers. I suppose this is from being trimmed back close for so many years. I can remember as a kid getting my teeth on a small bit of nail and pulling at it until it would tear. Then I would continue to work at it and get it to tear all the way across the top end of the nail. Many times I would tear the hard lifeless part of the nail away from the soft red under part of the nail known as the quick, exposing the red flesh. Often my nails would bleed. I knew exactly when I had torn the nail too far. Pain used to shoot through my whole body, and many times would ache and throb for some time. I have not painted a pretty picture here, but that is how I related to the way the apostle Paul describes the way we were, what happened, and the way we are now. There is a big difference between the hard dead part of the nails, and the soft full of life quick underneath. As I look back over my life I realize that there was a time when I would consider myself to have been hard, calloused, and dead to the feeling of others and myself. Hard and dead, thats what I was. You could trim a little bit of me away by taking my freedom, your friendship, and my money and I didnt care. It didnt hurt; I was dead to spiritual life. Trespassing didnt bother me, I could walk all over you and it didnt matter. The Greek word that the apostle Paul uses for sins is harmartia and it paints a different picture of how we think of the word sins. It means to miss the mark, always in a moral sense, a sin of thought, word or deed. When I was dead to spiritual life my life was lived missing the mark. I didnt even try to hit the mark and live life as I should, caring for the lives and feelings of others. The kind of life I lived, living only for myself, collapsed in on itself and left me nowhere to turn but up. Reaching up for help God sent Jesus to show the way. Jesus through the forgiveness of my sins put me in the quick of my life, not the old hard dead part. Now when I miss the mark I feel I feel the sting and pain of not living in Gods will for my life. I have been quickened. Being quickened sometimes hurts, but it reminds me that I am alive. Thanks for letting me share, God is doing for me what I could not do for myself .JRE
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).
Ephesians 2:4-5 KJV
