A New Life
I am working with a particular pastor who was a pester, to say the least, before Christ got a hold of him and he became a pastor. Pastor Rimaldo was not always a good person. He spent years as a drug dealer in his part of Brazil. He lived in a small town that he controlled with fear and with manipulation.
This man had so much power in that town that he bought a piece of land and built a drug house on it so people could do whatever they do with narcotics that they purchased from him. The house was like an all service facility until the Lord got a hold of him and changed his entire life.
This former drug lord went to seminary, then returned to his home village, and bought the very land upon which the drug house stood. He demolished the home and is now building a church on the land that once flowed with much sin. Pastor Rimaldo is now planting the Gospel in that part of Brazil.
You may be wondering how I know about this man’s life. I am helping him pour the concrete for the foundation of his new church. Isn’t it amazing how Christ can completely turn a life around for the good?
When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior we soon begin to understand what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified):
“Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!”
When Christ changes us on the inside, He doesn’t just change our personality and He doesn’t just change our way of thinking. Christ totally and completely transforms us and creates a new person in Him. Walk today in the knowledge that if you are in Christ, you are indeed a new person—the old man no longer exists.
