Circumcised Heart

What a marvelous day it was, yesterday. Our new dear sister in Christ, Cynthia Dyson, buried her old life in the Lord into His death in baptism according to Romans 6:2-4 and is now a new creation in Christ according to 2 Corinthians 5:17.

All this happened was after the sermon, "Sweet Aroma of Prayer" where the Word of our Lord heavily pierced her heart leading her to the throne room of God!

Praise the Lord and may I ask that you please pray for Cynthia, as she began her new walk with Jesus yesterday, that she will continue to walk with Jesus through eternity! May God bless her soul!

In addition to this, a very special thanks for all those, at Fairfax, whom have shown Jesus to her. Our dear sister in Christ, Bev Young, has spent alot of time with Cynthia teaching her the Old Testament history and answering alot of her questions regarding spiritual matters. If it wasn't for Bev and the rest of us, she wouldn't be clothed in Christ (Galatians 3:27).

Last night, we had a "small groups" meeting and discussed various things regarding the Bible. At the close of the small group meeting, I led them into reading Colossians 2:11-12 since the Lord pierced Cynthia's heart leading her to "die to self and rise in Christ". "In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."

We talked about how God has chosen Moses to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt. But before this was to happen, God was ready to kill Moses because Moses didn't keep his covenant with God. In other words, Moses didn't obey God.

"At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met [Moses] and was about to kill him." Exodus 4:24 (niv)

Zipporah knew what was going on so she had to do the inevitable!!

"But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched [Moses'] feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said." Exodus 4:25 (niv)

In relation to "circumcision, circumcised", God instructed Abraham to do circumcision on an eight day old child as a "sign" of entering and maintaining covenant relationship with God. Then the rest of Israel (Hebrews) are to follow this command to enter the covenant relationship with Him.

"You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you." Genesis 17:11 (niv)

"Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs." Acts 7:8 (niv)

"Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised." Romans 2:25 (niv)

Come to think of this verse, since Paul wrote to the church in Colossae about "circumcision done by Christ in baptism". What, then, if we're not baptism, or in other words, "circumcised in heart" tells us? Does this mean we're not observing the command of God? Did we break the command of God for not being baptized? It is as if Moses believed in God yet didn't follow His command passed on from Abraham that he [Moses] could die because of his disobedience. Zipporah came to his rescue by circumcising their son, Gershom. Today, people think baptism is "works" as if we have to "earn" our salvation. What, then, is confession of our sins and believing in Him to be saved? Isn't that also "works"? They are both [baptism & confession] action verb!!

"A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God." Romans 2:27-28 (niv)

Then how are we "circumcised of the heart"? Read Colossians 2:11-12 again! All glory and praise is due to God for Cynthia has obeyed the form of teaching taught from His Word! She has freely surrendered her will and life to the Lord. Did she earn it by working her way to get salvation? I think not! God has freely given her the gift of life [grace]!!