New Identity

I had the privilege of speaking and singing at the annual Widows Luncheon this week and it was a joy to be with them.  I thoroughly enjoyed the time with these ladies.  They reminded me of my mom, strong, enduring, and faithful in their walk with Jesus Christ.  I shared a little of my testimony with them through words and song.  The first song I sang was by Nat King Cole:

L is for the way you look at me
O is for the only one I see
V is very, very extraordinary
E is even more than anyone that you adore…

I sang a couple of secular love songs and shared how my family was very loving and caring as a child, but my home and family did not know Christ.  Then I sang a couple of Christian songs and began to tell them how my dad and family were transformed by the love and grace of God.  I explained to them that my dad’s identity was once in his family.  When he came to know Christ, he was no longer identified by his family and culture, but by a new life in Jesus Christ.

The first scripture my dad memorized was Galatians 2:20 (NIV), “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  The old man was gone and the new one was born.  It wasn’t long that until our whole family had a new identity.

I wanted the ladies to know that God’s intentions for them has always been to be His children, holy and righteous, daughters of God.  He did not intend for us be identified by others and circumstances in life.  Yet we all do it.  We let life and death hold us back from be being all that God has called us to be: sons and daughters, adopted into the wonderful inheritance of God’s love.

The theme of the luncheon was “Sing unto the Lord a New Song.”  We can sing a new song and live a new life because we belong to Him.

Now your burden’s lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain
So sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live  (Chris Rice)