Enjoy You

I was having breakfast with my grandson Lucas the other morning and he started singing a praise song.
“Holy holy holy is the Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come. With all creation I sing praise to the King of Kings you are my everything and I will enjoy you”
I laughed to myself that he got the lyrics wrong; it was supposed to be I will adore you and then I thought maybe he didn’t.
I started thinking about it, I will enjoy you.
How often do we enjoy God?
God wants us to enjoy things. 1 Timothy 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
Ecclesiastes 3:13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor-it is the gift from God.
We enjoy a good meal or a relaxing massage. We enjoy a day at the beach or time alone but do we enjoy God?
I’m not talking about praying to God or worshiping Him, good things but not what I mean.
Don’t you like when you hear someone say they enjoyed spending time with you?
You didn’t do anything special or offer to do a favor you just spent time with someone and you enjoyed each others company.
Paul talked about this kind of enjoyment in
Romans 15:24 whenever I journey to Spain, I shall come to you. For I hope to see you on my journey, and to be helped on my way there by you, if first I may enjoy your company for a while.
Paul was getting ready to travel and do more work for the Lord but he wanted to have some time to just rest and enjoy the company of those who made him feel loved.
You may be asking how does one enjoy God.
Glad you asked. Not that I have the right answer but I asked myself this same question.
Here’s what I came up with.
I can see the most beautiful sunset and just enjoy its beauty and the one who created it.
I can be in the mountains, my favorite place, and see the fall colored leaves and enjoy the moment and the one who created it.
I can watch a program about the under sea world and marvel at all the crazy looking fish and bright colored coral and enjoy the one who created it.
I want to make time alone with God and not ask Him for anything or gripe about my day or whine about current circumstances and just tell God “You are my everything and I will enjoy you!”

Be The Ring

What is it about the diamond ring? We girls put a lot of emphasis on it don't we? When a girl announces she's getting married the first thing we want to see is the ring. Even before the guy we want to see that ring. The bigger the diamond the better the ring, as if the size of the diamond has any relevance to the size of the love.
I'm guilty of this ring thing. I confess I have been know to check out a ring here and there and marvel at a brilliant diamond. Even as little girls we are picking out our engagement ring long before our fiance'.
I heard a beautiful ring story from a friend the other day that I just have to share.
She works at a higher end department store in the mall. On this particular day the women who were shopping happen to be wearing some bling (big diamond rings) that my friend happened to notice.
My friend asked the Lord to give her a ring that she could wear from Him.
I have a ring that I wear from the Lord so I was expecting her to tell me about the ring He gave her, but that's not what He did.
She asked the Lord for a ring and He said “be the ring.”
What a profound response. Be the ring....
I have chewed on that for days.
What does the engagement/wedding ring represent? It tells the world you belong to someone. That you have a personal, intimate, committed relationship with someone and you plan on having it for the rest of your life.
So for you to “be” the ring it would mean your life was a living example of that relationship to someone or in this case to Jesus.
Seriously that was such a phenomenal response. Would we expect anything less from the Holy Spirit?
So now we have to ask ourselves how exactly do we be the ring?

We have a ministry at my church called 2nd Saturday it happens on the 2nd Saturday each month hence the name 2nd Saturday :)
Volunteers get together and reach out to the community to bless them in some way. One of the ministries is called Random Acts of Kindness and it's different each month.
My friend April, who is the Director of local outreach, and I were talking about what Random Act Of Kindness we could put together. I asked what was happening in the community this month and April mentioned Valentines Day. At the same time we said out loud bring flowers to a nursing home. We knew it was a God thing and the thing to do.
I knew what was coming next and I already dreaded it. I knew April would ask me to lead the team.
Now I'm gonna be real honest here Gems. I didn't want to do it because old people creep me out.
I know I'm horrible but I'm just being honest. I can handle most any ministry but old people in a nursing home.
Needless to say I was the leader of the group going to the Nursing Home.
The Lord sent an amazing group of Volunteers which made it a lot easier for me and off we went.
I was doing my best to hide my feelings because the Lord was very clear this is what He wanted done and I didn't want the volunteers to know their “leader” was creeped out.
When we entered the Nursing Home I was thrilled that it was clean and didn't have that smell that most of them have.
We spread out and went room to room to give out our flowers.
I walked into one room and the woman was sitting in her wheel chair. She held a mirror in one hand and with the other she was putting on liquid face make up. She was having a hard time with it, some parts of her face had a big spot and other parts had none.
We talked as she was applying it and the Lord said to me “help her.”
I now began having a conversation in my head with the Lord how helping her would mean touching her face and I was really not comfortable with that.
I began looking around the room for a tissue or toilet paper or something in case the Lord insisted on this helping thing. Wasn't it enough that I went did I really have to be touching old people too!
He said it again “help her.”
UGH! So I looked at her sweet blotchy make up face and said “do you want me to help you put your makeup on?” She looked up at me and said “no.”
Well alrighty then. I thought I was off the hook.
She went on to tell me that the day before was her birthday and pointed out the balloon floating on a string from her bed. I wished her a happy birthday and felt like I should compliment her so I told her makeup was coming along nicely and her hair looked pretty as well.
I should have left well enough alone.
She told me she did her hair and was able to do the sides but couldn't do the back. Then she looked at me with that sweet face again and asked “could you do my hair in the back for me?”
Gems the funniest thing happened instantly in my head.
When I was a little girl my mother was a beautician that's what they were called then now she would be called a hair stylist. Every Saturday morning my grandmother and her sisters would come to our house for my mother to do their hair. They all had round bodies and round hair doos. I remembered my mother teasing the back of their hair and filling in the bald spots to make the complete circle.
So I walked behind my new friends wheel chair, grabbed the comb and started teasing her hair.
I gotta tell you I really looked like I knew what I was doing.
I filled in all the spots and rounded it out and went back to the front of her and said “you look beautiful.”
She gave me the biggest smile that filled my heart it was such a precious moment.
As I was looking at her I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me “be the ring.”
I was being the ring! That's how we do it.
We show the love of God to others so they know who we belong to. Who we're committed to. Who we gave our life to. Who we're proud to let the whole world know we love. That's how to “be the ring.”
Gems one of the things I love about God is whenever you bless someone God blesses you at the same time.
I had no idea when I was a little kid noticing how my mother did hair that one day I would use that memory to show God's love to another person.
What things have you experienced that you can share with someone?
Take time to look around and see where you too can be the ring!

Christians Start Your Engines

I was driving to work the other morning and I passed the firehouse near my apartment. The fire truck was out in the driveway with all it’s doors and compartments open and it looked like the fireman might be getting ready to wash it. I thought to myself he must be keeping himself busy, how messy can the truck get when it’s not used all the time? (Thank God)
The Holy Spirit reminded me that the firemen have to make sure the truck is always ready to go. He can’t wait until there’s a call to make sure all the equipment is ready. If a house is burning it’s not a good time to make sure the battery is still charged or the tires have air in them. It needs to be ready to move out and put out a fire on a moments notice. The engine of that truck needs to be checked constantly to make sure it can do the job it’s made for, saving lives.
The Lord reminded me that’s how we as Christians are supposed to be.
He brought to mind 1 Peter 3:15 Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
We need to be ready to share about Jesus when we meet people that need to hear about Him. If you meet someone at school and they start asking you about your faith and you can’t answer them what does that say about your relationship with God? If you bring them a CD from your church service that’s good but what will it say about your personal relationship?
It amazes me how many Christians don’t know how to share their testimony. If this makes you feel uncomfortable maybe this is an area you need to spend more time in.
The verse in 1 Peter says be ready to give the reason you have hope.
If ever we lived in a time where people need hope it’s now.
I was watching TV tonight which is something I don’t usually do and here’s why. As I was clicking the channels my choices were stupid shows about celebrities and what time they went to the bathroom or what they had for dinner, nonsense, or the news. The news had one murder after another. I had to shut it off and remembered why I don’t turn it on.
I gotta tell you in those few minutes I became completely overwhelmed with the amount of evil in this world.
I had to remind myself there was a reason I still had hope and that reason was Jesus.
At work yesterday a man came into my office to get a policy and I could tell he was in emotional pain. I started asking him questions to see if he wanted to talk and he did. He told me about his children, 2 in prison and one just got out. He was recently divorced and starting over here in Florida. A few times his eyes filled with tears as he spoke. He was so distraught over the decisions he and his children had made.
I could have just listened to him and told him I felt bad but would he have left with any hope?
Probably not.
I told him I knew from experience what it was like to have a prodigal son and then I shared the reason I didn’t lose hope. I shared the power of prayer with him and the power of God’s love for not just his kids but him too.
I invited him to church and told him about the care groups my church offers on Monday nights. I told him about the large mens group that meets on Tuesday nights and not only would he get a great meal he would have support from other men.
I was ready to share the hope I have.
I’m not patting myself on the back I’m just giving you an example of why you need to keep your engine ready to rescue someone whose burning.
If your not ALWAYS ready then you may need a tune up. What I mean is say something in obedience and give the Holy Spirit something to work with. For example;
A long time ago my oldest daughter was on a plane and there was a man in the seat next to her. She said she knew she was supposed to say something to him but she had no idea what it was so she said the first thing that came out. Can you tell she’s my kid.
She looked at the man and said “The worship leader at my church could be a radio announcer because he has a really deep voice.”
He looked at her like oh great I’m sitting next to a nut job.
This amazing piece of information was in no way going to save a life nor would it give hope for anything, however, she was obedient at putting herself out there and today she is always ready to give a reason for the hope she has in Christ. We have no idea what the Holy Spirit did with that but I'm sure He did something :)
The funny thing is if someone asked you about something you were passionate about like sports or shopping you would have no problem talking to a complete stranger.
So Gems let’s take the verse in 1 Peter seriously. Christians start your engines and let’s give some hope to a world that's so desperate to hear it!

Without Fear

Well Gems it has been another crazy couple of weeks. I was at my parent’s house for my weekly twilight zone experience and my father was freaking out because the clicker (TV remote) was missing again…. He was yelling at me to find it and to look in the front yard or the refrigerator because he knows my mother put it somewhere. She of course is yelling at the same time that she never touched it and that she doesn’t touch anything. Funny thing is I put my car keys on the table and went to check the laundry and when I came back they were gone. Someone, I’m not mentioning any names, had moved them to her purse. Mail, money and other objects have also been missing.
My father has a suspended drivers license, he can’t’ see, but continues to drive. I had to take my mom’s car from her as she too continued to drive after the doctor told her not to. That was way harder emotionally than I thought it would be for both of us.
It’s not natural to be making decisions for your parents and making them do things they don’t want to do.
My father called the sheriff to have me arrested for stealing the car. When the sheriff said he couldn’t arrest me for stealing the car my father changed the charges to trespassing. He then demanded I pick him up another prescription of puffers (inhalers)and bring them over as soon as possible. How he expected me to do this from jail I don’t know…

The worst part was I was hoping the Sheriff would put a scare in my father to keep him from driving the problem was they sent out a rookie. Really nice kid but a kid none the less. My father asked him how long he was on the force and when he answered this was my father’s response “I’ve driven more in reverse than you have forward” he was not the least bit intimidated by this kid. I was feeling completely overwhelmed by them, maybe prison wasn’t such a bad idea.
On Monday morning Kimberly a teller from my mother’s bank called to tell me my father brought my mother into the bank and demanded all the accounts be closed. I could just picture him with a bandanna over his face waving a fake pistol in the air. My mother has alzheimer's, if she had any idea what he was saying she would have slapped him. They finally had to agree to give him a withdraw from the account to get him out of the bank. I later spoke to a woman at his bank who also had a run in with the masked man demanding money from his account. When the teller asked what he was going to do with it he told her he was taking the money out so his wife wouldn’t know where it was. This confused the teller as his wife was standing next to him.....
They too gave him what he wanted to get him out of the bank.
One of the many problems with these incidents is this is the money I use to pay their bills.
I was once again feeling overwhelmed because trying to take care of my parents from so far away is not working and I still have not found a solution to this problem.
I sent out an email to my prayer warriors to pray for me. If you don’t have people you can ask to pray for you, get some.
I felt like God wasn’t answering me so maybe He would answer them.
I told my prayer women I was feeling weak and even as I typed it on the page it ticked me off.
The Lord showed me that even though I said He was in control I was relying on my own strength and that strength of course wasn’t cutting it.
The Holy Spirit showed me it was a pride issue for me not wanting to be weak never less admitting it.
When I began to rely on myself it opened the door for fear. Once I realized that, the Lord was able to start speaking. First He spoke through my friend Vangie reminding me that when I am weak He is strong.
Tuesday morning I headed to the VA to speak with a social worker then back on the road visiting assisted living places.
Before I left I grabbed a bag for all my stuff and the writing on the bag was Psalm 34:4 I will walk in freedom not in fear.
This put a bounce in my step and I left feeling way more confident. Nothing in my circumstances had changed but I was feeling a renewed strength as this time I was reminded the outcome was not my job.
The next morning when I got to work my daily calendar said There is no room in love for fear. Well formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life-fear of death, fear of judgment-is one not yet fully formed in love.
1John 4:18
Again God was speaking to me about fear.
That night I got an email from my other prayer warrior Betty with Psalm 91, one of my favorites. If you’re feeling overwhelmed too, read it.
All in all it was God’s way of letting me know He heard me and reminding me not to fear just do what I can and leave the rest up to Him.
I don’t know about you Gems but I seem to have to keep reminding myself of that.
I have another doctor appointment next week for my father and I can only imagine what that day will be like. I don’t know the outcome but I do know I will begin and end the day without fear.
To be continued..............

Sanctity of Human Life

Wanted to recognize Sanctity of Human Life Sunday so I'm sharing a poem with you I wrote when I was the President of Life's Choices of Lake County along with a picture of the founding board members. What a great group of women I was honored to serve with. Please give to the crisis pregnancy center near you and let's all be a part of the healing.

Forgiveness for Abortion

She stands there alone and scared

Such a deep secret inside

Who can she count on, who can she trust

Who will stand by her side?


They say it’s quick and painless

Won’t take but 5 minutes to end

What they don’t tell is the trauma you’ll carry

That you don’t share not even with a friend


You thought about giving it away

But what kind of woman is she

That gives birth to a precious baby

Then sends it away for the whole world to see


We make you feel bad to give your baby away

Worse should you choose to end his life

But no one is giving the answer

To what society will say is right


So you carry your sin and your pain

Hoping no one will ever find out

Then one day Jesus reminds you

His son died for you, yes, you count


So you offer your lost baby to Jesus

And he heals your open wound

And he hopes that you’ll help others

To shut the door of abortions tomb.

Sufficient Grace

I was reading in John about the crucifixion of Jesus. I googled crucifixion and this is a short explanation: Crucifixion: Jesus Faced a Horrible Death
Crucifixion sometimes began with a scourging or flogging of the victim’s back. The Romans used a whip called a flagrum, which consisted of small pieces of bone and metal attached to a number of leather strands. The number of blows given to Jesus is not recorded; however, the number of blows in Jewish law was 39 (one less than the 40 called for in the Torah, to prevent a counting error). During the scourging, the skin was ripped from the back, exposing a bloody mass of tissue and bone. Extreme blood loss occurred, often causing death, or at least unconsciousness. In addition to the flogging, Jesus faced severe beating and torment by the Roman soldiers, including the plucking of His beard and the piercing of His scalp with a crown of thorns.

I have heard that Jesus was beaten so badly he was unrecognizable.
I want you to take a moment and get a mental picture of the scene at hand. Got it?
Now I want to take you to another person at this scene. Mary, the mother of Jesus.
John 19:25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother.
The Bible doesn't say Mary was screaming uncontrollably or begging for his life or wailing loudly as I no doubt would have been.
Take that in for a minute. Mary is watching this horrific scene before her eyes. Her first born son, her baby boy, her child. How in the world did she not completely lose her mind?
How did she process the amount of emotions that were going through her? Someone said that her heart bled with His wounds. How true that must have been.
You know when your child gets hurt or is sick how it breaks your heart and you wish it were you instead of them. You don't have to be a parent to feel anguish for a child, seeing anyone you love suffer is heart breaking.
Mary was watching her innocent son be beaten and abused. Again there is no mention of her being hysterical.
How is that possible? It can only be possible through grace.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
I know this conversation was between Paul and God. Paul was struggling with something and 3 times he asked for it to be taken away and verse 9 is God's reply, the answer was no.
We rattle off a paraphrase of that verse often, “God's grace is sufficient for me” but have you ever REALLY experienced that kind of grace?
How many times have you asked Jesus to remove something from your life that you're suffering from?
It could only be by the grace of God that Mary was able to endure that day.
You don't know what you can bear until you have been tried and some are tested way more than others.
I don't pretend to know why I just know that God's grace is sufficient but being able to say that is not just a cliche for those who live it.
My very dear friend Fran told me a story once about her great granddaughter. She was walking to an ice cream truck with her mother (Fran's granddaughter) and she was hit by a motorcycle. She was ripped right out of her own mothers hand. Fran goes on to tell that she is standing at her great granddaughter's hospital bed with her daughter (the child's grandmother) at her side and her daughter is demanding that she pray the child back to health. They stood there together completely helpless and watched the child die. It was only the grace of God that Fran could even share that story with me.

The story in John goes on that Jesus speaks to his mother and the discipline standing next to her. John 19:26-27 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
When Jesus takes away one source of comfort He replaces it with another. He knew his mother would still need to be taken care of. God is not only sufficient emotionally and spiritually but physically as well.
Another interesting point here is Jesus called her “woman.” It wasn't being disrespectful it was a term of respect but I think it was more than that.
When your child calls you mommy or daddy it goes right to your heart especially when they are hurting.
I believe Jesus didn't call her mom because it would have been to much for her to bear.
Again, His sufficient grace.
It is only God that can sustain us during life's painful moments. Whether its as horrible as watching your child die or less catastrophic like having to find a new job God's grace is sufficient for you.
I know in my life I have taken that grace for granted when I think “I” handled a situation. The truth is I have only been able to handle what God has given me the strength to handle.
I can't imagine what it was like for Mary but I know she believed in the resurrection and that must have been what she held onto. Knowing she would be with her son again in Heaven.
We too have to hold onto that truth. I have loved ones that I will see in Heaven and that gives me great comfort.
My prayer for you today Gems is first to know Jesus Christ as your Savior, the one who gives you sufficient grace. I pray that when you are tested and you ask God to remove the situation and the answer to that prayer is to go through it not remove it that you will remember Mary and the sufficient grace Christ gave His mother.
I pray that in all things you will understand what Paul meant when he said he would boast about his weakness so God's power could rest on him.
Truly the most powerful time you can experience is when you are so broken and weak that God's power is working in and through you and you are experiencing sufficient grace.
My prayer for you today Gems is to boast about your weakness so others can see God's sufficient grace.

This Dying to Self is Killing Me

Seriously the more like Christ I strive to become the more I find myself saying “I'm dyin here!”

I know that's the point but it can be just plain painful at times.
I don't know about you but sometimes I get tired of the Holy Spirit showing me I'm wrong when I think I'm right.
This of course is my first problem.

Let me give you some scriptures to explain what I'm talking about. (Jesus speaking)

Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

If we want to be a disciple of Christ we must deny our self and take up our cross not just once a week but daily!
What does denying self mean? Glad you asked.
Lately for me denying self means not allowing myself to get offended EVEN when I think I'm right.

I think it's interesting that one of the definitions for offed on dictionary.com was:
(in Biblical use) to cause to fall into sinful ways.
How appropriate. That's exactly what happens. 

You get offended, decide your right and before you know it you have fallen into sinful ways by having resentment or unforgiveness toward another person. You open up a door for the enemy to mess with your mind. He will take a small piece of truth and add his lies to it. You begin to mix your offense with truth.
For me it was having an expectation of someone and when the expectation wasn't met I got my feelings hurt. I started going over the incident in my mind replaying the “offense” and getting my feelings hurt over and over.
I'm not talking about anything earth shattering here.
It can be something as simple as someone not coming through with something they said they would do or not showing up somewhere they said they would.
I shared it with the Lord, again expecting Him to side with me, and this is what the Holy Spirit said to me.
“Gena you can get your feelings hurt and choose to forgive and forget or you can choose to be offended. You can choose being offended, however, that's not an option if your seeking to be more like Christ. You're not allowed to be mad at someone because they didn't meet your expectation. It's just that, your expectation not their responsibility.”
CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!

 It always comes down to our choice. I had to decide what I was going to do with how I felt.

Ephesians 4:22-25 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.

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying you should be someone's doormat. If you are the only one sowing into a relationship than you need to reevaluate that friendship.
The key part here is putting off your desires. They don't have to be deceitful or even wrong desires you just can't expect anyone other than God to meet all the desires of your heart.
Once we get offended it causes dissension in the relationship and if left unchecked or unresolved it can cause a total break up of a valuable relationship.

But my question is where do you draw the line? Do you stop expecting from people completely?
Do I expect nothing from my relationships?

The verse above says to make new the attitude of your mind. How do we do that?
For me it was going back to my situation and deciding what I was going to do. Was I going to wallow in my hurt feelings and allow satan to whisper lies to me like, this friend obviously doesn't really care about you or they would have never done this thing.
Once I died to self I knew that was a lie.

Remember when the popular saying was “what would Jesus do?” Well that my Gems is an everyday question we have to ask ourselves. That's the meaning of taking up our cross daily.
We have to be able to talk to one another and express how we feel. Keep the lines of communication open. The tricky part is after we're done speaking and the other person shares we have to choose again not to take offense.  It's easy to tell someone what bothered you the tough part (dying to self) is hearing how you bothered them. We have to speak and listen and then move forward together. The truth is we get offended so easy and most times the person who offended us doesn't even know they did it. 

One of the reasons I love being involved with the Soup Kitchen and ministering to the homeless is there are no preconceived expectations. They have absolutely nothing to give me nor do I want them to. The people who serve our brothers and sisters do it out of love and no other motive.
To die to self means to constantly ask yourself what is my motive? What do I need or want from this decision?

I'll give you another example using a totally different scenario.
I was at work the other day on the phone with a customer. She was telling me she made a payment on her credit card and gave me the account number it got posted to. I could not find the payment or the account number she gave me. She then told me the credit card payment was changed to a check and mailed to Atlanta. My office is in Florida. Why in the world would the payment go to Atlanta? I never heard of a credit card payment being changed to a check without the customer being the one writing the check? Nothing she was saying made any sense to me and although I didn't let her know it I was getting frustrated with her. To be honest I thought she might be making this whole story up.
When I hung up I made a comment about her to my boss. Something like “I don't know what this lady is talking about, she's crazy or smoking something.”
No harm done right? She didn't know what I said and never would for that matter.

Well later that day my coworker went out to get our mail and guess what was in there? None other than the check, written by the bank not the customer mailed from Atlanta in the amount she said it was.
When I got home that night the Lord reminded me about the flippant comment I made about the customer. He let me know that just because I didn't know what she was talking about didn't make me right and her wrong. The Holy Spirit was grieved that I trashed talked one of God's children because I was frustrated.

I felt so bad I sent a text to my boss apologizing for being a butt head. I had to die to self....
I could go on and on with examples. I am a work in progress. The bottom line is in order for there to be more of Jesus in us we have to get rid of or die more to self.

Every once in a while I'll have a day that more than one person will compliment me. They will tell me I look really pretty or radiant. I have to laugh because my outward appearance hasn't changed much it's just that I decided that day to act more like Jesus.
The Bible says that Jesus was an ordinary looking guy not ugly or really handsome yet people were drawn to Him. If He wasn't this major hotty what were they drawn to?
They were drawn to the love that flowed so freely from Him to anyone He came in contact with.
What people think is attractive in me on those days is the Spirit of Jesus being allowed to flow through me.
The times I feel like it's killing me to die to self are the times I'm focusing more on me than others.
Let's all try to die a little more each day and put on the new self, the one created to be like God .