2Cor.5.17 Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
"Lose the baggage! Forget the past! Leave yesterday in yesterday!" They don't have a clue how taking my suitcase along for the journey and its contents keep me at the foot of the cross.
I find, in that suitcase, an old used-up bandage and some ointment. It reminds me that there is no substitute for the balm of Gilead. That old ointment never did heal my wounds.
I find, too, an old worn out garment. It's not very elegant. It's threads are bare and weak. It's moth eaten and didn't serve to cover me well. But to take it out and look at it keeps me grateful for the garment of righteousness I've been given to humbly wear.
There's an alabaster box of perfume in there as well. It smells good, but its not mine to use. I gave it all to Jesus when He told me, "Come, follow me. I'll carry your baggage for you."
So, see, I take my baggage with me wherever I go. I just don't carry it. It's too heavy a load for me anyway. I let the Big Guy carry it for me and He, Himself, opens it for me to look in there occasionally. "This is why I laid my life down."
Lot's wife's mistake was not in looking back; It was in wanting to GO back. It was in wanting to wear that thread-bare garment and that perfume, relying on an old, useless tube of cheap ointment to do the work of the Healer.
Hey, you go on and leave your baggage behind if that's what you want to do. But in doing so, try to remember that refusing to acknowledge the past is opening a little trap door for pride to slip in. You should never live in the past, but, in forgetting the past, you could very well forget how you got where you are and who it was that paid for your ticket.
Poor, salty Mrs. Lottie... the woman had no taste in clothing.
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