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Identity Theft In this modern age of information there is one particular form of deception on the rise that has most all of us concerned about protecting the rights to who we are. That crime is rightfully called “identity theft”. Identity theft takes place when someone else takes claim to who we are and what belongs to us by using various forms of deception. Some of those forms of deception include: Unauthorized use of card information, signing someone else’s signature on a loan or on a credit card application, using someone else’s Social Security Number to access savings or checking accounts, and or illegally receiving another’s retirement benefits. This has become a crisis that has many people concentrating on doing all that they can to protect their earnings and their possessions, as well as the integrity of their name. The focus has thus far been upon all that is happening with our identities in the natural, but it does not take great discernment to see that the real “identity theft” is found in what is happening to many of us spiritually. IDENTITY & IDENTIFIED (Webster’s definitions), Sameness, identical; not different or other / ascertained or made to be the same. 1John 1:5-9 (KJV) “5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Just as our natural identity is preyed upon by many predators, even more so are the enemies of Christ that wish to remove His identity from this realm by enticing us away from walking in the light. We must guard our spiritual identity with all diligence lest we ebb, ever dimming away under the influences of the spiritual darkness of this age. There is no doubt that the lighted road is not the easy way, and that we must endure suffering to stay thereon, but we must remember that the purpose of those sufferings is that we would become even more identified with Christ, and that God would be glorified. Phi 3:8-11 (KJV) “8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” In this day and age there is much that we must lose for the sake of Christ, but the one thing that we will gain is priceless, and that is our identity with Him and the power of His resurrection, both now and forever. -Kurt Thurston May Newsletter 2004 | A Calm Crisis | Identity Theft | Pastor's Journal May 2004 The Religious | Partakers: With Whom and Of What part 2 of 3 |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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