Got Ink?

Yes sir, I do! For my 68th birthday, I decided I wanted a tattoo.

My youngest daughter’s response after seeing this on my Facebook timeline –

So now that the shock of “WHO ARE YOU and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY DADDY” has worn off (slightly)…I gotta say that the design is really cool.

[And before anyone comments about the ‘typo’, I know about it and it is being fixed.]

The idea of getting inked all started when a Facebook friend posted this image.

I was drawn to the message and thought this would make a cool tattoo – except it was way too busy for my taste. After finding several designs of a cross made from nails, I settled on an image and made an appointment. All that was left was finding a Bible verse that represented what the cross means to me.

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. (Galatians 2:20, NIV)

So why is that verse important to me? For starters, it represents a change that I went through way back in the 70’s when I came to the realization that I needed to make a formal and public declaration that living for ‘self’ was over and living for Jesus was a new beginning.

Crucifixion is a death sentence. The Apostle John wrote in John 3 of an encounter Jesus had with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. During this encounter, Jesus explained very clearly that to enter heaven a person must choose to live in the spirit and not in the flesh. Continuing in John chapter 3, we read:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

To believe in Jesus means more than just head knowledge of Jesus. It means heart knowledge as well, or knowing Jesus in a personal way. To do this, a person must decide to be crucified with Jesus and let Jesus live in him.

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So let me ask you this – have you been crucified with Jesus? Are you living in the Spirit or in the flesh?

If you were to die today, do you have the confidence in knowing that you will go to heaven? The Bible says we are saved by grace, not by works. There is nothing you can to earn your way into heaven. Call out to Jesus today. Let Him know you want to stop living in the flesh and start living in the Spirit. The Bible says that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved (Acts 2:21). To choice is yours.

Thanks for stopping by, y’all come back now.