Every Weight And Sin 

Hebrews chapter 12:1,2

1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;

As we make the transitions from one level of faith to the next, it is so important that we understand, Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is the first level and the last level!

Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God says, “This is the starting place. You are at one level, I am at a higher level!” Four times in Revelations John hears God say, “Come up hither or to come up higher to where I am!”

God is calling you and me to come up higher! At each increase, each level, each blessing, the words, “Looking unto Jesus,” ought to mean more to us each day. For if we are going to go to the next level and the next level, we must keep our eyes on Jesus.

It is reported that near Tarsus, where Saul was born,

there lived a tribe of people who inflicted a most terrible penalty upon a murderer.

As punishment for the crime committed, they fastened the body of the victim to that of the killer, tying shoulder to shoulder, back to back, thigh to thigh, arm to arm, and then drove the murderer from the community.

So tight were the bonds that he could not free himself, and after a few days, the death in the body communicated itself to the living flesh of the murderer.

As he stalked the land, there was none to help him. He had only the frightful prospect of gangrenous death. As he carries that dead body the death that is in the body begins to claim the living.

The poison, the rottenness and the stench takes over the living.

We have made mistakes. We missed the mark over and over. And to many the devil has strapped our failures to our backs. We could well cry in horror, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this dead body?"

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Mat 6:14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

Mat 6:15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Will you forgive yourself?

Next Level Card #10