A CORRECT BIBLICAL CORE BELIEF SYSTEM

Last Devotion I left you thinking about why God said to Adam if he ate from the tree on that day He would surely die. Then we read in Gen. 5:5 Adam lived to be 930 years old. He did not physically die on that day, so what died? The thing that died in him was the real him, the real Adam, that part of Adam that had the true relationship with God and that was God’s SPIRIT that lived in him. So, a spiritual death occurred in Adam on that day. Now he would have to do life out of his own resources. (His Flesh) …. His flesh is his own body and soul, his own mind, emotion and will, with no help from the powerful spirit of God.

The reason this is so important in talking about a proper core belief system is that we must understand and never forget our original position we were born in. The bible tells us we were born in Adam (Romans 5:14). In other words, we were born a sinner separated from God (Romans 5:12). So, what did you have to do to be a sinner? Simply be born. Sin comes from your birth. I have 12 little grandbabies; I call them my 12 little sinners. Do we have to teach our kids how to be bad? NO WAY. It comes naturally. It is called a natural man. The Bible even says spiritual things are foolishness to the natural man.

Here is what I want you to get. This is a very important biblical principle. Sin comes from our birth not our behavior. Did you hear that? How many sins does it take for you to become a sinner. The correct answer is ZERO. You and I were born in Adam and when we came out of our momma’s womb, we came out little sinners. This is why salvation for you, and I is such a miracle. God called us to Himself and gave us a supernatural revelation about the gospel. He opened our eyes and our hearts to see the truth. Never take that for granted. I really am leading up to everyone seeing themselves as either IN ADAM, or IN CHRIST. This is the foundation of starting to understand our true core belief system. To live an abundant life, it is important to understand both. When I started this devotion series remember I stated that our values flow out of our core belief system and our behavior flows out of our values. The way we behave directly comes from our core belief system. Our core belief system is what we think about ourselves, our identity, the way God has wired us.

Next time I want to go into the other side of our core belief system which is being IN CHRIST. Let me leave you with this thought. If we are born in Adam and, by nature, a sinner. When we transfer from being born in Adam to being born in Christ what does that make us? How are we different? Do we have a new identity, a new nature? What is new about us and how should this affect our values and, ultimately, our behavior? I can’t wait to develop this in the next devotion!

Dave Pridemore
Founder Camp Grace