So I wanted to start by asking a question "Are children born innocent?" My answer would be most emphatically no. We are born into this world as sinners unable to know or fellowship with God. Therefore everything (including scripture) that I learn by any method, experience, being taught or whatever are perceived through a veil of darkness. I understood this better when I thought of a brand new chalkboard. A baby has no experiences coming into this world, they are essentially a blank chalkboard. As I begin to have experiences they are written onto my chalkboard and remembered as I perceived them at the time. For me I had 25 years of life experiences and teachings that were recorded on my chalkboard. Everything on my chalkboard was tainted by the darkness within me. If you haven't figured it out yet, my chalkboard is my mind. So at 25 I was born again and my spirit was quickened from death to life (no longer a sinner, but a child of God). I am a new creature in Christ because He quickened my spirit. This happened in an instant.

So what about that 25 years of garbage written on my chalkboard? Thought patterns, ideologies and wrong understanding were all still there. My mind was not scrubbed in an instant. So begins the process of being transformed through the renewing of my mind. More to come….