Past...

We all have a past... Some of us have a tough time letting it go. I have been guilty of that myself recently. I continue to refer to myself as an ex-club member... Is that really how I define my life? Just some guy who was in a small one piece Riders Club who had delusions of grandeur about becoming the baddest of the bad as an outlaw club member with a 1% patch. I'm so much more than that. Yes, God did a mighty thing by delivering me from the club lifestyle and from all the alcohol and the perversions that I allowed in my life. He also healed my family life from some of the poor choices I made regarding how I treated my wife and children. But do I really need to tell every one that I was a club member? Do I really need to continue to label myself for some kind of street cred? Have I really left my past where it belongs, in the past?
I'm guilty of letting my past continue to creep up on me. I'm guilty of letting the stories of my past sin and misdeeds over shadow what God has done for me. I realize now that in order for me to do the things that God wants me to do I have to let my past stay in the past as a testament to His glory. If you are struggling as I have been, remember the future is bright and the past is only a reminder of His power to deliver us and send us on a new, productive, path to glorify HIM!!!

Mark 2:15-17 NLT
15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees[a] saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?[b]”

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”