A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

The photo above is of Pipewort Pond, a little wildlife refuge a few miles from my home, where my dog and I frequently go hiking. (Actually the butterfly picture, currently at the head of my blog was taken on the shore of the pond, in a button bush  at the right side of the above picture.)   This is a picture from last February.  We went out a couple of days ago and it looked similar to what you see above, but there was not as much snow covering the ice of the pond. You can see plants growing up through the ice all over the pond.  It is a seasonal body of water.  Two years ago, even without ice, I was able to walk pretty much everywhere I wanted.  The open water was confined to an area maybe the size of a backyard swimming pool, but this past year has been much wetter and there is a good area of water several acres in size, now frozen, but in any respect it is not at all deep, maybe at the deepest spot a mere three feet in depth. Also in these last few days...

I chose as the name for my blog: anewcreature .blogspot.com What does it mean to be made into a new creature? One of the most significant verses of the Bible for me is: 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. I was 44 years old and a committed atheist when I walked into a church service that first Sunday of June of 2000. I came merely to thank them for their prayers for me during my heart surgery a couple of weeks previously. I wanted to thank these perfect strangers for taking time out of their day to pray for me. I did not understand, but I wanted to thank them for caring for me. What I saw in that church created a hunger in me, for what they had. More things transpired over the next few weeks and months, but that morning, that day. . . I began upon a road of change that continues undiminished to this day almost eight years later. I had much sin in my life. I thought myself a good...