Posts

Showing posts with the label Put on

A faith wardrobe

Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.  (Joseph B. Wirthlin) But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise. (Galatians 3:25-27) Journeys all have a destination in mind. We may not clearly know the destination when we set out, but we have a general idea. As we go along this journey with Christ, we have a general idea of being washed, made clean, getting a fresh start, but do we know where that 'fresh start' will take us? Not always! We might imagine it just means we 'do over'...

A lifebuoy is offered

So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. (Colossians 3:5, 10-11) Put to death...put on your new nature. These are very clear instructions - put the old away, put on the new. Stop going back to the old - stick with the new. How? Be renewed - we need a renewal process to occur. It is not enough to just say 'yes' to Jesus - one must press in to know him well, forsaking all manner of sin, and embracing this new life in Christ with all the passion we once put into pursuing our sin! In counseling realms, we call this the 'put off - put on' dynamic. We 'put off' some behavior that is not good for us to pursue and we replace it with one that is honorable, upright, an...

How are you dressing these days?

Recently my work environment changed their dress code a bit, lightening up on the restrictions on wearing jeans to work. In fact, the term "dress for you day" really says it all. We are now allowed to come to work in nice jeans - the kind that are free of rips and tears - making it very comfortable to work. It isn't that I really wanted to ditch all my dress clothes, but there are just times when I am doing little more than sitting in front of the computer working on some projects and jeans are quite comfy. I wonder how we are dressing for our day when it comes to our 'spiritual clothing', though? If we were to judge our 'spiritual attire' by the attitude we see exhibited while we are shopping for some 'out of stock' items, or our willingness to make adjustments while we go through crisis of some sort, we might just find we are a little 'under-dressed'. It seems some have forgotten to get dressed at all! Since you are all set apart by God...

A whole new wardrobe

My first week in the military was kind of interesting. Arriving at Fort Jackson on a chartered bus that had picked up a whole bunch of us in the wee hours of the morning on that October day in 1976, the 'unknown' caused all of us more than a little trepidation. As we unloaded our suitcases and gathered around it became clear this would be a life-changing venture! In rather short order, the orders were being barked out to divide each of us into groups and then serving to usher us off to our temporary housing. The dawn came way too early and those jeans, tennis shoes, and t-shirts were all exchanged for olive drab shirts, socks, caps, and pants, white undershirts, and black boots. All the same, no one standing out any longer as unique. Those clothes we brought along for the journey were all taken from us, locked away until our final day at boot camp, never to be worn again until we were officially finished 'becoming soldiers'. Why did they insist on clothing us with the ...

A full wardrobe

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust. ( 2 Peter 1:4 MSG ) I have heard Christians say they don't have what it takes to live a righteous life. They bemoan the issues they still have with temptation and then when compromise inevitably hits them full in the face, they seem to say, "I told you so!" It is as though they forget these words of truth - EVERYTHING that goes into a life of pleasing God HAS BEEN given to us. There is NOTHING we haven't been given already. Maybe we just haven't PUT ON what it is we are already provided! To illustrate this point, consider your closet or chest of drawers for a moment. How many shirts do you have...