Daily Archives: January 9, 2015

Chosen, Holy And Dearly Loved

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CHOSEN, HOLY AND DEARLY LOVED

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity (Col. 3:12-14).

Imagine wearing an identity like that – chosen, holy and dearly loved! Who, me? Yes, you. You were once . . . but now you are . . . That’s how Paul described the erstwhile idolatrous, promiscuous and sin-loving Colossians. That’s how he describes everyone who has been rescued from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of God.

You have been delivered from the clutches of the one who insisted that you belong to him and that you could only live under his control. You are now free to become who you are, God’s chosen, holy and dearly loved son or daughter. Oh how we need to get hold of this truth; think it, believe it and live it until it infiltrates every fibre of our beings so that we become who we are!

Close your eyes for a moment and think about Jesus. He perfectly matched Paul’s description of a child of God. Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiving, loving – don’t these qualities all fit Him perfectly? How amazing that you are now free to become just like Him! He was the perfect model of a true son and He made it possible for us to become just like Him, true children of God.

Why is it so important that we clothe ourselves with these virtues? What difference does it make whether or not we live holy and pure lives in this world now? Are we not destined to be changed into the likeness of Jesus when He comes or calls us home?

Yes we are, but there are several good reasons for us to change our ways from self-centred living to becoming like Jesus now.

1. Jesus rescued us from a life of selfishness. We are no longer citizens of this world system which is based on getting everything we can for ourselves. What drives the world? Money!

2. Living for ourselves alone leads to death and hell and not only in the hereafter. It’s about death and hell now. We cannot have fellowship with God and live greedy, self-centred lives now. The two are incompatible. When we live only to take care of ourselves, we are dead. We create hell through the selfishness that drives people apart.

3. God’s children have been given His nature – God is love and God is light. God’s children resemble Him, not the devil who is responsible for the chaos in the world.

Through these (His own glory and goodness – verse 3) He has given us His very great and precious promises so that, through them, you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world cause by evil desires .

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control perseverance; and to perseverance godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4-10).

How do we ‘clothe’ ourselves with these virtues? We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. By replacing our ways of thinking with the thoughts of God, we change our beliefs and our behaviour. Do you believe that you are chosen by God and holy and beloved? Then remind yourself of this truth until you become who you are.

By becoming who we are, we will fulfil God’s highest purpose for His human family, to become one as God is one.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A New Outfit

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A NEW OUTFIT!

Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all (Col. 3: 8-11).

A bath and a set of new clothes changes our image, doesn’t it?

Our lives are like that too. Imagine yourself living on the street for years – nowhere to sleep and nowhere to take a bath and put on fresh clothing. However you lived in your homeless existence, you accumulated the filth and the vermin of the streets and there was nowhere you could go to take a bath or change your clothes. You were doomed to live in your environment of dirt with no hope of even changing your circumstances.

Then someone sees you in your plight and takes pity on you. He drives you to his home in his luxury vehicle, runs a hot bath, sets out soap, shampoo, perfume, a thick, fluffy towel, and a set of new clothes. He leads you to the bathroom and invites you in to clean up.

How would you feel when you emerged from the steamy tub, towelled off and dressed in clean clothing? You would feel like a million dollars! You would have no desire to return to your life on the street, complete with its filth and the vermin that were your constant companions.

Then, on top of that, your compassionate benefactor does the unthinkable – he invites you to become a part of his household – a son, in fact. There is a place at his table for you. He shows you to your own bedroom, complete with a closet full of new clothing and everything you need to live a clean and respectable life. Would you be fool enough to refuse his generosity and go back to your old life of poverty and squalor?

That is what happened to you spiritually when you accepted Jesus’s invitation to go home with Him and ‘clean up’. You shed the filthy rags of your old life; your efforts to live a good life; to earn God’s approval for your attempts to live up to His standards; or even your couldn’t-care-less, happy-go-lucky, selfish, unrestrained, boundary less, anything-goes life.

He took you home to the Father who welcomed you as His lost son. He power-washed your innermost being in His own blood, removing all the fear, guilt and shame of your old life. He clothed you with the spotless garment of His own righteousness. He gave you a place at His banqueting table and a room of your own in His house. He gave you access to all His resources and the right to use them as long as you use them in line with His character and will.

He asks of you only one thing – to live in union with Him so that you can accurately represent Him to a world that does not acknowledge or know Him. You are a new person now, no longer alone and having to fight for an existence. You are part of God’s family, those who have been rescued from their terrible plight, with a new identity -children of God. All of the credentials of your old life no longer count.

‘Now,’ says Paul, ‘since you have been washed, clothed, given a new identity and a new family, live like a member of God’s household. Forget who you were and live who you are, a son or daughter of God. You don’t have to cover up who you were. Your past has been obliterated forever. You don’t have to pretend to be who you are not. You have been fully accepted as God’s child and you are fully loved. Just be who you are, a beloved son or daughter of God.’

What a relief to know that you can just be you because God is working in you! He is renewing His image in you as you get to know Him and learn to obey Him as your loving Abba, papa, daddy. You no longer have to be a homeless beggar, living by your wits just to exist. You are no longer an orphan.

You have a name, a home and an inheritance because you are God’s child!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is who we are! (1 John 3: 1a).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Where The Rubber Meets The Road

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WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD 

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips (Col. 3: 5-8).

This is where the rubber meets the road!

This is the place where religion and faith in Jesus Christ come to the parting of the ways. Every religious philosophy offers some sort of goal in the afterlife to which their teaching points – Nirvana, Utopia, 70 virgins, heaven, whatever, but there is no proof of the truth of what they teach because no one has ever returned from the dead to verify their aspirations.

One person did – Jesus Christ! He not only proved by His resurrection that everything He taught is the truth; He also made it possible, through His death and resurrection, to begin the process of restoration in this life! No other religious belief empowers a fallen human being to overcome sin and live a completely new life. Many thousands, many millions of people have been transformed from losers to brand new people through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Apostle Paul, in fact, who experienced it for himself and was able to write with conviction, said:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Cor. 5:17).

The proof that a person has surrendered the ownership of his life to Christ, is that he is a changed person. The old passions and desires to live for and serve self and sin have given way to a new love. Where there was once enmity against God, the fear of punishment and the uncontrolled appetites of the sinful nature which acted like slave drivers, the peace of Christ now rules.

The sin nature is still there but it is no longer the driving force of our lives. Apostle Peter put it even more clearly:

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires (2 Pet. 1: 3-4).

The potential for us to live a godly life is there but we still have choices to make that activate that potential, making it actual as we choose, thought by thought and action by action to nurture the divine nature within us and put to death the appetites that indulge our old fleshly passions and lusts.

Obeying rules can never kill our sinful nature. Christ’s death and resurrection has done away with the guilt and shame of our past sinful lives, and set us free to pursue a life of trust in Him and obedience to His ways. Making the choice to obey Him rather than our fleshly desires is the first step towards activating the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us to do what we have chosen to do.

Where once, when we said ‘No’ to our sinful desires, our lusts drove us to do what we did not want to do, now we can say ‘No’ with the assurance that ‘No’ really means ‘No’! Paul said we are to put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature. God has set boundaries around our physical appetites within which it we may satisfy them. Food is to sustain the body; sex is to be enjoyed within the confines of marriage; money and possessions are to be our servants, not our masters.

There are legitimate desires which are part of life and illegitimate passions which are detrimental to life and relationships. The destructive desires and emotions are the things we must identify and put to death – because, in Christ we have already died to everything that drives this world system, and upon which the wrath of God will fall.

What a relief to know that we need no longer be driven by unruly passions but led by the Spirit when we submit to Him!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.