8/16 - Colossians 3, Part 2

"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. Do not lie to each other, 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 Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." (Colossians 3:5-11)

Being a new man in Christ necessarily requires that you remove the old junk out of your life. Confessing Christianity means committing to a total transformation from who you were to who God wants you to be. How can a total transformation be complete if we hang on to our old stuff? Was Abram anything like Abraham? Was Saul anything like Paul? Was Steve Urkel anything like Stephan Urkelle? If I want to fix my golf swing (Lord knows I need to), there's some old habits that I need to completely forsake if my new swing will be successful. Just like any of the things we try to change in our lives - attitudes, addictions, skills, etc - holding on to our old ways only hinders our progress. I don't mean to imply that I'm offering a "just do better" or "just stop what you're doing" solution. If it were that easy, it wouldn't be worth blogging about. I'm trying to establish a foundation by which transformation can be deemed a worthy conquest and reasons why the old ways we hold on to should be destroyed. Jesus gave a great example in a parable where he said

"No one uses a new piece of cloth to patch old clothes. The patch would shrink and tear a bigger hole. No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins. Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins. Both the skins and the wine will then be safe" (Matt 9:16-17, CEV).

If you're going to a party with a 3-piece Armani suit, don't blow it by wearing your 6-year-old busted Reebok's. Your old stuff is not allowing the new stuff to shine.

That was a silly analogy but I think it also helps explain why we hold on to our old stuff. We get comfortable in it. Those old busted Reebok's have conformed themselves perfectly to our feet & we don't want to let them go. In life we think that just because we've been doing a thing so long and we've become so accustomed to it that it can come along for the ride in our Christian walk. Paul says put to death your old members which are on earth. The list he mentions - fornication, uncleanness, evil desire, etc - we know what of those things we hold on to. I think that phrase "put to death" implies action. It's a little more than praying for it & hoping God takes it away. Now that's a great start, but without action it could be a futile attempt. This process, which I think we should be engaged in everyday (1 Corinthians 15:31), is not an easy one and requires prayer, confession, accountability, Bible study & some carefully placed restrictions in your life. If you're a shopaholic, maybe consider placing your expendable income in an account you can't easily access. Pornography addict, consider an accountability partner & blocking yourself from certain websites. These type of actions, of course along with prayer, constitute putting our old ways to death.

The process is painful & tedious, just like the Israelites who had to put their best lambs to death (Leviticus 1:1-9), but it's necessary for our sanctification.

8/15 - Colossians 3

Good morning everyone. I added a "verse of the day" feed from biblegateway.com (the site I use to link all my scriptures) and it's on the right side of the page under the subscribe link. Earlier this week I snuck a Twitter link on the blog, found on the bottom right. Yep, I joined Twitter (www.twitter.com/rpscott02). My wife thinks I'm going to become a junkie, and I'm not even here to say I won't...but I'll try not to. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about but after experiencing it a few days I think I'm starting to get it. I'm also able tweet the blog posts each day which I thought was pretty cool. So follow me @rpscott02 tweeps! Nevermind what that means, on to more important matters...

Colossians 3

The chapter begins, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (v. 1-3). In my distracted life, it is easy to forget what has been revealed to me with regard to why I'm here. I can focus all my energy on the temporary things of this life: my job, paying bills, running errands, Bengals training camp, etc. Not that these things should be ignored, but if all my energy is focused on these things, how can I be fully focused on Christ? Now I don't think I should just be walking around oblivious to the world, chanting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" with total disregard for others or my earthly responsibilities. I think a focus on God would look more like continual prayer throughout the day, taking time to get to know my co-workers so I can minister to them, considering where God would have me donate money when I look at my finances, viewing everyone I encounter as either heaven or hell bound and letting my conversation flow from that.

OK, back to the verse. The KJV version of verse 1 reads "If ye then be risen in Christ..." That word "risen" in Hebrew is "mischar" which means "morning; rising in the sense of day breaking." The moment we decide to follow Christ, the Bible says we are new creatures. The sun has set on our old ways and the dawn of a new era begins. Just as each day is separate from the day before, we are completely new concerning our old selves. With this "new self" then, should have a new perspective, a new thinking that is separate from our old way. As Paul put it, we should set our minds on things above. Here's a few parallel passages that speak to our being made new in Christ - Ezekiel 11:19, Romans 6:4, 2 Cor 5:17, Galatians 6:15, Ephesians 2:15, 4:24.

Although we have this "new self," there's still a lot we need to do to realize the full potential of this new creation. I'm not talking about doing things to earn salvation, but taking active steps toward sanctification - the process of separating one's self and striving for holiness. Though we are made new, there are still some consequences and bad habits we have to deal with from our "old self." I think this is why Paul took the time to give some very straight to the point advice on striving for holiness: "put to death your members which are on earth: fornification, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry". We can't take on this new self while still catering to our old desires. More on this tomorrow. Grace & peace to you.

7/6 - Ephesians 4, Part 3

God invites us, at our point of need - when we realize that we can no longer live of our own sufficiency but require His grace for salvation - to come to Him as we are (see 1 Corinthians 1:26). We were unwise, resistant to God, blind, spiritually dead. An old southern baptist preacher might say we were unrepentant, degenerate sinners!! God calls us in this condition, just as we are, but has no intention whatsoever that we stay as we are.

"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (v. 22-23, cf. 2 Cor 5:17).

When God enters our lives He has every intention on completely changing us because before we accepted Him, we were nothing like Him. So it should even be our desire and prayer that God continue to change us because, in light of His holiness, anything that's not like Him, He won't even recognize (Matt 7:21-23). So for us who believe, we shouldn't say things like "Well, that's just the way I am," "I'll always be that way so get used to it," or "I'm just being real." That last one is probably the best. We use that to suggest that what we feel (about out language, our dress, our fleshly desires) is a more legitimate reality than what God's word says....that's probably a topic for another blog. God wants to change you. Anything in you that suggests otherwise, anything that wants you to hold on to things that are not like God is a lie from the enemy.

So the end of this chapter (v. 17-32) is all about embracing this newness that can be found in God. It's so easy to conform to the world. They're the majority and there's comfort when you're in line with the majority. There's comfort nowadays in believing that sex [or even living together] before marriage is not only normal but encouraged; that drunkenness, girl-watching, smoking, excessive TV watching, pornography, foul language....comfort in believing that all these things are OK. First of all, because it satisfies the flesh but secondly because there are no social consequences for it. In fact, I may lose a few subscribers to this blog. But God has called us out - "no longer to walk as the Gentiles walk" and that we "put off [our] old [selves], which [are] being corrupted by [their] deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of [our] minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (v. 17, 22-24; pluralization mine).

My pastor mentioned yesterday that we can't be like the world and be like God because the two sides are in conflict, in fact they're diametrically opposed. So it's my goal, my prayer that each day I become less and less like the world which will in turn mean I'm becoming more and more like Him. Becoming less like the world means being different, but that's OK. I think God wants us to stand out.