08/27/2018
You claim you are a child of the one true God, and you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, you may have even been born again in the spirit, but are you really living a spiritual life? Have you crucified your old self, or does that you of the past continue to haunt and dominate who you are? Your answer might be that you pray every day, but heathens can string words together... only when you are living a truly spiritual life, and your old self has been left behind, can you walk spiritually, and pray with the power you have been promised!
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”
Galatians 5:24-25 ESV
At Christmas, when I was a child, my parents would buy me such things as a cowboy outfit with a hat, boots, Spurs, chaps, guns and all the trappings, and one year a football uniform complete with shoulder pads, cleats, and helmet. I would dress up in these outfits and run all around the house shouting “Look at me Mom, I’m a cowboy”... or sometimes “Hut one, Hut two,” and then run for touchdowns in the back yard. Despite how I dressed, and the motions I went through I wasn’t really a cowboy, or a football player. Until I grew up, and changed myself in the process, I could never really be either of these things. Unfortunately we can also dress ourselves up as Christians and pray as though we truly are (Hut one, Hut two!) but until we have changed who we really are we remain that old person inside and out.
Jesus doesn’t want us to imitate Him, he wants us to pick up our cross and become like Him. Being a Christian is more than playing the part, it is becoming that new person.
“Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Matthew 16:24-26 ESV
A great father, husband, and man died last week , his name is Andre Blay; he was also a film producer, director, entrepreneur, created the home video industry, and accomplished many other great things in his lifetime. I was watching a videotape of a presentation he once made to the Michigan State University School of Business, and during it an MBA candidate asked him about one of his personal friends... Michael Douglas. The student asked if Mr. Douglas was the same in real life at the Blay dinner table as he appeared to be in the movies. To this Andre responded that we shouldn’t confuse the actor with the person. This is equally true when it comes to religion and faith... how we act, and who we are in private can reveal us to be two very different people... but only one is who we truly are.
“The Christian who is still carnal (fleshly) has neither the disposition nor the strength to follow after God. He remains satisfied with his prayer of habit and custom. But the glory and the blessedness of secret prayer is a hidden thing to him, until one day his eyes are opened, and he begins to see that the flesh in its disposition to turn away from God is the arch enemy that makes the powerful prayer impossible.” - Andrew Murray
Who are we? Are we the Apostle Paul who was converted in an instant, or the rich ruler who sought after Jesus but couldn’t sell all he owned to follow him? Are we the actor Michael Douglas on the silver screen, or the real one who had dinner with the Blay family? Are we confusing our own selves, denying the person we really are, while believing we are the person we wish to be?
So I ask that we each take a closer look at our lives and question who we are. Is the person beneath the veneer of our skin, the person everyone sees, actually Jesus, or is it still the same old man or woman who needed to know him on the day we first went to the altar? Did a new and changed self rise from the water of baptism, or just the same old soul with wet hair and a new smile? Are we the actor or the dinner guest?
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, and I pray that I become more like Him with each passing moment. I thank you also for your Holy Spirit that comforts and leads me in this endeavor. Help me Holy Father to be in actuality that person of Christ who I so long for. Change the old man I was Father into a new and redeemed one who is righteous in both how he presents himself, and who he is when alone with you. Have mercy Father, and help me in my unbelief. Reach into the depths of me, and extract that part of me that causes you to grieve. Change my soul so that the righteousness that was once a pretense has become holiness in reality. Let me be perfected by your hand, even as I am redeemed by the blood of your Son Jesus. Let His precious blood course through my veins, and His flesh become mine. Separate the actor from me Father, so that I might be true to your Word, and obedient to your will for me. Merciful and gracious are you Lord, for Holy, Holy, Holy are you who has separated the sinner from who I have become.
I pray today for the Blay family Lord, and for the heartache they feel to be lifted. Help them Merciful God to find comfort in you, and reassurance in your promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Amen
Rich Forbes