11/12/2023
Has Jesus changed your life? Has He altered the very essence of who you once were, or do you put Him on like a change of clothes each day to cover up the nakedness of sin that still exists underneath? Many portray one thing publicly, and then retreat into a private world that is quite different... is this us? Are there things we hide beneath our veneer of faith?
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV
A great many Politicians show us one side of themselves. They are masters at telling us what we want to hear while holding their honest opinions and selves close to their chests. If they said what they truly believed, even if it was what the great majority of us believed as well, they might never get elected. We don’t vote who we are... we vote who we wish we were. Every day we live a life of speeding on the interstate, or not buckling our seatbelt, and yet we vote for the candidate who will pass laws requiring that people obey the speed limit and buckle up.
The same can be true of our faith. We can go to church and portray ourselves as righteous and then leave for home and an entirely different life. We often want to believe we are something we are not. We can be obese and yet readily call gluttony one of the seven deadly sins. We want that new car so bad that we are willing to go deep into debt for it, but count lust as another of those base sins. So who are we really?
Jesus doesn’t want us to act like a Christian, He wants us to live, breath, feel, speak, and think as one. He wants to change our lives to the very core, and make us into more than the superficial image of God; He wants us to become close enough that we can be in Him, and He in us comfortably, and completely.
To do this we have to drop the pretenses. We need to stop fooling ourselves about our righteousness, and allow Him to nearly demolish the house we live in so that it can be renovated.
“And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
1 Corinthians 6:11 ESV
My son and his wife bought my mother and father-in-law’s house after they had passed away. It was built in the very early 50s, and had small closets, out of date bathrooms, and what once was a modern kitchen but now looked totally out of date too. They could have put some fresh paint on it and just lived there, but in order to make it into a modern home they did major renovation work on the house. Walls were torn down bathrooms removed and redone, and a new master bedroom put in; along with big closets, and a new master bath. The kitchen was also redone and outfitted with modern appliances and new sinks. It was painful, and expensive, but in the end it suited their needs perfectly.
This is what Jesus intends for us. He isn’t satisfied with putting a little paint on our old selves... He wants new men and women who have all of the amenities that we see in Him.
“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 KJV
Our outward selves are nice to look at, but it’s what’s on the inside that is all important. God doesn’t want us to just show Him a reflection of Himself; He wants us to be as He is in our very heart and soul. He wants us to be eternally changed, and that requires a total remodel and in some cases it means tearing down the old house completely and beginning fresh. Are we willing to sign the contract with Jesus the builder of abundant lives?
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10 KJV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the notice of condemnation you placed on the front door of my old life. I thank you for leading me to Jesus Christ who then fixed and rebuilt the mess I had made of where I lived. Holy Father you have made provision for me, and although the cost might be painful at times, in the end you show me the glorious new home I have become, and forgive all my debt. Your Son has paid the price Father, and I thank Him for His redemption, and your grace. Have mercy on me Abba as I seek to become the person you would have me be.
Rich Forbes