Thursday, May 28, 2009

Character of the New Man or Woman

I exercise by running/walking at least six days a week. When I get done exercising my clothes are usually quite filled with "sweat". It is always enjoyable to "put off" the sweaty clothes and "put on" the clean, fresh ones.

As I was reading Colossians 3 regarding the "putting off" of the old carnal habits - anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy... of the old man and the "putting on" of the new habits of the new man I thought "I wish it was just as easy to change our natures as it is to change our clothes. Then I realized afresh that I don't have to change those carnal habits because God in Christ did it for me. "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering..." This is the character of the new man. The key is that we have been elected by God to walk in newness of life. It was nothing we did or could even choose to do.

In this life, we will still struggle at times and there will be a battle between the new man and the old man. The good news is that God has given us the character of the new man and we can choose to "put off" those carnal habits when we see them raising their ugly heads at us.

The Lord has already dressed us in clothes of righteousness. He has cleansed us through the blood of Christ. Therefore, let us walk in the newness of that life and rejoice in the character that God has placed in us through Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Heartily, as unto the Lord!

The other day a friend called and asked me to do a favor that would take up a couple hours of my time. I readily agreed outwardly but inside what I was saying was "I really don't want to do this - it's a dreary rainy day and it's late and I'm tired".
In spite of my feelings I did what she asked me to do.

This morning I was reading Colossians 3 and when I read vs. 17 I was reminded of the attitude I had regarding the help I gave my friend. "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

As I began to think about this I realized the many areas of our lives this speaks to - young wives and mothers who are at home doing routine tasks, people in the work place unsatisfied and hating their jobs, people in Christian service who are burned out and not at all joyous about their service, children or teens who hate school and dread every class, and those times we are asked to help a friend or neighbor. The list goes on and we could all fit into any one of those categories. I would venture to say that most of the time as we perform various tasks we do not give a lot of thought to the fact that it is to be done in the name of the Lord Jesus - even our very words. Then in vs. 23 it is said a little differently. "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men..."

Another side of this is that many times we do things to "please men". There is nothing wrong with wanting to please our family, friends and neighbors but when we do something only to get a "praise" or "thank you" from people, we will never find the joy the Lord intends us to have. Many times you will serve and not receive a "praise" or "thank you". Then we find ourselves saying "Well, I am not going to do that again or did they not realize what I sacrificed to do this?" When something is done in the name of the Lord Jesus he says "you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ."