Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.
And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk." Colossians 3:1-8 (Message)
Wow. What a jam-packed chapter! I could spend the rest of my life aiming toward those goals (and probably will!). It's easy to keep my eyes on the ground instead of on Christ. It's difficult to kill off the fleshly habits - especially materialism and gluttony. Jerry Bridges speaks to me when he says:
"as we become soft and lazy in our bodies, we tend to become soft and lazy spiritually... There is no place for laziness and indulgence of the body in a disciplined pursuit of holiness." pg 111
I also have been having a hard time lately with watching too much TV. The other day I spent more than an hour watching SNL and after I finally turned it off I said "I feel like I just inhaled a million tons of garbage." Not because I wasn't laughing the entire time, but because I was laughing at stuff that I should have been repulsed by if I was more like Jesus. All the dirty language, rudeness, sexual innuendo, etc... And then I read this:
"...what we allow to enter our minds is critically important. The television programs we watch, the movies we may attend, the books and magazines we read, the music we listen to, and the conversations we have all affect our minds. We need to evaluate the effects of these avenues honestly, using Philippians 4:8 as a standard. Are the thoughts stimulated by these various avenues true? Are they pure? lovely? admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy?" pg 117
I take that back. I read all that BEFORE I watched more than an hour of SNL. And the whole time I was watching, I felt a nagging, remembering that book. But yet I caved into the desires of the moment. Boredom. Loneliness. If my life is about doing what I want when I want, I am not living worthy of the call of Christ.
I have been taking You more seriously about being in the Bible lately. It seems as though sometimes You hammer something home in my mind, and this is one You have just this week. I am completely sold on it. I like how Bridges puts it:
"God's Word must be so strongly fixed in our minds that it becomes the dominant influence in our thoughts, our attitudes, and our actions." pg 86
"...we must discipline our lives for a regular healthy diet of the Word of God. We need a planned time each day for reading or studying the Bible. Every Christian who makes progress in holiness is a person who has disciplined his life so that he spends regular time in the Bible. There simply is no other way." pg 98
I know now that there IS simply NO OTHER WAY. How I ever missed that essential truth is beyond me. I want Your Word to be THE dominant influence in my thoughts, attitude, and actions! I want it to "dwell in [me] richly" as Paul says it. I want to sing to You in grateful praise as we carol tonight. I want to view people with Your eyes. I want to love people with Your heart. I want ME to decrease and YOU to increase. I want I want I want. But am I willing to do my part? I echo Bridges' words as he describes a time in his faith life similar to mine this summer:
"How foolish I was. I misconstrued dependence on the Holy Spirit to mean I was to make no effort, that I had no responsibility. I mistakenly thought if I turned it all over to the Lord, He would make my choices for me and would choose obedience over disobedience. All I needed was to look to Him for holiness. But this is not God's way. He makes provision for our holiness, but He gives us the responsibility of using those provisions." pg 79-80
So I have a very important role in working out my own salvation. I have a big responsibility. I have to exercise some spiritual muscle. I have to strive with all the diligence as an athlete training for the world championship, or a soldier training for battle. More appropriately a soldier. Because this IS a life or death matter. I can either aim to "not get hit" with sin VERY MUCH, or I can make it my aim to not get hit with sin AT ALL. If it's the former, I can be sure I will get hit "not with bullets, but with temptation over and over again." (pg 93).
Do I take my life in Christ seriously enough so that my daily thoughts and actions are geared toward doing everything possible within my power to follow Jesus? Not hardly. I cave in to my desires WAY too much.
Father God, You are so Holy. You are so perfect. You are so majestic, wise, powerful. I think sometimes that if I could only remember who You really are all day long, then I would be much less likely to sin. But that's just the problem. Sin happens most frequently when I turn my attention from You to ME. When I purposefully forget. It's so true that I am not so much "defeated" or "victorious" as I am "disobedient" or "obedient" (chapter 8). I ask You all the time to "help me be this" or "help me be that" but then I go away from my time with You and live life just as disobediently as I ever did. I have no daily plan for carrying out Your Word. It's the same thing as if I prayed "help me stay alive on the battlefield" and then just walked into gunfire with no helmet, gun, or instinct to duck, dragging my lame leg behind me, with a sign hung around my neck reading: "I am your enemy - please don't shoot me."
I am so looking forward to this memorization system. We went ahead and purchased it, and I expect it to arrive any day now! Bless my use of it to Your glory (notice I'm saying that instead of "manufacture in me the motivation to use it"! See, I'm learning! lol).
I sure do love You, Lord. You are my King! I'm so sorry for the millions of times each day my thoughts and actions don't reflect that.
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