Are you changing or just patching it up? In His Word
11-8-2021
Our life in Christ is a lot like these pants, but I think
Jesus said it when He said you cannot put new fabric on old clothes because the
tear is still there the old fabric is weak. (That is a Teresa Wilson
paraphrase!) Let’s face it, a lot of us
try to patch our old lives with newness of Christ only to find that that hole
is still there underneath. Instead of removing the old self we put on a
Christian Patch that covers up our sins, so we think. The problem with sin is
when we do not really give it to Jesus it comes back to bite us!
Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a
piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then
the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old
garment. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would
burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be
stored in new wineskins. But no one who
drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they
say.” Luke 5:36-39
Until we get rid of the old, we have no need for the new. Or
you could say that once the newness comes you can totally let go of the new,
except it doesn’t work that way. You have to let go of one thing to receive the
other.
Jesus replied, “Now
the time has come for the Son of Man ( referring to Jesus, Himself) to enter
into his glory. I tell you the truth,
unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But
its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will
lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for
eternity. John 12:23-25
We have to let go of doubt to trust Jesus. The one thing
that I know is that once we believe the newness of life will come! Once we decide to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and be saved; He will change us from the inside out!~
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you
should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of
their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of
their heart, who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if
indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in
Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which
grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true
righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4: 17-24
We won’t even want to go on sinning after we are saved
because we have put on the new life. Then We will want to continue to renew our
minds daily in the Word of God. The more we read in the Bible the more we will
want to know more about Jesus, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit and why He
chose to grant us with salvation in the first place! Its all there!
No matter how horrible and rotten you think you are, God
loves you and wants to make you a better person. He wants to make you the person
He birthed you to become. He doesn’t want us to just put on a church service
patch and go on with our lives, He wants to get us living with a fresh
perspective and walking in His newness of life!
Just another thing to ponder... In His Word 2021