New Life

Read Colossians 3:1-17

Here is a question: Are you living up to the quality of life that Jesus Christ died on the cross to give you? Many Christians settle for the fact they are going to heaven when they die. But Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life abundantly." (John 10:10). The problem is our old nature, our flesh, and the sins that we have not dealt with. As the old puritan writer John Owens once said, 'You will either be killing sin, or sin will be killing you."

Paul makes a basic assumption at the beginning of this text. That assumption is that the reader is already a follower of Jesus Christ. Because that is true, a person is hidden in Christ, and therefore raised with Him to live a new kind of life.

So Paul says, "Set your hearts on things above." Then he says, "Set your minds on things above."
Your heart is your affection, and your mind is your attention. So set both on Christ. And he says, "Put to death the old patterns of behavior that were yours before Christ." In fact like a suit of clothes, take off the old dirty and ragged clothing for the new clothing in Christ.

Christ died to give you the kind of life that He lived. Are you living beneath your position?

Are You Kidding Me?

"But Annanias answered, 'Lord I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." Acts 9:13-14)

As I was growing up, there was a TV sitcom about a rich white man who adopted to African American children. The oldest was named "Willard" and the younger brother would look at him with a strange look sometimes and say, "What 'chu talkin bout Willard?" When God told Annanias to go and visit Saul who had just had an encounter with Jesus, I can imagine him saying, "What 'chu talkin' bout Lord?"

Saul had consented to Stephen's stoning and had been a part of persecuting the Christians in Jerusalem. Now he was on his way to Damascus to torment the believers there. His reputation had preceded him. Annanias said, "I have heard about him. I am afraid."

God is an incredible God and He delights in transforming some of the most unlikely people, like you and me. We need to see the power of God at work and say, "Praise the Lord" instead of "Are you kidding me?" Is there anything too difficult for God? Can you transform a murderer like Paul into a Missionary? Absolutely. And He can transform dirty sinners like us into delightful saints for His glory.