MM
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Hillbillies In The Mansion
So the Beverly Hillbillies were odd because they lived in a new world but still acted as if they lived in the old one--what are some specific examples of ways Christians do this? What are the traits of our old selves and old ways of thinking that are hardest to leave behind? Why?
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5 comments:
It really struck me,and I mean like a brick to a storefront window, that we are no different than a snake unless we shed our skin once we have come to know the Lord, and made that commitment to Him. We need to shed our old ways just like the snake shedding that old skin, and grow a new one that reflects off the power of Christianity that we have obtained through grace and reconcilliation with our old selves and the new people that we have become in the Lord. I don't want people on the street saying,"Whose He with? He looks like he lost his last friend.When someone asks me how I am,I am to respond "Just fine, and right by the Lord," and through my actions they will know I have shed my old habits of retribution,selfishness, and self-fulment to answer the true call of the Lord....not the "Hillbilly Mansion style of living, where nothing ever changes, but we say we changed;meanwhile, no one ever sees the difference,probably laughing at us behind our backs, how we are not in the light, and what hypocrits we are. Say the prayer,"Lord, I know I will slip into my old skin occasionally, but let me be a dove, not a snake."
Yes. And not only does God want us to shed our old skin, but he wants to transform us from snakes to lions.
Too often we say, "I'm not perfect, just forgiven." God forgives us so that he can make us perfect. Perfection is a very distant goal, and definitely one we only achieve through God working in us (not by our own strengths), but it is the goal.
Pastor Mike - please elaborate further on your response to Anonymous of, "God forgives us so He can make us perfect." Thanks!
Chris,
What I was getting at is that God has a goal for us. Too often people think becoming a Christian means only that a person has stepped over a line from damnation to salvation--as if the person has the same character but is now in a different location.
It is true, of course, that Christ brings us from death to life, and that in surrendering our lives to him he definitely brings us across that line. But after we cross it, we should be in a constant trajectory of growth and maturity in our likeness of Christ until we reach true perfection. God wants us to be saints, not just sinners who have been saved. He wants to work in us and through us to the point where we are not only sinful people whose sins have been paid for by Christ, but people who do not sin any more. In other words, perfect.
But, as I said in the comment earlier, this is something we do NOT achieve by our own efforts. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us can this happen.
Christians (especially those in the Methodist tradition) have long debated whether or not perfection can be achieved before death. I seriously doubt it, but the point is to remember the goal. We don't want only to be saved; we want to be holy--perfect for God in every way.
Some passages I have in mind are Philippians 3:12-16 and Colossians 1:25-29.
I always think of Hebrews when I think of being 'made perfect'. I love Hebrews 12:2 . . . He (Jesus) will perfect my faith; the hard part (for me) is allowing this to happen / working with it (making His way my way). And then the many references to Jesus's perfection in the book of Hebrews takes me to I Corinthians 3:18 that promises that we (me!) are being transformed into His likeness - and His likeness is perfection . . . almost too much to grasp . . . and the word for transformed there is the word from which we get metamorphosis (I think - isn't its only other use in Romans 12:2?) and I think of this caterpillar turning into a butterfly and I like that image - with patience and perseverance - to His glory.
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