Skip to main content

Before "In with the New"

By
 21  And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22  he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. Colossians 1:21-22

God starts nature’s spring cleaning routine early. Many of us here in the northwoods wonder if God sometimes forgets spring altogether. God however begins to think about the spring renewal and set it in motion even during the fall and winter months.  Think for a second of what your upcoming spring cleaning routine looks like.  You and I wait until the actual spring to accomplish it.  God in his perfect wisdom starts early.  Here’s how it works.

In order to have an “in with the new” experience what must happen? “Out with the old. Enter the fall and winter seasons.  The same is true in our spiritual lives. In order for the in with the new spiritual life that God offers through Christ, there must be an out with the old moment.  This is called repentance. Who are we before we trust Christ? Who are we without Jesus?  If you have never truly trusted in Christ, verse 21 describes your standing before God. 

We were or are alienated, enemies, estranged, putt at odds with or against, strangers who hate one another. We are alienated or separated from God. Ephesians 2:12 - Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth or citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  So how far does this alienation go? What must God do away with (out with the old) in order to reconcile us (in with the new)?

Enemies in Relationship - We have broken fellowship with God by our sin. This is unrepairable by us, all that we try to do to win back the relational favor of God ultimately backfires on us, making it worse. Hostile in Mind – Our Mental capabilities are distorted and used against God’s glory.  We use our minds to gain glory for ourselves.  We also use our God given minds to justify our actions against God.  Our minds are completely fallen.  We try to justify what we are doing using the incredible mental faculties that were given as a gift from God. This results in all sorts of confusion, misunderstanding, intellectual arrogance and pride. 

Think about it, the reason that someone is an atheist is not because they are really smart and have disproved that God exists.  If you listen to the arguments under their arguments you find out that they are actually angry at God. They are at enmity with God because their relationship with him is broken.  A broken relationship with a God who is really there, though they deny him.  That broken relationship results in their intellectual arguments against God.  In our enmity with God we even go so far as using the mind that we have been given by God to actually go about disproving that God exists.  We are enemies in our minds.  God must intervene.

Emotional Enmity - If we are hostile in the way we think about God, as our enemy, we will also be emotionally at odds with God. This shows itself in visceral angry emotional hatred of God as well as jealousy, outbursts and frustration. It is revealed in our outburst against God or people created in the image of God. This emotional enmity also expresses itself in not having the right emotions toward God.  If we really deeply understood God we would not only have our minds renewed by God, but our emotions as well.  When we have no overwhelmed joy, thankfulness and praise toward God as creator we show we are not in right relationship with God.  No excitement for what God is doing, no weeping and praying over our sin or those who are lost.  We are indifferent to God, cold toward God.  We are stoic, unemotional, uncaring and indifferent toward all the things that really should affect us. This all comes from our rejection of God and his offer of salvation.

Enemies in what we do - This is true of not only the bad things your do but also all of your righteous deeds They are what according to Isaiah 64:6? Filthy rags.  Evil behavior is not so much the cause of your alienation, it is the result of your alienation. Our sin problem taints even our good deeds because we offend God by trying to get back into his favor any other way that by trusting Christ.  We are saying that Jesus sacrifice wasn’t necessary to save us, that God is wrong about the gravity of our sins and that we know better than God does by trying to make up out sin to him.

Enemies Reconciled -That, however, is where grace flows forth from the cross of Calvary for all who would place their trust in Christ alone for reconciliation.  God has provided a way for this hostility to end. His son Jesus Christ.


In Christ, My Only Hope, Pastor Steven

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Mystery Revealed

By
(I was given this) stewardship from God… to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:25-27 What comes to mind when I say the word Mystery? Generally our answer would be something unknown to us currently and potentially unsolvable. A mystery generally involves our inability to come to full knowledge of something because of our limitations.  Mysteries riddle us, confuse us and often leave us scratching our heads in fuzzy misunderstanding.  Many would find this to be true with the Bible itself; It is mysterious, hard to understand and confusing.    Yet, God gives us help. He has granted a gifts to help us understand that which is mysterious about his word.  Here, it says that Paul himself was given this stewardship to make...
1 comment
Read more

Time flies

By
Whew, It seems as if time had flown by so incredibly fast. The last 4 weeks have been incredible jam-packed days where the grace of God has been so evidently seen. I arrived the 25th of May in Red Cloud, NE. This is a community of about 1,000 people. My dad is the high school principal and math teacher up at the school, that coupled with spending last summer here working a couple of jobs and being apart of the Congregational Church has been an inroads to a lot of ministry. This year I am with the Congregational "Bible" church (same church, newly acquired name, to reflect what we are centered upon) to fulfill my graduation requirements for Moody. I am full time with the church this summer and am actually getting paid to do this work! Which keeps me much more sane than trying to work two jobs and tackle responsibility with the church. As much as I enjoyed working at the drive in and the Cafe last summer, it is nice to be able to concentrate on the body of believers here...
4 comments
Read more

Transformed by a Transfer

By
13  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.    Colossians 1:13-14 Transfers change things. On the small scale we find ourselves, maybe more often than we like, transferring money from the savings account to the debit or credit card account to cover the amount.  The transfer that we make there changes things.  Doing so avoids a penalty, covers our credit, and accomplishes something in our lives and the way we are able to live.  The bigger the transfer, the bigger the change moving forward.  Any transfer has effects, it changes things. Think for a moment of an even bigger transfer.  Suppose you were called into the office at work and you were told you were going to be transferred. At that point you would want to know the location and the scope of your transfer.  If you were merely being shifted to a different area ...
Post a Comment
Read more