Today is St. Patrick's Day...
I'm sure your mind is immediately filled with thoughts of green beer, little leprechauns, shiny green shamrock necklaces, and of course, big green top hats. All over the world today, people are planning parties, stocking up on alcohol, and cancelling all their plans for tomorrow to recover for the intense hangovers as a result of celebrating St. Patrick's Day... a day that was created to honor Maewyn "Patrick" Succat, a devoted Christian man who was called by God to Ireland. At that time, Ireland was heavily gripped by paganism and idolatry. Patrick brought the good news of the Gospel into this area and taught the people about Jesus for the first time, and many of the people accepted Christ and turned away from their old ways. Patrick died on March 17th, which we celebrate today as St. Patrick's Day.
Is it just me, or is something here not adding up?
What exactly are we celebrating here? Well, it's called St. Patrick's Day, so obviously we are honoring St. Patrick and celebrating all that he accomplished in his life... right? Think again. St. Patrick was a warrior for God's Kingdom, and sadly today we find ourselves embracing and celebrating the very things that he fought against.
While it's sad, this isn't new to us as a culture. The world (with obvious influence from the enemy) has twisted almost every holiday we celebrate, completely blinding us from the righteous intent of our holidays. Think about it for a second... what holidays come to mind when I mention:
- Fear?
- Gluttony?
- Materialism?
- Greed?
- Sexual Immorality?
- Drunkenness?
Do you see the ways that each of these things have been worked into our minds and our traditions as we celebrate certain holidays?
As I reflected on all of this today, I realized that holidays are one of the many weapons that the enemy uses to ensnare us with sin and idolatry. It's as if we have bought into this idea that holidays are an excuse or a free pass to act on our sinful desires. Too many times I have bought into this lie in the past, and it's only by God's grace that I'm able to recognize this and speak this truth today.
My encouragement and my prayer for us, brothers and sisters, is not at all to stop celebrating holidays or discontinuing family traditions altogether, but that we would honor God in our celebration and not sacrifice our integrity for the acceptance of our culture.
Heavenly Father, help us to be mindful of what we choose to celebrate and how we choose to celebrate. On days like today, I pray that You would give us strength to continue pursuing righteousness and truth, and that we wouldn't allow ourselves to be influenced by the enemy or the pressures of the world. We are committed to following and worshiping You and only You, Lord. If we have created idols, or elevated anything above You, I pray that You would help us to gain a proper perspective and place You high above all else where You belong. Thank You for Your love and Your grace. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, July 15, 2011
Old & New
"You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
Ephesians 4:22-24
This is such a difficult concept to fully grasp as a Christian, yet it is probably the most crucial part of our walk with Christ. I, myself, have been a Christ follower for almost 6 years now, and I feel like I am just now truly realizing the truth, the hope, and the power behind this scripture.
Like everyone else, my past contains many choices I'm not proud of, even some that I deeply regret. My life over the past 6 years has been a gradual process of recognizing and confronting some of these selfish ways I was living, the sins I was allowing in my daily life, and the distortions that culture and worldliness implanted into my thinking. I believe (from what I know about my own life and from what little wisdom God has given me) that we are all created with a strong inherent need, and I believe that God alone can meet that need in us. Yet, we look to everything else in this world… money, sex, alcohol, drugs, job title, social status, acceptance from people, Facebook, new car, 3D TV, video games, iPhones… ok, you get the idea.
When I decided to add God into the mix of "things I thought could meet my need," my life began to turn upside down. As I witnessed God meeting this need more and more, everything else started being pushed out of the equation. In addition to that, when we open ourselves up to receive Christ as our salvation, we are given the Holy Spirit which gives us discernment and convicts us of the junk in our lives and shows them for what they are… "rubbish" (as Paul says in Philippians 3:8). This began happening in me and I became convicted to give up these things that I allowed into my life.
This is a process, and it can be difficult and painful to recognize how bad our sins were. It's the exact shame that Adam and Eve experienced after they had sinned and felt the need to cover themselves and hide from God in Genesis 3. However, Psalm 103:12 says "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Only God is capable of this… of completely pardoning you from anything you have done through His grace, of removing any ounce of guilt or shame through His forgiveness, and of transforming a person from old to new through His power. This paints a basic picture of the cross, which was God's demonstration of all of this for all of us.
I designed the image below as a "visual interpretation" of this scripture from Ephesians. As I was thinking and praying about this scripture one day, this image just came into my head. It represents the transformational process of a person through salvation, from old self to new self, and there is a fixed barrier between the two that distinguishes and separates. The cross is conveniently formed in the middle and stands between the old self and the new self.
Nothing from the side of the old self can take away from the new self, because the cross stands in the way.
At the same time...
Nothing from the side of the new self can be obtained by the old self, because the cross stands in the way.
Ephesians 4:22-24
This is such a difficult concept to fully grasp as a Christian, yet it is probably the most crucial part of our walk with Christ. I, myself, have been a Christ follower for almost 6 years now, and I feel like I am just now truly realizing the truth, the hope, and the power behind this scripture.
Like everyone else, my past contains many choices I'm not proud of, even some that I deeply regret. My life over the past 6 years has been a gradual process of recognizing and confronting some of these selfish ways I was living, the sins I was allowing in my daily life, and the distortions that culture and worldliness implanted into my thinking. I believe (from what I know about my own life and from what little wisdom God has given me) that we are all created with a strong inherent need, and I believe that God alone can meet that need in us. Yet, we look to everything else in this world… money, sex, alcohol, drugs, job title, social status, acceptance from people, Facebook, new car, 3D TV, video games, iPhones… ok, you get the idea.
When I decided to add God into the mix of "things I thought could meet my need," my life began to turn upside down. As I witnessed God meeting this need more and more, everything else started being pushed out of the equation. In addition to that, when we open ourselves up to receive Christ as our salvation, we are given the Holy Spirit which gives us discernment and convicts us of the junk in our lives and shows them for what they are… "rubbish" (as Paul says in Philippians 3:8). This began happening in me and I became convicted to give up these things that I allowed into my life.
This is a process, and it can be difficult and painful to recognize how bad our sins were. It's the exact shame that Adam and Eve experienced after they had sinned and felt the need to cover themselves and hide from God in Genesis 3. However, Psalm 103:12 says "as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Only God is capable of this… of completely pardoning you from anything you have done through His grace, of removing any ounce of guilt or shame through His forgiveness, and of transforming a person from old to new through His power. This paints a basic picture of the cross, which was God's demonstration of all of this for all of us.
I designed the image below as a "visual interpretation" of this scripture from Ephesians. As I was thinking and praying about this scripture one day, this image just came into my head. It represents the transformational process of a person through salvation, from old self to new self, and there is a fixed barrier between the two that distinguishes and separates. The cross is conveniently formed in the middle and stands between the old self and the new self.
Nothing from the side of the old self can take away from the new self, because the cross stands in the way.
At the same time...
Nothing from the side of the new self can be obtained by the old self, because the cross stands in the way.
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