It Starts Small

I do not exactly have the same schedule at my job, week after week. I do miss my old job. I always had sundays and mondays off. My new job, I had been getting wednesday and thursday off. I like having two days off next to each other. This week, I have thursday and tuesday off. I opened my closet door to throw something on for the day, and looked behind me. My laundry basket was piled high. I normally do my laundry on my first day off. I was at the very end of the line for clothes. It got me to thinking about what do I put on every morning?

I have a variety of Bibles I read from. It was put into my head that there was only one bible that a person should read. Over this last year, I discovered that there is a bible for different circumstances. I used my KIng James Bible to study from. When I am just sitting in the presence of God, I like to use the Message version. To just read and soak in God’s Word. Yesterday, also happen to be verses that aligned with my dilemma of what do I wear today.

^5-8 And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It’s because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn’t long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it’s all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. ^9-11 Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. Colossians 3:5-11

I love how it simply puts it: Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe.

If you backup to the first part of the chapter, we learn where this new wardrobe comes from.

3 ^1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.

^3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ. Colossians 3:1-4

I love how this is simple put: If you’re truly redeemed, and serious about your walk, act like it! Your past is dead, start living your new life in Christ! What did our old closet look like and what does our new closet look like?

Old Wardrobe

In Colossians, we are told to kill our old lives, get rid of those old clothes! Spring clean your wardrobe! Then it lists what we are to get rid of:

Sexual Promiscuity

Married or single, we are told that there is no room in our hearts or wardrobe to practice any matter of sexual immorality. We are to make ourselves pure. God had a wonderful and beautiful design for sexual relation between two married people. When we engage in this before marriage, our perception is skewed to its true meaning. We develop an unrealistic idea of what a sexual relationship is to be. We put unrealistic expectations on the other person to perform in the way that gave us self gratification. An sort of sexual immorality outside a marriage is death to a marriage. It causes jealousy and wrath in the heart of a marriage. All sexual thoughts and deeds done in secret are adultery, it does not matter if it is done in the mind or in the physical state. (Matthew 5:28)

Impurities

Impurity is the gateway to sin. The greek word here is referring to the mind and impure thoughts. Our mind has a destructive power to it and is often the secret place that no one sees except our Heavenly Father and Jesus. What is your mind filled with?

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

If it is not in this list, throw it out!

Lust

Lust can encompass more than just sexual lust. It is un ungodly desire to have something. Lust of fame, fortune, fitness, the list is endless. Lust is an idol in our lives that we put before God. We worship and desire and do anything we can do to get what we want to fulfill an inner need in ourselves.

Pride

I like how the message says, doing whatever you want, when you want. Isn’t that a simple definition of pride? You have no care in the world for the true things of God. You go about life in your own way, strength and desire.

Dirty Talk and Anger

The message puts it this way: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk. I love that. Anything that does not bring glory to God in the way we speak, needs to go to the bonfire. When I say glorify God, I mean if we are not speaking to other or thinking about other through the lens of God’s love he fills out heart, get rid of it.

Pants on Fire

Liar Liar Pants on Fire. We have all heard that phrase. Can you imagine if everytime we told a lie, our pants caught fire? Our pants do not catch fire, but our relationship with our Heavenly Father is burned when we choose to lie over telling the truth. Lies hurt ourselves, others and burns the bridge between us and God. Maybe if our pants did catch fire, we would not lie.

This is a quick list and I encourage everyone to really dig in and search out what God speaks in depth of each of these things he lists. I love how the message says we are to deal with this nasty, old, stinky wardrobe:

You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire.

When we get serious about our path, discipleship, and we are ready to embrace, welcome and allow CHrist to transform our “closet” we choose everyday to say, I AM DONE WITH THAT LIFE! Grab all those things by the hanger and throw them upon the alter! Do not store them in boxes. DO not just put them away, throw them in the fire to be burned! There is no good that comes from the old life we were living.

New Wardrobe

Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

Christ gives us a giant closet full of new clothes to wear everyday! That old life is obsolete and our new life is blessed with a new attitude, a new way of speaking, a new mind, and a new way to act!

When we have truly received Christ as our Savior, we throw that old life onto the alter, and we are promised a new life, but it is not forced upon us. We have to choose every morning to lay our heart and mind upon His altar and ask for the cleansing of our unrighteousness. We invite Christ into our day and give Him control through the Holy Spirit to work within this new set of clothes He has given us to put on.

Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Notice this new set of clothes also includes a perspective change. Not only do we get new clothes to wear, we get new glasses and hearing aids! He allows us to look at the world around us through His eyes. This is where our compassion for the world around us comes from. When Jesus looked upon the multitude with compassion, he saw that there were so many others who needed the hope of salvation. He gives us this sight.

^12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Colossians 3:12-14 (MSG)

Our Heavenly Father has chosen us for this new life! In this new life we are given a new wardrobe: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. We do not have the ability to wear these garments without Christ. When we decide to put all of Him on, it includes these fruit of the Spirit. We also learn that the basic undergarment to all these fruit is love. It is only a heart filled with love that these fruit can be worked.

Love – Never be without it.

What old clothes are you struggling with today? Christ is with you today to help you throw it on the altar and get rid of it! Pray and seek Him today and allow Him to fill your closet with all things new and wonderful!