Sometimes I let my mind wander back to before October 1, 1972 and that's when I encounter the problem. I have great difficulty remembering what life was like before I surrendered to Christ. I can remember the details of my conversion and what led up to my being saved but that's where I run into problems. Why is that? Yes, I know it's been 44 years ago. Yes, I know that a LOT has taken place in my life since then. But why is it difficult to remember my past? I'm reminded of one public speaker telling and demonstrating the replacement theory of life. He took a glass of water and stirred in dirt. Of course that resulted in dirty water. This represents our life. Then he took a picture of clear and clean water and began to pour that water into the glass. Slowly the glass overflowed and the clean water pushed out the dirty water until the glass was clean and the picture was empty. Of course this is what Christ does in our lives. BC (before Christ) we are a dirty vessel not fit for much of anything. Then AC (after Christ) that vessel is changed into a clean vessel fit for service. Many of us have continued to put in dirt from time to time and the result is an unclean vessel not fit for service. The grace of God is such that we can return and be clean again. Now that's good news on which we can focus.
I have a few coffee cups that I rotate in and out of usage. My coffee cups do get washed from time to time but have been seasoned by repeated use for one thing...my coffee. Coffee is just shy of a religious experience for me. Start my day without coffee? I don't think so! I've had people in my life tell me how awful having a stained coffee cup to drink from. I usually give them the cup with a ceramic cockroach in the bottom. People have gone to the extent to bleach and scrub my coffee cups to get them to where they wanted them to be. Then I've had to start the process yet again. The seasoned coffee cups don't affect the flavor of the coffee positively or negatively. It's what I associate with coffee. There is a message in my coffee cups. That message tells others how I view coffee in my life. My life has been stained in a positive sense with my Christian life. It's a good stain and nothing negative about that life. Jesus doesn't care if I wash my coffee cup or not. He cares that I have the coffee cup to drink from. He sees my life in much the same manner. He sees a life spent doing his will (and sometimes not). My Christian focus hasn't been on the container but on what the container contains...Jesus. Being full of Jesus is what keeps my focus forward and not in the past.
This is what happens in the world around us. There are so many who are focused on the glass being clean and the coffee cup being clean that they don't notice what the glass and cup are now filled with. Rather, the focus is on the outward appearance. With those who know Christ and have read the Word, the focus in not on the container but rather what's in the container. Calling myself a Christian and then not living like one is like the man who has seen himself in the mirror and then goes on in life forgetting what he looked like. Jesus has been a prominent if not the prominent part of my life. The question is whether Jesus sees that I am full of him or if I'm full of the world. The question is how people look at my life. Do they see the outward appearance or do they see the Jesus inside? We all live our lives by the grace of God. None of us have "arrived" and won't until we enter heaven. What we do have here and now is the choice to have Christ filled up in us or not. If we hang onto the image or onto the past, we won't be showing the world Christ. Remember, it's always your choice.
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