Black and White

In my Bible, the third chapter of Colossians is entitled, "Rules for Holy Living."

God does still give us rules.  This is something that has been on my heart lately.  As a whole, we (by "we" I am referring to Christians) have become so lax about right and wrong.  We have become so liberal in our thinking.  We have the mentality that God loves us; therefore, He exists for the purpose of blessing us.  I do believe that God wants to bless us, but I also believe that there are stipulations.  There are rules we must follow.  We seem to leave this part of the puzzle out of our lives.  We have adapted the Word of God to fit into our lives and our world.  It DOES NOT fit into our lives or our world.  And WE should adapt to IT. I recently posted about Ruth.  Ruth had to die to her own desires, and be willing to change.  She had to leave Moab, her homeland, her comfort zone, in order to receive all that God had in store for her.  Once we have encountered Christ, we should change to adapt to HIS world, and HIS standards. Scripture says that we USED to walk in the ways of the world but now we must GET RID of those ways. We were not created for this world, but for another; therefore, our lives should not look like the lives of those around us.  Even in this day and age, there are things that are NOT okay for Christians to participate in; there are things it is okay for us to disagree with.  There are things we SHOULD disagree with.  And there are things we SHOULD stand for. 

"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God... Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips....

As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity... Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts... Let the world of Christ dwell in you richly..." 

Now, those things... compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness... Those things are NOT of this world.  They do not come naturally in our busy paced world, where we are focused on productivity instead of people, and instead of Christ.  Patience is not in our natural vocabulary.  And neither is forgiveness.  It is natural, in our own power, for us to walk around bitter and angry rather than as children who forgive, and therefore can forgive others in return.

Christ's standards are not of this world.  They look unfamiliar to those who are of this world.  But let us familiarize ourselves with them, as we are children of a powerful God, a God of love, but also a God of wrath.   We have been called to live as His children.

My prayer for myself today is that I will live as His child, focused on Him and on nothing else.  When our focus is on Him, everything else somehow works itself out.

I heard this song, by DC talk on the radio while I was driving to work this morning.  And it ties in perfectly to what I read in Colossians today. 



Philippians 2:15,16- "...So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a wharped and crooked generation.  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the Word of Live."