New Year, New Man

But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 

Ephesians 4:20-24

I enjoy this part of the year because we can start to look forward to the New Year.  The New Year is an interesting time in which we can look back at the blessing, the triumphs and failures, the challenges, and the twists and turns from the past year.  But, at the same time, we can look forward to the next year.  No matter how good our previous year was, we can always be better!  In the next few days, we will look at some verses related to the New Year.

In this passage, we are told to “…put on the new man.”  As Christians, we have two natures, the old man and the new man.  The old man is sinful.  The new man is created in Christ Jesus.  The old man want to sin.  The new man wants to do right.  There is and will always be a struggle between the two.  Just as we would look into the closet in the morning and put on one shirt or another, so each day (and even each moment) we must choose to serve the Lord or serve our flesh.  The Bible implores us to “put on the new man.”  We should serve the Lord.

In this coming year, let us do our best to put on the new man each and every day.  Let us do our best to serve the Lord and not ourselves!

Walking as Children of Light

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light…

Ephesians 5:8

I thought I would close out the week with one more post on the subject of light.  This is a great verse for so many reasons.  It really gives a nice summation of our Christian lives: we were in darkness, we are now in light, and we need to walk in the light.  We were children of the Devil.  We are now children of God.  We need to live like God’s children.

I love how the Lord words things in the Bible; often, our faith in the inspiration of God’s Word is strengthened just by the wording.  Look at the wording of this verse, and notice that it doesn’t actually say “we were walking in darkness.”  It says “ye were… darkness.”  We actually were darkness.  It also doesn’t say “now ye walk in the light.”  It says “now are ye light in the Lord.”  We don’t just have light.  We ARE light.  That is the same thing that Matthew 5:14 says – it all ties in perfectly.  Of course, we are light in the Lord: He is the one Who causes us to be light.  What a wonderful doctrinal truth!  We were darkness incarnate.  Now we are very light of Jesus Christ Himself!  What a wonderful Saviour!

Now, in light of the fact that we were darkness, and in light of the fact that we are now light the Lord Jesus, we need to “walk as children of light.”  We are light; now we simply need to live like it.  We are Christians; we need to live and act like Christians.  We are the children of God; we need to act like children of God.  We are light in Him.  I say it again – what a wonderful Saviour!

A Week of Thanksgiving, Day 5

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Ephesians 5:18-20

This week, we have been looking at some verses about Thanksgiving and thankfulness.  And, when you boil it down, they all say pretty much the same thing.  We are supposed to be thankful at all times and for all things.  Sometimes that is a harder assignment than others.  When everything is going well, it’s easy to be thankful.  Even the vilest, Godless heathen is thankful when things are going well.  That is what separates the Christian from the non-Christian.  The Christian has faith in God.  He has faith that, while he may not understand everything, God does understand everything and will work all things together for good.  So, no matter how bleak it may seem, the Christian can remain thankful for the Lord’s goodness and mercy.  The Christian may not even see the fruit of his faith in this lifetime, but he will be rewarded for his faith and for his thankfulness.

When you think about it, the command to be thankful for all things and at all times is really a matter of faith.  If we can believe what we have not seen, it is not a huge leap to be thankful for what we do not understand.  When something bad happens, I don’t need to understand it.  I simply need to believe that God is still in control and be thankful.

The question is this: what kind of faith do we have?  Do we have a weak faith that complains when it does not understand something?  Or do we have a faith that can truly be thankful in all things?

Giving Thanks For All Things

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord: Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…

Ephesians 5:19-20

This is the week in which we as Americans celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.  For some, it’s simply a time to eat too much food, watch football and maybe enjoy being with family.  For Christians, it should hold a higher meaning.  A Christian should be thankful all the time, not just once a year on a special day.  And a Christian has so much more for which to be thankful than anyone else.  This week, I have decided to do a few posts on the matter of thanksgiving and thankfulness.  I hope that they will be a help and an encouragement to you.

This passage from Ephesians begins with the familiar exhortation to be “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord..”  If we will do those things, we should have very little problems fulfilling the next verse: “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

When you think about it, it really is sometimes a difficult thing to give thanks to the Lord “always for all things.”  There are things that I do not understand.  I am supposed to give thanks to the Lord for them.  There are things that I do not like.  I am supposed to give thanks to the Lord for them.  It’s easy to thank the Lord for all the “good” things that He has done for us.  If we are healthy, it is easy to thank Him for that.  If we are doing well financially, it is easy to thank Him for His provision.  But it becomes more difficult (but possibly even more important) to thank Him during our trials and problems. 

One thing that we need to remember when we are trying to thank Him “always for all things” is that “…we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  Romans 8:28  If we will believe that, we will find it a little easier to thank Him for those things that we may not understand.

Giving thanks “always for all things” might be a difficult assignment, but it is one that we have been given by the Lord Himself!