Being and Becoming Christian

Over the holidays, all of us “have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” in our eating. Even the world knows it. As we approach the new year, the media pulls back on the luscious recipe of foods that we can kill ourselves with and now replaces our thinking with a 180 degree flick of the switch. We are now bombarded with ad campaigns of “eating right, going to the gym, the latest and greatest exercise machine, the right clothes to wear while we sweat off those pounds, and even pills to take so we will “eliminate” all that we have done to our bodies.

Stop the madness! Paul gives us another way to think that gives life and dignity to this creation of God we call our bodies. He dives right into our minds and hearts with clarity and truth that we seem to miss in all of the worldly banter.

1 Corinthians 6, The Message
If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.

13 You know the old saying, “First you eat to live, and then you live to eat”? Well, it may be true that the body is only a temporary thing, but that’s no excuse for stuffing your body with food, or indulging it with sex. Since the Master honors you with a body, honor him with your body!

14-15 God honored the Master’s body by raising it from the grave. He’ll treat yours with the same resurrection power. Until that time, remember that your bodies are created with the same dignity as the Master’s body. You wouldn’t take the Master’s body off to a whorehouse, would you? I should hope not.

16-20 There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, “The two become one.” Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever—the kind of sex that can never “become one.” There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for “becoming one” with another. Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.

Point to ponder…
What are we a slave to concerning the dignity of our God created bodies? What do we need to lay down so that God’s glory can be seen in and through our bodies?
And another thought…God lives in our bodies. Seriously, God RESIDES in us! Have we cleaned house lately so He lives comfortably there, able to move freely through out our being? Do we fully grasp that these are not just words on a page but God the Father, who created heaven and earth LIVES in us? Whew, I need to clean house.

“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…” (Romans 12)

Dear Heavenly Father, You hit us right between the eyes of our faith with Your Word to us this morning. We repent of our lack a daisy attitudes concerning our bodies. I do want my body, Your Temple, to be swept clean of ungodliness thinking and behavior, from the inside out. Help me, dear Lord. With You nothing is impossible. May Your glory be seen in me.
In Jesus Name, Amen