Belief and Behavior…Jesus saves and transforms us

We have a saying in our house, once it’s in the trash, it’s trash. You don’t go digging down in the refuse and nasty to get it back. It’s gone. It’s out of sight, out of mind and certainly out of reach. Who, in their right mind would dig through trash, pull out trash so they could carry around more…trash?

I know, you are probably thinking, “well, what if I threw something away accidentally and had to retrieve it, like a wedding ring?” Yes, that is different. We have taken a pipe of the sink to retrieve a precious ring. I’m talking about stuff we throw out because we don’t need it. It’s trash that is old, smelly, clutters our lives and pulls us down because of the weight of carrying it around. It’s also called sin.

It is the trash of gossip, unkindness, unloving attitudes, anger, grudge holding, self pity, lust, unhealthy habits, jealousy, addictions, all the crap the world lays out before us to sort through and carry with us. When we throw this trash away, why do we often go digging through this same trash to retrieve it? WHY do we want to retrieve it and be burden by it again? Why do we trade the fragrance of Christ for the stench of sin? Once it’s in the trash, it’s crap. Leave it there.

Ephesians 4, The Message

17-19 And so I insist—and God backs me up on this—that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. They’ve refused for so long to deal with God that they’ve lost touch not only with God but with reality itself. They can’t think straight anymore. Feeling no pain, they let themselves go in sexual obsession, addicted to every sort of perversion.

20-24 But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

What do we learn?

–We trade our ignorance for intimacy with Christ!
–We let go of the old, stinky life and begin to live a new life, a life with God, remodeled from the inside out. God does the work of transforming the trash of our lives into the treasure in us He had in mind from the beginning of time.
–Once it’s in the trash, it’s trash. Don’t go back to retrieve it.
–Breathe in the fresh fragrance of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 2:15)

Dear Heavenly Father,
We repent of digging through the trash and retrieving what we once let go. It stinks. We let it go and we are not going back. Our desire, instead, is pick up all You have in store for us. Thank you for saving us from ourselves. Thank you for cleaning us, transforming us, scrubbing all the stink of sin from us so that we can take on the Holy Fragrance of You. The old has gone the new has come, Praise God. Thank you Jesus. Continue to do Your work in us. In Jesus Name, Amen