New Life in Christ = New Habits

New Life in Christ = New Habits

copyright Millie Plastaras 1/15/2008

Lord, who may enter your Holy Tent? Who may live
on your Holy mountain? Only those who are innocent
and who do what is right. Such people speak the truth
from their hearts and do not tell lies about others.
They do no wrong to their neighbors and do not gossip.
They do not respect hateful people but honor those who
honor the Lord. They keep their promises to their neighbors,
even when it hurts. They do not charge interest on money
they lend and do not take money to hurt innocent people.
Whoever does all these things shall not be destroyed.
Psalm 15:1-5

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of
my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my
rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19:14

When we are children, we behave as children. We do
things wrong, we get disciplined for them (hopefully)
and we learn what is wise to do, and what is foolish to
do. We become accountable for our actions. These should
be lessons that follow us throughout our life.. teaching
us self discipline and helping us make wise life choices.

The same would apply to our Christian walk. When we are
baby Christians, and just learning the Word of God and APPLYING
it to our lives, heart and thinking, we have much to learn.
We learn to let go of those things we know are worldly and
not pleasing to God by reading His word which tells us what
pleases Him and what does not. But there is more to it than that.
These things that do not please Him also are things that can
really hurt us along the way. These decisions that we make
that are from a worldly perspective can not only lead us away
from God but into addictions, bondages and a lifestyle that will
make us very unhappy, unproductive and often downtrodden people.

You would think that after a while a Christian would grow and change
just as a child does. But many Christians do not make it past the
baby stage. Somehow they think they can sit back on their laurels,
and never change the way they talk, the things they do, or the people
they associate with. They do not come out from among them and be separate
as Jesus called us to do. We are to be new in Christ, not the same old,
same old.

Are you changing? Have you grown from a baby Christian to a mature walk
with Christ? Does the words of your mouth reflect that?

The other day I was at a craft store, and there was this beautiful young
woman in her late teens. She had spent much time on her make up,
her clothing, her hair, and she looked very well turned out. But she opened
her mouth and vile language came out, and it really destroyed all else
she had done to look beautiful. Inner beauty is even more important
than outer beauty. She had compromised herself as we often do,
by not watching what we say and do, and only putting on a appearance
of being beautiful.

Some of you are saying, how snotty that sounded. No my friend, its called
standards. We have to walk the walk and talk the talk. If we are really
new in Christ, it has to show in what we SAY, and what we DO.

There is no middle ground. You are either spiritually seeking to rise
from level to level by being personally accountable to God, or you are in
a rut, and seeking to please yourself first.

There has to come a time where we face the truth and say am I really walking
with God? Am I really reflecting him to others? Or did I just give lip
service to God and go on doing what I wanted to do.

We as Christians preach a silent sermon to people around us everyday by what
we say and do.

How is your sermon looking? What if someone out there needs Christ and you
are reflecting a lie about Christ? What if someone needs you to be sincere
and upright so they can see Christ in you? What if they are desperate for
help, and you are just misleading them by what you are saying?

You must take up the torch. You must be sincere. You must leave the ways
of the world behind, the thinking of the world, and be new in Christ.

I would ask each of you today, to read the 3rd chapter of Philippians. It
will tell you what we must be thinking as Christians. WE continue to pursue
Christian goals, a accountable Christian walk before Christ and others. And
if we fall, if we fail, we ask forgiveness, get up, dust ourselves off, and
keep pushing forward as soldiers for Christ. Learning lessons from
our mistakes, and recognizing our accountability and the need
for personal righteousness before God.

I pray you take this lesson to heart, as we all must if we ever want to
get past that baby stage, and truly be a worthy servant of Christ who seeks
to please Him with the words of our mouth and the deeds we do daily.

How can we give any less to the master who loved us so much He gave his
life for us?

love always
millie

Remember
Only one life, will soon be past
Only what is done, for Christ will last!