The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
October 4, 2009
In
This Issue:
Don't
Play with Dead Things
by
Steve Klein
Our
Christian Walk
by
Richard Thetford
Don't Play with Dead Things
As a teenager, I knew a family that had a dog named Hey You. I'm not sure of the exact breed, but Hey You was a small terrier of some sort. He was very intelligent and fun to play with - capable of doing all sorts of clever tricks. Sadly, Hey You died and the children buried him in their backyard. One boring afternoon some months later, the children got the bright idea of digging up Hey You in order to see him again. As one might imagine, they found his corpse badly decomposed. It was a gruesome sight. He was not at all the wonderful pet they remembered, and they had no desire to play with him anymore.
As disturbing as that story might be, it illustrates an important truth. Dead things aren't fun to play with.
In Romans 8:13, the apostle Paul encourages us to "put to death the deeds of the body." In Colossians 3:5-9, he specifies what "deeds" should be put to death:
"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds."
This text helps us realize that, in order to live a holy, Christ-like life, we must put to death worldly thinking. We must set our minds "on things above" while eliminating earthly thoughts. When we do that, the things of the world will no longer look appealing to us. Temptations relating to sexual immorality would have little power over us if we put to death unclean thoughts and desires. The prospect of enslaving ourselves to working for material wealth is not going to be very appealing to us if we've killed covetousness. We'll have a much easier time controlling our speech (e.g. filthy language and lying) when we've slain anger, wrath and malice.
The problems that we sometimes have in trying to live Christ-like lives may simply boil down to this: we are tying to play with dead things (or things that should be dead to us). Christianity is an unpleasant experience for some people for precisely this reason; they keep trying to play with dead things. If we are ever going to be what we should be and experience the beauty of holiness in our lives, we are going to have to kill the world within us, bury it, and leave it alone. Maybe then we will be able to joyfully declare with Paul that "the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).
-- Steve Klein
There's a saying that has been out for a long time that says: "Your talk talks and your walk talks, but your walk talks more than your talk talks." We can give lip service forever and it won't really amount to much until it is backed up by our actions in life. Therefore, we should learn that our Christian walk needs to be a walk of duty and devotion to our God! Knowing that this is so, then we should not ask others to carry us, but rather we should be ready to bear the burdens of one another (Galatians 6:2). Since our Christian life is a walk, we must also understand that it is an individual duty. Nobody can take our place in our walk; we must do it individually, on our own. In 2 Corinthians 5:10 it says: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." The object of our Christian walk is to reach a desired desti-nation and that destination is heaven. Paul wrote: "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing" (Philippians 3:14-16). As we press on toward heaven, that high calling, we realize that we must strive to live a life faithful to God here on earth. When others see our walk, do they see us striving for that high calling, being faithful to Jesus?
Walking in Newness of Life
Paul wrote again in Romans 6:4: "Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life." Again in 2 Corinthians 5:17 he wrote:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." When
an individual is baptized INTO Christ he is a new creature. All those
old things that were of the world are now dead. We are brand new,
striving to live a life of godliness. That is why EVERY Christian
should be known by their walk. A Christian is different because they
are now in God's family, living and practicing only those things that
are righteous! We should walk worthy of our vocation as it says in
Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 1:10; and 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12.
Walking in Faith, Love, and Honesty
I believe that one thing that keeps some Christians
from walking the Christian walk is a lack of genuine faith. We must
have a sincere faith in God. "For we walk by faith, not by
sight:" (2 Corinthians 5:7). Can all of us sincerely say that?
When we have Bible faith, then we can get on with living our lives as
God intended for us to. Before we can ever hope to "walk the
walk", then we MUST have faith in God. The Hebrew writer wrote:
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that
cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of
them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). Without proper
faith, we can't please Him in our life because our heart, mind, soul,
and strength will not be present to serve Him. A Christian's walk is
also a walk of honesty. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian
brethren and said: "But have renounced the hidden things of
dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves
to every man's conscience in the sight of God" (2 Corinthians
4:2). This verse lets us know some things that a Christian will not
do. It also tells us that a Christian's conduct is upright and
handled with all honesty. Do others see that kind of walk in our lives?
In addition to faith, love, and honesty, a Christian's walk should be a walk that copies that of Jesus. John writes: "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked" (1 John 2:6). Simply put, does our Christian walk mirror Jesus' walk?
-- Richard Thetford