Old Self, New Self, and Footholds

Lord, this servant's voice is Yours to use. Please takeover and speak the Words that You know we need to hear. I pray that we listen with open ears and accept the instruction You are giving. May we all follow Your ways through the ages.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says,

You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

The first question: What is the former way of "life?" The answer lies in the quotation marks. A false life; essence of death, that is sin. Through sin God taught us. He took our sins and showed us what they truly are. They separate us from God and kill the part of Him that dwells within us. It is regarding this former way of life that we are taught to remove all things that lead to sin. God teaches us that remaining with the things of our old life as part of the world corrupts us. Remembering the previous post, we see that the things of the world are meaningless and doomed to perish. That which finds death in the end, will corrupt us and lead us to our end in death. The desires we have in this life are for what what brings pleasure to our earthly natures. But these things are deceitful. They are desires that teach us how to make treasure out of rust and decay. We are not to seek the world. We own nothing in it. We control nothing in it. Nothing in this world can truly benefit us. God aims to teach us this by transforming our minds.

The force that brings the most change is God's Love. It was through His Love that Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of us. It is through His Love that our minds are changed. He teaches us through the repetition in the Bible. The repeated themes of His Power, Mercy, and Love are always repeated throughout the Bible. Even if many details seem to be missing and there are many mysteries in His Words, these themes are always present. They are always present so that the believer's mind might be changed and imbedded with the truths. God is Almighty. God is Merciful. God is Love. Our mind is changed and these truths become the foundation of all our logic. Our attitudes are turned from the world toward God and eternal life. Through the reading of the Word, Love and Mercy become the new mindset. If a mind is not basing its thoughts on the Biblical themes, then it is not renewed. It is still operating in the realm of worldliness, sin, and death. It is through study of the Bible that the mind is made new. With a new mindset, comes a new way of living.

As the old self is removed and the mind is made new, we become something new. We put on the new self that God created through the death and resurrection, and the joining of the Holy Spirit with our own. We become a new creation that does not die. This new creation was made to worship God by living according to His example that was set by Jesus Christ. We put on this new self with the desire to be like Christ our God. We pick a righteous and holy life over our death with the world. This life begins the moment we believe and is set to never end. It is the beginning of an eternal life. Our issue is that when we start, we are still on earth in mortal bodies with a sinful nature. Therefore, God gives us Grace through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Himself was tempted in his years on earth. He knows the power of the flesh over those who have fallen to it. He gives us grace when we sin. The grace is accepted through our hatred of our revealed sin, understood through the logic of our new mindset, and applied with the new self we have put on. It is seeing all of this that it is written in Ephesians 4:27, "and do not give the devil a foothold." I have found a foothold to be anything that leads to sin. It could be a small thing like watching a TV show, to something large and tempting. You can look at yourself to know what is your great temptation. A sin is anything that leads us from God. A foothold leads us to what leads us from God. I believe all footholds to be sin. This strict mindset is needed. A foothold is attractive because of its size. There is no harm in watching a single episode of a TV show right? It hurts no one. But what does it lead to? As the mind is transformed by God's Word, we see the immoral aspects of the show. We see what the 30-60 minutes of time could actually be used for. But still, it really didn't hurt anyone. As we take on more footholds however, the wasted time builds up, and the immoral ideas of the world penetrate our minds again. The mind is slowly brought back to what it was before, and the old self begins to show itself in us again. We soon remember that the word "foothold" means a stable point a person can grab onto in order to reach the goal. The "person" is the devil, and his "goal" is our most feared sin. The sin that takes us from God, and that truly brings us to our most ruined state. We all have one. Mine like many others is sexual immorality. The sin that attacks inside our hearts. Once this feared sin is committed, it feels like the long journey we have taken to be with God in this life has just been turned to nothing. It takes much prayer and renewing of mind to move us past our feelings of guilt and death. For myself, a small foothold is not worth this grief. 

I choose to leave the things I find to be footholds behind. It can be hard. Footholds tend to be the simple pleasures that allow us to relax despite to issues and pains we feel when we face the world. Relaxing with a couple recorded shows on my dvr after work was hard to give up. I still have trouble with it. But when I read God's Word and see how pointless and dangerous it is, I see that it is a foothold and it is dangerous. We are Christians, we should not turn to world to make us feel better. And we should not be ignoring the issues of the world, no matter how upset and troubled they make us. It is better to put off the old self and be made new in mind and heart and body and soul. Only when these are renewed can we use them to serve our God properly. God knows your needs as well. He has provided me with better ways to relax after work. Praying for those who trouble me, reading and indulging in His Word, singing the songs He has blessed me with. He knows our needs and satisfies us in ways that the footholds cannot. The footholds are not worth what they cost.

Thank You For Reading

Long Live Jesus Christ

Amen 

 

"What do I have? What am I pursuing? What do I Love?" God's Answer.

Lord God, please make these Your Words, not mine. Teach all of us the lesson You desire to impart through this passage. And be glorified through its practice. Thank You. Amen.

1 Timothy 6:3-10 says,

If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicious and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

I haven't been writing anything Christian based for the past four months. What I have been doing is taking seven college classes and working a job to pay for stuff. I put some services for the church on hold, and even stopped attending church for a month. I pursued two things in the past four months, money and knowledge. I wanted A's in my classes and paychecks to buy stuff with. I pursued them both while reading the Bible everyday with a blank look on my face and saying, "I read today. I'm a Christian. I'm good." Wrong. I wasn't listening to God. That became evident yesterday when I was unwilling to help a stranger for a couple of minutes. I was disappointed in myself. I asked God why I was so unwilling to help him. God gave me my answer. For the past four months I wasn't pursuing God. I was pursuing my A's and paychecks. I was living by the parts of Scripture that got me what I wanted. As I gained knowledge in my classes and earned my paychecks my pride grew and I thought more of my actions. My belief that Grace could be earned grew. As I gained more I wanted more. I wanted to waste more money and time. I wanted more knowledge of music from my classes to show off to others. In the end, I wanted a richer future for myself each day. I was the definition of lukewarm. 

Everyone can fall into this temptation, for I have learned that no one is above any temptation. How can someone fall into this lukewarm living? Just the way I did. Take the credit. I did the homework and got the A's. It's not like God was the One who opened my mind to take in the knowledge. He didn't allow me to understand it and spit it back out on my papers and instruments. And of course it wasn't God who gave me the strength and ability to do my job well. Right? Again, wrong. I took the credit for what God was doing. I became conceited. When we become conceited we focus on ourselves and the world. There is no room for God in our narrow view. Over time, as we focus on ourselves and the world, we lose the understanding that God and His Love are the reasons for all life. The ultimate result is that we understand nothing. I am thankful to God for clearing the pride to show me that this is who I was becoming. Eventually I would have been another person bent on using Christianity for my own gain. I would've been absorbed by my worldly desires and my pursuit for money. 

The reason I went to college was to get myself a better job so I could make more money. There is nothing wrong if this is the path God has set for you and you're following Him to where it takes you. But to go down this path for the money itself is going to lead to more and more sins. Wanting to get rich leads us to temptations, traps, and foolish and harmful desires that will plunge us into ruin and destruction. It's clear in this passage that the pursuit of riches in this world will only result in a sinful and painful life. There is emptiness in selfishly gaining money. And it all leads to the love of money. 

The love of money is our willingness to do anything for money. We are willing to give up our stuff, our lives, our friends and family, our bodies, and God. I realize now that the previous list of what we give up should actually start with God. I didn't change it  because I thought it better to point out the fact that in order to start pursuing anything of this world, we first have to stop pursuing God. The love and pursuit of money is the want of the money and all the worldliness it brings. But the Love and pursuit of God is the want to be like Jesus Christ, and to be with Him.

Paul writes that godliness, the pursuit of being like Christ, and contentment are great gain. In contrast, the love of money and pursuit of riches and worldly gain leads to ruin and destruction. Contentment, the desire for what one already has, it what brings gain. So the trick to this is to be content with all the stuff we already have. So what do we have? I would say whatever we brought into the world and whatever we can take out of it. See what Paul did there? The stuff we have in this world is not ours. We own none of it. So what do we have? We have what God our creator gave us: Himself. We have God for now and forevermore. When we focus on the value of owning the Grace and Love of our Mighty God, the things of this world become just what King Solomon called them in Ecclesiastes, Meaningless! (Ecclesiastes 1). All that is left is God and our desire to be like Him and to be with Him. Paul felt content with God alone. He was able to say with confidence that if we have food and clothes we can be content with that. That is not counting any money, a job, or even a roof over our heads. All we need is God.

Now this doesn't mean to throw everything out and become a wandering homeless person preaching the Gospel. Unless that's what you're called to be by God, then bless you. The answer is what we are called to do and what we are supposed to use for God's glory. To pursue the things of this world is sinful. To use the stuff God has lent to you in your pursuit of Him is service. We are all called to serve our God with the gifts He has given us by His grace (Romans 12:3-8). This is our spiritual act of service and worship.

The pursuit of riches and the love of money will only destroy us. Being content with having God and pursuing godliness will lead to life. Remembering that we can't bring anything into the world or take anything out of it is key in knowing what we have. We own nothing in this world, but God is not of this world. So if we focus on what is unseen, God Almighty, then we can easily turn away from what is seen, which is temporary (2 Corinthians 4:18). Always ask at the beginning and ending of each day, "What do I have? What am I pursuing? What do I Love?" IF the answer isn't Jesus Christ, ask Him why. He gives the best answers.

Thank You For Reading

Long Live Jesus Christ

Amen