Friday, December 5, 2008
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Some days you'd find me wearing a suit and tie; it's the appropriate cultural uniform for what I might be doing that day. At home, on other hand, you'd probably find me in jeans and an old shirt. Again, appropriate for the work I need to do there. If I'm in a wedding, let's say, well I'll show how much I'm willing to sacrifice for the bride and groom by wearing a tuxedo. Of course, if I go to the beach, I probably won't wear what I wear to the wedding. I change my clothes for the occasion. But there's something I wear that I never change, no matter how many times I change my clothes - my skin. I always have the same skin.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Skin Goes Everywhere."
Question: is your commitment to Jesus Christ just spiritual "clothes" you wear sometimes and then change when it's not a Christian situation? Or is it skin that you never change, no matter what environment you're put in?
Our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:31 calls us to a Christlike lifestyle that is full-time, not part-time. God says, "Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." Notice: "Whatever you do." This business of living for Jesus is so practical that you can even eat or drink in a God-glorifying way. There should never be a situation where you "take off" your commitment to Christ to fit in, to get ahead, or to avoid embarrassment. If that commitment is spiritual skin, it never comes off!
A while back I had just finished speaking on giving God your best when a man came to me and said, "I just never feel like I'm doing enough spiritually." As we talked, it turned out that "enough" meant doing more "spiritual" things. But that isn't primarily what the Lord is looking for. He wants to make more things spiritual!
Our problem is that we reduce our Christ-life to a compartment, and Jesus isn't interested in being a compartment in your life. He expects to be, in fact He deserves to be, in each area - Lord of each area. So, being a Christian doesn't mean adding a list of spiritual things to do. It means letting Christ make the things you're already doing His things. So, you drive unselfishly, you dedicate your car to helping others, you shop for Jesus; trying to bring some of His joy and love into the grocery store where you're shopping.
Colossians 3:17 says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." Immediately, then, that passage begins to describe the kind of wife a woman needs to be...the kind of man a husband needs to be...how a child will obey his or her parents and say as they do, "Lord, I'm doing this for You."
It talks about fathering in positive ways and then it talks about employees working with all their heart as if Jesus were their boss. See your Christ-life isn't something you take off when you go to work, or when you're at home with your family, it's all about Jesus every day, all day.
Living for Christ isn't just a set of spiritual clothes you put on to do some spiritual work - your uniform you wear for spiritual settings. It is the spiritual skin you wear no matter what.