Question: How many church members does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Change? Change!?
The word “change” is not always welcome when it comes to churches. Just about every church has a story or two (or more!) of people employing that familiar mantra – “That’s the way we have always done it.” But really, as Christians we are a people of change.
In his teaching Jesus changed the way we look at God. In his death Jesus changed the way God looks at us. In his resurrection Jesus changed the way we should look at life.
We can take comfort in the celebration of Easter. We can find hope and excitement in knowing that Jesus died for our sins and rose again to demonstrate the promise of everlasting life. But we must move forward from this place of comfort and joy. We must change.
What does today’s passage tell us to do? What sins are listed? Why should we do this (verses 9-10)?
As we saw in Colossians 3:5, repeated in verses 8-9, we need to change who we are. To accomplish this change we need to put to death our earthly nature. We need to stop living out the temptations that come with being human. We must change from people who entertain lust, sexual immorality, greed, anger, lies and abusive words.
With the celebration of Easter we must also celebrate our opportunity to change. We must see that the salvation given to us through the crucifixion and resurrection is meant to make us into new people. To be new people we must stop being the old people we were. We must rid ourselves of all of our flawed behaviors and thinking.
We can change when we see that we have put on a new self. We are now forgiven people. We are now people dearly loved by God. And we must live as the people who are forgiven and loved. We must see that we can be made into new people, renewed in the image of God.
We must remove the stone that prevents us from changing. We must remove the stone that keeps us from believing in the grace of God with our whole heart. We must remove the stone of our own sinful nature, perhaps a stone we have placed there ourselves.
Once the stone of doubt and fear and unbelief is removed we can put on the new self, the new spirit given to us through the resurrection of Jesus.
DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you remove the stone that prevents you from changing into a new person?
There will be no 10/2 Grow devotional on Friday, April 6. - RE
