SANCTIFICATION: No longer able to!

"Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ."

Colossians 2:6-8

One day my friend Steve led a printer friend to a saving relationship with the Lord. The next day he received an excited call from his “baby” brother. “What have you gotten me into? I come in to work and realized I can’t print half the stuff I usually do.”

Life changes when we are baptized into Christ; we are no longer able to live as we once lived.

Christianity, Illustrations,
Religion, Sanctification

REBIRTH: Unexpected beauty and purpose for lives which were previously barbaric!

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."

2 Corinthians 5:17

In the late '90s, Finland’s hottest rock group was Apocalyptica; their fans don’t use drugs or mosh, instead they sit quietly and listen attentively.

Apocalyptica is composed of four young cellists, who study at Sibelius Academy, Finland’s top classical training ground. Their music? Metallica, Faith No More and other heavy-metal musicians.

Jim Heintz, writing for the Associated Press, says,

“Apocalyptica achieves something that surprises adults: it finds dignity and intelligence in music usually dismissed as the theme songs of glue-sniffing morons. … The warm, woody tones of a cello can change a riff that that sounds shrill and ugly on an electric guitar into something yearning and lovely.”

Heintz goes on to say,

“The result is to bring an unexpected formality and deliberation to songs that in their original versions were barbaric yawps. In Apocalyptica’s hands, heavy metal leaves the torture chamber and becomes chamber music.”

In the hands of God, the unrighteous and ungodly become dignified, “yearning and lovely”.

The world looks upon what once belonged to it and finds “an unexpected formality and deliberation” where once, “in their original versions,” stood “barbaric” noise.

In God’s hands, sinful man “leaves the torture chamber and becomes” free indeed.
[The Washington Times; July 12-18, 1999; 2]

Christianity, Illustrations,
Rebirth, Religion

HUMOR: The mouth is God's gift; fill it with laughter!

CLOSED FOR REMODELING: [Psalm 126:2; other topics - New man, rebirth/regeneration]

The socialist and iconoclastic George Bernard Shaw was experiencing what might be called "the lowest point" in his career during WWI. His blistering opposition to the war drew the attention of the government and nearly resulted in charges of treason.

Not surprisingly, Shaw responded to his critics with his pen, crafting the play now known as Heartbreak House, a devastating commentary on the "Great War" and a bitter and withering attack on the spiritually bankrupt generation responsible for it. [Odd choice of words for an atheist.]

Shaw's sardonic wit was not restricted to the text of the play, however. The drama ... was eagerly anticipated by a London theatre-going crowd finally freed from the horrors of the long and bloody war with Germany.

But Shaw, in a fit of churlishness brought on by anger over public criticism of his anti-war stance, mischievously titled his play Closed for Remodeling. Theatre owners who staged Shaw's new offering shook their heads in puzzled disbelief at the sparse crowds in attendance night after night.

Finally, when the play was into the third week of its initial run (and two of the four London theatres staging it had already shut down their productions), a stage manager at the Savoy Theatre finally realized the problem: the playbills advertising Closed for Remodeling that had been posted all over town were leading patrons to believe the theatre was temporarily shut down for renovation.

The Savoy re-launched the play under the title Heartbreak House, and it has been known by that name ever since. ... As always, G.B. had the last laugh.

Likewise the Lord is playing a good one on the devil. He has His people "closed for remodeling" while Satan continues to wonder why his gate is so small. As always, J.C. will have the last laugh.

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