All in all !

“Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth : fornication , uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Colossians 3: 5 (New King James Version)

Lets have a look at the first half of the verse to begin with…..’put to death your members which are on the earth’… Wow ! Isn’t that amazing… Which means everything that we do…everything that we are … its all to be focused above (where Christ sits) and nothing of this earth is to be a part of us…. Nothing of this earth…absolutely nothing !!

Don’t get me wrong … I’m not saying don’t by a house or don’t wear Nike shoes. I’m saying our focus our every desire is to be of Him and things of Him ! Now if the desire to buy a house if what is driving us to work day and night and our focus has shifted off from the things of God then STOP ! Hit the brakes ! We need to set ourselves right with God and have our desires aligned to His will. Seek His kingdom first and seek His righteousness ! And then what will happen ? All these things shall be added unto us… What things ? Whatever God knows we need !

Getting back … we are to put to death our members which are on the earth… earthly desires and passions… What is to be done with them ? Put it to death ! They have no part in a life that is to be lived for God’s glory.

Fornication … Any kind of sexual immorality… not just actions…but even the smallest thoughts….. It needs to be put to death. Uncleanness… anything that is polluting His temple (did you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit )…. Lips which praise God cannot be used to drink alcohol and smoke and pollute His temple… There are no two ways about it…. Would you keep a bottle of alcohol in the middle of church ? No ! Neither can it reside in His temple which is U and I ! Passion …evil desire… covetousness... What is covetousness ? Greed… Materialism…. We need to be very careful about this…. This world is so materialistic and we need to be careful we don’t get carried away by it… Its not about the amount of jewellery we have or the bike or the car we drive… its not about anything of this earth…. Nothing of this earth is to hold any desire in our life. Its got to be 100% all about Him !

Some of us might be feeling “Oh ok … I think I am good… I haven’t committed any sexual sins… No evil desire…no unwarranted passion and yeah I’m not materialistic..” Wait.. there’s more… we read in verses 8,9 ‘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”

Whoa ! That’s an eye opener isn’t it. All of these things are deeds of the old man …

And who are we now ? we see in verses 10,11 “and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” … We are new beings in Christ ! Our old man and his deeds have been put off and we are now to lead lives where Christ is 100% all !

Are we doing that ?

We read in Jude1 :24-25 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy , To God our Saviour Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty. Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen”

We cant do anything on our own strength… its not by our works but by His grace that we have been saved !

Are we willing to surrender ourselves totally to Him and say “Lord forgive me for all my sins… for falling short of the mark so very often… There is nothing Lord that I can do on my own strength…Only you Lord can make me whole… Only You Lord can keep me from falling ….Lord let my every action, thought and desire be in accordance with your Holy will …In name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ , Amen“

Some of us might be struggling with addictions , some of us are stuck in a relationship which we know is drawing us further from God…. Some of us are just so prone to idle talk …. For some of us lies or anger just comes out in a split second…. Do you desire to be set free from all of this ? All it takes is for us to be willing ! And when He sets us free we are free indeed ! We are already dead to the things of this world… Christ took it all on the cross for us… It is finished… The more we draw closer to God the farther are we from the things of this world !

God Bless