Today is one of those days when God is especially wrapping me in His arms.  Don’t you love those days?  I’m writing music today (as is usual on Mondays), and I’ll share a couple of lines with you for thought food:

“I know I’ve lost myself for good, but I’ve finally found my life.  I wonder how I ever lived before I was alive.”

Those of you who are in Christ truly know what it is to be alive.  Paul says it well: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.” (Colossians 2:13a).  The same resurrection power with which Jesus rose is used to lift us out of sin (spiritual death) into life (”eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”).

What perplexes me about many professing Christians is the reluctance to make a definitive choice between death and life.  Does it make sense for us to “call on the name of the Lord,” receive salvation through the blood of Christ, and then live by the flesh?  When the flesh desires sinful things which lead to death, what business do we have living by it instead of the Spirit?  Paul also said, “live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:16).  We should be crucifying our flesh, denying our flesh.  Why do many of us have our flesh in the board room instead of on a cross?

The formula for spiritual life is simple.  When we deny the flesh (which desires sin, which leads to death), we take death out of the picture.  When we walk in the Spirit, we are truly alive.  In a physical sense, we don’t live in morgues or sleep in caskets.  The things of death are for the dead.  Why shouldn’t we spiritually seek out the things of life which God has intended for the living?  My friend Justin Hale mentioned yesterday in his sermon that Jesus came “that [we] might have life, and that [we] might have it more abundantly.”

My question for you today is this: are you dead or alive?  It is impossible to be both dead and alive, and (though there is temporary pleasure in sin) death is a poor choice.  Life in Christ is really the only way to be alive and the only way to be truly fulfilled.  I want to encourage you to look within yourself.  Do you see a vibrant, meaningful relationship with a real God?  Do you see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (evidences of the Spirit’s presence)?  Act according to what you see.  Choose life.  An open door to the flesh is an open door to death; an open door to the Spirit is an open door to life.  I hope that you choose eternal life over temporary pleasure.  You will realize that no pleasure can compare to the richness of life in Christ.

If you are a believer in Christ who feels numb and has somehow lost that first romance with God, let me encourage you to do something about it!  Be honest with God.  Get to the bottom of why you are where you are and do whatever it takes to get back your first love.  Your free will is powerful.  Decide to be who God has created you to be.

Happy New Year, everyone!  Don’t forget to make spiritual resolutions!