Now, all of you Christians reading my blog, I want you to stop and actually consider that thought. We all know the knee jerk and correct answer to that but for some reason we can throw it out there without actually letting it sink in or affect us. So think about it for a minute. Are you more Spirit or more Flesh?
OK, do you actually believe that?
Does your life reflect that?
Do you spend more time trying to meet physical needs or spiritual ones?
One of my participants this past week did a study and came up with a stat that the average American Christian spends approximately 0.5% of their lifetime in church. First of all I want to say that a church building is not the only place you can find God. Second of all I would suggest that just going to church doesn’t mean you spend time with Him. Third of all I would say that while 0.5% seems lower than you or I would like to agree with, we all know we would be knit-picking a far too small of a number. The reality is we live a life more concerned with trying to meet our own physical needs than focused on the fact that we’re more Spiritual beings than Fleshly ones. In the course of an eternity, a hundred years isn’t that much…just saying.
Now, let’s look at what the Bible has to say about it.
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a
thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor,
blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (found in Rev. 3)
So what should we be clothed with?
Psalm 30:11
You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy…
2 Chronicles 6:41
“Now arise, O LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your saints rejoice in your goodness.”
Psalm 132:9
May your priests be clothed with righteousness; may your saints sing for joy.”
Isaiah 61:10
I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Luke 24:49
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
1 Corinthians 15:54
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Galatians 3:27
…for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Do you walk in righteousness, without sin, filled with joy and arrayed with the imperishable? Have you clothed yourselves with Christ?
My dad likes to say that whatever you own, owns you. These people seem poor because as a nation many of them have little to clothe themselves with and feed themselves with. However, they also have little holding them back from living with a joy, hope and trust that we often lack.
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The question for you is are you clothed or naked?
Are you poor or rich?
Are you blind or can you see?
Coming to Haiti helps highlight the truth in your heart because you have to face it.
