Streaking for Jesus?

I find it really interesting that Paul’s letters in the New Testament so repeatedly talk about shedding off our old skin and clothing ourselves with Christ.  Physically, we cannot obviously do that; spiritually we can… it just hurts.

The truth is that changing starts from the inside out.  Sure, I can wear a jacket when it’s cold outside and pull it on and off.  But if I have ever embraced any kind of impurity in my past, poor character, or things contrary to the cloak of Christ… I’ve clothed myself with those things on the inside.  They’re a lot harder to remove.  They practically become welded to our own thoughts, will, and emotions.  Make sense?

I may have written about something similar before, but it’s just like Jacob.  Here he was, a stud of a guy with a sweet inheritance, sitting by a stream.  One night a man came up to him and started wrestling with him.  We’re talking a good fight because it lasted until morning.  Finally when it was over, Jacob demanded a blessing from the guy.  He renamed him.  He renamed Jacob, “Israel”. 

What’s the big deal?  Repeatedly through the book of Isaiah, God says of Jacob that He created him, but of Israel that He formed him. 

He created Jacob the same way that He creates us.  But He formed Jacob into Israel – into a prosperous nation.  The catch is that it just takes time to form something.

It’s the same way with shedding off the things of “old” in our lives.  It hurts, it’s painful, and we’ll probably put up a fight… but it’s also a process.  And just like Jacob, we’ll probably be left with a limp.  But this we can rest strong in: that we’re being transformed into the likeness of Christ!  The day will come that we’ve finally rid ourselves of the things that aren’t of Christ… and we’ll be fully clothed in Him.