Living In the Kingdom/Living Out the Kingdom: New Life

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul tells the people that as followers of Jesus they are to “take off” their old habits and ways of doing things, and instead “put on” their new self which is created to be like God (read all of Ephesians 4 to get the whole picture).  I think too often we try to fit God into our life instead of the other way around.  We add “Christian” things to our weekly routine, or change the radio station or what we watch on TV, but we retain much of the same attitude that we had before.  And so what we are left with is a person who is divided, who is trying to live in two different kingdoms.  Jesus called people like this “white-washed tombs” among other things (read Matthew 23).

Jesus says that we are to be born again.  We are to be made new, a new creation in Him (2 Cor 5:17).  This does mean that outwardly we will act differently than before we knew and followed Christ, but it also means that inwardly we will think differently as well.  This is what Jesus was teaching Nicodemus in John 3:1-21, and it is what we’ll be looking at this Sunday.  I hope that you’ll be able to join us.