Shedding the old to Grow in Christ
As I watched the other day my Bearded Dragon, Zilla, shed, I found it very interesting, so I took a picture of her. I posted it on Facebook and a friend of mine mentioned it was like Shedding in the Christian walk as well. He may do a write up on this very topic and I am sure it will be a fascinating read. As I thought about it tho, I decided I would also come up with my take on this topic as well.
Now Zilla is about 3 months old. As she sheds she squirms about in her tank around in the sand and her basking rock. As you watch her you can see this is not the most fun part of her growing into her new skin. I usually give her a warm bath because it loosens the skin. I dry her off with a washrag or small towel. This part she loves because it feels good and helps remove some of the old skin. I then put her back into her tank and she goes straight to her basking rock under the heat lamp and sits. As I watch and check on her I can see the skin is flaking and coming off so much easier. This process usually takes a day or so. Once she has been able to shed all of her old skin, she becomes perky and runs around her tank and the living room if I get her out and you can see she is feeling like a brand new lizard.
So, you ask, what does this have to do with becoming a Christian? Well let’s walk thru this process together shall we. You are born a sinner. That’s just a fact of life. One day you are sitting in church and the pastor really has a message that just grabs a hold of you and you just get this aching feeling that he is talking to only you. He has spelled out your life in front of the whole church. You think of how you have been living, things you have done, places you have gone that you shouldn’t, things you have said that caused others pain, and you begin to wonder how you have lived this long with some of the things you have done and the life you have lived. Next, you hear the pastor say “it’s not to late for you, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, “if you repent and confess your sins you too can be forgiven for God is a gracious forgiving God. So you say a prayer and ask for God to come into your life and ask him for his forgiveness of your ways of life. Today you leave church and you feel absolutely wonderful and so perky and ready to face anything.
A friend calls you and invites you to a huge party on Friday. You say sure you will be there. When you get there you see people drinking heavily and doing drugs and before you were saved, you would join in on their fun, but today you have a very uneasy feeling as they hand you the alcohol and the drugs. You take a drink of the beer and pass on the drugs saying you’re just not in the mood today. You leave the party and you just have a very different feeling about those you called your friends. You still care about them, but the eyes you now see them thru are very different from how you saw them before. You are very new to this Christian living thing and aren’t quite sure of the feeling you have. Sunday comes and you ask to speak to the pastor after church because you think something is wrong with you. The pastor explains the feeling you had were God speaking to your heart and telling you the partying was wrong and you must “Shed” the past so you can grow. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”
So the pastor has given you things to think about over the next few days. You begin by reading your Bible and praying. In this process you are beginning to grow, you just don’t know it yet. The prayer is you talking with God, and the Bible is feeding you spiritually. As you are being fed each day, you grow. You have now started going to the Wednesday night service. Again, this is part of growing. It was very hard to give up your normal Wednesday night routine of watching TV and relaxing in the recliner, but you had a strong sensation to go to church this night. The pastor talked about being involved with the church and the activities of out reach that go on. He mentioned that on Saturday the church would be having a cook out to celebrate life and all that God has done for us. You say to yourself, that sounds fun. I’ll try to come. You get home and your friend calls again. Your friend says “hey you gotta come to this party this weekend, this is one you don’t want to miss, it’s gonna be awesome, will last all weekend” You agree to go, but then remember the cook out. You remember all the scriptures and talking with God you did over the past week. You now realize you are torn with what to do. You are shedding and it is very obvious, it’s not comfortable at all. How do you let go of your friends? How do you move on? What do you do? You kneel and pray and then you read your bible and you come back to 2 Corinthians 5:17. You call your friend back and tell them that you don’t want to go to the party this weekend or any other party and that you have changed. You invite them to come with you to the cook out.
My friend what you have just experienced is Shedding of the old skin and allowing growth in Christ. When your friend called about the party, you began to pray, this was God washing you with warm water to loosen the dead old skin that had started to peel. Then when you’re reading the Bible again, this is God drying you with a cloth and you can feel pieces of dead sin stained skin come off of you. Then you make the move to call your friend and decline the party, this is you under the heat lamp helping the rest of the sin stained skin off. When you go to the party you feel renewed and fresh. This is not the end of your growth tho. This process will happen many times again, but it gets a bit easier as you get closer to God.
Life is grand and you will continue to grow. People will come in to your life and hopefully you will have planted a seed to grow in them. God will do the work thru you if you allow him. No Christians are not perfect, but we know life is a process of growing spiritually, and mentally in our walk with the Lord.
Thanks, Dan. I hope from my story it will help you with your writing on this topic. This was such an awesome idea…
More to come later.
Any questions or comments to add to this blog, please feel free to..Thanks
As I watched the other day my Bearded Dragon, Zilla, shed, I found it very interesting, so I took a picture of her. I posted it on Facebook and a friend of mine mentioned it was like Shedding in the Christian walk as well. He may do a write up on this very topic and I am sure it will be a fascinating read. As I thought about it tho, I decided I would also come up with my take on this topic as well.
Now Zilla is about 3 months old. As she sheds she squirms about in her tank around in the sand and her basking rock. As you watch her you can see this is not the most fun part of her growing into her new skin. I usually give her a warm bath because it loosens the skin. I dry her off with a washrag or small towel. This part she loves because it feels good and helps remove some of the old skin. I then put her back into her tank and she goes straight to her basking rock under the heat lamp and sits. As I watch and check on her I can see the skin is flaking and coming off so much easier. This process usually takes a day or so. Once she has been able to shed all of her old skin, she becomes perky and runs around her tank and the living room if I get her out and you can see she is feeling like a brand new lizard.
So, you ask, what does this have to do with becoming a Christian? Well let’s walk thru this process together shall we. You are born a sinner. That’s just a fact of life. One day you are sitting in church and the pastor really has a message that just grabs a hold of you and you just get this aching feeling that he is talking to only you. He has spelled out your life in front of the whole church. You think of how you have been living, things you have done, places you have gone that you shouldn’t, things you have said that caused others pain, and you begin to wonder how you have lived this long with some of the things you have done and the life you have lived. Next, you hear the pastor say “it’s not to late for you, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”, “if you repent and confess your sins you too can be forgiven for God is a gracious forgiving God. So you say a prayer and ask for God to come into your life and ask him for his forgiveness of your ways of life. Today you leave church and you feel absolutely wonderful and so perky and ready to face anything.
A friend calls you and invites you to a huge party on Friday. You say sure you will be there. When you get there you see people drinking heavily and doing drugs and before you were saved, you would join in on their fun, but today you have a very uneasy feeling as they hand you the alcohol and the drugs. You take a drink of the beer and pass on the drugs saying you’re just not in the mood today. You leave the party and you just have a very different feeling about those you called your friends. You still care about them, but the eyes you now see them thru are very different from how you saw them before. You are very new to this Christian living thing and aren’t quite sure of the feeling you have. Sunday comes and you ask to speak to the pastor after church because you think something is wrong with you. The pastor explains the feeling you had were God speaking to your heart and telling you the partying was wrong and you must “Shed” the past so you can grow. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”
So the pastor has given you things to think about over the next few days. You begin by reading your Bible and praying. In this process you are beginning to grow, you just don’t know it yet. The prayer is you talking with God, and the Bible is feeding you spiritually. As you are being fed each day, you grow. You have now started going to the Wednesday night service. Again, this is part of growing. It was very hard to give up your normal Wednesday night routine of watching TV and relaxing in the recliner, but you had a strong sensation to go to church this night. The pastor talked about being involved with the church and the activities of out reach that go on. He mentioned that on Saturday the church would be having a cook out to celebrate life and all that God has done for us. You say to yourself, that sounds fun. I’ll try to come. You get home and your friend calls again. Your friend says “hey you gotta come to this party this weekend, this is one you don’t want to miss, it’s gonna be awesome, will last all weekend” You agree to go, but then remember the cook out. You remember all the scriptures and talking with God you did over the past week. You now realize you are torn with what to do. You are shedding and it is very obvious, it’s not comfortable at all. How do you let go of your friends? How do you move on? What do you do? You kneel and pray and then you read your bible and you come back to 2 Corinthians 5:17. You call your friend back and tell them that you don’t want to go to the party this weekend or any other party and that you have changed. You invite them to come with you to the cook out.
My friend what you have just experienced is Shedding of the old skin and allowing growth in Christ. When your friend called about the party, you began to pray, this was God washing you with warm water to loosen the dead old skin that had started to peel. Then when you’re reading the Bible again, this is God drying you with a cloth and you can feel pieces of dead sin stained skin come off of you. Then you make the move to call your friend and decline the party, this is you under the heat lamp helping the rest of the sin stained skin off. When you go to the party you feel renewed and fresh. This is not the end of your growth tho. This process will happen many times again, but it gets a bit easier as you get closer to God.
Life is grand and you will continue to grow. People will come in to your life and hopefully you will have planted a seed to grow in them. God will do the work thru you if you allow him. No Christians are not perfect, but we know life is a process of growing spiritually, and mentally in our walk with the Lord.
Thanks, Dan. I hope from my story it will help you with your writing on this topic. This was such an awesome idea…
More to come later.
Any questions or comments to add to this blog, please feel free to..Thanks
2 comments:
Nice going. You took the handoff, and ran with the ball for serious yardage. (Is a football metaphor OK?) I think I should give this another look another day, and let it soak in.
Thanks Dan. I do re-read these from time to time to keep my brain going. Sometimes when I read them more comes to mind to say, so I post again. I really hope I didnt't steel your thunder on this. That was not my intention. Just thought I'd share my own take on it.
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