July 12, 2018
Get rid of the old yeast,
so that you may be a new unleavened batch - as you really are. 1 Cor 5:7
Jesus sacrificed
Himself so that we can be forgiven and become what He originally designed us to
be --- don't settle for sin, be holy again.
She was devastated by the breakup, and swore she would
pursue a relationship God’s way instead of trading her body for affection ---
until the next guy came along. He was
committed to ending his credit-spending ways --- until BMW came out with an
incredible new model vehicle. He served
his time --- only to repeat the same crime with the same old buddies
later. She started her new diet --- only
to resort to chocolate and ice cream after the next disappointment.
Why is it we keep going back to the old sin habits after
seeing how they failed us before? Isn’t
that the so-called definition of insanity (expecting different results from the
same activities)?
Jesus didn’t take on our sins so that we could keep
committing them! He took them on so that
we would be FREE from them. His goal
wasn’t to just sneak us into heaven, but to return us to holiness so that we
could enter the presence of God the Father.
Yet we cry out for His forgiveness, accept His sacrifice, and even
participate in His death & resurrection, only to turn right back to the sin
habits that got us in trouble in the first place. What a wretched people we are!
How do we get rid of those sin habits permanently?
The answer is found in one of the staples of life:
bread. When bread is made with yeast,
the yeast makes it rise & puff up (just like sin). Often, people treat their lives like a batch
of bread dough. We think that splitting
off the dough will change the yeast. Or
we try putting a portion of our dough into an batch without yeast. Or sometimes, we try to burn out the yeast or
delay the yeast from rising. Trying to take a small portion of the bread away
from the infected batch doesn’t rid the bread of yeast. The yeast travels with the dough. The only way to get rid of the yeast is to
start with a different batch of dough.
We can’t hold onto our old lives and expect to get away from
the sins of the past. In order to be
free of the past, we must leave it ALL behind!
That not only includes our guilt & shame, but our habits and
activities, our negative relationships and associations, our wrong passions
& pursuits. We must let go of ALL of
the old dough in order to discover the new life God has for us.
That may not mean leaving your location, but it does mean
leaving your life. You may not be able
to quickly change your consequences, but you can urgently change your
habits. It means we stop trying to
upgrade the old dough, and start creating a new batch. Don’t settle for sin, start holy again.
What needs a new batch of dough in your life
these days? Commit to starting new
again… TODAY!
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