Twice Baked
This one is a short one, as we are sure that most of you are busy getting ready to go back to school yourself, or preparing your children for the school year. Between your family, your job, your children, your obligations, your concerns, and possibly even your churches needs, we are sure this week finds you swamped. If it does not, well rejoice in that as most of those around you are swamped at the moment. Regardless of your current state though, the following note should act as some encouragement to you.
Before we sate, let us warn you that the base idea for this note comes from the fertile mind of our directors wife. She sometimes has a way of explaining things in even weirder ways then we do normally. We know that is hard to believe, but this is one of her explanations of what God does at salvation that we thought was worth sharing with you. So, here goes, and remember this is from a unique mind.
We were talking about how God works on a person when they get saved. As we were talking we were eating. For those that know us that is VERY common as we like to talk and we like to eat too. Anyway, in the middle of this our directors wife says God’s salvation was like a twice baked potatoes. Everyone stared at her, so she went on and explained that God comes in our lives and scraps all the gunk out of our insides, smashes it up, then adds better stuff too our insides and then puts our us back to together. Wow, that is scary, but overall she hit it.
The fact that God cleans us out and then replaces all of the mess that we were before we accepted Him with better things is probably one of the most amazing things about salvation. God could have easily cleaned our sin out and left us saved, but that would have left us without anything to replace our former life with.
Matthew 12:43-45 (NIV),
Matthew 12:43 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, `I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”
The above scripture is speaking about a generation, but the lesson is meant to be applied within each of the lives of the individuals that hear it. In the above scripture, the Bible clearly warns us about a life that has been cleaned of it’s “issues” and not replaced with anything new or better. In such situations, cleaned out lives without replacement, after a time the evil returns and just retakes the newly cleaned places and then finding it to their liking invite a few friends to join them. Such actions, cleaning up a life without replacing parts of it, accomplishes nothing, and actually makes the lives of the person worse in the end, while making the spirits happier. This is not the goal of God or any that desire to follow Him.
God knew that lives which had been cleaned out, but not replaced with better things, would lead to bigger problems for people, so He also knew that He had to replace the old things (bad / evil desires, bad / evil habits, bad / evil actions, and bad /evil lifestyle decisions) that He found in people with better things. He did not do this just because He is God, but because He wants the best for us. God replaces our old lost life of wondering, disillusionment, false gods, faulty reasoning, lies, deception, and limited human information with salvation, faith, spiritual gifts, Godly wisdom, spiritual discernment, and true knowledge. What an amazing God.
You probably already knew everything that we said above, but sometimes when we are busy, when we are running here to there, or when we are spiritually fat and happy, it is easy to forget just how much cleaning God had to do when He saved us, and also just how good the stuff that He put back in us as a replacement for what He removed really is.
The passage of time between salvation and today is one of our biggest enemies to most Christians. Over time we become comfortable in our salvation, we forget just how much God had to do, and we forget how bad we were before God. It is not just our salvation, our eternity, or even our current blessings that we should be thankful for, we should also be thankful for the things God put / puts in our lives for times that we have already lived through and even the things that will occur before we reach heaven. We are not just prepared for today, God prepared us for yesterday and tomorrow as well.
We hope you are having a great day of preparing for the coming year of school (or the coming week of work), and all the challenges that life brings today. As you do this try to remember how much God has already done for you, how much He cleaned out and replaced when you came to Him, and how much He loves you today - regardless of your current state. Rejoice and be glad for today is a blessing from God.
