Die-ette

Okay, I'm going to try something ....a little different.
But before I jump in, I need to make this clear. I don't doubt that you're probably already on to me and my clever word-play introduced in the title but even still, allow me to explain: You know the suffix "ette"? it means "little one" and denotes a lesser thing in relationship to the idea that there's already something more pronounced in play. A kitchenette couldn't be a small kitchen if there was no such thing as a kitchen that we already understood as the bigger thing, right? Sometimes my blog posts can be considered to be sermonettes because they don't (or aren't supposed to ) last nearly as long as sermons. And if you've been on a long flight somewhere, just before landing, the attendants don't hand you a full-size towel....right, you get a moist towelette.

Think about it. If we're honest, we have to admit that we spend a lot of time trying to negotiate the terms of our new life in Christ. At least it feels like it. I'm pretty sure it looks like it as well. We have that old man, the flesh, still influencing things. Still craving things. Still trying to go after all of the things we're used to - notoriety, pleasure, comfort, etc. And we wonder why it seems something is amiss when we're trying to lay aside the weight of besetting sins (

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

). Yet we know that something about us is supposed to be verifiably different and please hear me, I'm not saying that we don't have a true desire to let Christ shine in us: Somehow at the end of it all, I think our real problem is that we resist the dying.

Dying? ...and this is the part that has me scratching my head. You know that as sinners (born into it) we were dead IN our trespasses and sin (

Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

) we didn't have to die into it. Zero effort. However, now that we've crossed over from death into life (1 John 3:14), we are told to mortify our members, (

Colossians 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry

) . In some very real ways, Scripture is telling us to die - but when you think about it, it's really telling us to die-ette.
How is this? You see Christ DIED once for all Romans 6:10. This means that there is already something more pronounced in play. He not only died, He died OUR deaths! He died the death that we deserved!
You will never experience the death that Christ died; He experienced the full wrath of God poured out on Him in a day that would've taken an eternity if poured out on you. He experienced separation that had never happened before...ever. And when you consider the physical pain, mental torment and spiritual heaviness - those things combined to make His death the single most unimaginable suffering anyone ever experienced. So when we look at our own personal situations, and we think of the struggles we have with overcoming the temptations of sin in our lives, thinking how much of a problem we have with dying....we're really making much of a die-ette (that even though it requires real effort), it pales in comparison to dying.

But glory be to God. As much of an ordeal it was for Christ, in dying, The Spirit that raised Him from THAT death, is alive and at work in you (Romans 8:11) to be WAY MORE capable and effective in experiencing victory in your die-ette. Just like a real diet, the key is to be humble, honest and informed about what's really happening. 1 Corinthians 10:23 says All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient - meaning that discernment, spiritual discernment is the key (1 Corinthians 2:14). We also need to FEED on the Word of God like our new lives depend on it. It does!
In closing, I pray that we would keep the full understanding of what Christ's Die-ing means in light of us being raised with Him and that we would take our die-ette seriously.


In Him,
Cros