all of you

think about this, how does God fit in to your life?

if you thought "well sometimes i think about him through the day" or even if you considered Him fitting in to your life, i think you need to reconsider some things.

please, don't take offense, stop reading if it bothers you to hear that.

these aren't thoughts, or reflections, these are things i've personally experienced in my own life. 

things i've realized after living for a while.

He's never going to fit in to your life.

the bible tells us He's an all consuming fire.

jesus also compares our lives as jesus followers to buying a new pair of jeans, ripping them, and using them as a patch for our old jeans.

yes, that might be fashionable these days, but it's impractical. 

when you are given a new pair of jeans, why would you wreck them by adding them to an old pair.

we are given a new life, why do we try and fit it to the old life?

why hold on to sin, bad stuff, why hold on to grief and sadness? 

you can have a new life. 

jesus is a new vintage, you don't add new wine to a bunch of old wine, you take an empty barrel and pour it in to that barrel. 

we need to empty ourselves of our old life and let His new life flood in to us.

romans 12 (BEAUTIFUL chapter of the bible!) says this:

"do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world [as we did in our old life], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" 

the brackets were mine, do you get it? 

renew means to make new, i don't know if you've ever tried to make something new, but it doesn't work. i can't make my jeans new without a time machine. 

renewing our mind means starting over, throwing everything away, emptying ourselves, and receiving a completely new life.

He wants you to be new, and to live new. He's not asking you to fit Him in, but rather to let all of you be made new by receiving all of Him.

my challenge is this: if you're holding on to pain, if you're still reflecting your old life and trying to follow Him, or if you're not following Him at all then empty yourselves completely, let all you're preconceived notions, and thoughts fall away and let yourselves be made new.

that's what he's asking. in jesus' name be made new.