What costume are you wearing?
Yes, it is near Halloween - not my favorite holiday - not my favorite season as a rule ---- getting used to things getting darker quicker. It always gets better. All these weird costumes. I can cope with Halloween, baptize it, shake it around, redefine it, and utilize it. Do what you will. It is what it is.
We are what and who we are no matter what we put on and pretend to be. It is the day of alter-egos. It is the day of confronting fears and turning them to humor.
It is also Reformation Day. Luther finally, reluctantly, and fearlessly came to a line that he could not cross and declared, "Here I stand; I can do no other."
Where do you stand so that you can do no other?
What in you or me needs to be re-FORMED. God is forming us and we can cooperate if we will - be pliable, flexible, and movable.
People put on costumes for Halloween. I used to dress as a hobo when was a kid. We are usually just putting on a show. We don't really become goblins and hobos and zombies. But there are things we put on that form us and we become because we are always becoming.
Some stuff needs to be put off . They tend to stick to our skin and form us wrongly:
Ephesians 4:22: ... put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
Colossians 3:8: But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
Colossians 3:9: Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds ...
Other things, according to scripture, Jesus followers need to PUT ON. It is more than a costume. These things shape us:
Galatians 3:27: put on Christ.
Ephesians 4:24: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Ephesians 6:11: Put on the whole armour of God,
Colossians 3:10: And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Colossians 3:12: Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Colossians 3:14: And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Halloween, pagan, earthy, sometimes offensive, fun, opportune, present in-your-face, and not really going away reminds me to check my costume with regard to my own reformation.
What am I putting on and what am I putting off. Is it only a PUT ON or and I being REFORMED.
Something is shaping you right now. What is it?
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