A Change of Status

Looking for treasure in the Bible is like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.

Looking for treasure in the Bible is like looking for sand on a beach, it's like looking for diamonds in a diamond mind. You only fail to see treasure, life giving, heart warming treasure in the Bible if you're failing to look. It's everywhere.

Some of these treasures are big and obvious. Romans 8 and Isaiah 53 for example. Some are smaller diamonds, but when you hold them up to the light, they take your breath away. Colossians 3:1-2 falls into this latter category.

Colossians 3:1-2 tells us our status has changed. It's graduation time in schools in North Carolina, so status change is something we see happening all around us. The seniors that walked across a stage in their cap and gown this week can't come back when the new school, year starts. Their status has changed, they need to go somewhere else. The new seniors can't take 11th grade classes, their status has changed. Life is different.

I recently applied for and was given a Green Card. This literal green piece of plastic changes my status. When Rachel and I showed up at customs and immigration on Friday, we got to stand in the same line. I presented my Green Card, and the customs officer barely even looked at me. I still had to be finger printed and photographed, and tell him how long i'd been out of the country but that was it. No secondary inspection, no long wait in line, no proving, to the nth degree, that everything i said about myself was true. I'd done all that, my Green Card had changed my status from visitor to resident.

Something fundamental happens when you graduate, and when you get a Green Card, and something fundamental happens when you're saved. Your status changes. You're now seated next to the Father in Christ, you're seating in the Heavenly realm in Christ. We've been raised with Him, and we are, in Him, where He is.

Salvation is not a small thing. It's a total change. It's not just a 'decision,' it's a change in location. And it has to be done. High school seniors can't just want to graduate, they have to follow the requirements, and so do we. By faith in Jesus, we are joined to Him, and seated with Him.

And with a change in status comes a change in responsibility. I challenged my sunday school class this weekend not to fall in love with summer, but to use summer to fall more in love with Jesus. Summer is a signpost, it's not the beach. It's a picture, it's not the reality, it's the mailman, not the wife. So set your minds on the things that are above, and love the reality.

Loving summer, or any good gift, more than Christ, is as backwards as a high school senior going back to grade school, or a Green Card holder standing in the visitors line. It doesn't make any sense, it's a mind not set on reality.

Let's set our minds on what's real, true and beautiful. On Christ, and our changed status in Him.