I remember the day it happened. My brother Tommy, my dad and I were standing around the kitchen (huddled around the pantry, snacking) watching out the window at a lightning storm that was brewing. It was a bad one too. Lightning was cracking all around us and we were counting the seconds from the thunder. We were having a ball with it. We would say, "Oh that one was 2 miles away. Ooooh that one was 1.2 miles away…"
And all of a sudden it sounded like a cannon going off in my ear! Lighting had just hit a tree right next to the house. From where we were standing in the kitchen it was about 15 feet away. All 3 of us hit the deck like a bunch of little school girls. After we gathered our composure dad asked Tommy and I to go upstairs and check the air conditioner unit to see if it was running hot, because that bolt hit about 2 feet away from the unit.
My brother and I ran upstairs to check it out and the a/c unit was still running cold, but we began to smell smoke. My brother being a volunteer fireman began rapidly checking around and noticed something. He looked at me in panic and his eyes led me over to some black smoke creeping out of our storage closet. Our storage closet was built into the attic and it is where we kept all of our junk, I mean treasures.
Tommy opened the door of the closet to a raging inferno. Lightning had jumped from the tree over to the wiring in the house and caught fire. The fire was eating through the wall and smoke was beginning to take over the upstairs. In a panicked voice Tommy told me to grab everything I could and run.
He went after his stereo and his guns and his guitar and for some strange reason I ran after my clothes and started pulling them out of my closet. I was trying to save my clothes! My clothes? I thought to myself if the whole house burned down at least I would have something to wear and the only thing my brother would have to cover his nakedness was a 12 gauge and a Fender guitar. I mean it made sense to me.
So at a split second in time I had to make a decision on what was most valuable to me and I decided on my clothes.
The truth is...our clothes are important to us. They cover our bodies and allow us to be fashionable. We value them. That is why we have huge malls slam full of stores that are full of clothes. When you go shopping most of the time you are going shopping for clothes. What did our boys get for Christmas… clothes! After Adam and Eve did their thing in the garden all of sudden they needed clothes.
But these are the clothes of our outward appearance. And although our outward appearance matters our inward appearance matters even more!
Galatians 3:26-27 says, For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on the character of Christ, like putting on new clothes.
Being followers of Christ means we are clothed in Christ. We wear the inner robe of Christ, and as we grow, that inner robe begins to shine as our outer garments. So when people look at us they see something different.
They see an outward glow rooted in an inward appearance.
If you are clothed with Christ on the inside it will eventually show on the outside. On the inside we are brand new. Let the inward appearance of Christ in your life shine as an outward glow to the world.
You are clothed with Christ!
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