From Shack To Mansion

COLOSSIANS 3:2-10

verses2,3,5,7-11 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God... Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry...You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But you now must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self and its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.


Do you remember when you first made your commitment to Christ, when you accepted Him as Lord and Savior? Do you remember what you were like before you were a Christian and what you had become afterward?

I remember my experience. It wasn’t the typical traditional commitment experience. I had just gotten home from a crusade with my youth group and was sitting in my bathtub. The crusade had given me a lot to think about but I wasn’t ready to jump up and run to the altar just yet. God and I had to talk first.

So there I was, soaking in the tub, talking to God, and realizing I couldn’t go on any longer without allowing God to take over. And it was there that I gave my life to the Lord. Later on I got plugged in to a church and was baptized and continued reading the Word of God and building my life in Christ.

There is one mistake many Christians make that cannot only affect their eternity but the eternity of those who watch them. That is forgetting to leave the old person at the altar when they become the new person in Christ. Just saying I am a Christian is not enough. Paul said we must put to death our old selves. There is no room for both our old nature and our new.

Look at it this way: You start out living in an old run down shack. It’s falling apart, full of junk, everything in it is used and most of it doesn’t work. The roof leaks. The faucet drips loudly. It’s drafty in the winter and has no cool air in the summer.

Then, a man walks up and freely gives you the keys to a mansion. There is no catch. It’s all yours. He leaves you a book that gives you directions on how to freely furnish the mansion. All you have to do is read the directions and follow them. The furnishings are free. All it costs is your time to read. Awesome!

You take the man up on his offer. You begin moving in. Now you have a choice. You can do one of two things. You can do exactly what the man says and follow all his directions and live in luxury. But, the book is rather loooong and will take years to read to get all the furnishings you need. They will be new furnishings though. Nothing like what you had to contend with in the shack.

Or, you can take the mansion and toss the book aside, move in some of your junk from your shack and only pull out the book when you really need it. Wait a minute! The mansion has just become tainted. Who would put torn up, broken down, smelly junk in a brand new mansion? Especially when we can freely replace it with brand new, top of the line furnishings. That would be insane. It would no longer look like a mansion. Visitors would come in and wonder what happened and would probably not return.

Yet, as Christians this is what we are doing. We accept Christ as Savior and forget that we are supposed to destroy the junk that we housed beforehand and then try to stuff it all in our “mansion” as we live for Christ. It looks awful to the visitors who are looking in.

When we accept Christ as our Savior we are supposed to be stepping out of our shack and into His mansion. We are supposed to be laying down all our baggage and allowing Him to replace it with His blessings, His gifts. No more double life! It looks insane to those looking in. I challenge you to look into your mansion. What did you bring into it that does not belong? If you brought something in besides yourself then it doesn’t belong. Get rid of it. I promise you, God promises you, He has something better to replace it with. God bless~