Friends in Christ Weekly Message
November 27, 2004

     But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
Romans 13:11-14 (Message*)

We can be so tempted to be about the day-to-day tasks of our lives, and/or about fulfilling our selfish desires, that we put aside faithfulness to Christ as if it's something just for some time ahead. This is one of a number of warnings in scripture against this.

There is a theme of the time being now which runs through the New Testament - and through vital movements in Christianity ever since. There is no time to waste, we are told over and over again, the time to be attentive to what God is doing is now! It's not something to be put off until some vague future time, or something to have on our minds only when Sunday rolls around.

What are we to do right now? "Dress yourselves in Christ," Paul says. What does this mean? It means to let Christ direct everything we do and say. Christian means "little Christ." We are to allow Christ to so completely infuse and transform us that when people see us, they see Christ.

This scripture is one we each need to take to heart in prayer. Am I allowing the daily routines of ordinary life to distract me from the urgency of following Christ today? Am I trying to fulfill my own selfish desires, and putting off Christ's call on my life? Have I dressed myself in Christ, so that my every deed and word reflects Christ living within me?

Bill Samuel

* The Message version ©2002 by Eugene H. Peterson.

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