Walking The Talk (January 6, 2008)

WALKING THE TALK

Text: Revelation 21:5

Revelation 21:5 : And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are worthy and trustworthy and true” (NRSV).

A lady by the name of Wilma Reed once said, “Religion can offer a man a burial service, but Christ offers every man new, abundant and everlasting life”. (Vernon. McLellan. Timeless Treasures. Raleigh: Heaven Word, 2000). Something that is new is good because it is better then the old. In the New Testament understanding of the word good, God not only wants to give us that newness that is good in character, God wants us to exhibit how that newness that is attractive because of how it satisfies. How well do our lives demonstrate our walk with God? Better still, we could ask ourselves how well do we walk our talk? How well do our words match our actions?

Revelation 21:5 says in the King James version “Behold I make all things new . … II Corinthians 5:17 says “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new (NRSV). Galatians 5:17 says I say then: Walk in the Spirit… ” (NKJV). As the Apostle Paul said that is easier said than done because of how the flesh opposes the Spirit (Galatians 5:17). It seems that the flesh would have us to embrace the old whereas the Spirit helps us to embrace the new life that comes from being a new creature in Christ. Consider also Romans 12:2 where Paul reminds us that we are not to be conformed to the world but rather transformed by the renewing power of God which comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in us.

How well do we walk this talk of these scriptures in our lives? How well do we keep those New Year’s resolutions that we make each year? How quickly do we take steps backward and quit striving for the progress that we hoped to achieve?

How well do we walk with God? Do we make New Year’s Resolutions every year that we fail to keep? When it come to our spiritual lives, how well do we walk our talk? Are there goals that we fall short of reaching? If we are honest with ourselves then we have to admit that we just do not measure up to what we should be and could be. As someone once put it: “I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but I have heard a great deal about the acts of the apostles”. (Vernon. McLellan. Timeless Treasures. Raleigh: Heaven Word, 2000). How about our acts as modern day disciples? How many things change because of changes necessary changes we need to make in our lives? How many things change because we fail to make necessary changes in our spiritual pilgrimage----our walking with God?

Wayne Gretzky, the hockey player, reported the comment of an early coach who was frustrated with his lack of scoring. The coach told him, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take." (Steve May. The Story File. Peabody Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, p. ). The same is true for all of us! There is another way to say sort of the same thing. Someone has dubbed this different way of understanding as “The definition of insanity: “If we do the same thing old things the same old way and expect different results”! Now, how many of us find ourselves going insane because of our failure to make the necessary changes we need to make? How can anything be new when our resolutions revert back to the same old way of doing things?

TRENDS AND STATISTICS

One of the worst trends that we have is thinking in the box. Why does thinking outside the box scare us so badly? It scare us because it challenges us to step outside of our comfort zones. God never meant for us to stand in one place. I once read somewhere about a culture somewhere in the world about how it is considered a great curse to say to another “May you stand in one place forever” (Dr. Alan Lloyd McGinnis). Does “thinking only inside the box” not share something in common with “standing in one place?” There is the story about a college professor who used the same lectures for 25 years in the classroom. A bystander made an observation that this professor never seemed to grow because he repeated his first year of teaching 25 times. It seems that the proverbial “box” had become a prison because he “stood in one place”. How would you like to have been one of his students?

Another one of the trends that we hear a lot about is based on an a statistic that someone once concluded from his/her research. We hear about those kinds of things often. When the thing observed was a positive trait and we are on the mark, we boast. What do we do when we miss the mark? Consider some of these trends based on some statistical research.