Wearing hand-me down clothing
has never bothered me.
 |
| "New Dress" |
When I was a teen, my two
cousins sent us a box of nice sweaters, and skirts they had outgrown.
Mother was a whiz at making
adjustments to fit our skinny frames, so my sister and I enjoyed a new winter
wardrobe.
Time passed and one Sunday at
church, the Pastor’s wife took me aside and asked if I would be offended if she
offered me a nice dress that no longer fit her.
I was very happy to say “Yes,” because at that time, my Sunday outfits
were meager.
She handed me a paper sack
with the dress inside and I thanked her for her kindness.
The next Sunday, I proudly
wore my new dress to church.
At the end of the service we
were in line to shake the Pastors hand, and he looked at me and exclaimed, “My
wife has a dress just like yours.”
I could not help it, and
decided to have some fun. I laughed as I
replied, “This was her dress, but now it is mine.”
By now Pastor was embarrassed
and was apologizing profusely for his slip of the tongue.
These days, I have more
dresses and clothes than I need, and often find it necessary to hand-down some
of my many things to our local organizations.
~ ~ ~
As I considered how this
story might apply to our Christian life, I realized that when we accept Jesus
as our Personal Savior, He makes us into a brand NEW creation. He creates in us a NEW heart with new desires
and goals.
Jesus places upon our
shoulders, the NEW royal robe of His
righteousness and gives to us NEW garments of praise equipping us with brand NEW
protection armor including NEW shoes of the gospel of peace.
In Christ Jesus our spirit is
made NEW, and old things have passed away, our past sins are gone, never to be
remembered by God anymore.
His mercies are NEW every
morning and we are blessed.
So if you have some old
spiritual hand-me downs in your religious closet, it is time for a good house
cleaning. Time to get rid of self pity,
fear, reminders of abuse, guilt and oppression from the past.
Don’t hand them down to
anyone else, but throw them into the junk burn pile and turn your back on them.
Face the Giver of life who
offers you abundant grace to live life NEW in Him
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new. 
4 comments:
Great reminder and lesson, Hazel. I so appreciate your humility. God has used that trait in mighty ways across your lifetime. I'm reminded by your story of how He loves a humble heart and despises a prideful one. The perfect reminder for Thanksgiving really. It's impossible to be thankful if we think in our pride it comes from our hand. As King David said, "What is it to me to give to you what comes from Your hand?"
Happy Thanksgiving and God bless, sister.
Wow Hazel, I love this post, gonna post it on my fb wall. I did some closet cleaning the other day and your post has made me clean out some left over habits I keep running back to that are not needed. Thanks my sister.
Spiritual house cleaning, I like this idea, and your reminder that we are a new creation.
Yes! That's what I count on now, and counted on many, many times. I focus on "new" even if the "new" is going to be when I'm in heaven. He's all I can count on forever. You put good examples and good Word and good sharing. Thank you much! And I'm glad I finally have time to move ahead a bit and read some of the blog posts. A couple hours now. Thanks so much!!
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