What did you put on today?

Sorry, it may be a personal question, but this Sahara Challenge week is getting up close and personal and I'm just sharing my week with you cause I wish you were here!  You're welcome to make it flow both ways.  I am SO grateful that this training is NOT about making us experts in Islam or Arabic!  One week would be so insufficient. 

A major emphasis of this week is our own Spiritual Formation.  Do those two words seem strange to you?  Do they spook you because they rhyme with Transcendental Meditation?  That was random Dave.

The reason I am so encouraged this week is because as we are training to reach Muslims, the first and most important step for us to take is to examine our lives and make sure we are really walking with Jesus!  Spiritual Formation is sadly a lost practice in many Evangelical cirlces, but it's essentially a set of practices that are tools for us to strengthen our daily walk with Jesus.  It's about helping us be better disciples.  All of our grace-alone/no-law theology has unwittingly stripped Christendom of our spiritual disciplines and the result has been an anemic witness that can not withstand the normal stresses of American life - much less the pressure of witnessing to Muslims!     Spiritual Formation is the re-capturing of the thriving Christian life enabling us to witness constantly, "and when necessary - use words." 

Which leads us back to the question, "What did you put on today?"  I am proudly donning my black Imagine Network polo shirt, my latest jeans, appropriate undergarments, and sandals.  I wear contacts and usually, today included, I wear deodorant (stick and spray).  But I put on something else today, which if I'm half as smart as I claim to be, I will do it habitually - daily - just like wearing clothes and body sprays.  I need to put this on as part of my Spiritual Formation: 

Ephesians 4:24 - "Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." 

Did you see that?  We have a "New Self" - the antidote to all of our self-loathing ways; "Created to be like God" - a new self we can wear that actually makes us reflect Jesus; "in true righteousness and holiness" - and this new self is 100% legit - it is TRUE rightness with God and man, and REAL holiness. 

You may think you already put this on some time ago.  Or you may think you can't really live that way in day-to-day life.  The fact is you have a daily choice to make, as seen in the previous verses: "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self..." From verse 17 on, Paul is admonishing - who? - the CHURCH - to "no longer live as the Gentiles do" with futile thinking, darkened in understanding, separated from the life (ways/purposes) of God and given over to sensuality...!  Paul is admonishing the Church to choose wisely in the way they "dress" because unfortunately, so long as we live in a fallen world, we have to get dressed daily. 

I hope you will begin to ask yourself every morning along with me, "What am I putting on today?"  Let's memorize Ephesians 4:24, and for you overachieving friends of mine, start with verse 21, and let's covenant to "put on the new self, created to be like God" every morning.  If we choose to consciously dress that way, perhaps we will find ourselves living as witnesses and not even knowing it.  Then Muslims and others will approach you and enthusiastically say, "What are you wearing today and where did you get it?"