…the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)
It’s a funny year around Links Players. A few weeks back, I flipped the calendar of years to 50. A couple months from now our president, Jeffrey Cranford, will do the same.
I can live with that. But the other day, when Jeff dared to use the word “seniors” when referring to our new situation, I had to correct him. If the PGA Tour can call those 50 and over “champions,” why can’t we? We might not qualify to play the Champions Tour, but there are plenty of other places we can employ the terminology in our favor:
– You don’t need to ask for the senior discount at your favorite restaurant. Tell them you want the Champions Price!
– Don’t be afraid to start looking for senior housing. You’re going to where the champions live!
– And that whole Play It Forward Campaign? Just announce to your buddies that you’re playing the Champions Tees!
Now let’s set our mind to thinking about what it means to be a new creation in Christ.
Several days ago, I was engaged in a conversation with some friends about how one’s life would look different if Christ was not in it. Of course, this question provokes a different answer for every person, but one man spoke up honestly, knowing there was a problem in what he was saying. “I don’t know that my life would look that different,” he began. “I think I would still try to be a nice guy and do the right thing.” That’s a scary answer, because if our lives don’t look different with Jesus, it may well not be worth our effort to follow him.
But what if we began with the simple habit of telling ourselves—and some others as well—that we are made new in Christ? Would this set us to thinking freshly, in the same way that we walk with a springier spring as “champions” than as “seniors?”
You may contend, “Ah, that’s just fooling yourself. Where’s the real change in that?”
Yet we know that the renewing of our minds is an important aspect of growing in Christ. At the moment of our trusting in him, he has made us new. But sometimes our flesh (including our old mind) takes convincing. So tell yourself, “I am in Christ. I am not the person I used to be.” Then add this habit to the mix: Read the Bible looking for newness. What evidence of a new way of living do you find there—God’s praise continually on your lips, for instance, or loving others above yourself? When you find these new courses, turn them over to God in prayer, saying (for example), “Lord Jesus, I read here of the way edifying words should replace the coarse ones that have always come off my tongue (Ephesians 4:29). Make me a Teacher where I have been a Trash Talker.”
Let you be new. God has made you so through the blood of Jesus. Now walk in this truth!
—
Jeff Hopper
October 30, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.