Raise 'Em High

Do you remember when the good guy wore the white hat? And, when the bad guy came in you heard [as Mr. Bill calls it] “bad-guy music.” The good guy was the one who had the line, “stick ‘em up fella, your thievin’ days are over.” My, how things have changed!

How easily we forget Godliness requires surrender! Would you accept a hotel room that had not first been cleaned from its previous occupant? Of course, not! Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (1 Corinthians 5:17). There’s really nothing mysterious about “new”; new is new and old is old. After salvation, the Holy Spirit begins a divine work in the new Christian’s life. Pretty soon that “old man” who occupied the heart just doesn’t feel at-home any more. When we’re tempted to return to the old ways, we hear “bad guy music.” That’s the Holy Spirit reminding us we are new creatures – we are marked by grace through faith in Christ as a new man. Former things are former things, and no longer have place or control in our lives. We surrender once at salvation, then it’s a daily surrender of the old to the newness in Christ. Go, ahead and surrender and while your hands are raised, praise the LORD for saving your soul!