Transformers - Devotion for 9/10/08

Transformers – Devotion for 9/10/08

I have a confession. No, it is nothing juicy or gossipy, but still it is my confession. It is something that I usually keep in secret out of shame, but here it is: I once was a UNC fan. Yes – I know – I’m shocked as well. You ask, “What were you thinking?” I’m still not sure. All I know is that I had Carolina Fever, and I bled Carolina Blue. Not even drinking from the cool springs of Buies Creek (what creek?) and Campbell University could change my devotion to the Tar Heels. So what happened? When I was accepted into the Divinity School at Duke University I made a determination that if my money was going there, so was my loyalty. For a while I actually tried to pull for both schools. At first I didn’t really see the conflict. Slowly (not so slowly) but surely (definitely surely) I began to realize that I was no longer a UNC fan – I was a Blue Devil. I began to see all the negatives of that school in Chapel Hill, and I saw all the positives of Duke. When I threw away my UNC shirts and began to stock my drawers with Blue Devil shirts, I knew the transformation was complete.

We are called to go through a similar transformation in our lives and in our relationship with God. We are born in sin, and we live in sin, but we are offered acceptance into the Kingdom of God. Though our nature is to remain devoted and committed to the life of sin, if we act upon our acceptance into the Kingdom, then a transformation is to take place. In much the same way we can’t be fans of both UNC and Duke, we also are called to not be a part of the kingdom of sin AND the Kingdom of God. This morning in my devotion time I was reading from Romans 6, and verses 1-2 reminded me of this principle: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” If we have entered into God’s Kingdom, then we can no longer demonstrate our devotion to the kingdom of sin. Now I am not saying that we will not ever sin again, nor am I fully defining what sin is, but I am saying that sin will not govern our lives. Today, how can we recognize the ways that God truly rules in our life, and how can we see that we have let sin still have a grasp?