Harvest Daily with Greg Laurie - June 16, 2006
New Clothes
Put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.
—Colossians 3:10
When the prodigal son finally went home, his father ran to meet him (see Luke 15:20). In that culture, it was undignified for an older man to run. But the father didn’t care about dignity; all he cared about was his son. The father smothered his son with kisses. Now keep in mind that he had been hanging around with pigs. This kid would have reeked. His clothes would have been tattered rags. His father could have said, “Go get a bath! Then I will hug you.” But he hugged and kissed his son in his miserable, stinking state.
This parable is a picture of God as a man, willing to lose His dignity to get to His son as quickly as possible and throw His arms around him. It is a picture of God who loves us and can’t wait to show His love.
So what do we need to do to get right with God? Do we need to make changes, maybe clean up our lives first? No. We are to come as we are. We are to come with our sins, with our problems, in our rags, and God will throw His arms around us. But notice something else: the father didn’t leave him in dirty rags. He commanded his servants to give his son new clothes.
Some people say, “God loves me just as I am.” That is right. He does love us with all of our sins and problems and shortcomings. But He wants to change us. Romans 13:14 tells us, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” We should cast aside the things that have kept us from God and begin to live a new life as we walk with Him.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org.
Copyright © 2006 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.
