Thursday, January 29, 2009

Vessels of Christ

An interesting thought appeared to me the other day, I pondered it for awhile and felt that it would make a good blog post...

If we are to be Vessels of Christ, then what are we going to carry on our ship? And who's going to steer?

Today's world is immersed in a culture of ungodliness and sin. We are surrounded by temptations and evil thoughts and desires. The world strives to make us like it, to make us enjoy sinning, and to sin often.

Picture the world as a giant ocean, and everyone who lives in it [the world, now a giant ocean] as a boat. There are all sorts of boats, large ones, small ones, ornate ones and disheveled ones. They all run their courses, they are all unique. But some are dirtier than others. Some carry rotten cargo; others carry filthiness and disease. And some of those boat's crew's are unskilled; they are beginners and they do their ship more harm than good.

Is that the kind of cargo and crew you want on your ship?

That analogy seems to fit for all human beings. We are all different, yet sometimes we carry bad cargo.
When I speak of an unskilled crew, then I am talking about all of our different emotions. We may not always have control over them, and therefore we let our "crew" (our emotions) tamper with our boat and harm it. Our rotten cargo could be things that we see, ungodly thoughts, or something we say. The slightest hint of rottoness will turn other boats' away from yours. The slightest perversity and vulgarity will seek to dirty your soul.

So how do we clean up our cargo and crew? How do we make our vessel pure again? How do we purify ourselves as human beings?

To begin with, reading God's word is an absolute must. Proverbs 2:1-5 says:

"My son, if you recieve my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God."

How true...how very true. If you truly try to learn from reading the bible, then you will learn. Maybe not as fast as you'd like, but still.
Also, it's important to watch what you do, say, see, hear and speak. The song "Slow Fade" comes to mind as I type these words. It really is important for us as Christians to watch what we are doing and what sort of life we are living. If you recognize a pattern of iniquity after you do or hang out with someone, then stop. In the long run, our faith is much more important. We need to be careful, we need to watch out for traps set by the world.
One last thought; we've talked about our "crew" and "cargo" but, who's steering? I think it only appropriate to link to one of my mom's posts about this, she voices it perfectly. To read it, click HERE.
I hope that from now on, all of you *gestures to anyone reading this* will watch what's going on with your "cargo" and "crew" and especially who's steering.
Adios & Blessings,
Hannah