Michael Gungor is one of my very favorite artists...Christian or otherwise...his latest album, Beautiful Things, wrecks me in a way few projects have. The title track is a refresher on what (the Spirit of) God does so perfectly...regeneration.
The awesome thing about God is that He exists in 3 persons that are all equal but submit to one another in that they perform separate functions...we are not complete as believers until we have been dealt with by the total nature of who God is...God in creation, Christ in redemption and Holy Spirit in regeneration. For many of us, we have begun the process in great form...we all have been created by God in His image, etc...those of us who have accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord have been dealt with by Christ in redemption...leaving the remaining third of the process that endures for the remainder of our time on earth...regeneration through fellowship with the Spirit of God ("Holy Spirit", "Holy Ghost", etc.).
Not surprisingly, this is where MOST of us stall...lol. You see, creation was the easiest part because we had no hand it in. Redemption was a bit tougher, because it required a conscious decision to put our faith in Jesus Christ...which means accepting all of His claims and promises...but regeneration...whooooo...that's where the work begins. You see, from the day we become believers and accept the Spirit of God living inside us, we are constantly at war because of the new duality of our nature...Flesh vs. Spirit. Our natural inclination is rebellion...we fight and fight and fight some more to do things our way...while the God living inside us yearns to mature us, grow us, challenge us, change us, etc..."making us new". You see, nothing comes into contact with the Spirit of God and remains unchanged...we are created with a deep yearning and void for completion by the "loving" Spirit. Now that "love" functions in ways we will NEVER fully comprehend, but believe that everything God does or allows in your life is for your good...whether it hurts or not, God loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
I could go into an exhaustive exercise on what it looks like day to day to experience that regeneration, but I'm inspired to start right where we are...imperfect, incomplete, fatally flawed individuals who were desperately in need of a Savior...and are now desperately in need of Someone to "make us new". Day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, incident by incident, encounter by encounter, choice by choice...the onus on us to allow God through His Spirit to lovingly make us new...over and over and over again. Without it, we are absolute messes...utterly chaotic messes...just as the beginning of Genesis recounts how God brough order to the chaos that existed before the world was formed, God desires to create order and beauty and purpose from our personal confusion.
Basically, the song of our hearts is "You make beautiful things...You make beautiful things out of dust. You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us." We are officially "under construction" for the remainder of our lives...which means each day we must allow God to make us better than we were the day before. I know it's personally challenging to me...I'm hard-headed and stubborn as they come...but I'm ever grateful that I can with conviction sing the refrain in this song I love so much..."You make me new, you are making me new. You make me new, You are making me new." I pray we all do the same, so that the infinite Love of God can make a difference in our lives moment to moment...our spheres of influence day to day...and our world generation to generation.
With all that in mind...take a listen...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7VOKQ0xJY
"...Dear Lord, please keep making me new...Love, Me."
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