Christian thoughts from everyday life in and around the three cities.
THE OLD WAYS DIE HARD.
It was during May 1992 that our Sudanese authorities converted the main denomination of our currency from 'the pound' to 'the dinar'. Yet still today many people I meet tend to use the old currency, at least in their speech.
It was in the year 2000 that our government changed the time by a one hour period. A few folk I know continue living on the old, they say "the real", time.
When you shop, do you buy bread for one thousand pounds or one hundred dinars? Are Pepsi's 500 or 50? If you are arranging to meet someone, do you set the appointment for 4pm Egyptian Standard Time or East African Standard Time? Perhaps 'insha allah' covers both anyway?
All of us find it hard to let go of old, familiar things and embrace new. If we are not convinced in our minds of the need for change, we make it even harder for ourselves to do it.
The early Christian believers had problems leaving their old ways and learning to live Christianly. I think modern day believers do too!
Leaving behind selfishness, hard-heartedness, bad habits, rigid traditions, greed for personal gain or self-satisfaction, is not easy. Every human being has a natural bias towards pleasing ourselves. Our skin colours may be different, but our blood colour is all the same. We all naturally sin.
The few real Christian believers today who have learned to 'put off their old selves and put on the new', stand out from the rest. They show they have learned a life-changing secret. By letting Jesus' thoughts control their own attitudes, their daily lives are different. They exhibit truth, forgiveness, honest work, kind consideration of others, and speak only pure talk.
Sadly, some Christians hang on to their pre-Christian ways of life. There is no attractive holiness, and no outward evidence that God has made them brand new people inside. My guess is that he probably hasn't been allowed to!
The next time you spend 'pounds' in the suk, ask yourself the following question. "What old things are still in my life that I should ask God's help in order to change?"