I received an inquiry from someone I had met briefly years ago in the move. He was wandering if this was the same Daniel Yordy he had met at Bowens Mill (a Christian community in Georgia). I remembered him vaguely and sent him a brief, but kind and welcoming reply, sharing just a bit about how God has led me the last few years.

In return I received a lengthy reply that forms the basis of this letter.

In that reply, the brother first explained exactly how the move was deception, and how I, personally, had spoken deception to him when he had asked me a question back then.  He went on to acknowledge that it was good that I had left the move, but that it hadn't really done any good for me because now I was clearly much further into deception than I had ever been.

He then went on to state that I twisted the Scriptures to suit my own ends, specifically what God says in Ephesians concerning putting off the old man.

And, you know what, the brother who wrote to me saying that I was in complete error, that the truth is we must put off the old man now - that brother has no idea how to do it either. None.

But today, I know exactly how to put off the old man and put on the new. It is something I do daily, moment by moment. It takes place in the spirit of my mind. I know that the old man is dead - I know the absolute work of the cross and blood of Jesus. I understand that Satan and his demons are stark raving terrified of me and those like me who are coming into the knowledge of Jesus as He is in us. They throw all of their weapons against us, but those weapons are proving less and less effective.

I know that Christ is my life, that I have no other life.

So daily, moment by moment, as the press of life swirls around me, my thoughts turn often to Jesus, to the One who fills my heart, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Savior, the Creator of the universe, who sits enthroned in my heart, who is the only life I have. It is not a "garment" from Him that I wear. I am clothed with Christ Himself. There is nothing else and no other possibility.

And every time I am reminded of my own weakness and failure and mistakes, I turn my mind to Jesus. He is so great and He fills me full. He is my life. I am He living in this world. Jesus and I are one.

The "old man" once again vanishes into oblivion and Christ reigns in me.

Sometimes I speak out loud what God says about me, but whether aloud or in my mind, I speak what God speaks and then I know that it is true because I know that God is true. He does not play mind games with us.

In this way, the "old man" is "put off" daily. Not in hopelessness and absurdity, but in absolute confidence and with all joy.

This is the gospel. We are becoming what we already are, we are acknowledging that which is already true, we are calling those things that "be not" as they really are.

For those who have read this far, I cannot emphasize how important this truth, this practice, this way of living and thinking is to us right now. It is our life.

Jesus gave a parable of a wedding feast in which one of the guests had remained clothed in his own garment. Jesus said, "Throw him out." In the western world we do not understand the setting, but in the eastern world, this practice is still continued in traditional settings.

When a wealthy man marries off his son, he invites the guests to his house for the wedding. When they arrive, they are met by a series of servants whose task it is to prepare the guests for the wedding. They wash their feet, and then bring the garments already provided by the master. For every guest that was invited, the master had already provided the wedding garment and the servants, whose job it was to prepare the guest for the wedding.

There would be only two reasons that the guest showed up at the wedding without the proper garment on. The first is at least understandable - the guest decided he liked his own garments better than the master's. But the second possible reason is insidious and awful. The second reason a guest might show up without the proper garment on is if the servants themselves had convinced the guest that he had no right to that garment. That unless he himself took off his own clothes and himself put on the "new garment," not the master's "positional" garment, but his own "new" one - but a new garment that never stays on, but is always slipping off and having to be tracked down and put back on again. And those old clothes, never staying off, but always somehow, finding their sticky way back on. If the servants of the master had convinced the guest that this absurd unreality was the "truth of God," then that would be a horror indeed.

And it is; it really is a horror.

But not to despair. Our Savior knows all about it, and He is very very good at saving. It's what He does best!

Be blessed in the Lord,

Daniel Yordy