On a wall near the main entrance to the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas, is a picture with the following inscription:

James Butler Bonham — no picture of him exists. This portrait is of his nephew, Major James Bonham, deceased, who greatly resembled his uncle. It is placed here by the family that people may know the appearance of the man who died for freedom.”

*Contributed by Bill Morgan. "Christlikeness." www.bible.org .

Whatever our spiritual practices as Christians, we are to "put on," or "clothe ourselves with," Christ Jesus. This means there is no divide between what some call the pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus Christ. They are one Person.

We clothe ourselves with the unity of the Logos, or Word, that became a man, arose from the grave, and was seen by many. He became more clear to followers in years following through the insights of early Christians, who struggled to give us a hint of the mystery of the Living Christ.

Yet, we must go beyond ideas. We cannot just have a Christ in the head, or just in the heart. You can be orthodox in belief and not be Christlike. We need to be orthodox in how we live, as Paul makes clear in our Scripture for today. We do this by living close to the Resurrected Christ, putting on Christ Jesus daily.

I dress up daily. It does not just happen. I do not sit and get clothed by my clothes. I have a process, say a practice, of getting clothing on. Afterward, I have clothed myself, put on.

This is living the spiritually Christian life. Everyday we have ways of incarnating Christ in our lives. We do not by happenstance become Christlike. We intentionally have means of putting on Christ Jesus daily.

We are not moralists. We do not fight against the lusts - or strong desires - that seek to pull us into attitudes and acts not like Christ. We put on Christ. If you put on Christ, He will transform all against Love and into Love. You do not have to strive and wrestle to overcome what is not like Jesus Christ in you. You gently work with Grace to practice Christ, practicing being a Christ in Christ - clothing yourself with Christ, living so close to Jesus Christ you can say, "Christ is as close to me as the clothes I wear."

Yes, you will still have strong desire. Now, your desire will be in the image of Christ, for it will be His desire, His given to you by you putting Him on. You will long to know and serve the Christ more wholly, freely, lovingly, and purely.

If we put on this Christ, we see Christ, and feel Christ. We see Jesus everywhere. We feel Christ through the world around us, the joy and suffering of the world.

This is so much more than having your religion, your belief, your ideology of God, your church - this is more than saying, "I'm a Christian." To put on Christ is to be Christian. Do you see the difference? Do you?

When people see you, sense your presence, whom do they see, sense? Can they see - sense - Christ? Could someone say, "Do you want to see Christ?," then, point to you, saying, "There is Christ Jesus"?