Navigating Life's Tricky Journey

 

Thursday, June 2, 2022

So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.  But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.  When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear:  sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.  Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against these things!  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Galatians 5:16-25

The Apostle Paul’s logic is inescapable; those who truly belong to Christ live like it, while those who do not belong to Him travel a different path.  And any way you care to plot this on a graph, survey, study, or equation, both paths are the result, NOT causative.  If living like a Christian is how you become a Christian, then the pop-psychology of fake-it-til-you-make-it works. 

But that’s just not Biblical.  Paul also said that clearly:

God saved you by his grace when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  Ephesians 2:8-9

So the case Paul makes between Galatians and Ephesians is that we become (or start) our Christian life when we believe.  God’s grace accepts our confession of Christ as Savior and Lord; by His grace we are knit-into the fabric of Christ’s body, the church, and it is akin to becoming a soldier; you’ve begun training, but you’re not perfectly skilled in the art of battle.  You’re learning how to live authentically Christian…following Christ.  You’re also stumbling at times, giving place to anger, selfishness, lust, and more.  But, thankfully, there are those other times when you listen to the Spirit dwelling within you, and you live in love, joy, peace, gentleness…the self-control of one who has chosen the path of the Master. 

All this points to the reality that life was always going to be a struggle.  Paul understood this better than anyone:

I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.  I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind.  This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.  Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is:  In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.  Romans 7:21-25

For You Today

The journey of a believer can be tricky.  Just when we think we’ve become immune to Satan’s false leading we get blindsided by the old nature, and sin begins chipping away at our progress.  The Apostle knew he wasn’t perfect; he messed up with exceedingly poor choices, and some vile attitudes.  He also was humble enough to write it down for our sakes. 

If you’ve stumbled, don’t give up…give in to Christ’s forgiveness and strength.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Trans-Creation

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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.  He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. 

Genesis 2:7^(NLT)

The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”  But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit.  What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.  Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.  Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man.  Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man. 

1 Corinthians 15:45-49^(NLT)

There are images from your childhood which never leave.  One of those is a Dennis the Menace cartoon.  Dennis learns in Sunday School that Adam was formed from the dust of the earth, and that we all return to the dust.  Later that afternoon we find Dennis peeking under his bed and calling out to his parents:  Hey…there’s someone either coming or going under here!

“Created from the dust” is a phrase that is remembered, and has been debated for millennia.  Just how God did that has been, is, and always will be part of the debate.  We want to know not only from whence we came, but how we got here.  We are curious.

The fact remains it is by faith…not necessarily by sight…that we simply must accept God at His word.  But what is vitally important about how Adam got here is that part of creation which you cannot dismiss – the trans part…when the dust began to breathe.  For Adam and Eve, and you, and me, breathing began when the breath was placed in us by God, the Creator; this is when we became something other than re-arranged dust.  Again, this is something accepted (or rejected) by faith, because it is not scientifically-provable (or dis-provable).  This is the basis for the argument between creationists, theologians, scientists, and the agnostic/atheistic among us; you either accept God as causative, or not!  I choose to believe the all-knowing One put me together; it was not a chance conglomeration of accidental lottery results in an environmental morass of genetic possibilities; I believe in intelligent order, design, and purpose.  I believe in God.

Once that faith-issue is settled, God’s Word can open our understanding about God’s intelligent design for movement in the human program – trans-creation.  Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church opens the trans shift from flesh (not within flesh as in trans-gender). Rather Paul shows us God’s plan and purpose in moving from within flesh to life in the spirit; we are purposed for heavenly existence.  And we are being fitted for that experience by these baby-steps of human, earthly (dusty) three-score and ten years, more or less, walking in and on the dust of our planet.

So what is that purpose?  What is the meaning of life in the here and now?  And…why?

Well, I’ve got less than 150 words to finish today’s thought, so let’s get to it:  God!

That’s it?  Yup!

The dust from which we were taken may be eternal, and we are simply a newer model of arrangement, to be returned to the compost bin after the warranty runs out; however, the spirit (breath) has no such expiration.  The whole idea of trans-creation means that we are more like God than the trees, bugs, birds, fish, and animals which surround us.  And one day this dusty body is going to wear out completely.  But not so the spirit that resides within.  It will trans-the-creation all the way to the Creator!

For You Today

Another thing the Creator put inside us dusty creatures is knowledge of the eternal, that we are going to live forever.  And included in that is the reality that we are accountable to Him for the way we treat the dust…both that dust in which we walk…and those dusty others around us with whom we walk.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com

Business As Usual

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Monday, July 4, 2016

About that time, serious trouble developed in Ephesus concerning the Way.  It began with Demetrius, a silversmith who had a large business manufacturing silver shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis.  He kept many craftsmen busy.  He called them together, along with others employed in similar trades, and addressed them as follows:

“Gentlemen, you know that our wealth comes from this business.  But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all.  And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province!  Of course, I’m not just talking about the loss of public respect for our business.  I’m also concerned that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis—this magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the world—will be robbed of her great prestige!”   Acts 19:23-27^(NLT)

It is said that wherever he went the Apostle started either a riot or revival.  I tend to think both are related; you can’t have a genuine revival without someone else thinking it’s a riot.  At the very least someone will be disturbed enough at the revival to start a riot!

But there’s one other riot/revival relationship; a genuine revival of a personal nature will not happen without a riot that disturbs your soul.

In Paul’s case, the personal riot that started his personal revival was meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus.  It turned his thoughts and his world upside-down (not to mention his eyesight). 

Demetrius had something of the same when Paul came to town.  From his speech to the craftsmen it is obvious Demetrius had done his homework on Paul, finding out how much trouble accompanied his preaching of the Gospel.  Had this silversmith not been so heavily-invested in the religious market, Demetrius may have just ignored Paul. 

But Paul’s success meant Demetrius’ business was going to take a hit, and that was unacceptable.  Demetrius wanted business as usual and that meant the Gospel (and its preacher) had to go!

Isn’t that always the way?

I’m thinking we see that often in government, business and churches.  When it comes to business as usual, we don’t want to let God get in the way.  Deals made in the back rooms of organizations are committed to holding on to power, prestige and the comfort of keeping things the same.

For You Today

Paying attention to what drives government, business and those in charge will tell you what usual business people are trying to keep going.  Much of it isn’t pretty.

But paying attention can also lead you to God’s unfolding plan of redemption for His creation, and that’s worth the look.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

[i] Title Image: By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons