The Human Vehicle - Driven by God to Serve His Children

When has abundance ever been enough? When have I ever been satisfied with more? Has "plenty" ever been plenty? No, never, not to my satisfaction. I have never been content, no matter what I had. So why do I celebrate the extra I have or withhold from those in need? Why does part of me still crave the forbidden morsel when so many of God’s children are starving? What part of me makes me want brownies though they will not contribute to my wellness or strength? Rebellion? Self-will? Why does this part of me have to keep being put in its cage, "crucified daily" as it were? I believe it is because I am made out of meat, and am, by nature, prone to rottenness. This meat of my humanness or "flesh" has to be put in its place before I can assume my proper role as spiritual occupant of the vehicle. The flesh is the vehicle, and as such, it has no business driving! I choose to put my vehicle under my will, and my Higher Power over it where He belongs, in the driver's seat.

“I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Declaring Independence

The weight of our past drags on our present like a burdensome yoke, and haunts our future with the insecurities that are the ghosts of our resentments. On this Independence Day may we find the Grace of God to declare independence from our past, and to live between the forgiveness with which He has addressed our history and the providence He has for our future, living fully connected in our momentary present to Him in His eternity. In the name of Jesus Christ, who paid to make this possible, Amen!

~tl

Bought at the Cross to be Freed by the Cross

"He bequeaths us his manger, from which to learn how God came down to man; and his Cross to teach us how man may go up to God."

Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, "June 18th" (A.M.) entry reminds me that Christ went willingly to the cross on our behalf not only to pay for our sin, but also to demonstrate the spiritual posture I must take to escape from its hold on me. Unless I die to the cravings of my natural self, I am doomed to live in and for them. But thanks be to God that I can now say with humility and confidence the words of Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loves me and gave himself up for me." I have been freed from my sin!

~TL