Monday, August 07, 2006

Good Flesh-Bad Flesh



I was listening, to a current pod cast this weekend and the person sharing said something to this affect, he was not naturally predisposed toward ever being depressed, and in fact he had a most hope filled out look on life.
Well no harm in that, but! What does a person say with a similar (sunny-perky-spunky) disposition to somebody not dealt the same hand? In other words those struggling with not having a ‘hope filled outlook’ or whatever, they need His grace, but the others don’t?Maybe all of the scripture quoting is nothing more than empty words to someone under the gun in the thick of what they battle on a daily basis. Meaning, the ones not prone to ever being depressed see no need for the grace of God in that area of their lives. Why, because they see no defect within this aspect of their disposition.

I think someone once said, the good is the enemy of the best.

It is so comforting to me having the authoritative and final word on this subject clearly made manifest by Jesus. That which is of the flesh is flesh.
The father of lies persuades Christians (actually humanity) into believing that there is good flesh and bad flesh. A mentality that sees the life of God simply being a add on to their almost sufficient capabilities.

To the degree we do not see the utter depravity (having Satan within our flesh) of our fallen condition, we think just because we are a half full kind of optimistic person we have what it takes to cut the mustard of the nasty now in now stuff we will face. Maybe this is part of what Paul means here, ‘I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness comes by rule keeping, (resorting to fleshly means) then Christ is dead in vain.’

Our ability to boast is not because of any fleshly predispositions we have in the flesh, or out of any of the remnants of the first Adam.As one brother put it, no matter what stock you came from, it all collided at the cross.
If we’re going to boast, it will be in Him, the One who said, ‘It is finished!’

I wonder in light of my musings here about the story of Job, maybe he was one of those good ole boys that was naturally inclined (a predisposition) to being able through fleshly abilities to stay abreast with life’s upheavals.
Maintaining our spiritual equilibrium has nothing to do with being positive vs negative.

It is amazing to see sooner or later how the Lord knows what buttons have to be pressed in our lives to reveal the utter illusion of us being in control or being able to stay positive or optimistic, no matter how great we thought our genes might be.

Perhaps in the reality of the warfare we are involved in like Job, there is a discovery coming into play in our lives that nothing within our human disposition is capable to handle life’s unfolding.

Maybe this infusion of His life was meant to be the source of our finding total fulfillment, (in Him we live, move and discover our purpose) but as long as we believe the lie that we can handle things, we settle for a form of godliness, at the expense of being filled with dead men’s bones.

It is most natural to be drawn to upbeat out going charismatic personality types, but to confuse this with His Life is a sad mistake.If all it takes is, ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ then what need was there for the sinless Son of God to die as a criminal in our place?Maybe it is the self-righteous flesh in our lives that ensnares us into thinking we know what grace is, but in fact we have no understanding of it at all?

1 Corinthians 2:3-5 (The Message)

3-5 I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the Message came through anyway. God's Spirit and God's power did it, which made it clear that your life of faith is a response to God's power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.

Rich

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