Tag: flesh

Jesus: The Emulsifier

Today’s Reading : Ephesian 2:1-22

As a child of the 80’s, I remember many sitcoms that were available to me as a youth. As I look at my children today they are obsessed with YouTube and other videos and do not have access to the great genre of television shows that I had access to as a child. But in these sitcoms, there were times where a person was having a dilemma and they needed to figure out what would be the best course of action. In these times, the actor would have a good side and a bad side, an angel and a devil, on their shoulders and they would consult each of these for their situation.

In real life, we actually do have two major sides that are residing in our body. We have the flesh, which is the natural side of our being. We also have the spiritual side. There is always a conflict between the flesh and the spirit sides in our body. But we have the person of Christ Jesus which has bridged the divide within us.

Ephesians 2: 13-16

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

We have the benefit and the luxury of having Christ coming into the world and making available to us the Holy Spirit. Before Christ came to the world the spirit of God was available, but not to everybody. Before Christ we were all flesh, and there was no spirit within us. Before Christ we did not truly understand good and bad for ourselves.

But when Christ came he brought the Holy Spirit to us through his body. In Ephesians, we are seeing the two natures of Christ: the spirit and the physical manifest in one. Before Christ the spirit and the body could not coexist as it does today.

When Christ came to Earth, he became an emulsifier. An emulsifier is an agent that brings two unlike things together. When you are mixing water and oil together, they will separate. But when you put in an emulsifier with these to the water and oil , then you make the water and oil combine together so they do not separate. When Christ came into our life he brought the spirit. When Christ came to our lives he allowed our flesh and the spirit to combine as one, as he himself was the first to bring this together.

In essence, Christ has made us new creations. We are no longer just flesh without the spirit, but we are flesh and spirit together. Before Christ we did not truly understand good or love or peace within ourselves. But with Christ we have the Spirit of God living in us daily. For some of us we will be able to acknowledge the spirit. For others they are not able to acknowledge the spirit because it has not been shown to them that they have good. But we all have a spirit inside of us.

Ephesians 2: 19- 22 

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens,but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Let us acknowledge how good new creations we are on a daily basis. This is a continual process. Sometimes when you allow oil and water to sit even in the presence of an emulsifier, they may separate. But it’s up to us to shake up the solution daily. When we shake the solution (the flesh and the spirit) daily: by meditating, by reading the Scriptures, by showing love to each other… We are continually creating new creations through Christ.  Let us not become separated in our body.  Let us allow Christ to daily combine our flesh and spirit and produce good for God’s glory.

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Recycling ideas and environmental garbage management solutions and creative ways to reuse waste as old paper glass metal and plastic bottles shaped as a human head as a symbol for reusable thinking and conservation advice.

1 Samuel 10; Romans 8; Jeremiah 47; Psalms 23–24

I want to piggy back on Mike Somer’s post, Deadly Thoughts, from yesterday. Mike helps us to discover that the objects of our desire are often of a worldly nature. Today, I want to talk about another component to our wanting which is why we want the things we want. Seriously, when was the last time you stopped to consider why you want a new, car, camera, phone, or a sweater? The answer is found in a simple test of our focus.

Think back to yesterday. Starting from the time that you woke up, to the time that you went to bed, make a list of all the things that you did. In order to maximize the results, be detailed about it. For example, if you watched TV in the morning, what show did you watch? If you surfed the NET, what websites did you visit, if you read a book, what book did you read? The point is to understand  the kinds and quality of information that we are putting into our minds. As a participant in this exercise, I viewed my web browser’s history. It reveals that I visited my email and business sites the most and often interrupted them with Pinterest, facebook, HOUZZ, Amazon, Pantagraph and Atlas Obscura. I want to give you a golden opportunity to do the judging for me. Do you think these moments in my day qualify as Godly, or worldly? Wait, before you answer that, let’s get a true test from the Apostle Paul. He says, “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). Now what do you think? The answer I came up with stings a bit.

The part of the test that stings is that it reveals my focus.  I spend much of my time filling my mind with worldly things.  To be fair, some of this is important.  It helps me run my business and communicate with people.  I will not, however, allow those things to become an excuse.  I must consider the alternative use of my time.  What if, instead of retreating to Facebook and Amazon, I reflected instead on God’s word?   How would it change my attitude?  Would it change the things that I want?  According to Paul, the answer is yes.  He equates living according to the Spirit with setting our minds on the Spirit.  The end result of this thinking is Life and Peace.  Galatians 5:22 expands that list to include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

To be sure, this BibleJournal project is a good start for setting our minds on the Spirit.  I don’t know about you, but I can feel the Holy Spirit nudging me, ever so kindly, gently and lovingly to allow him into my mind more often.  I intend to do just that.  Will you?

If you would like to learn more about how we can allow God into our minds, I recommend reading A Mind For God, by James Emery White.  In it, he discusses the consequences of Christianity’s passive role in learning and building strong, Godly minds.  He explains his “mission to prepare [his] mind to not simply understand the ideas of the world but to engage the ideas of the world.”  The simple truth is that until we engage His word in more intellectual ways, we will never be able to fulfill His great calling on our lives.