HAVING A CONDITIONED RESPONSE TO THE DEATH OF THE OLD MAN
GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS:
When I think about the character of man I am often left with the feeling of disappointment from God about what He has had to do to get the truth from us. God has had to do more than to read our minds, He has had to read the intent of our hearts.
I have voiced the great difference there would be in our society if we could simply read one another's minds. The entire makeup of the ways we treat one another in business and in relationships would change dramatically. God's relationship with us has had to change as well from taking our word for things to having to read our hearts intent. The reason is very simple...God can no longer trust the word of man. It may surprise some of you but God does not take the word of any man no matter how close the relationship to Him is and that is simply because we can be fooled into believing something is true when it is a lie.
I believe we do not have a clue as to what it means to be a living sacrifice which is wholly acceptable to God. It is dealing with a daily sacrifice of our lives to Jesus Christ as our Lord because of what He has done already for us, but we are so conditioned to saving our own lives that we can no longer lay ourselves completely down on that alter. The old nature that we deal with is not what we have been told it is either; because it deals with our very character as men and women. For most of us, it is what we think we are genetically. That means it is something that we could not change within us even if we wanted to, and so we give up before we ever begin.
Chances are that when we begin to look at our character we see who it is that we have developed into as a person which includes all of our quirks and habits that we want to naturally think are a part of our personalities, but we don't want to think that God wants to change that part of us...but He does in many ways because many of those things are what is causing us to lie to Him about what we want and what we really think. In many ways, it is our character that has been flawed by sin therefore, it is why we still try to hide from God today. When I came to realize this about myself I saw that it was my flaw in character that caused me to struggle so much with various addictions to sin and it was my character flaw that caused me to be unable to have relationships or keep my family. It became another life lesson that I had to learn after a lifetime of struggle and misunderstanding.
My point is simply that for all of us this same effect is true in the ways we deal with a response to someone saying that we need to die to the old man. For a great many of us, the old man is who we perceive ourselves to be as people, and it is impossible for us to kill ourselves and yet still live. I don't believe that has ever really been explained to us in terms that we can understand it, so I want to try to take the time to do so over the next few blogs.
When Jesus began His ministry He started by explaining some of what we can look forward to experiencing as we follow His teachings. Among these things are sorrow, and mournfulness in what we see around us as the truth is revealed to us about the world around us. I actually think that very few of us realize how much we are influenced by the world around us in building the people we become. Jesus tells us that as we stay with His teachings there are general parts of our characters that will naturally become milder mannered that they were before we accepted His salvation and before He gave us the power of God's Holy Spirit to help us in the transformation of our minds and hearts.
What that all has ever meant is that our basic character is going through an overhaul, and as it does we can expect changes not only in who we are but also how the world around us will treat us because of it. Instead of going off at everything that happens that is not in our favor in life we may react somehow differently because of the basic spiritual change within us. While we may not be having meltdowns in traffic the world around us is still watching us and those who are still deeply governed by the evil in their lives will react to our goodness through persecution or accusations about us to others. The death of our old man is not always up to just us, but up to the reaction of the world around us. We may be drawn closer to God hopefully if we continue to trust and seek after Him, but the response of the world will have a conditioned response to the death of the old man in us to pull us away from God by any means available. So how do we deal with this death? Is it really the kind of death we think of, or is it something else? Let's talk about it. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
When I think about the character of man I am often left with the feeling of disappointment from God about what He has had to do to get the truth from us. God has had to do more than to read our minds, He has had to read the intent of our hearts.
I have voiced the great difference there would be in our society if we could simply read one another's minds. The entire makeup of the ways we treat one another in business and in relationships would change dramatically. God's relationship with us has had to change as well from taking our word for things to having to read our hearts intent. The reason is very simple...God can no longer trust the word of man. It may surprise some of you but God does not take the word of any man no matter how close the relationship to Him is and that is simply because we can be fooled into believing something is true when it is a lie.
I believe we do not have a clue as to what it means to be a living sacrifice which is wholly acceptable to God. It is dealing with a daily sacrifice of our lives to Jesus Christ as our Lord because of what He has done already for us, but we are so conditioned to saving our own lives that we can no longer lay ourselves completely down on that alter. The old nature that we deal with is not what we have been told it is either; because it deals with our very character as men and women. For most of us, it is what we think we are genetically. That means it is something that we could not change within us even if we wanted to, and so we give up before we ever begin.
Chances are that when we begin to look at our character we see who it is that we have developed into as a person which includes all of our quirks and habits that we want to naturally think are a part of our personalities, but we don't want to think that God wants to change that part of us...but He does in many ways because many of those things are what is causing us to lie to Him about what we want and what we really think. In many ways, it is our character that has been flawed by sin therefore, it is why we still try to hide from God today. When I came to realize this about myself I saw that it was my flaw in character that caused me to struggle so much with various addictions to sin and it was my character flaw that caused me to be unable to have relationships or keep my family. It became another life lesson that I had to learn after a lifetime of struggle and misunderstanding.
My point is simply that for all of us this same effect is true in the ways we deal with a response to someone saying that we need to die to the old man. For a great many of us, the old man is who we perceive ourselves to be as people, and it is impossible for us to kill ourselves and yet still live. I don't believe that has ever really been explained to us in terms that we can understand it, so I want to try to take the time to do so over the next few blogs.
When Jesus began His ministry He started by explaining some of what we can look forward to experiencing as we follow His teachings. Among these things are sorrow, and mournfulness in what we see around us as the truth is revealed to us about the world around us. I actually think that very few of us realize how much we are influenced by the world around us in building the people we become. Jesus tells us that as we stay with His teachings there are general parts of our characters that will naturally become milder mannered that they were before we accepted His salvation and before He gave us the power of God's Holy Spirit to help us in the transformation of our minds and hearts.
What that all has ever meant is that our basic character is going through an overhaul, and as it does we can expect changes not only in who we are but also how the world around us will treat us because of it. Instead of going off at everything that happens that is not in our favor in life we may react somehow differently because of the basic spiritual change within us. While we may not be having meltdowns in traffic the world around us is still watching us and those who are still deeply governed by the evil in their lives will react to our goodness through persecution or accusations about us to others. The death of our old man is not always up to just us, but up to the reaction of the world around us. We may be drawn closer to God hopefully if we continue to trust and seek after Him, but the response of the world will have a conditioned response to the death of the old man in us to pull us away from God by any means available. So how do we deal with this death? Is it really the kind of death we think of, or is it something else? Let's talk about it. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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