Today​’s Scrip-Bit 24 April 2019 Romans 8:5.

24 Apr 2019 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Romans 8:5.   ​For they that are after the flesh do mind (set their minds on) the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
 
And then it was Wednesday…and everybody breathes a small sigh of relief, for Monday and Tuesday are now past, and it’s just Thursday to get through before the big day of Friday! 

Ah friends, so many of us waste our time looking towards the weekend that we don’t get to enjoy the weekdays! The Lord gave us seven days in a week, why only enjoy two or three eh? That way we’re wasting the majority of them and not realizing our full potential of joy and joyfulness that the Lord has made available to us. 

By now, most of us should be mature enough, both in age and faith to realize that work is inevitable, and if so, we should just get with the programme! Furthermore, if we truly have Jesus in our hearts, souls, bodies and minds, then we ought to be glad to have the chance to go out everyday and share Him and His Good News with others. Remember, that’s our earthly bounden duty. 

The long and short of the story is that the day of the week should not really matter, we ought to just get up and do what we have to do with a warm and LOVING spirit, even though the body might feel otherwise. Yes, the spirit is usually willing but the flesh is often weak!

Remember too that we’re no longer carnal, living just to glorify our fleshly needs and wants, but spiritual beings, living now to glorify spiritual desires. That means we’re to live life in the Spirit rather than in the flesh. 

And this is how Bruh Paul describes living life in the Spirit to the church at Rome. ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’ (Rom.8:1) Glory be my people! If we’re walking in the Spirit, then the law of sin, the law of fleshly matters no longer condemns us! 

Why? ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.’ (Rom.8:3) Yes friends, that ‘law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,’ is basically ‘the influence of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life to obedience and good works.’ 

Yes, it’s all about the Holy Spirit of Christ moving and working successfully in our everyday lives, our everyday walk of faith! ‘For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for (on account of) sin, condemned sin in the flesh.’ (Rom.8:3) 

And the scholars explain that thus: ‘8:3. Law…was weak: There is nothing inherently wrong with the law. The presence of sin renders the believer powerless to do what the law demands. The likeness of sinful flesh: Christ was truly human but not a sinner. (2 Cor.5:21).’ 

And all of that happened ‘That the righteousness (righteous requirement) of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind (set their minds on) the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.’ (Rom.8:4-5) 

Yes friends, it’s as simple as that…note I didn’t say easy! (smile) But if the things and problems and anxieties of the world are what drive our engines, then we will obviously be more concerned about them.

However, if the things of the Spirit, the things of God, are our driving force then we will walk more appropriately in the Spirit and not fulfill the carnal lusts of the flesh. ‘For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.’ (Rom.8:6) 

Ah my faithful brethren, it could not be put any plainer and more straightforwardly than that! Why? ‘Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.’ (Rom.8:7)

More simple logic friends! Carnality, or death, is not, nor can it be of God, because it involves sin, and God does not deal in Sin. Thus this conclusion: ‘So they that are in the flesh cannot please God.’ (Rom.8:8) 

Neither is trying to sit on the fence, having one foot in both worlds the answer, for as Jesus so rightly said: ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon (at the same time).’ (Matt.6:24) You can’t serve both the world and God at the same time. Plus we ought to be in the world, but not of the world, and wherever our treasure is stored, there will our hearts be. 

Meaning that if we’re seeking the things of the world, then our hearts will be in the world, but if we’re seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then our hearts will be looking heavenward.

And the last word on the subject is: ‘For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’ (Rom.8:13) 

So for those of us who are truly trying to look towards heaven, to live in the Spirit and not in the flesh, let’s go home now defiantly and sincerely declaring (Steups! wrong again!) our Wednesday Wail letting all and sundry know our esteemed position in Christ, so that they too can work towards it. 

All together in strong voice: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! 

I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

And what an amazing and glorious future it will surely be! Much LOVE!

…LOVE for the things of the world…brings death and eternal damnation…LOVE for the things of God…assures us of heaven and eternal life…

 

 

Today’s Scrip-Bit 31 May 2015 Romans 8:1

31 May 2015 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Romans:8:1.     There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

At last Friends, at last we’ve been blessed with the long-promised showers of blessing from heaven! It began in mid-afternoon yesterday, and has been falling on and off since then. There was some of Thor’s hammer pounding away on his drum and some strong winds which earlier blew away the small rain clouds like a man’s hand. Hn!

But when the big, dark, ominous clouds finally loomed, the wind was helpless to blow them away, and those clouds emptied their watery blessings on the parched and thirsty land. Glory to God!

Let’s hope now that the blessing of rain doesn’t continue for too long and become a curse, a calamity with the opposite effect, that of flooding, for in these days of climate change there’s no telling when one aspect of the weather will change, or how long it might last.

But please remember that today is Sunday, the Lord’s Day, and whether it’s raining or not, we have a responsibility to go to church, to praise and worship Almighty God with other fellow believers, so that He might be glorified here on earth, and we might receive His largesse of mercy, grace, forgiveness and strength to keep being obedient to His will, regardless of what comes against us.

As we all know, there’s strength in numbers, and when plenty Christians get together to praise and worship God, the evildoers of the earth tremble in fear, because they know the power that we wield when we’re unified. That’s why they use the age-old technique of divide and conquer to keep us mired in contention and disunity.

But if we are truly believers in Jesus Christ, then we will recognize the ploys of the enemy, whose middle name is sin and evil, and will use the indwelling Spirit of Christ to fight against and destroy it. And our Bit certainly accentuates the benefits of walking in the Spirit of Christ.  ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.’

Oh Friends, what a joy it is to believe in Jesus, and thus live life in the Spirit and not in the sinful nature of our flesh! For as our Bit truthfully declares, then we are no longer condemned, and consequently no longer burdened by the fact that ‘the wages of sin is death.’ (Rom.6:23) We’ve been set free from the bondage of sin by the sacrifice of Jesus and our acceptance of Him as the new ruler in our lives.

As Bruh Paul continues: ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for (on account of) sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That the righteousness (righteous requirement) of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind (set their minds on) the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.’ (Rom.8:2-5)

Yes my people, once we become new creatures in Christ, we need to put away our sinful lusts, and let the Holy Spirit lead and guide us in all truth, according to the dictates of God. Unfortunately though, in this wicked and godless world, too many of us supposed believers are sitting on the fence; we want to walk with God, but the lusts of our flesh and our eyes still have too much sway over us.

Remember what Jesus said: ‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and LOVE the other; or else he will hold (be loyal) to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (riches, wealth, material possessions.)’ (Matt.6:24) And that’s the unadulterated truth Friends! We cannot serve God and worship the things of the world at the same time.

For as James so candidly and wisely declares: ‘Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of (with) the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be (wants to be) a friend of the world, is the enemy (makes himself an enemy) of God.’ (James 4:4)

No Friends, we can’t be both a LOVER of God and a LOVER of the world! That’s just an impossible situation! So what are we to do then, you ask? Listen to Bruh Paul explain it to the Galatians.

‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’ (Gal.5:16-18) Sure words of wisdom Friends!

Now let’s hear some explanations from the scholars. ‘5:16. Walk in the Spirit (i.e. “live by the Spirit”). Christians are to live with the Spirit’s help. How does one “live by the Spirit”? (1) The Christian must believe that the Spirit is with him, having been sent by God into his heart (4:6) (2) In every spiritual confrontation the believer must yield to the Spirit, that is, submit his own desires to those of the Spirit.

(3) One must depend on the Spirit for help, enabling him to live a God-pleasing life (v.5) (4) The believer should anticipate the effects of the Spirit’s help in his daily life. The believer who “lives by the Spirit” will not fulfill (accomplish, carry out) the lust (strong desires) of the flesh (sinful nature).’  

Oh my people, there’s a lot of information in the Bit to consider, so we’ll conclude with those helpful hints from the scholars. Please, let’s ponder on all that we’ve read, and try to bring our personal lives into line with God’s dictates, with the Spirit’s help of course, so that it can truly be said that we’re walking in the Spirit. Now that’s wisdom everlasting! Much LOVE!

…to sincerely walk with Christ…means letting His Holy Spirit…continously lead and guide us on our earthly pilgrimage…