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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

cont...

"Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting hiliness out of reverence for God" 2 Corinthians 7:1

The thing that i never understood about Paul was how he never focused anything on himself. In jail, shipwrecked, beaten....i never believed it. I was just like, "whatever". I also never fully read my Bible everyday and allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to me as i read. I read even the Bible in a fleshly sort of way. Do you ever notice what your body naturally does in the flesh? Can you discern those things? I never asked God to help me discern those things. But i also wondered why he wasn't taking me to the next step, bringing me closer to him. "I do all these things God, what the deal?" Ha...man that sounds so horrible.
Now, the difference for me is allowing the holiness in my body. Letting it in, not just when things are good, but when they are crappy. Paul continues to tell us his joy, "I have great confidence in you, i take great pride in you, i am greatly encouraged, in all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds". He is overjoyed because he knows that we as believers can do it, if we allow the spirit to work within us. If we choose to do things only to purify ourselves. Serving out of obligation leads to bitterness. Helping others because we know we should leads to a life without joy. Doing things for others without heart leads to a life without Jesus. We do it in our own strength and will. Doing things in our flesh leads to a spiritless life.
We contract the "me disease". We do things that we think are for God, but really are when we want to do them, how we want to do them, and our bodies become contaminated.
we can't function the way God wants us to when we are full of ourselves (the nasty stinky flesh we carry). Next time I spend time with God i am going to completely keep my heart open to whatever he wants me to do. The next opportunity i am going to take it and run with it. No more excuses, justifications...
I am a Christian and that doesn't mean "little Rachael" it means "little Christ". I can strive in perfecting my holiness out of reverence for God. I can do anything with a pure heart for God. Paul was encouraged with people like us. If he, a Christian killing, heartless bag of flesh can change his ways, i know i can too.

"And hedied for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again"
2 Cor 5:15

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