Jeremy Hanscom

Part-3

This past week I stumbled upon some thoughts written by J.T. Pugh way back in 1998 from his book “The wisdom and the power of the cross.”  This is a book that is one of those “deep calling to deep” pieces of literature.  Something that is not an easy read per say, but has tremendous impact on the heart and soul, while challenging the mind.

I stumbled on a few paragraphs concerning the church being relevant with culture in a sub section entitled “self-sacrifice in non-Christian organizations.”  What I read floored me for a few reasons.  First of all it summed up my second core belief even better than I could explain it.  It also floored me that a man of God late into his earthly years would hold such an ideology concerning the church and change.  However, before we discuss this idea any deeper, I want to quote the late Rev J.T. Pugh.

“I have seen congregations shrink to a few old people.  I know that when these old people die, that particular local church will come to an end.  The key to their survival, or course, is evangelism.  New and younger people must be added to the membership.  If this is done, it will be by a visionary pastor who remains long in his pastorate and presents the never changing gospel in the context of this present generation.  One of the secrets of David’s greatness was that he “served his generation.”  How sad and futile it is when a preacher persists in presenting the gospel in a format peculiar to another day.  How useless it is to answer questions that a present, living generation is not asking.  The key to deathly stagnation in any local assembly is fervent  Spirit-filled, God–called pastors, alert to the needs and hurts of this present age to, without compromise, present the healing word in communication that modern pagans can relate to.” (The Wisdom and the Power of the Cross by J.T. Pugh pg. 55)

I have read those statements countless times in the past week, in parts and also it its entirety.  This sums up my second core belief to a T!

2:      The Church structure must have room to morph into what it needs to become to minister the doctrines and truth of God to the culture it finds itself in.

This is a key to successfully reaching a culture or failing miserably.  Every culture is shaped by their national or global experiences.  Individuals that were born and lived through the Great Depression still to this day struggle to throw things away.  Many times they hoard items that have no value or purpose to them, but yet they are unable to get rid of them.  Their experience of not having and of being in need shaped their perspective on the need of items.  Compare that to those raised in the 90’s with their embrace of environmental issues and entrepreneurial spirit, being raised in what most sociologists believe to be the start of the post-modern era.  A time of excess, where the world watched young people become billionaires through the dot com bubble.  When comparing these two times in our history we can see how these two events shaped the thinking and way of life of people that lived in that time of history.  One had nothing, the other had excess.

Now let’s bring that into the church.  One generation doesn’t believe in debt, that if you hold debt you are setting yourself up to fail.  The other believes that debt is just part of life and the way you get ahead is to leverage your debt.  Those values and beliefs come from their cultural experiences and they play strongly into how the business of the church should run.  The older generation is in a race to pay off debt, sacrifice to get the debt paid off.  The younger generation is saying leverage debt, make the payment and we can have our cake and eat it too.  So the building of a new church becomes seniors sacrificing to pay off the debt and young couples making minimum payments while wanting to spend more money.

This is one area of difference in thinking, but the train follows the tracks all the way down the line.  Music becomes a sore spot, to slow vs. to rocky, to wordy vs. not enough words, deep meaning vs. light and fluffy.  Church attire becomes discussed.  Wearing your Sunday best or coming casual.  To an older generation it is disrespectful not to come in your best outfit, to a younger generation it looks standoffish and unapproachable to be wearing dress clothes to a place where the focus is on community and connectivity.

This list just goes on and on.  It literally reaches every level.  Is one right and one wrong?  I don’t believe so; I believe it becomes wrong if you try to reach a culture through the vehicle of another.  The core values of an organization must remain strong and locked away deep in a safe, which cannot be opened and examined.  But how those core values are shared and brought forth has got to be constantly examined and tweaked to keep up with the shifting of culture.

I sat with my friend Dr. Crownover a few years back and we were discussing this very thing.  He made a statement that has lodged in my mind that strengthened my second core belief. He said that the bible never tells us how to have church; it tells us what the core doctrines of the church should be.  In other words Paul never wrote how to do church but rather how be the church.  Why is that?  Because Paul himself understood that to reach the Jew you had to use the vehicle of the temple and speak the language of the Torah.  Yet to reach the Greek, you had to speak the language of reason and philosophy.  You met them not in the temple but in the market place and other areas of scholarly thought.  Did his message change?  No his message remained the same “You were born a sinner and Christ died for your sin”.  That message remained, along with how to receive Christ’s act of salvation into your life.  But what did change was how he brought that message.

You and I as leaders must constantly be examining our approach of the language we are using.  How we are reaching people with our core doctrines.  The leader of the seniors is not going to reach the seniors the same way as the children’s team reaches the children.  The youth team is not going to reach the youth with the same vehicle that reaches the parents.  I love how Paul says it.

(1Co 9:20)  And I became as a Jew to the Jews, that I might gain Jews; to those under Law as under Law, that I might gain those under Law;

(1Co 9:21)  to those without Law as without Law (not being without Law of God, but under the law of Christ), that I might gain those without Law.

(1Co 9:22)  I became to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak. To all I have become all things, that in any and every way I might save some.

(1Co 9:23)  And I do this for the gospel, that I might become a fellow partaker of it.

“To all men I have become all things, that I might save some.  And I do this for the gospel.”  Leaders challenge your vehicle, do not settle.  Watch and study the culture you are living in.  Bring Godly answers to the questions your people are asking.  When organizing an event look at what age demographic you will be targeting and make your event become an experience that reaches them.  It would be sad that somebody would not hear about God simply because we were speaking the wrong language of their culture.

Let’s grow this Kingdom of God for His glory and see if like Paul we “might save some” for His name.

Love yeah

Pastor J

In our last post I challenged you to examine your 3 core beliefs.  These beliefs become that 6^th sense to how we react to decisions before we really have time to ponder them.  I don’t know about you but sometimes I have a question asked of me and I have an immediate response before I have thought it completely through.

Where do these responses come from?  They will be actions I feel very strongly about.  As soon as I hear the question or the statement I am reacting with boldness and conviction.  I find this happens more when I am talking to somebody about the things of God.  Statements have been made and I hear myself saying “You are wrong, I don’t believe that.”  Or “I am sorry but that is not in the bible.”  I stand back and think to myself as I hear my voice saying these things, “Where is this coming from?”

These reactions are coming through our preconceived lenses that we are viewing the world with.  We make decisions in our personal life, in our social life, in our professional life and in our spiritual life based on preconceived filters.  Therefore it becomes imperative that we examine those filters and make sure they are sound and that they are Godly.  You don’t want to be reacting from a 6^th sense leadership lens that is ungodly and unbiblical.

In examining my top 3 core beliefs I have discovered that the first one for me is…

1:        God’s written word has principles and structure that will bring solution to anything that any human could find themselves facing.

This is something I believe deep inside of me.  I find it funny that as time goes on psychologists, sociologist and scientist are discovering truths about humans and the environment we live in, that the word of God has been telling for thousands of years.  Today people are discovering “truths” about life that the word of God has been putting forth for a very long time.

I remember once hearing a debt counsellor on a very humanistic, secular talk show giving her super-duper get out of debt plan.  She was talking about a percent of your money going in to this area and a percent of your money going into this other area.  Then she said “I don’t know why this works, but you need to give 10% of your income to a charity.”  She went on to cite several real life situations of individual that did this and how it changed their thinking on money and debt.

I was listening and almost fell off my chair.  Look what Malachi says:

Mal 3:8-9

(8)  You people are robbing me, your God. And, here you are, asking, “How are we robbing you?” You are robbing me of the offerings and of the ten percent that belongs to me.

(9)  That’s why your whole nation is under a curse.

Israel was cursed because they didn’t pay a 10th of their income to God.  Kind of sounds like what this humanistic debt counsellor was saying.

There is a word that is forever settled in heaven.

(Psa 119:89)  Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

When I come up against an idea or a thought that goes against the word of God then I am setting myself up for failure, as a leader of my home, my church, and my own life.  It doesn’t matter in what arena you are living, God’s word is there to give direction.

This is my first and strongest belief as a leader and the first lens to my core beliefs as an individual.

Keep looking up.  God has a purpose for you!

PJ

I was recently reading an older leadership book written by Bill Hybels entitled “Courageous Leadership.”  This is a must-read for any leader out there.  It is a plethora of information on leadership from styles to functionality.  It has made a tremendous impact on my life and on my ministry.  It has kick started a whole host of thoughts on leadership and direction and brought me to a 5 year goal for our church.

One point that I stumbled on ¾ of the way through was a simple thought and paragraph on Core Leadership Beliefs.  I am going to steal Hybels’ words and thoughts to best set up my own thoughts and convictions that came forward.

On Page 168 under the heading of What are Your Bedrock Beliefs?  Hybels says this:

“Do you know the core convictions that inform your decision making?  When I was trying to get at the root of my core beliefs, I thought I had them right on the tip of my tongue.  But I didn’t.  I had to put my feet up on my desk and journal and pray for several hours before I could unpack the deep convictions that inform my decision making.”

He went on to list his three core beliefs and then challenges the reader to do the same.  Bill goes on to say further down the page, “Remember the leader in Luke 18?  In this parable Jesus describes an unjust judge who is harassing a woman.  We’re told in verse 2 that this leader had ‘no fear of God and no respecter of people.’  In other words, he didn’t worry about honouring God in his daily life.  He simply said, ‘I’ll make whatever decisions favour me.  How God feels about it is of no concern to me whatsoever.’  Beyond that he also had no respect for people. ‘So what if people matter to God.  They don’t matter to me.’”

Hybels then talks about how a faulty belief system leads to corruption.  What we believe in our core will influence what we do and the decisions we make as leaders and individuals.  So it is important for us to understand what is at our core of beliefs to make sure that they are Godly and that they are positive forces.

I took the 3 Core Value challenge and found these to be the lenses to which I make my decisions based on, as a leader and as a person in my own life.  They are:

1:        God’s written word has principles and structure that will bring solution to anything that any human could find themselves facing.

2:        The Church structure must have room to morph into what it needs to become to minister the doctrines and truth of God to the culture it finds itself in.

3:        God has established a unique fingerprint of His purpose in everybody and for every church.  It is our duty to find what He created us to do.

As I write these three statements there is a fire that burns in me, a feeling of holy fortitude.  When I am faced with decisions, these are the lenses that I view my direction through.  Discovering this has made an incredible impact on my life.  First of all, I now openly approach my decisions with questions that drive me through these core beliefs.  Secondly, I have a greater confidence in myself when I choose my direction as I feel secure in these three beliefs.

In the next couple of posts I am going to unpack each of these and explain them more clearly and why I believe I can rest in these principles to help me shape my decisions.  Until then, Get as much of God as you can hold on to and then don’t let go.

Pastor J

There was a Welsh woman who lived in a remote valley in Wales. She went to a great deal of trouble and expense to have electrical power installed in her home. However, after a couple of months, the electric company noticed she didn’t seem to use very much electricity at all.
Thinking there might be a problem with the hookup, they sent a meter reader out to check on the matter. The man came to the door and said, “We’ve just checked your meter and it doesn’t seem that you’re using much electricity. Is there a problem?”
“Oh no” she said. “We’re quite satisfied. We turn on the electric lights every night to see how to light our lamps and then we switch them off again.”

Prayer is the source of power of the church.  If we are not praying then we are failing.  We need to use our power more than the few moments we are together in Church.  We must focus ourselves on the task of prayer and we will then find the power with God that we so seek.  It’s with great excitement that I announce that Kevin Gibson is our newly appointed Prayer Coordinator at Calvary Church.  We will be working together to lead our church further into this lost and dying discipline of prayer.  I am looking forward to working with Bro. Gibson as we, God’s people navigate through His realm.

Pastor J

It is my desire to see Calvary Church break away from mediocrity and surpass “good” to become “great”.  Good is not good enough when dealing with the kingdom of God.  I was thinking this week of ways that would free us from the chains of regular church.  One thing that came to mind is our thankfulness.

One shabby little old lady with gray hair listened to the
testimonies of people in the church about the goodness of God.
She stood to her feet and said, “I don’t have much of this
world’s goods. My health is not so good. I only have two teeth,
one up and one down; but, praise God, they meet together in the middle!” This certainly ought to be the attitude of all true Christians. There is always something to be thankful for. A good, positive attitude of gratitude will make this and keep this a great church!  As we become thankful to God for what He has given us we change our attitude.  We will become more excited in our presentation of God and our church to those who have not experienced His goodness.

God has done so much for us.  Let us get our eyes off of what we don’t have and rather focus on what He has given us.  Be thankful for what we do have.  Our power is shut off, and suddenly we become thankful for electricity. Our garbage is not picked up, and suddenly we become thankful for the garbage collector’s weekly stop. A good friend dies, and suddenly we discover how much he meant to us. Our water becomes too polluted to drink and suddenly we appreciate having good water.

Why is it, Lord, that we take for granted the uncounted blessings of life until they are removed from us?  Let’s choose today to thank him for what we have and in so doing change our attitude towards God’s Church!

Keep reaching for God!

PJ

Investments are great things when they pay off, but not so great when they tank.  I know of a couple guys in my small world of connections that lost millions in the stock market in the recent economic tank.  One guy lost 7 million.  Seven million of which was not paper money but cash invested.  Ouch!  But investments are like that; good when they pay out, bad when they tank.

I have been thinking today about investments.  Not money investments – you’ve got to have money to invest in those.  No, I have been thinking of Life investments.  We all invest ourselves into something.  I know some guys and girls that have invested their life into sports.  I know one guy that invested his life so deeply into sports; he became a Gold medalist in the Olympics.  You don’t get there without investment.  I know some that have invested in education.  They put all they have in the bank of education.  Their commodities of time and money have been spent on education. I have seen people invest their time and money into homes and vacations. I even know some people that invest their time and money into making more money.  I had a friend who retired at 30, but spent more time managing his stocks than he ever did working his 9 to 5 job.  That was his investment.

We all do it.  We sink ourselves into one thing or another.  My question is, as Christians, what are the things we need to be investing ourselves into?  Do we have a responsibility to invest our lives into anything specific or are we free to do as we please?  These questions carry with them some very strong implications for our walk with God.  I know a lot of Christians.  Let me say that again I know A LOT of Christians!  I watch them as I am sure they watch me, and I see all kinds of people sinking their commodities into all kinds of things.  Things that are not spirit-specific.  Does this have an effect?  Is this something that matters?

I guess to answer this we need to start with the question “why?”  Why are we here doing what we are doing?  Why do we call ourselves Christians?  Does that title itself carry with it any implications? The Greek word Χριστιανός (christianos)—meaning “follower of Christ”—comes from Χριστός (christos)—meaning “anointed one”—with an adjectival ending borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or even belonging to, as in slave ownership. (The Name of Christians, Bickerman, Elias J., April, 1949).

I guess it does bear some relevance when we call ourselves Christians.  We are saying of ourselves that we are “followers of Christ” to the end of being owned by him like that of a slave.  So yeah, when we say we are Christians we are saying we belong to Jesus.

Why do we belong to Jesus?  Well, He died for us on the cross of Calvary and by shedding His blood He created an account to which He has the ability to pay our debt to sin.  Now that payment will be made by anybody who wants to come and ask Jesus into their life.  When we yield ourselves to the grace of God He steps in and pays off our debt to sin.  Kind of like when a company sells off your business contract to another company.  Jesus went in and created an account through His blood that can buy out our debt to sin.  Once we experience His saving blood then we are not our own.  You see we are never really our own.  We have a choice as to whose we are, but we are never our own.  Either we are owned by darkness or light.  Either we are owned by sin or righteousness.  Just don’t make the mistake of thinking you own your life.  You can’t.  It is impossible.  The Bible says you’re born into sin.  We were born being owned by sin.  However, Jesus stepped in and made the payment and purchased us by His blood.  Once we have experienced His saving blood then we are His.

So if He owns my debt and I am not my own, would I not then owe Him something?  Well yes, as a matter of a fact, we do owe Him something.  WE owe Him our lives.  HE puts His spirit in us and we are given the task to invest his spirit into the world as He has invested His spirit into us.  Once we are His then the apostle Paul says we become part of His body.  We become the instrument in which His will is fulfilled on this earth.  We, you and I, become His investment managers.  When we invest ourselves into something we are investing the Life of Jesus into that thing.  One question left, think about it for awhile.

Is what we are doing, really worth the death of Jesus Christ?

Just saying.

J

I hate construction.  I worked in the industry for 7 years and can tell you that I am glad I am out of it.  It’s dirty, it’s cold, it’s hot, and it’s just plain nasty.  Saw dust in your hair, down your back, all over you.  Nasty! I have worked on building of new homes and also worked on demolishing of old homes.  It doesn’t matter which end you’re on, it’s dirty work.

What’s worse than new construction? Renovations.  Why? Because before you get to build something new you first have to strip away the old junk.  All the nasty walls, all the mouldy drywall, all the old lumber.  Then when you strip off the drywall, only God knows what you will find.  It may look nice on the outside but then you get into the wall and find bad electrical wiring and bad plumbing. You find substandard structures that never met code in the beginning. Structures built and put up by unqualified builders and contractors who really didn’t have any idea how to build and construct but tried anyway.  Before you can ever build something correctly, you first must weigh through, discover, and deal with all the junk underneath.

It is the same in our journey with God.  When we come to God, our lives seem semi-normal.  The walls may not be completely straight and the paint could look a little worn; maybe the trim is breaking down a bit.  But over all your life seems liveable.  However, when we come to God, we are challenged to start to deconstruct our lives and examine ourselves.  We enter into self-Renovations.  God, the master carpenter, starts to pull back the old drywall and we realize that not everything is as it seems.

Once God pulls down some of the exterior of our lives that we hide behind, all of a sudden we see that our insides need some work.  We find out that we are wired up wrong, that we’ve got faulty wiring.  We were told that ‘self’ was the number one priority in our lives; that we worked for the advancement of self.  This is how we have constructed our internal wiring to think, and how we process our choices.  What is better for ME?  How can I get ahead?  Then God says “know that is not how you are supposed to be wired.  You are to be wired to think of others, to seek to help others.  You are to be wired to seek first the kingdom of God and all its righteousness.  You are to pick up a cross and to follow a saviour who thought of all of humanity before he thought of self.”  Wrong wiring.

Then we realise that the substructure is weak, it doesn’t live up to the code that God has created us to live up to.  We are trying to hold up this life with our own structure.  What we can do.  What we are capable of.  We wonder why we barely can keep our heads above water and why we feel as though we are sinking.

During reconstruction, we see the reason is because God has called us to fall on Him; to cast our cares and burdens on Him.  We do not need to fear because we can cast our fear on Him.  We can come to Him and He will give us rest.  He can be the structure that holds up the existence of our lives.

This is new and this is scary.  We have been taught that there is no free lunch.  Nobody is really there to help you; rather all are setting you up to take from you.  We have been our own support.  Now we have to rely on somebody else for our daily bread.

In the tear-down of the old, we come to see that the insulation of our lives is nothing compared to that of God.  Our insulation is weak and thin.  There are a lot of things in life that get through it.  We put up our tough exterior in hopes that hurt and pain do not penetrate to our heart, but on more occasions than we would like to think, they do.  We get wounded, we get hurt and we try to retaliate and hurt back.  Nobody seems to be there to stand up and protect us and to vindicate us when we are weak and injured.

Then all of a sudden, God says “let me be your insulation.  Let me protect you, let me vindicate you.”  In reconstruction we put on this stuff called ‘the armour of God’ that is way better than that thin tin foil we were using before.  We get a God who says “vengeance is His” and that “we are His children.”  Suddenly we have somebody with great power watching out for us.  Somebody that cares and loves us and wants the best for us.  What a deal.

However, to get all of this we must get dirty.  We must get in there and start to examine ourselves as the Scripture says.  Start to look into the hurts and look into the causes of why we do what we do.  Start to allow God to bring up old hurts so that He can heal them.  Start to allow God’s will to be done rather than ours.  Make God Lord of our lives, yield ourselves to Him.  That is dirty.  That is when it is not fun.  When all the old junk has to come out and we get sweaty and it gets hot and the dust of our life is flying around as old life patterns are cut away and removed and new life patterns are put in place.  This part isn’t fun but it is for the greater good.  When Jesus went to the cross for your sin and mine it was not fun, it hurt, but it was for a greater good.

The great thing about deconstructing to reconstruct is that when the job is finished we become new creatures in Christ Jesus.  Old things are thrown out and new things are brought in.  People who knew you before will not recognise the new you.  Your walls will be straight and your paths will be secure.

Till next time.

J

I have an excuse for my absenteeism from the blogosphere.  Weeded, swamped, out of control activity.  But really which of us are not living in that world today.  It is insane.  We run and push and squeeze so many things into a day that we sometimes think one day is a thousand years.  I was talking to a neighbor yesterday and his teenage daughter says “isn’t tomorrow Thursday?”  To which we replied “no its only Tuesday.”

My friend sent me this link. It is shocking.  Take a look and come back and read on.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

That to me is truly unbelievable.  Technology is changing so fast it is as though we need a full time job to keep up with it.  Leonard Sweet in his book “Carpe manana”  Say that today we stand under a Niagara falls worth of information.  After watching that video I would agree.  No wonder my neighbors daughter thought Tuesday was already Thursday.  It is surprising we can process our name with all the evading information.  This maybe why I call my kids by the dogs name and vice versa.

But in this overwhelming culture of things screaming at us how can we survive as Christians?  I mean in all this screaming media and screaming responsibilities how we hear the voice that is most important.  God still speaks.  It is a fact.  Whether you and I hear him or not is not Gods fault it is ours.  He is still speaking to our culture.  But how does his voice get through all “that” stuff that we are bombarded with?

It comes down to us.  It comes down to us realizing there is a reason God said to rest.  If God himself took a day of rest then who do we think we are that we can keep screaming like a 3 year old having a temper tantrum and make it through life OK.

God rested on the 7^th day.  He instituted a day of rest into the law.  He built a year of rest for the land in the law.  He made up times for rest and said these times are sacred.  If you are going to follow me you got to obey the day of rest.

Look what Jesus says to the apostles.

Mark 6:30-32

30     The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

31     Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

32     So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.

(NIV)

Jesus says “Guys you got to take some rest.”  This thing of getting away and unplugged is important stuff.  You guys got to turn off the Blackberries and the iphons and shut down the twitter and the facebook.  Walk away from the phone and the laptop and shut it all down and get some rest.  Why?

Look who they were going with, look at who called them to go with him to rest.  Jesus.  If you want to stay connected to God and you want to hear his voice then my friend you have to get away for some rest with him.  Quiet time when nobody is texting, pinging, tweeting or poking you.  Get away and find rest with Jesus.

Get unplugged from the world on a regular schedule and you will find the still small voice of God.  He is still speaking to you and I.  His voice still can be heard in the culture, but we have to let him in.

Take some time today to let him speak into your life.

Till Next time.

PJ

There are two dogs at war in us.  The first we already looked at.  The one we call the “flesh”.  It leads us to things that Paul lists in Gal 5:19-21 which will bring us to a place where we won’t inherit the kingdom of heaven. (Not cool)

The good thing about this is that there is another dog in our lives, another side to us.  Paul calls it the “spirit” and this side of us brings about actions and attitudes that lead us into a different path than the “flesh”.

The spirit leads us into love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.  Man that sounds nothing like the time we live in today does it.  It’s because our culture is a culture that follows after the “flesh” rather than the “spirit”.  Then they wonder why their lives end up in the ditch with divorce, suicide, addictions, and the list goes on and on and on.

The “Spirit” leads to balance and well being.  The “spirit” leads to healthy relationships, healthy homes and marriages.  The “spirit” leads to good living.  The “spirit” gives us everything we desire and seek for as humans since our fall from paradise.

Think about it.  We were created to live in a state of love.  We were to live with God in the Garden of Eden, a place of love with each other and God.  We were created to live in a state of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness (truthfulness/reality), gentleness and self control.

These are the things humanity still desires to find.  They seek it through the pursuit of money, meditation, helping others, anger management and the list goes on and on and on.  The thing is what they do not get is it is the search for that state of Eden.  The place we were created to live with God.  Problem is you can’t find it through the flesh anymore.  It can only be found by walking in the “spirit”.

You got it?  You feel like you got a little piece of paradise in your hectic existence we call life?  Are the attributes or produce of the spirit evident in your life?  If not then let me ask you this, what dog you feeding?  You see we can have these things when we feed the right dog.  When we give ourselves things that strengthen the spirit and not the flesh, then we get produce that is of the spirit.

What things strengthen the spirit?  As Hammy the Hamster use to say in tales of the riverbank, “But that is another story”.

J

I hate this story, but love its point.

Fisherman up north comes to town every weekend with his two dogs.  Both are Huskies and both are the same age and size.  The only difference is that one is black and one is white.  Every Saturday he would come into town and pit the dogs against each other in a fight.  He would take bets one which dog would win and without fail he would always win the bet.

One day a guy in the crowd from town said in amazement “it’s like you know which dog is going to win each week.”  The fisherman said “I do, the dog I feed is the dog that will win.”

Yeah I know it is a cruel animal story and before you call PETA on me let me throw it out there that I am sure it isn’t true.  But then you never know about these fishermen.  Can you really trust them?  I am getting off track now.  Back to my point.

The point of the story is not animal cruelty.  It brings us the fact that there are two parts to us.  The bible calls it the “spiritual man” and the “fleshly man”.  What this little story is telling us is that the side we feed is the side that will win the battle.

You see we have a war going on in us daily.  Galatians 5:16-26 lets us see the battle.  The flesh likes the things that the spirit doesn’t like.  Things such as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries.  I love how Paul ends the list, “and the like”.  In other words these things and anything like it.

Paul says that these are the desires of the flesh.  These are the things that the flesh is about.  This sadly is the reality of many people in our world today.  It doesn’t matter if you live up town or down town, you got money or you busted.  The flesh leads all people to the same place.  Paul says it leads people to a place where they won’t inherit the kingdom of God.

There however is another reality.  Thank God.  UUUUMMMHHHH…Yeah we will talk about that tomorrow.

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