My Journey Through Romans 8: Part 2 v. 5-17

Flesh. We are flesh. If one performs a Google search using just the term flesh they find what one would expect to find. Definitions of what the body is made of, tattoos, diseases of the flesh, and even a movie titled Flesh that is described as “A man desperate for money and no income, turns prostitute and interplays with a variety of clients and hustlers.”

“5 For 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. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

If we are flesh are we automatically hostile to God? In short, yes. Even as I write this I tell myself no. I am not hostile towards my God! But the truth is that we are. This is not something that began with us. This goes back to creation. We are children of Adam and Eve and therefore sinners. The fall of man put us all at direct opposition with God. We are automatically starting out behind. There is good news to this though, we don’t have to catch up alone.

“9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”

The Spirit of God, God himself, lives in us. Is there a greater hope than this? My last post dealt with the cleansing power of Christ and the Spirit in us so I won’t repeat it here, but honestly, how amazing is it to know that although we are naturally hostile towards God we are still forgiven and counted righteous through our faith and the grace of God? The ability to fall on our face and cry out to God in the midst of pain, joy, suffering, celebration is a gift we can never repay. Throughout the Psalms the writer cries out to God in many different ways:

3:1 “O Lord, how many are my foes!”

5:1 “Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.”

13:1 “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

45:6 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”

61:1 “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer;”

Anguish, requests, lament, praise. We can approach our God with all of it. There is even a difference between us and the psalmist. He was bound by the Law, we are freed from the Law and brought into God’s presence through the sacrifice of Christ. While he cried to God there was still a lack of connection. The gap of sin had not yet been bridged and the Spirit of God had not yet been given. How much more are we then privileged?

“16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

Titus 3:7 “…so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

We are considered heirs with Christ. Heirs to inherit glory and eternal life. Christ owns everything. EVERYTHING. John states this in his Gospel from the very beginning.

“1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

This talk about becoming heirs with Christ becomes ever more humbling when we begin to grasp what that truly means. Imagine for a moment you walk out to your mailbox one day and see a letter from a lawyer. Many things will probably start running through your mind, ‘Am I being sued?’ ‘What have I done wrong?’ or you may simply just be confused. Now imagine that you open that letter to find out that your mother had a brother that you never knew existed but he sure knew about you. Turns out he has always wanted you to have everything you ever wanted because he never had kid of his own. His everything then becomes your. His fortune, his home, his cars, let’s say he was so rich he even owned his own island that is now your island. Sounds like a dream come true right? Back to reality. That chances of that happening to you on this earth are extremely low. Now let’s focus on the truth. Everything that your rich uncle had wasn’t his, it was Christ’s. This entire earth is Christ’s. The universe. He made it all, he rules is all, and he is sharing it with you. The Lord of all creation is beckoning that we become co-heirs with him. The material things, such as this world, still don’t compare with the eternal life that he gives us, which, keep in mind, he still owns.

I could spend a lot more time referencing all the places in the Bible that talk about denying the flesh and living by the Spirit but I’ll let you read them on your own. I want to end this on this last note:

Revelation 21 “1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

The glory of God is unfathomable and never ending and he chooses to share that with us. Come, Lord Jesus.

The Rest of my Mortal Life

This right here is a big step for me. I never really put down in writing what I want to do with my life, and for good reason. I usually end up changing my mind about it and pull a 180 or something.

I know that a major part of my life, if not my entire life is going to be doing mission work. Not mission work in the conventional sense of go and evangelize. I want to go to a people with a trade or a skill that I can use to better their life and show Christ's love while teaching them about God's grace and mercy.
Now here comes the tentative part. The trade I want to take with me is the skill of English. I want to go into countries and teach the people the English language. Which is why I am majorly considering secondary education as my major with my emphasis in English Literature. Which is also a good major for me since I love to read and to write as many of you have probably noticed. As a missionary, I want to give to the people in more than just one way as I said before, and English would allow me to do that. It would also make it easier for me to get into otherwise hard to reach countries because most countries will admit people who are willing to teach them to speak, read or write the English language.

Over the past two years, God has changed my heart and in these past few months my attitude towards people. I just sympathize with people so much more now than ever, I think a lot of this has to do with going to New Orleans and helping the people down there. When I see someone in need I can not help but drop what I am doing and help, and if I don't help I feel guilty for not doing what I could have. I hope that if the call of servant hood has not been put on your heart yet, that you would pray to God for it because serving others is one of the greatest things one can do and one of the most joy filling things as well. I want everyone, no matter what they have done, who they have offended, who they were, who they are, no matter what, to experience the love of Jesus Christ. It is the strongest power in this world. I have experienced it I want it to overflow from my life in to the life of others I meet. I love this quote by John Andrew Holmes -

"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."

That is so true. I know for me that when I see that I have impacted someone for the better, it makes me feel so good. Even if I am not for sure that they were impacted for Christ and even if it was just a quick helping hand to someone, it makes me feel so good to know that one day they might look back at my good deed and see Christ. I believe that when we humble ourselves and serve others with the right heart, we are in one of the closest states with Christ that we can be. His heart was love. When we make our heart into love, we are imitating Him. If the Son of the Creator of the universe, who said "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...." had the power to do anything that He wanted to do would lower himself to the position of a servant, then shouldn't we, who are already lower that Him being that we are mere mortals, do in his likeness and serve as he served? If you continue with the rest of what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20 you will see that the command to serve and be a disciple unto the entire earth was right there, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I also don't believe that you have to go to a far away land to serve and be a missionary. You can be a missionary in this very land, in your own community even. There are so many needs around here and so many unreached people that help is needed everywhere. I was just asked this morning by Crossing Christian Church to start up a local mission program for their church that would allow them to get out into the community and serve. I am not just going to limit this to their church though, this local mission group is open anytime to anyone who wants to serve. The tentative name I have decided to go with for the group is Phoenix Missions. I am really in love with the mythological animal of the Phoenix. Merriam Webster defines a phoenix as: a legendary bird which according to one account lived 500 years, burned itself to ashes on a pyre, and rose alive from the ashes to live another period; also : a person or thing likened to the phoenix. A phoenix often represents immortality or reborn hope. The band Kids In The Way have a song called "Phoenix with a Heartache" and in this song, they describe Jesus as the phoenix who died and came out of the ashes to hold us and protect us.

You rose from the ashes
Like a phoenix with a heartache.
Now you're taking me away with you tonight and I know that I can't fly.
But when I'm in your arms, I'm holding up the sky.

I believe that Christ is like a phoenix, dying to save us, going to the grave, and then rising to prove our salvation. This entire mission group is going to be based on the saving power Christ's death and resurrection. Since he died and rose to save us, we owe him our lives. We ought to live as servants to Him, which is living as servants to man.

I am not only working here, I also have a huge passion to work in other countries for my mission work. And as I travel, anyone is welcome to join me in my travels (if spots on the trips I take are available), but I would also love to see PM start out as a local mission, but grow to the point where we have a group that passionately wants to spreads Christ love by occasionally travel out of our "comfort zone." I don't want to always rely on a mission agency to send me out, and tell me where to go. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I would just love to start something, something real, something personal, something passionate. Get people involved who never thought they would be involved. So, early in Phoenix Missions, I don't want to get carried away and try to go to Uzbekistan right away. Now, if that is what God calls me to do right away, then by all means send us out! I just don't want to try and go big and fast and burn out.

May God bless any missionary whether local or international, and may He guide my college life and decisions I make towards the rest of my life. Pray that he will guide you and send you where He needs you.




P.S. Those kids in the picture above were some of my kids that I taught at V.B.S. in Guyana.