May 22, 2001
One positive thing about Alberta winters is that extreme cold weather kills the bugs, at least most of them. We lived in California three times and have memories of turning on a light in the middle of the night and seeing critters dashing for the cracks. Yuck.
Cockroaches are probably my least favorite insect, even worse than mosquitoes. Did you know that they can live nine days without their heads before they starve to death? I don’t know if they jump around like chickens without their heads, but it wouldn’t surprise me. They are tenacious critters and have persisted on this planet longer than almost all other life forms.
Humans can survive a bit longer without food than cockroaches, up to about forty days, but we can’t do it without our heads. Our survival depends on having major body parts intact with all systems working.
Of course we need food to live. God even tells us to pray for “our daily bread” — but Jesus pointed out that we are spiritual creatures. We need more than food. He said, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
If our spirit needs proper food, just as our body does, what is our spirit? And how does the Word of God feed it? Obviously it is invisible — not like hands and feet — and seems more connected to our personality, even our emotions and intelligence. But it goes deeper than those.
Some say the human spirit is our conscience and intuition. It is the part of us that instinctively knows right from wrong and has the capacity for faith and worship. In Scripture, the term ‘spirit’ is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘soul’ yet they are not exactly the same: “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Also, Hebrews 4 says the Word of God divides soul and spirit.
The difference seems to be in function. Our soul is where we make decisions, think and feel emotions. These abilities can enhance or interfere with the work of our spirit. For instance, we are able to worship God in our spirit but our soul may not ‘feel’ like it or ‘decide’ not to. Our spirit may want to trust God but our intellectual ability argues with it.
Soul and spirit both find expression in the visible part of us, our bodies. Our worship may be an internal matter yet it becomes visible in the way we live, at least if the spirit is at work. However, the soul is generally active all the time (thinking, feeling, making decisions) but the Word of God says some people have a ‘dead spirit.’ That is, they are not physically dead but they have turned away from any interest in God or being godly. They do not have any sense of ‘knowing’ truth about God (faith) and are said to be “dead in their sins.”
Unlike a physically dead person, a spiritually dead person can be brought to life. God’s Holy Spirit is able to regenerate them through Christ. The life of Jesus starts new life in them, an ‘aliveness’ that begins in the spirit and then permeates their soul. The way they think and feel about God and spiritual matters is changed.
Those changes impact the whole person. Because they have faith in God and are worshiping Him, they begin thinking in new ways, feeling new emotions, and making decisions that please God. All this leads to new behavior, a changed lifestyle.
No wonder the Bible says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ.”
A cockroach may be able to live nine days without its head and may be the longest living bug species but we can have something completely beyond its expectations. Because of Jesus Christ, we can live forever. We start by feeding our spirits on His Word, sharpening our conscience and giving ourselves Someone to trust and worship. As we do, new life begins. . . and it extends from the point of faith right on into eternity!
Showing posts with label attention to our spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attention to our spirit. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2018
Monday, August 17, 2015
Keys to Satisfaction ................ Parables 314
April 21, 1992
Anyone old enough to remember the good old days may recall the prices we once paid at the grocery store. For instance, prime rib roast: 79 cents/lb., peanut butter: 99 cents/48-ounce jar, and coffee: 69 cents/lb.
Transportation and television was good in the good old days too. A 1967 Oldsmobile 88 hardtop sold for $3774 (the tag for one of that vintage and in good condition could be higher now), a front-end alignment was $7 and gasoline was 45 cents a gallon or 10 cents per liter. We watched Bonanza, Red Skeleton, Front Page Challenge, and the Lucy Show. “Good” takes on even more meaning when these oldies are compared to most of today’s programming.
Progress says we can’t go back. Maybe we don’t want to — wages have gone up a bunch since then too. In fact, the average salary has increased far more than grocery and automobile prices, enough to make one wonder why it is so difficult to make ends meet, much more difficult than the good old days.
Historically, the Hebrews had some good old days too. They came out of slavery in Egypt by means of the Exodus led by Moses, entered and possessed the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, and grew to a prosperous nation under King David and his son, Solomon. God had promised to bless them if they obeyed Him, and they did — so He did.
However, the good times came to an end. The generation after Solomon built idols and fought over the land. The nation divided and the blessings dwindled. God told them if they did not obey they would be cursed and cursed they were. Their prosperity changed to famine, disease, and invasion by enemies. Assyria invaded the northern kingdom and Babylon the south. The Hebrew people wound up exiled in a foreign land.
But God didn’t forget them. After many years they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. However, life was never the same. The people had not regained the prosperity promised them. The prophet Haggai described what was happening: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
He goes on to say their problem was that they had neglected their spiritual lives. The temple should have been rebuilt and they had not done that. Because of their neglect, God said to them, “I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”
We are not the nation Israel and our drought (so far) is mostly economic. But many work hard only to have their wages go into a bag of holes. Their money is gone before the month is over even though costs have not escalated nearly as much as the size of pay cheques. For those who do have enough money for basic needs, most are far from being content. Could it be that our problem in Canada is the same as it was in ancient Israel?
Instead of crying out for a return to the good old days, instead of pressuring our government to force economic progress, instead of vain hopes of ever making wants and wages match, maybe as a nation we need to give some attention to our spiritual condition.
God does say if we “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” He will take care of the necessities of life. If necessities are not satisfying, maybe we are seeking our satisfaction in that which can never satisfy.
Anyone old enough to remember the good old days may recall the prices we once paid at the grocery store. For instance, prime rib roast: 79 cents/lb., peanut butter: 99 cents/48-ounce jar, and coffee: 69 cents/lb.
Transportation and television was good in the good old days too. A 1967 Oldsmobile 88 hardtop sold for $3774 (the tag for one of that vintage and in good condition could be higher now), a front-end alignment was $7 and gasoline was 45 cents a gallon or 10 cents per liter. We watched Bonanza, Red Skeleton, Front Page Challenge, and the Lucy Show. “Good” takes on even more meaning when these oldies are compared to most of today’s programming.
Progress says we can’t go back. Maybe we don’t want to — wages have gone up a bunch since then too. In fact, the average salary has increased far more than grocery and automobile prices, enough to make one wonder why it is so difficult to make ends meet, much more difficult than the good old days.
Historically, the Hebrews had some good old days too. They came out of slavery in Egypt by means of the Exodus led by Moses, entered and possessed the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, and grew to a prosperous nation under King David and his son, Solomon. God had promised to bless them if they obeyed Him, and they did — so He did.
However, the good times came to an end. The generation after Solomon built idols and fought over the land. The nation divided and the blessings dwindled. God told them if they did not obey they would be cursed and cursed they were. Their prosperity changed to famine, disease, and invasion by enemies. Assyria invaded the northern kingdom and Babylon the south. The Hebrew people wound up exiled in a foreign land.
But God didn’t forget them. After many years they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. However, life was never the same. The people had not regained the prosperity promised them. The prophet Haggai described what was happening: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
He goes on to say their problem was that they had neglected their spiritual lives. The temple should have been rebuilt and they had not done that. Because of their neglect, God said to them, “I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”
We are not the nation Israel and our drought (so far) is mostly economic. But many work hard only to have their wages go into a bag of holes. Their money is gone before the month is over even though costs have not escalated nearly as much as the size of pay cheques. For those who do have enough money for basic needs, most are far from being content. Could it be that our problem in Canada is the same as it was in ancient Israel?
Instead of crying out for a return to the good old days, instead of pressuring our government to force economic progress, instead of vain hopes of ever making wants and wages match, maybe as a nation we need to give some attention to our spiritual condition.
God does say if we “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” He will take care of the necessities of life. If necessities are not satisfying, maybe we are seeking our satisfaction in that which can never satisfy.
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