July 23, 2023
There are certain, specific appointments that one should keep, but there is one that is unavoidable… death! Ecclesiastes 12:7 answers, “it is the return of the body to dust and the spirit to the God who gave it.” There is a very clear difference between flesh and spirit, one is earthly and the other is God’s gift, heavenly. One returns to the earth to be replaced by a “new body” and the house of a renewed spirit. By inspiration, Paul calls the body wretched (Romans 7:24) and is grateful that Christ, if he is your Lord, will deliver you from the “body of death.” This body of death has its own mind which is “only evil continually.” Choosing to please itself is no option unless Christ is an integral part of the picture. In you He becomes the hope of glory, the example of emulation, and the power to be transformed (Romans 12). When He chose us, we were given the privilege to choose! By his death and resurrection, we are given death (Romans 6:4) that like Him we are raised by God for a new purpose. Our mental state is changed to service instead of being served, yet the selfish body is still wretched. It seeks its own pleasure even while our mind has a passion to serve the Lord. The body and the mind war constantly which is proof of Christianity and Satanism. None else but mankind struggles so valiantly; everything else devours and are called animals. We are Christians because we love and feel others as Christ. Our objective is to produce fruit that glorifies God and not self. Avoiding eternal death by dying to ourselves, “Taking up our cross and following him.” The good life is not now, not here, but here-after and this we believe and teach. We know that persons who have hope in this life as “of all men most miserable.” Everyone struggles, some with things to no glory and some to overcome themselves to God’s glory. Wanting to do good today, but failing does not mean that we go back to wallowing in the mud, but rather to “rise again” with hope. Why because the trying of our faith worketh patience and patience develops hope. So, we begin a new day knowing that we are going to be set free of this body. That is hope!
Kenneth E. Morrison