WORD From The Woods
Happy New Year friends!
There’s just something special about starting a new year. I’ve never been one to make a big deal about New Year's resolutions, but the start of a new year has always made me evaluate my life over the past year and think forward about the year to come. This year, I’ll turn another year older. My kids are growing up way too fast and I’m starting to understand what the “old guys” are always talking about when they say “the years just fly by.” It seems like yesterday, my dad was the same age I am now, and I was riding behind the seat of his old log loader, dreaming of the day when I would be old enough to be just like him. With the new year dawning and thinking about the past and the future, it’s easy to feel disappointed in myself and feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time struggling with the same old sinful desires and somewhat stuck in my spiritual life. There is this constant war waging within me to do what I know God is calling me to do, but wanting to do what my flesh desires to do. We tend to think that we should come to a place in our spiritual life where we have it all figured out and don’t struggle anymore, but I don’t think that’s really how it works. We should definitely be growing and becoming more like Christ, that’s the process of sanctification. But as long as we are living life in this broken world, we will continue to battle against the desires of the flesh. When I feel disappointed in myself because of the constant struggle within between spirit and flesh, I have to remind myself that it’s not by my own power that I overcome the desires of the flesh. It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit living in me that I can overcome my sinful desires. The disappointment and condemnation that I feel is not from God but from the enemy, trying to discourage me and turn my eyes away from Christ. God tells us in Romans that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Read Paul’s words, I hope that you will find strength and encouragement for the coming year, knowing that even the Apostle Paul faced the exact same struggles that you and I face today, and God used him to literally change the world for Christ!
Romans 7:15-8:11
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.”
God bless, have a great week, and Happy New Year! -Terry-
Happy New Year friends!
There’s just something special about starting a new year. I’ve never been one to make a big deal about New Year's resolutions, but the start of a new year has always made me evaluate my life over the past year and think forward about the year to come. This year, I’ll turn another year older. My kids are growing up way too fast and I’m starting to understand what the “old guys” are always talking about when they say “the years just fly by.” It seems like yesterday, my dad was the same age I am now, and I was riding behind the seat of his old log loader, dreaming of the day when I would be old enough to be just like him. With the new year dawning and thinking about the past and the future, it’s easy to feel disappointed in myself and feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time struggling with the same old sinful desires and somewhat stuck in my spiritual life. There is this constant war waging within me to do what I know God is calling me to do, but wanting to do what my flesh desires to do. We tend to think that we should come to a place in our spiritual life where we have it all figured out and don’t struggle anymore, but I don’t think that’s really how it works. We should definitely be growing and becoming more like Christ, that’s the process of sanctification. But as long as we are living life in this broken world, we will continue to battle against the desires of the flesh. When I feel disappointed in myself because of the constant struggle within between spirit and flesh, I have to remind myself that it’s not by my own power that I overcome the desires of the flesh. It’s only by the power of the Holy Spirit living in me that I can overcome my sinful desires. The disappointment and condemnation that I feel is not from God but from the enemy, trying to discourage me and turn my eyes away from Christ. God tells us in Romans that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Read Paul’s words, I hope that you will find strength and encouragement for the coming year, knowing that even the Apostle Paul faced the exact same struggles that you and I face today, and God used him to literally change the world for Christ!
Romans 7:15-8:11
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 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. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.”
God bless, have a great week, and Happy New Year! -Terry-