This is based on a conversation I was having online with some friends, based on how the first time we do something, we seem to be able to choose to say yes easier, and it’s harder once we slip.
One person asked, did we lose our freedom? Here’s my comments:
Theologically, we have not ‘lost’ our freedom, because Jesus said ‘it is finished’ when He completed the work on the cross.
Obviously we are not free from our flesh – because we are here, not in our resurrected bodies with Christ!
I am so thankful to be going through this with you all because you all have a heart for the Lord based on the promises in His word. YOU GET IT!
We can call gluttony what it is – sin. Put a knife to your throat rather than eat the King’s dainties.
We can call procrastination what it is – laziness, go to the ant thou sluggard!
Proverb 6:6 KJV/BLB
We can encourage each other to get back up, brush yourself off, and start all over again (another ant theme).
High Hopes
I’ve read so many posts in the last few minutes, I don’t remember which one said ‘doing it on our own’ –
Ever notice how there is a gift of grace and mercy waiting when you first get angry at someone? Well, for me it works this way. I am given a choice – and it’s like I’m on a fence, and I could fall either way – one way into the fire of anger and hurt, and the other into the cushioned arms of the Lord. But if I choose the Lord’s side, I don’t get to defend myself! I don’t get to give them a piece of my mind! It took years, yeeeaaarrrrrsssss, to get to that point in my walk, that before I sinned, I could see the choices.
This year, doing T-Tapp with ya’ll has made the choices more obvious for me. Sit in the recliner(my ankle/foot/hip hurts) or get out the chair and the dvd and do something that might get something moving.
Or worse: sit on the recliner and watch stupid movies to distract my brain from the pain, rather than reading God’s word, listening to His music, and entering into His presence. yeah, I’ve been a wimp…a wheelchair wimp – even when I haven’t been in the wheelchair!
The veil has been torn open. We all see clearly what our sin/s is/are, and now we have a choice. Like the alcoholic has to choose, sometimes minute by minute…I choose life, not death; I choose health, not death; I choose breath, not death.
A dear friend wrote something on her FB status that goes like this:
“I’m living the next five minutes
like they were my last five minutes
’cause I know the next five minutes
may be all I have.
After the next five minutes
turn into the past five minutes
I’m taking the next five minutes
and starting all over again!”
What can you do with five minutes?
What excuse would you give for adultery?
What excuse would you give for stealing?
What excuse would you give for child abuse?
What excuse would you give for murder?
I have spent 20+ years making excuses for my health – and undermining God’s plan for my body. I have been fighting God with my eating!!!
I have been fighting God with some of my personal issues.
I have been fighting God with my choices to not fall off the fence on His side. While there is a scripture that says “if they’re not against me, they are for me” – there is another that says ” if they are not for me(or with me) they are against me.”
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Matthew 12:30 KJV/BLB
One was because those that had heard, but weren’t of the ‘organized’ followers were baptizing…and Jesus didn’t have a problem with it.
The other is Jesus speaking about being part of HIS flock, and being of His Spirit and lists those that are not with God as his enemies.
I do not want to be any where near a place that I could be called an enemy of God. I want to stay WAY WAY away from that line!
I also don’t want to be one of the foolish virgins…not prepared, not able to wait because they ran out of oil(juice, fuel, energy).
This year, T-Tapp and diet are taking on a whole new spiritual dimension for me.
AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT! YES YOU!!! (my dear T-Tapp Sisters)
Thank you – for being with me, so that when I have fallen on the wrong side of the fence, ya’ll are there to remind me, 1John1:9 KJV/BLB – come on back up on the fence and try again.
We HAVE a high priest that is familiar with our weaknesses – AND He stands before the throne of God so that IF any of us sins, He is the propitiation of our sins.
God knew it all along – and from the supernatural prophetically fulfilled birth of the baby Godman, all the way to Calvary, and His resurrection – God had a plan. And just like with the intricate detail in fulfilling every prophecy about Christ’s birth…he is fulfilling every intricate detail of our lives, as He had planned from before time began. AND He has planned everything down to the tiniest detail, to fulfill the volume of the book! Rom 8:28 is followed by some great verses!
God does not think we are failures.
God knows what HE has in store for us!
God has provided everything we need to be the glorious temples He intends, we just need to pray, believe, trust, and push past the flesh.
I just got a vision of Eustace, when he was a dragon, because of his greed(glutton is a lot like greed, right?). He couldn’t cut the dragon flesh off, no matter how hard he tried. But when he asked Aslan, Aslan slashed through the flesh, and helped him get it off.(Voyage of the Dawn Treader – read the book, I was disappointed in the movie – by Disney).
Anyway – I have a dragon suit of gluttony. I have tried and tried to get it off of me. I have tried to do it for Jim, for the kids, for Jesus, for me…and ‘I’ can’t do it.
I need to go humbly to the Lord, EVERY DAY if necessary, and ask Him to deliver me from this fleshly prison.
This is my focus for the next year.
I hope you will all be here with me on this journey.
I love you ladies so much!
~Christi
PS – 1/1/2011 –
In reading Genesis 12, I realized that God blessed Abram BEFORE Abram told Sarai to lie to the Pharoah, and started the whole deception, fleshly attempts for protection and procreation. God blessed Abram, even though he messed up!
