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6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law—indeed it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since 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, though 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 from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8:6-11 NRSV)
A Terrific Tuesday for you, dear Friend! What day is this of self-quarantine? 438? Nah, just kidding, ours has gotten to be fun as we now have our oldest grandson, Liam with us. He's a joy to have, and Nellie gets to be a teacher all over again, as does his aunt, Carli! And yes, I've been asked a couple of questions as well. (Both of my guesses were right!) I trust you're having a good time in whatever you are doing. If you're out and about be sure to take the recommended precautions seriously. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds, avoid contact with others, especially the more seasoned citizens we know and love.
As we pray today, please include those who are new to being shut-ins. This is not easy for some, and pure heaven for others. Pray for our schoolchildren who are missing their teachers and friends and their classrooms. Pray harder for those who are not! Pray for teachers as they begin a new way of teaching, while trying to focus on their own children at home. Pray for those who find themselves without an income, and these include hospitality industry folks whose places of business have scaled back or shutdown completely. Pray for our truck drivers; they continue to deliver needed goods, but find that they have difficulty finding places at which to eat. Pray for our health care industry people; doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, nurses assistants, techs, office workers, that God keep them safe and free from exposure to this dreaded virus. And a special prayer for an old friend and colleague, The Rev. Isabel "Chavelo" Gomez, who is in the main Baptist Hospital in Dallas with severe pain that could be gall bladder related. May God bring healing to him. Pray for one another, and a prayer for yourselves.
Dear one, you should be aware that I stress that we are supernatural beings. We, when we surrendered to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, made a transition from the natural world, to the supernatural realm. If you are baptized, if you are a person of prayer, you are connected to the supernatural realm. Prayer only works with our faith in a God of another realm. We can pray out loud with no faith and only those who hear us may try to answer our prayer. Not too long ago, we studied Jesus' encounter with Nick at Nite, when Jesus said we must be "born from above," (Baptists: Born again, just so we're on the same page!) meaning that we have shifted from a carnal perspective to a spiritual one. Paul learned that from Jesus and he stressed it as much as he could, and more so in this letter to the Romans.
The first verse is our foundational verse. "To set the mind on the flesh is death." That should be enough to get our attention. Paul could not be more serious. His theology on life was that the person who sets his/her mind on fleshly or earthly things was on a sure course for death. It would be horrible to not have an alternative, but Paul says, "But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." There it is! Those who strive to be supernatural, or more spiritual, will discover a world of life and peace. The opposite is a life of death and conflict. Honestly, peace's opposite would be war, yet that is what we get, a war within ourselves seeking to do that which we know we should. We want to avoid that and seek peace.
Paul continues "the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law - indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Paul was remembering his former life when he thought a dead Christian was the best and only kind of Christian he could tolerate. He realized this was a way of life directed by the flesh. He held anger in his heart and mind, and was guided by it, to arrest and take, in chains, to jail to await trial and possible death sentences for their belief. Not a good way to live, but he didn't know better until his encounter with Jesus, and that story is true for so many modern day people. Guided by human things and desires, until they encounter the life-changing power of Jesus, they will not know a better way to live.
Paul was given a new life in the Spirit, by Jesus Himself. Paul shares, "But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since 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, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." What Paul means is that if we belong to Christ and walk with Him, we shall be like Enoch of the Old Testament, whose life was summed up by a child in Sunday school; "Enoch was a man who went for walks with God - and one day he didn't come back." Everyone in this world dies; it's part of the human condition, but those who die in Christ rise again. Death is but a final transition on this earth but it does not affect the Christian like it does those who do not know Christ. You know Jesus, and you are supernatural!
PRAYER: Loving God, thank You for the spirit life; fill us again with the Spirit of Jesus. Help us to walk with Him, talk to Him, listen to Him, be guided by Him, and to think like Him. Lift us way above the challenges of this life with the peace that only You can share. This we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Be filled with the Spirit in a way it just flows out of you into someone else!
Receive my prayer of peace and love,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
