Living Life for Christ Alone

Several months ago, I convinced myself that I needed my very own power tools. Seriously. ;)  The first power tool I intended to buy was a drill. I had all these visions of me being able to quickly fix some of the broken furniture I acquire for resale without too much hassle.  Finally the day came that Kevin and I went to Harbor Freight to buy that power drill that I had so long dreamed about. It was an exciting day when I first put it to use! However, the very first thing I had to do when I got the tool out was charge the battery, because it arrived home powerless.  I could push that trigger all day, but nothing would happen until that was done. Once it was charged, I could use it. But I could only use it so long before the battery died again. That’s the case with all battery-powered tools, or battery-powered anything. (Disclaimer: I am not- repeat, NOT- and expert with tools! lol)  When I was looking around at all the options, I noticed that ...

Early each morning, I sit on the couch in my living room, one lamp lit on the table beside me casting shadows all over the room, bible in my lap. Sunlight hasn’t yet peered into the apartment and it’s almost eerie how many shadows can hide corners and crevices from the naked eye. But as the sun rises to full height, the apartment fills with light, and what was dim before becomes visible. I hope that is symbolic of the light Jesus is shedding in our hearts as we peer deeper into the workings of the flesh. I am not yet ready to shed light on how Christ truly sets us free, because I feel we need to unwrap the other side of fleshly living. I heard an enlightening message recently that helped me understand what happens next when my flesh puts on self-righteousness. Let’s pick up on the picture from the last post . My flesh has had me trying so hard to please God that I get sick of it. Every day seams worse than the last one. “Oh, just give up,” the flesh finally says one day...

One thing I do quite often before I see people (most girls do this, so I’m not alone!) is go to the mirror, fix my hair and put makeup on my face. I think as a whole, people –both men and women- want to be presentable when they see other people. We all have our way of doing it. And we all have our reasons for doing it. Certain events call for certain dress. At church, we dress up in our “church clothes”. At work, we wear the appropriate “work clothes”. None of that is wrong, but I want to talk about another dressing up we do that is very wrong, but appears to be very right. In my previous post , I talked about the flesh. In quick recap, if I were to put the whole post in one sentence, it would be this: The flesh has no power over Christ in you. Now I want to talk about one way my very own flesh strives to deceive me on a daily basis. Oh, how do I begin? Imagine with me that I am standing in Christ (to pick up on the scene from the previous post), and my flesh is hiding ...

I sit on my porch as I write this, a cup of chai to warm me up and perfect weather of sixty-something degrees with sunshine. These days confirm my natural belief that life is supposed to be perfect on this earth. But deep down, I know that is not true. A battle rages within me. One contestant in the battle is my comfort-seeking flesh, always trying to find a way to avoid pain and enjoy everything to the fullest at any cost. The other is the Spirit, gentle and kind, yet pulling back the curtain on my heart and letting me see that everything the flesh stands for leads to death and decay. The other day, I was sitting by my bedroom window contemplating this thought when I realized that there was something in the air that was affecting my breathing. I glanced at the window to see mold growing around the edges of the window pane. Sunshine was pouring into the room, but at the same time this black mold sat there, just barely exposed. Why was it there, you ask? The cold weather a...