The struggle....

Since I went way off the deep end with the last post I figure that I ought to stay out here awhile.    I might get lucky, and drown!!        Most likely Jesus will walk up when I start down for the third time, and extend His hand in my direction.       He is really good at that, and He needs to be, because I have the same spirit as Peter.          I am always blurting something out, or jumping out of the boat when I was safe inside.

I think that I need to say a little something about Paul.      His name changed when he had an encounter with Jesus, but right now it remains Saul.         Saul of Tarsus.         Saul of Tarsus who loved to kill Christians.       Saul was well educated, and a roman citizen.       Saul was also a Jew, and a Pharisee.         Not only was he a pharisee, but he was a good Pharisee.       He knew the law, and studied different ways to persecute the Christians.

The Christians had a great fear of Saul.        They knew that he would kill them if he found them worshiping Jesus.         He was a mean man, and feared by many!!       However one day on the road to Damascus Saul was going to persecute the Christians in a different area.     He was riding a long, and Jesus got his attention by knocking him off his high horse!!

I ain't going to go in detail here, because it would take me too long.      I would recommend that reading the life of Paul in the Bible would be enriching     . A lot can be learned from Paul's life.        I will say that once Jesus turned him loose that his life was not the same!!      Paul did a complete 180 degree turn, and nobody saw this coming!!       You know that when Jesus gets a hold of a person that we do the same thing!!         Nothing remains the same as It once was to begin with!!

Now Paul had learned the true meaning of forgiveness.        He had a great hold the meaning of mercy and grace.        You can tell by the books in the Bible that he wrote.       Check this out........

5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Wow!!      Paul said that He was blameless.       The man that consented to the death of Stephen.     You can't tell me that Paul's life had not changed!!         He went preaching Jesus Christ wherever that he went, and had a new concept to live by.
The problem that I am having the most trouble with right now is the war going on in my flesh.    The war between the Spirit, and the flesh.       That is the whole reason that I brought Paul up, because he wrote about that war going on in the book of Galatians.        The solution is to walk in the Spirit, and we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
I don't know if I am simply getting bombarded here lately, or I just more aware of it.     There is definitely something going on.      I am being overrun with the opportunity to sin, and I don't always make the right choices.       There are types of sin that my flesh really loves to engage in.       It is driving me slap crazy right now!!        Paul wrote about this in the book of Romans 7: 18-19

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now,.........Ain't that something!!         Paul himself was doing like I am,........Kinda.      The difference is that I want to find another solution for this problem.      Maybe I just don't want to let go of this series of sins in my life right now.       It's really sad to think after all that I have been through, and the many things that I have been set free from, that I would hold on to anything!!
That is what is going on with me right now.     The good Lord is showing me some things that I need to give up, and I am rebelling!!        I know that He doesn't ask me to give up anything with out giving a better replacement.        That is simply the way that He works in the life of a person.
That is why that I am still out here in the deep water.      The shore is too far away.      Actually,....There is no land in sight.       I am holding on to my sin, and unwilling to let go off it. Jesus is standing on the waves of life holding His hand out toward me.      He is just far enough away that I will have to let go of the sin that I am holding on to, and think that I enjoy........Just to grab a hold of His hand.         What am I gonna do?

….........Much Love