DEEDS OF CON CARNE

Hey friends...Who ya gonna call????
FLESH BUSTERS!!!!!

For those of us how have confessed with our mouths that Jesus is Lord (resulting in salvation)...and have truly believed in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead (resulting in righteousness...right standing...standing upright)...WHY are we still going through STUFF in our lives. Sometimes I feel like the apostle Paul as he laments, "For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am NOT PRACTICING what I would like to do, but I am DOING the very thing I hate." There are three areas that the believer has to stand against. (1) The world: that cursed system that we walk in that does not yield to the will of God. It has a strong pull on us and it's desire is for us to walk in it (the world) instead of the Kingdom of God (righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost Romans 14:17) (2) The flesh: The human nature with it's frailities (3) The devil (little d): Who has well orchestrated schemes to tempt us...to pull us away from who we really are...Ephesians 6:10-12/I Peter 5:8,9). In our previous Rambling...we talked about the flesh...in the form of chili. It comes two ways...chili CON (khan) carne (with flesh) or chili SIN (seen) carne (without flesh). For the Christian...we need to lean toward the sin carne. I find it interesting that sin...pronounced seen...is spelled like that with which we want to avoid...but in the flesh battle we want to embrace.


In the faith...we go after the things of God like a BIG DOG...but in the battle of the flesh...the big dog is after us. He is flesh hungry...and we must starve that mutt.

The deeds (outworkings) of the FLESH...are listed in Galatians 6:19-21. They are not limited to the list as evidenced by the phrase..."and things like these". Here are just a few of the outworkings of the flesh:

(1) immorality (2) impurity (3) sensuality (4) idolatry (5) sorcery
(6) enmities (7) strife (8) jealousy (9) outbursts of anger (10) disputes
(11) dissensions (12) factions (13) envyings (14) drunkeness
(15) carousings (16) things like these.

Now that is a fine list of what we would call sins...and especially sins of those filthy, dirty, rotten, no good, non-Christians. The only problem is that this list is written to Christians. It's kind of like the check list of the church in Corinth. Why...why can't we just get saved and enjoy life... without having to deal with the old way of life trying to raise up it's ugly head and recapture us? Some say that Christianity is for the weak who use their religion as a crutch. Well...a crutch comes in handy when you're crippled. It takes a real man and a real woman to stand up under the pressures of conforming to the image of the world and to stand/resist the schemes of the devil.. Believe me when I say...it is EASIER to just not do the right thing...and yield to the desires of the FLESH instead of saying NO to yourself and others...and say YES to God. The real wimps are the ones who do what they want. It's easy to cop out. I know...I have been on both sides of the spectrum. I have returned to the dog days of my vomit eating ways...and I have walked in obedience and eaten the fruit of the Spirit (Read Galatians 6:22-23). I vote for the fruit of the Spirit versus the vomit of the flesh.

NEXT TIME: Flesh Busting Freedom Fighters (How to Deal with the flesh)

Love and Flesh Free Kisses
Rodney "In The No Flesh Zone" Boyd