DAT'S JUST DA BEAST IN ME!

Greetings Chewers of da Cud...how's the beast? Back in 1957...I was 6 years old...I saw a movie at the Starlight Drive-In....with my Mom and Dad...called JAILHOUSE ROCK. The EP record...(EP=a 45 rpm piece of vinyl that was not a full album but held 5 or 6 songs. VINYL= round pieces of plastic with grooves cut into them that when a needle is place on them and they revolve around...emits sound from a record player)...was one of the first record I owned.

As some of you know...when my friends were listening to Mary Had A Little Lamb...I was singing..."the warden had a party in the county jail."

The movie was the picture that Elvis never watched...because his co-star...Judy Tyler was killed in a car wreck after she made the movie. It is the tale of a truck driver who gets into a bar fight...and he kills a man in the fight. He is sent to prison...meets up with someone who teaches him how to play the guitar...and soon is elevated to the national limelight...with a song called Jailhouse Rock. When he gets out of prison...the story continues with him meeting a girl who promotes his music...and he skyrockets to the top. Elvis' character gets caught up in himself and turns into a jerk...and then through a series of events...comes back to being a good guy. At one point he gets into another fight and receives a punch into his larynx (lar-inks) and loses his voice. I consider it to be one of Elvis' better movies (although I like them all...even the bad ones...with King Creole being my favorite).

One of my favorite scenes is where Elvis and Judy are walking down the street...and Elvis stops and grabs her...and plants a wet, sloppy kiss on her resistant lips. She pushes away and says..."Don't use those tactics on me." Elvis responds with QUOTABLE QUOTE. He looks at her...and smiles a sneer...and says..."Dem ain't tactics...dat's just da BEAST in me."


Funny line...but at times...a little close to reality in me.

"Therefore...if any man is IN CHRIST...he is a NEW CREATION...the OLD THINGS passed away...behold...NEW THINGS have come." (II Corinthians 5:17)

Well...one would wish...that...this was the end of the story. I once was a boogerhead...and now I am not a boogerhead. But over the years...the NEW CREATION...at times...acted like the OLD CREATION.

"For the good that I wish...I do not do...but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I don not wish...I am no longer the one doing it...but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me...the one who wishes to do good." (Romans 7:19-21)

I find myself...trying to excuse myself for my actions...by saying..."Dem ain't tactics...dat's just da beast in me." Well...that excuse does not hold water for the believer.

"Even he who is pure in heart...can become a wolf...when the wolf bane blooms...and the Autumn moon is bright." (From the 1941 movie The Wolfman starring Lon Chaney Jr.).

A cursory reading of New Testament epistles (letters...not the wife of an apostle)...shows that a lot of them are letters of correction for believers...who are not acting like believers. They are people who lack no spiritual gift, like the church in Corinth, whose beast manifest in the form of partisanship in the church, getting drunk, spiritual pride, sexual immorality, chaotic services etc.

Other letters reveal Paul rebuking Peter for acting one way around one set of believers...and then acting another way around others.

The book of Galatians is written to FREE PEOPLE....NEW CREATIONS...who go back to their OLD WAYS...like dogs back to their vomit.

"It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us FREE...therefore...KEEP STANDING FIRM...and do not BE SUBJECT AGAIN...TO A YOKE OF SLAVERY." (Galatians 5:1) In other words...KEEP THE BEAST IN LINE.

"For you were CALLED TO FREEDOM...brethren...only DO NOT TURN YOUR FREEDOM... into an OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FLESH...but through love serve one another."
(Galatians 5:13) It appears this BEAST...is kept at bay...by LOVE...expressed towards one another.

The key to victory over this beast...is like Paul said in Romans 6:24-25...
"Wretched man that I am! Who will SET ME FREE from the body of this death?" The answer is the same ONE who originally set us free...and who can restore us..."Thanks be to GOD through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD..."

"You foolish Galatians...who has bewitched you...before whose eyes...JESUS CHRIST WAS PUBLICLY PORTRAYS AS CRUCIFIED. This is the only thing I want to find out from you; did you receive the Spirit by the WORKS of the Law, or by HEARING WITH FAITH? Are you so foolish? Having BEGUN by the SPIRIT...are you now being PERFECTED BY THE FLESH?"
(Galatians 3:1-3)

"But I say...WALK BY THE SPIRIT...and you WILL NOT...carry out the DESIRE OF THE FLESH." (Galatians 5:16)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...against such things there is no law."
(Galatians 5:22)

"Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have CRUCIFIED the flesh with its passions and desires...If we LIVE by the Spirit...let us also WALK BY THE SPIRIT." (Galatians 6:22-25)

"I HAVE BEEN...crucified with Christ...and it is no longer I who lives...but CHRIST LIVES IN ME..and the life which I NOW LIVE...I live by FAITH in the Son of God...who DELIVERED HIMSELF UP FOR ME." (Galatians 2:20)

"I protest, brethren...by the boasting i you...which I have in Christ Jesus...I DIE DAILY." (I Corinthians 15:31)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

God's heartbeat for us is NOT...that the BEAST/FLESH in us would dominate us...but that we would WALK IN FREEDOM. The answer to that freedom is the same answer that got us there in the first place...FAITH IN THE D.B.R...DEATH, BURIAL, RESURRECTION...NOTHING MORE...NOTHING LESS.

We can only identify with the cross...the blood of Jesus...mercy...grace...love...faith....and believe that the PROPITIATION was enough.

"He SAVED us...not on the BASIS OF DEEDS...which we have done in righteousness...but according to HIS MERCY...by the (1) washing of regeneration (2) renewing by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)

Love and Non-Beasty Kisses
Rodney "Beauty and The New Creation" Boyd