10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
10 They are blessed who are persecuted for doing good,
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
10"You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.
I'm telling you...this Naked Gospel book is wrecking me.
Literally.
Pieces of guilt...
of shame...
of religion...
of misconceptions...
flying off me.
In the book, Andrew Farley, makes a distinction between flesh, sin and the old self. The Bible is clear that when we come to Christ our old self is eradicated. Colossians 3 says that "you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God." Our old self is dead. Period. So I don't want to hear this "It's my sinful nature that made me do it" crap. You're spitting in the face of the God's holiness if he would allow you into His kingdom with your old nature in tact. To deny this or to water it down is to miss the power of the message all together.
So why do we keep sinning then?
Here's the deal...Christians are new creations at heart, no matter where we allow our feet to take us on our journeys, no matter what lies we buy about what is going to truly satisfy us.
Christians are in the Spirit.
But the flesh is still desiring us to be captivated by lies in every moment. But the flesh is not the old self. It's not us, but it is with us.
The choice rests in our hands to depend on the flesh or the Spirit on every step of our journey.
Farley says that "when we walk after the flesh, we're not being ourselves. If we rely on intellect, strength, or physical appearance to gain purpose and fulfillment, we're walking after the flesh. But again, this is no indication of our nature. In fact, depending on the flesh goes against our nature. We're designed for dependency on Christ. Walking after the Spirit is our destiny. We'll never be content with talking after the flesh or fashioning an identity outside of Christ. We can do it, but it won't fulfill."
When we pursue the flesh, the Spirit of God within us and our new self cry out to be heard.
Check out another quote: "We know from Romans 6 that it's our responsibility to not let sin ruin our lives. Paul admonishes us to resist this rogue force and not allow it to take control. Clearly, there's a choice. We're urged to recognize the presence of sin and say no to it: 'Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.' (Romans 6:12)
Notice to whom the evil desires belong, namely, to sin. If we give in to sin, we're buying into the lie that we want to sin. Yes, we're not yielding to God. But we're also not yielding to our own selves. Instead, we're giving in to thoughts that didn't originate with us. They're coming from a sinister sources, and for that reason they will never fulfill.
We can allow sin to have its way with us, but what benefit will we really get? Sure, there may be a temporal and fleeting sense of fulfillment but only at a base (flesh) level. In the believer, this feeling will eventually give way to a sense of our higher calling."
Doing good is pursuing that higher calling.
And realizing that it might get messy.
And even if we are really doing it right...it means we will get persecuted for it.
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