Something Must Go

                                        Romans 8:13             
                      "If by the Spirit you put to death the
                         deeds of the body, you will live"

          Nature is violent.  Life and death are the law of the way of life.  A lion stalks a gazelle.  A heron stands motionless at the edge of a pond, it's long, sharp beak poised and ready to kill.  High overhead a red-tailed hawk holds its deadly talons close to its body, watching for movement in the grass below.  Suddenly a rabbits pain becomes an eagle's gain. A leopard family exists at a zebra's expense.  Each survives on another's demise.  This sounds natural enough.  But it's more graphic than most of us care to watch.
          The principle that nothing lives unless something else dies extends beyond nature to our daily walk with God.  Interests of the flesh must succumb to the interests of the Spirit, or the interests of the Spirit will succumb to the interests of the flesh.  In the jungles and fields and streams of our heart, something must always die so that something else can live.
          We can't be committed to Christ and to the world at the same time.  We can't be filled with His Spirit if we are protecting the life of selfish interests.  That's why our Lord said so pointedly that we will need to die daily to our own selves if we are going to walk with Him.  We must continually choose.  What will die so that He can live freely in us?

                             May God Bless You
                              And Your Families

                                            Minister: Robert A. Lail
                                            The Cross Life Ministry