Flesh vs Spirit

Galatians 5:15, 17 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”

Often I hear the complaint, “I hate the war against the Spirit. If only I could stay in the Spirit.” These complaints lead to a common teaching in the Church, one that attempts to encourage us to “fight the good fight” and to “look forward to heaven, where this battle no longer takes place” . . . a heaven, I presume, where there is no choice. (It sounds as though we will all mindlessly be singing praises to the Lamb, and not because we choose to. Of course, choice seems to be a curse in the minds of many, and they would relish the thought of ridding themselves of that troublesome capacity.) Well, I would like to go on record that I do not hate the battle between the flesh and the Spirit. There are certain topics that definitely need to be settled. Is God attempting to oversee chaos, or is God the God of order? If He is overseeing chaos, then there is a great battle between good and evil, and Satan (in the minds of many) has equal power, we are caught in the middle, and we must somehow muster up the spiritual, emotional, and physical to side with God and win this great battle. Wow! Honestly, this thinking, which is not hard to find, is one of the enemy’s greatest coups. It can be subtle, but we hear it in e-mails that plead that believers all over the world pray for protection, healing, and blessing and pray against the advance of the enemy, disease, and poverty. Actually, if you are a believer and no one prays for your cancer, do you believe that your chances of being heard personally by Him or enlisting His activity in your life are lessened? Do you believe that if no one prays for your unbelieving mate, and yet you in your belief pray, God does not hear you? Do you believe that when you pray in your loneliness and isolation for your daughter, who is living with someone who definitely does not appear to be good for her in any way, that God does not hear you? There is one mediator between man and God, and it is that man Jesus. We need a paradigm shift. God is in charge! Satan is not! Disease is not! Man is not! Financial markets are not! Doctors are not! Ship captains are not! Your pastor is not! Your employer is not! Your children are not! God is in charge. Period. Well, you get the point. Prayer is a participation in what God is doing, and we must get over the notion of an arm-twisting fight against a defeated foe. Honestly, from Genesis to Revelation, God is in charge. Yet, with the wrong glasses, which seem to be handed out in many Christian religious circles like 3D glasses at the movies, it looks like God is attempting to win, Satan is gaining, and we are the determining factor. Our flesh is not in charge! Our flesh is not the problem, period! The flesh is permitted by God as the means of pushing, even driving us into the life of the Spirit. It might sound odd, but I like my flesh; I like what it does for me. If I do not like the expression of my flesh, then I must simply allow it to accomplish the goal God intended of driving me to the Spirit. Sometime today I will get angry, so what will be my response? “Oh, my rotten flesh! If only the flesh did not make me angry!” Or this: “Oh, my flesh always acts the same way, and now it is reminding me that I began this day somehow believing that it could live just fine without an active submission to the Lord. Who do I think I am? Jesus was God among man and yet said that of Himself He could do nothing. Jesus, You are welcome here; come and be my joy and peace today. Thank You, Jesus, for giving me a body of flesh that reminds me that life can be Life on this earth.” What glasses are we wearing? Better yet, what eye surgery have we been given? Heaven held some hellishness when angels, who are not even created in the image of God, decided they were gods in and of themselves. What kind of world would this become if no one had flesh? More specifically, what kind of person would you be without flesh? You would be a monster living in the midst of monsters. My flesh has been an ugly mirror that has made me take my assessments, my treatment of others, and my disdain down a notch, or rather, three, four, five, and one hundred notches. A man was bemoaning what his former alcoholism had done to his family. I looked him straight in the face and delivered this word, “You are an ass! If you had not become an alcoholic, the flesh–your pride, arrogance, drive, and self-righteousness–would have done a thousand times more damage to your family than the alcohol.” There was no argument in his eyes; the flesh had humbled him. We all need humbling, and the flesh is sent by God to do it. The world idolizes men who are a 1% success at playing God, but then the facts of their flesh become known: they were thieves, drug addicts, perverts, adulterers, self-centered, and all of this is attempted to be hidden through threats, courts, and disclaimers. The fact is that the flesh is bringing them down to the level of admitting their need for Jesus in order to live just one day, something humanists do not want to acknowledge. There is a famous man whose picture appears in nearly every Christian home on a particular continent, though he is an atheist and has participated in murder; in short, he has flesh, and yet any mention of that fact is avoided and met with shock. The “positive” side of his flesh is attested to as something to be idolized and worthy of attainment. Those that hate the flesh will look for the good in the flesh. The most unrighteous will become the most self-righteous. Those who despise the negative will attempt to obtain the positive. However, when someone sees God, he gets off the rollercoaster and understands that the flesh is not there to be hated or loved; it is there to drive man to Life. In hating or loving it, a person will become a monster, nothing short of a distortion. I saw a woman who was obsessed with the “Barbie doll” and had all the plastic surgery to become an exact replica; she had become a monster. I saw another man who had obsessed on the art of Salvador Dali; in the end, he became a monster. It is all relative, but flesh, good or bad, will make anyone a distortion, a monster. I have seen men on the platform at Christian conventions that were monsters. The flesh, if not seen as something that drives us to Him to allow Him to be for us what the flesh can never be, will distort us. I do not hate my flesh, I do not love my flesh, but I see it as a marvelous tool in the hand of God, who is in total control and has my very best interests nestled in the deepest part of His heart.

 

The Races of Man

Genesis 1:26-28, Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the face of the earth.”

What is discussed in different parts of the world is always interesting to me. I have often noted that I have a theological paradigm. Others do, as well, and sometimes what is important to me is not to them, and vice versa. This is easily settled with the acknowledgment that each of us is only one thread in the tapestry of Christian life, and together we are, in fact, a body. Oneness does not come from agreeing on what we believe but in agreeing on Him in whom we trust, Christ. The topic of race seems to turn up everywhere, though there is a huge difference between the racism practiced in most countries—where one geographical group considers itself superior to another—and the racism that sees another people group as less human or even nonhuman. I suppose there is an element of racism that came with the Tower of Babel as men separated into language groups. The pride of man came to the forefront, and instead of seeing the wickedness that caused the separation, man began to boast in the separation and view his people in his language group as superior; this would easily transfer to include his “race.” Race has caused many wars; however, the majority of these wars did not stem from seeing others as not actually being human. This is my problem with evolution, since some races unavoidably are seen as “links” to the superior race, the survival of the fittest! The earlier diagrams from the Theory of Evolution are disturbing. I suppose that in some way the Tower of Babel introduced an aspect of segregation, but it did not introduce the concept of dehumanizing man. That task has been left to the wicked around the world that do it in a variety of ways. I am asked, “What do you think of interracial marriage?” What a question! First, I would want to know the purpose of the question and whether affirmation or denial is desired from the answer. Some, in their flesh, have a vested interest in a negative or a positive response. To these I really have nothing to say, for it is not what they are doing but the why that will condemn them. Amen. Presently I am thinking of some very big-hearted believers in other countries that have asked the question in humility, honesty, and sincerity. On the other hand, the argument most often hidden behind by those that dehumanize humans is that God separated the races at the Tower of Babel, one of the sons of Noah was cursed, or Cain was given a mark after he killed his brother. This is actually even believed by many in Africa. While the Biblical events are all true, none has a single thing to do with dehumanizing people. Then there is a parallel drawn from nature in the suggestion that birds and fish stay within their “kind,” and so people naturally segregate, and so on. Back to creation, God created man, singular, and He created fish and birds, plural. Within the fish of the sea, God put within them a boundary, and the same is true of all the birds of the air; if not, the uniqueness of the ocean and the skies would be at risk. In that spirit, Paul states that there are different kinds of flesh. I Corinthians 15:38, 39, “But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish.” The flesh of animals (many KINDS) is different than the flesh of man (singular, in that it is one KIND). I agree with a point an African was making, a rather simple one. Each kind of fish was to remain within its kind. Man, too, is to remain within his kind, and his kind is human, notwithstanding some differences within mankind that are easily understood considering the dispersion of man after the expulsion from the garden, the flood, isolation, migration, and recessive and dominant genes within man. These are only differences in appearance within the group of man. Man is man, and man can only marry within his kind. (Of course, this excludes the notion of homosexual “marriage,” which is not marriage, since the two cannot become one.) When man, who might appear different from someone of his own kind, marries, there is nothing in Scripture against that. Romans 2:10,11, “but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” Interracial marriage is not up for debate. However, there is something else that is not up for debate that should be, and that is the impropriety of scientists who break the commandment of God by mixing “kinds” in the laboratory. The mule is not a created being but a result of two different created beings, and he is therefore forbidden.

 

Burnout and Depression

Isaiah 35:3, “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.”

There is a movement afoot that has doctors so easily diagnosing people as having exhaustion or, as the world calls it, burnout. So many are burnt out, especially within the pastoral “profession.” What an interesting concept burnout is! I have learned how easy it is to get tired; in fact, all that is needed is the propensity toward being an idiot. In my foolhardiness I have ministered, worked, and traveled way too many hours, just as many people have done. It is not a sign of spirituality but rather a sign of stupidity. However, being burnt out is something much different; it comes from serving in the power of the flesh. It seems to be a common occurrence that many believers require more out of their flesh than God does. They do not believe themselves to be acceptable to God simply because of the work of Christ, and therefore they continue to work as an attempt to gain acceptance. This misconception has led many into self-affirming deeds of the flesh, a malady that unfortunately is encouraged by many pastors as they guilt manipulate the congregation into self-validating work that, more importantly, also validates the pastors. “The mind set on the flesh,” as the Scriptures tell us in Romans 8:7 & 8, “is hostile toward God . . . and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” An attempt to validate a relationship with God based on anything other than Christ is doomed to failure. However, what is vexing is that instead of seeing that such attempts are futile, the believers become depressed over their flesh’s inability to do better! It is internal anger over an outward failure to live with conduct suitable to and in line with what we saw in the life of Jesus. Yes, I know we are being told that 80% of people have a chemical imbalance; this comes from amazing “research statistics” pointing to the number of those depressed or manic depressive, people with ADHD, and sufferers of a variety of dysfunctions not listed. For one report to be valid, the average American would have to have three mental maladies. I have, of course, had contact with those with true chemical imbalance, a topic addressed in an earlier article, “Can a Christian Take Medications?” I am not knocking those who have physiological problems. What I am addressing is the depression that comes from the realization that we cannot live the Christian life. Of course we cannot! He alone can, and He can live it through us as we admit to Him our failure, release it to Him, and wait. Wait! It seems that so many dislike the WAIT word, though WAITING is faith, and we must remember that we did not decide in the flesh to change our flesh, but rather it was the conviction of God, with whose light will come the might. First comes the conviction that something must change. Second, we will attempt to change it ourselves and get depressed because we cannot, and finally, we will rest and let Him do the operation that frees us from the cancer consuming us. Yes, wait, and do not miss the rest of the Lord. In burnout we will learn something wonderful, and afterward the phrase, “I cannot,” that previously prompted weeping, will make our hearts sing. “I cannot, but He can” is a glorious statement that will lift us to heaven.

The Teeter-totter Syndrome

Romans 8:6, 7, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.”

You have probably seen the diagram of the corral with black horses and white horses. The point in the diagram is that if the gate is left open, both colors of horses will escape. If we open the door to the flesh, the unrighteous and the self-righteous flesh will both escape. Self-righteousness will lead to unrighteousness; hence, the rampant growth of immorality among the self-righteous. The converse is also true. It has taken me years to see that when I put my mind on autopilot, before I know it I am thinking of mistakes that I have made and giving myself a sound beating over failures, especially in my relationships with others. I go over what could have been said to help more, and blah, blah, blah. However, here is the thing that I noticed. Within thirty minutes of thinking about what I might have said, I will be thinking about how someone offended me. Within thirty minutes of thinking about a failure, I will be thinking about another’s failure. This understanding has brought me to a place of what I believe is a healthy fear and a deeper understanding of what the Bible says, “Finally, whatever is true and right and pure and lovely, let your mind dwell on those things.” Today, the moment that I start to think about my failures, stupidity, embarrassments, and offenses, or those of others, I immediately have a check in my spirit, heart, and mind that says, “If you go there, you will hang yourself by ending up in self-hatred. If you go there, you will be self- or man-centered, not Christ-centered.” I immediately stop myself and move to Him. The freedom is something I have never experienced before. I am not being positive for the sake of being positive, which is shallow. I am merely setting my mind on the things above as I recognize I have been given the mind of Christ that is where my mind belongs.

Repent!

Romans 2:4, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Many say they are called to exhort people to repent, but their call so often is exhibited as something of a one-off from what we know the Old Testament prophets were; for them repentance centered more in the root than the fruit as they sought to bring people back to God. Today the call to repentance seems to take the form of spreading a rebuke, such as, “’You think you are saved, but you are not! You call yourselves My children but do not act like My own. If you would have loved Me you would have kept My word. I am going to cut you off and give your portion to those that obey Me,’ thus says the Lord.” It is fairly consistent and only ends in condemnation, even though we know that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Men instruct on the topic of discipline with a similar approach and fervor, and that, too, ends in condemnation. The offenders’ sin is pointed out, coupled with a threat to punish. Because of such teaching by the religious who wrongly present God’s judgment, one fellow said, “I wish I would have waited to accept Christ until the last minute, got baptized, and had someone shoot me as I came up out of the water. At least that way I would not have accumulated so much of the judgment of God as a believer.” This man expressed a common feeling that has occurred among Christians throughout the centuries, but this kind of view of judgment is not dealing with the root but rather the behavior, the fruit. There are two types of discipline: one is punishment, which reaps few benefits and is rarely successful, and the other is a self-discipline that takes a person back to Christ. A Christian who finds himself continually in the deeds of the flesh does need discipline, but it is that found within himself that can enable him to begin and end each day recognizing the presence of Christ. It is our job as disciple-makers to pull that person aside and urge him to go to the Lord and abide. The subsequent awareness of the fact of Christ’s indwelling that is living through him will free him from the deeds of the flesh. (“If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,” II Timothy 2:25.) It has been proven that continually emphasizing a person’s deeds of the flesh will never set him free from the flesh. (“But the sorrow of the world produces death,” II Corinthians 7:9.) Believers ought to be disciplined in recognizing Christ. It does take time to teach that understanding; Jesus spent three-and-a-half years with his disciples. However, the fruit of taking this approach is verifiable, for Jesus said that the Father prunes. To say it another way, when we abide, the deeds of the flesh fall off of us. Unfortunately, there are those that will refuse this discipline; they willingly continue in the deeds of the flesh, making themselves an unhealthy leaven in the Body, and at this point to disfellowship them is appropriate. As for the call to spread the message of repentance, it generally is meant to be a call to stop a particular behavior, and repentance is seen as different from forgiveness. The hiccup enters in when Christians do repent and subsequently continue in the same behavior. This is again where Jesus is tying the hands of man and forcing us to a life of abiding, for only the living Christ within can make a permanent change in behavior. Therefore, the message of repentance without the message of the indwelling Christ is incomplete and will not be attainable.

Staying On Point

Galatians 1:6-9, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!”

I was presented a list to follow that would assure any believer’s deliverance from the enemy. Looking at the list I began thinking to myself how everything in the steps to freedom could be done by an unbeliever. That being the case, how could the list be Christ-centered? Jesus was not mentioned in even one of the ten steps. Any list that calls for the flesh to do something to improve itself is ultimately doomed to failure. There may be initial success, but in the long term, there will be none. Steps taken in the power of the flesh would have to eradicate flesh, and the flesh will have none of that! It will not participate in destroying or hindering itself! (The odd thing about Satan is that he loves to stir the flesh, but he is at the same time an enemy of the flesh, since he is involved in every suicide and murder to destroy man.) In these times there are myriad methods for club growth, personal growth, financial growth, family growth, and spiritual growth. Be alert and ask the question, “Could this method apply to an unbeliever? Could an unbeliever follow the same steps?” If so, Christ has been left out and we are fixing to be sidetracked. Start with what He has already done for us, get a firm grasp of that, and then move to more of what He has done for us. It is a struggle. I often find myself headed down a track that I do not want to take. I get a check in my spirit and stop talking about the latest book, method, miracle, experience, and doctrine and move back to Him. I have prayed for the last thirty-seven years that God would be gracious to me and not allow me to move from Jesus, add to Jesus, subtract from Jesus, or stop lifting Him up. It is true that He is our sufficiency. I cannot count the programs that are going around today, and few ask why the last program did not produce what it promised it would when introduced two years ago. Why are those that were so involved in the latest “move” of God back in the same place? Let hearts and minds dwell on the Man who did everything and yet did nothing, for it was the Father doing it through Him. Then ask for testimonies of growth and God’s faithfulness at the end of two years of that.

If Only I Knew Then What I Know Now!

Romans 7:18-20, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh, for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 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 do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.”

Revelation does not come through effort; it will come through life and can take years to arrive. Revelation can never be forced; it is an outgrowth of our lives in a fallen body and in a fallen world. Revelation comes in the fullness of time; therefore, time is essential, and the longer one lives, the more revelation he will receive. Many exit at an early age, having been given the revelation that is needed for a move from this reality to THE reality. Life with a small “l” is constantly teaching us of Life with a capital “L.” That is why revelation waits in the future for life to prepare us for what Life would teach us. In the fullness of time, we will receive what we would not have received at an earlier time. There is no need to be frustrated and make silly comments like, “I wish I would have known that sooner.” At a sooner time we could not have received it and would not have “known” it. This planet and our lives are not made up of random experiences. This world is the womb in which the things of God are made known to us, and just as a baby is methodically formed in the womb of the mother, the child of God is methodically formed in the womb of the world. God is the God of order, not of chaos; therefore, everything comes in order. To say, “If only I had known this sooner” is assuming that “knowing” is what has made the change in us. Rather, it was revelation. Knowledge can come at any time, and yet revelation must come at the fullness of time as our “time” on earth prepares the way. “If only I could go back and make different decisions!” Well, if we could go back, we would be the same persons that we were back then, and we would make the same decisions. However, such a statement does reveal that we have grown, and the new persons that we are today would never have made such decisions. We have mentioned before that there are journey people and destination people. As believers we need to accept that we are all on a journey and enjoy the journey. In the fullness of time, God is teaching us. We cannot hurry up that process (Bible schools and seminaries are the proof of that). If the process cannot be hurried, then we must accept the way of things on the earth and rest in Him. The Holy Spirit will bring the revelation, His teaching that moves from head to heart, in the fullness of time.

Unreal Expectations

Romans 8:7 & 8, “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Generally in much of the East a person’s mate and vocation are chosen for him. Therefore, the expectation of what marriage and vocation can add to the quality of life is very low. People there tend to turn to spiritual things (often wrong spirits), the one place where there is no ceiling and a bit of a feeling of freedom. In the West, where the individual can choose a mate and vocation, there exists a very unreal expectation of what marriage and career can give. In fact, those are expected to give what they cannot give in a way totally different from God’s perspective of what marriage and work will accomplish in a person. Remember that the events of earth, passing through His hands, are preparing us for heaven, where there will be no marriage or vocations. In short, He is using our marriage and vocations to prepare us for something greater than what is often portrayed. Our first discovery is that they do not give LIFE, and second, that we cannot live for man. Third, that we are self-centered; fourth, that we are easily offended. Fifth and most importantly, that we are weak in our ability to love, to be faithful, to be content, or to have peace. Most hate to acknowledge it, but here is a simple secret: Admit where you are and you can leave where you are. Admit to God that you are trapped, that you have run out of love for your mate, that you are sick of being used or abused, and admit that you are still looking for life where LIFE cannot be found. Then, simply ask Him to come. A man told me of an experience that he had when he said, “All guilt for my failures fell off me in just the one moment when I realized that I was a bound man.” You see, Abraham received the promise of God and the first thing he did was look at himself, consider himself as good as dead when it came to fulfilling the promise, and trust God to accomplish what he could not do. Have you realized that you are bound and that apart from Him you can do nothing? If God is to get all the glory then God is to do all the work. If I hired you to do a job and then handcuffed you to a tree, what would you think? Yet, the day we believed in Jesus, before we could imitate Him, God crucified us to a tree. He is expecting nothing out of us. He knew what we would be at our worst, and still He chose us. You are feeling weak. Do not do anything except admit that you are bound and ask Him what He is planning on doing. Get your attention away from self and the whole situation. Choose Jesus. Do not make your first choice the promise to change; make your first choice Jesus. As He flows through you to your mate, your experience will be something about which the most romantic novelists or moviemakers have yet to tell!

The Most Negative Man to Ever Live? Jesus!

John 2:24, 25,

“But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

Jesus was never a humanist who believed that man, given enough “education,” would act in the proper manner. Therefore, He was not about broadcasting the suitable information on which man could act. The history of the human race has proven this one thing: man is inhumane, period. Paul echoed the same truth, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (Romans 7:18a). This brings us to the point that Jesus did not come to improve man through a system of religion; He came to remove the inner life of Adam (Romans 5) and replace it with His life (Colossians 3:4). He was not all gushy over mankind but rather was negative about man in his present condition. It was not until Pentecost that He would become positive about the second Adam, the new creation, the child of God, for man without Christ is nothing about whom to be optimistic. “The first Adam was of the earth and the second from Heaven, and so we have the earthly and also the heavenly,” says Paul, who had the revelation of what we truly are (I Corinthians 15:40-49). I can be positive about the believer and aloof from the delusions of the unbeliever. Even the great humanitarians display their foolishness with discussions concerning the goodness of man apart from Christ; their words fall flat and lose their appeal in the light of a look at history.

Strange Flesh

Jude, 5-7 “Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

Given the state of our present world, it is important to keep such passages in mind. Incredibly, quoting from Romans or Jude is increasingly considered to be a hate crime in the “aware” Western countries. Along that line, there is a converted Muslim that became a pastor in Australia and spoke one evening on understanding Islam. Two Muslims in the audience reported to authorities that they felt threatened, and the police arrested the pastor. The pastor refused to say that he had done anything wrong, since he was only quoting from the Koran! The world is upside down. However, the passage from Jude reminds me of something else. All flesh is created, and each is called to its own. God has set boundaries beyond which no one is to pass without judgment that is both swift as it destroys today and slow in its effects for eternity. God will bind Himself by His own judgments and will not go after strange flesh, either. This is why God became a man and the God/man will one day have a man/child-of-God bride. Believers compose the bride of Christ, and we are not something strange. Looking ahead, it will be so much fun to discover what we really are and how He has made us like Himself. It takes revelation to glimpse it in this body, but one day we will see it clearly. I John 3:2 & 3, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

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