The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

This morning in quiet time as I was meditating on the battle that goes between flesh versus spirit, God brought something to mind. I used to tape (Plaster sheetrock) houses for Habitat for humanity (free of charge). In the beginning, things went well. I'd get there and the sheetrock would be up and the house swept clean. I'd set up shop, put my stilts on and start stringing the first coat starting with ceiling flats on the ceilings.  Then the corners Room by room. Then When the ceiling was done I started on the floors and repeated the process. The average Habitat house would take me three days to a week to finish. Then church volunteers began showing up ready and eager to help me. But, instead of helping me they were hindering me. Constantly in my way and completely skilless to the trade of taping. Now, I'd get there in the morning and find folding tables and chairs with donuts and other goodies on them. I would take a quick walkthrough of the house and find a disaster of plaster on the walls in the rooms the volunteers had worked in after I had left for the day. I got on well with the supervisor and explained the problems they were creating for me  I knew the volunteers meant well, but they were making things worse and not better for me. (Drywall Taping is a trade that takes years to learn. You can't teach or explain to people how to tape sheetrock and expect them to learn it overnight). It was getting out of hand with me trying to work around these people. Moving this and working around that while they drank coffee and pestered me with questions on how to tape drywall.  I told her I'm not there to give these (well-meaning) people a seminar. I have other work I'm responsible to get done. If the volunteers really want to "help me" they can clear the house of all their stuff and I'd let her know when the house is finished. This way I could get it done by myself days before I would with them "helping me". She agreed and knew I was right. The problem was the church folk committee for this particular church had committed their congregation to so many hours of drywall plastering for Habit for humanity. It would make them look bad to other churches if they didn't follow through on it. In other words, each church within that city would volunteer so many hours of a certain trade. It was all about church politics. It was all about pride and saving face. It was hard for me to believe these Pastors and their volunteers were that petty but they were. I asked if the supervisory could let them have a bible study or prayer group or just drink coffee and eat donuts until their hours of service were fulfilled and then I could come in and do my work?...... No. They had to be there working with or without me. After the third or fourth house, I gave up. I just couldn't work like that. What I could get done in three days to a week (with little sanding required) will take them a month with tons of sanding and still look shady. So, how does all this tie into the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak? How often do we pray to God for someone or something we battle and consciously or unconsciously refuse to fully surrender it to God? We have to show God how bad we want this prayer answered and so we insert our will into what God is trying to do for us. We sabotage what God is doing. When I'm weak, then I'm strong because we have nothing to add to the work God is doing. 100% surrender to the will of God is a lifelong learning process. Especially for us as Americans. God's ways are not our ways. We have to unlearn a lot of what our culture has told us about success and winning when it comes to the things of God. The spirit IS willing but..... we can't get out of the way long enough to let it happen. I'm going to let, Trust, and have faith in God be my mantra for 2020. I believe some things are going to change in a mighty way. I hope they do for you too. Be blessed.

If God created the entire world in 7 days, then it must not have taken Him very long to create Adam from clay and Eve from his rib. Death entered the entire human race from these two because of one mistake. Rebellion, disobedience, call it what you want. God calls it to sin. God knew everything he had just created would go on to multiply and spread. Why didn't He fixed it from the start? Adam and Eve, you're fired. You've ruined what I had in mind. God could have started over. God knew from the start that sin and death would spread and go on to ruin the entire human race. But, God doesn't make mistakes. God knows what He's doing. He didn't want to create robots that would automatically love Him. He wanted to see which ones would 'by their free will' love Him for who He was. Not for money and material things. God was and is love. We are the people God draws to Himself. Not the perfect or the best. Those who have a heart for God regardless of their flaws and mistakes are the people He draws in for Himself. In fact, Jesus said, I have not come for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. God loves the whole world. But, the whole world doesn't love God. Today, people don't want God's will. We want our own will. We'll do it our way because we're smart and can figure out how to squeeze God's will into our hectic tech-driven world somehow, some way. Our hearts can deceive us so easy when there's something in it for us. That's the affect sin has over everybody. It has since Adam. All have sinned and we have the sentence of death over us. God intentionally let it be that way. He already had a plan from the beginning. The plan is the craziest, most extraordinary significant thing God wanted us to encounter. God, Himself would fix and solve the problem by dying on the cross. He would "Re-do" a new Adam and Eve. God would incarnate Himself into the human race and finally and for all time redeem us to Himself. He paid the price and conquered sin death by the shedding of His own blood (think about that). He wants all of us to see how much He loves the human race in spite of the sin within us. No greater love is there than one who lays down his life for another. No greater love is there than the love God showed the world when He came down and became 'one of us' and showed us the way. The Cross. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts will always be higher than ours. The world thinks we're crazy to believe this  (I think the world's crazy not to believe this). He did it His way despite what the world thinks or says or has opinions about. Jesus is the way. He's the light of the world and the bread of life and life itself. Who wouldn't want to follow someone who did this for them? I've been in a lot of jams in life but He's always been there for me. Despite my selfish behavior against Him, He was still there. There's a place within a man's spirit and heart that's so deep only God can touch it. You know that you know it's the Spirit Jesus. He wanted me to know that it was Him and I did. I'm not a rich man and that doesn't concern me at this time in my life. 1980 I was a mess. But, the best psychiatry in the world could not have helped me where I needed help. The help I needed?.... it wasn't there. The food I needed?...  wasn't there. I needed to be reborn. Recreated within. In 1980, in a room above the Falls bar, a severe Alcoholic got on his knees and said Lord if you can fix this mess I'm in, take it. Take it and do whatever you want to do with it.  God did something to me that changed me. Within a day or two, I knew I was a new man. I was different. God did His plan for me and changed me and led me from darkness to light His way. I grew and had slips and setbacks from time to time but God never turned away from me. I kept growing and studying God's word and praying and anything else I could do to get closer to Him. I got healthier and stronger every year. Most people in the Church today wouldn't believe there are born-again spirit-filled Christian in jail. There are. We're in the jails and the prisons, and the hospitals, and every other ungodly place you can think of. Today my house is paid off and I'm not in debt. Some of my old friends have a chip on their shoulder because of this. They think how did he pull that off when he was the most screwed up one of us all? When God is your help things happen for your good. Our flaws can never disqualify us from what God is doing in our lives. God is always there inspiring us to keep going. To trust Him. To follow Him. The world and our ups, and downs and turnarounds are not a problem for God. God knew what He was doing when this whole thing started (the human race) and He knows what He's doing today. He works in mysterious ways and that's OK. Trust Him at every turn in your life because He'll be there saying, follow Me. Trust Me. No worries. God is good!

The Crown Of Grief.

Wearing their colors
They fall, bleed, and die
Mothers with broken hearts
Kiss their sons goodbye
One more wasted
One more tasted
The grim reapers gun
One bullet one son
Buried deep
Covered in sleep
Sprinkled down dream
Sandman clean
Colors blue or red
Around their head
Death got mugged
Like a stepped on bug
Stiff in sleep
Their loved ones weep
Baptized in violence
And people are silent

Is violence ever permitted by God? The question should be, will men ever be at peace with one another?  No! Not in this world. Men have been killing each other since Cain and Able. Jesus said I send you (Christians) out as sheep among wolves. In other words, things are going to change soon. I can't be a shepherd on earth forever (physically). When Jesus was with them they needed nothing. (Luke 22:35-36) But that would change. I think that's why one of the last things Jesus did before He left them was made sure they had a sword (It wasn't just to fulfill prophecy). It was so they could protect themselves against an evil violent world. Woe to the world because of sin. Sin, evil, violence, etc. must come. It's inevitable. It's with us and it's going to stay with us. The deepest offense to God doesn't seem to be the men engaged in the violence (to protect and save themselves). It's with the men who coordinated its beginnings. Who are the men that put this demonic thing into action that will affect so many? You can't say the devil made me do it because we have free will. Sickness and cancers and diseases have nothing to do with free will. War and violence do. When a civilization is put into play that oppresses people. Sooner or later the oppressed are going to fight back and you have violence and death again. The oppressed aren't the problem. It's the people who live by the sword who are the oppressors causing the problem. And if you live by the sword, sooner or later you'll die by the sword. When the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, he doesn't care if you're a Christian or not. And he doesn't care what side you're fighting on. Death, misery, grief, horror, oppression, division, all come from war and wars will come. And the sheep either pick up the sword and fight back or they die being dominated by evil men. God's will for the sheep is to live in peace with one another. Not to get slaughtered. Jesus left them a sword for a reason. Be as innocent doves. And as wise as a serpent

Unpromised land.

The surf and the sands, the water, and the sea
Warn the souls on board, to vanish and flea
The rule of law, the right, and the wrong
Lay in silk coffins, with tears in their songs
Where is God, in this unholy mess?
Their god is their bible, unproperly dressed.
Crisscrossed holes, on tear-soaked floors
Hollow midnight strangers, knock twice on the door.
Whispering trees, see ghosts in the cotton
Tiptoeing spirits, split tooth and rotten
The man in the window, has tricks on his tongue
 A two-hearted soul, with a knife and a gun.

Blind leading the blind.

Grandfather clocks snap kidnapped nooses
Snake eyed gamblers hold aces and duces
Circus colored smoke nap on cotton candy chairs
Rebel rotted hands hold the tigers and bears
Zodiacs and fire chase crossed eyed clowns
The Hatfields and McCoys shoot 99 rounds

Rat Race.

Silent haunted doors
Bood covered money
Assassinated dreams
Dressed like puppet mummies
Broken lost steps
Stolen choked greed
Buried bones on fire
Dead men still bleed
Antique rat spit
On tattooed walls
Crazy cracked keys
Nine and ten feet tall
Whistling disloyalty
Bulletproof coffins
Mama can't find you
But she'll visit you often