{"id":10270,"date":"2012-07-21T10:51:39","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T15:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/?p=10270"},"modified":"2012-09-30T15:53:35","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T20:53:35","slug":"finish-line-for-the-flesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/21\/finish-line-for-the-flesh\/","title":{"rendered":"Finish Line For The Flesh"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. -1 John 2:16<\/p>\n

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with my flesh constantly. \u00a0The battle between what I know God wants in my life and what I want is always being waged. \u00a0Sadly my flesh often wins, but the truth is that the finish line for the deeds of my flesh is the dump. \u00a0The things I want, the stuff I must have, the accomplishments I think are so important all end up on the trash heap of failed flesh.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All that the world aspires to, all that I aspire to apart from God, is destined for the dump, to be thrown away, abandoned, forgotten. \u00a0The great monuments to Stalin…at the dump. \u00a0The amazing car I “had to have”…trash. \u00a0The titles we must have to find worth and importance…forgotten. \u00a0All that the world offers, all that we want in the flesh is destined for the dump. \u00a0(I’ve said this several times for emphasis. \u00a0Maybe you don’t need to be reminded of it, but I do.)<\/p>\n

I have to admit I often set my desires, my passions on things that will not last….things that cannot satisfy….fame that will quickly fade….things destined to be thrown away when we realize they don’t fulfill. \u00a0The finish line for the flesh is the dump…..it’s where we take the things we no longer want. \u00a0And soon this pile of trash…forgotten passions, failed fame, tarnished desires becomes a mountain and monument to the failures of the flesh.<\/p>\n

I so long to make choices that please God. \u00a0I want to want what God wants. \u00a0I want to desire what he wants in my life, but I must admit I too often fall short. \u00a0The monument to the failures of our fleshly desires should remind us that the flesh will never satisfy, \u00a0it simply can’t.
\nI long to follow Paul’s advice as he speaks to the Colossian church and writes,<\/p>\n

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God\u2019s right hand.\u00a0Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.\u00a0For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>And when Christ, who is your\u00a0life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”<\/p>\n

Visit Mike at Finishing Well<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. -1 John 2:16 I don’t know about you, but I struggle with my flesh constantly. \u00a0The battle between what I know … <\/p>\n

Read more “Finish Line For The Flesh”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,25],"tags":[3663,2413,5578,5575,5573,32,206,5574,5577,5576,2860,5550,2545,5407,5579,5572,208,5580],"class_list":["post-10270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived","category-mike","tag-1-john","tag-choices","tag-fame","tag-finish-line","tag-fleshly-desires","tag-god","tag-heaven","tag-lust-of-the-flesh","tag-monuments","tag-passions","tag-pride","tag-realities","tag-several-times","tag-stalin","tag-stuff","tag-trash-heap","tag-truth-2","tag-wins"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}