|
When God formed man out of
the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
the created being became a living soul. The passion of God brought into
being an entity with personal identity. He who was not a person became a
person.
The created being now experiences a body. He is a flesh and blood body
with a sensing network consisting of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling,
and touching. He encounters his existence in the earthly world of material
experiences. The created being lives in the created world.
He lives because he experiences the breath of life. He has been
in-breathed with the Spirit of God. The physical body is animated by the
quickening spirit of life from heaven. The created being has his existence
by the essence of life itself, the Spirit of the Living God.
The breathing creature has been equipped to experience the life of God in
the full spectrum of his senses. The flesh and blood of the physical world
come together with the quickening Spirit of God from heaven in the soul of
man. His soul (his psyche, his breath) is the wonder of created existence.
The soul is all that the mind of man is experiencing in the current moment
of life. It is where the memories of the past and the anticipations of the
future come together in the present moment of our thought processes. It
can be overwhelmed by the earthly sensations (becomes fleshly) or the
heavenly Spirit (becomes spiritual). The soul of the created being is
where all of life comes together to be experienced.
Since the created being experiences life in a physical world through his
senses, he is constantly exposed to the deception that life can be
controlled by controlling the experiences of the senses. The problem with
this misguided thinking is that the ultimate experiences of life cannot be
controlled. The individual fleshly choices of man can somewhat control the
surface particulars of the physical world (where one might live, what
profession one might try to achieve, or how one might attempt to
experience life). The actual encounter of those particulars cannot produce
the ultimate life that man desires. The loving of life and the seeing of
good days (1 Peter 3:10) can be experienced in them, but it cannot be
produced by them.
Moreover, the good life encountered in the moment of the experience of the
physical is destined to fall. Although the moment produces the rose, the
tomato, and the love, the moment must pass away. The glory of man
experiencing life in the physical world is always subject to emptiness.
For the eternal glory of God is not the rose, the tomato, or the love, but
it is that which produces them.
The tomato seed is planted and germinates. Eventually, the new tomato
plant will produce new tomatoes. The mature tomato hanging on the tomato
plant is the glory of the tomato plant. It is this glory of the tomato
plant that will eventually fall to the ground. For if it does not, there
could never be another tomato. The seed within the new tomato must again
be set free to experience the continual glory of the life within the seed.
It is this passing away of those moments of glory that produces the
susceptibility of the hells of our lives. The dying of those moments
cannot be avoided. As long as the earth remains, there will always be the
seedtime, the cold, the winter, and the night. It is not the removal of
them, but rather deliverance from the effect of them that rescues our
souls. The memories of the past and the anticipation of the future coming
together in the current moment of our lives can be controlled by Jesus
Christ. He can bring salvation to our souls. For there will also always be
the harvest, the heat, the summer, and the day.
|
Schedule