The Non-Visible Art Museum

Check out the new low that the world is going to in order to make a buck. If you've got an idea then you can find someone foolish enough to buy into it. Welcome to the world of Non-Visible Art. Oh, and there's a museum of this art for you to attend. You buy a card for between $20 and $10,000 which describes your artwork in detail for you to imagine what the artwork looks like. Check out the video here for more explanation from "artist" James Franco and the couple who opened this "museum." You won't be disappointed. I know I wasn't. I needed a good laugh.

From Death to Life

For to set the mind on the flesh is death,

but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:6 (ESV)

It is not difficult to find death in our world.  Turn on the television and witness wars or crimes as they happen.  Drive down the road and see the carcass of an animal broken and torn to pieces.  And every day we look into the mirror we witness the affects of death.  Our skin begins to sag a bit more and wrinkles become more prominent.  Every year we realize that we cannot physically do what a year earlier was easy.  Death is creeping on our doorstep.

But death has a culprit.  Our bodies are dying because of sin.  (Thank you Adam and Eve.)  And there is nothing we can do about it.

This week we had family in town and the conversation somehow drifted to old age and growing older.  A comment was made about Suzanne Summers, the actress who played on the 80's sitcom Three's Company.  (Man, I hated that theme song.)  She is in her sixties and violently trying to put off death.  She takes over ninety (90!) pills a day to supplement her body with the vitamins, minerals, and other things that the body begins to produce less of as we get older.  Her desire is to live forever and will take any risk to prevent her death from coming.  But what she doesn't want to face is that she is going to die.  She cannot avoid it.  And though she is afraid to she will face that death.

Unlike Suzanne Summers, those who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can live life with confidence.  That though their bodies are dying they will have physical life again at the final resurrection.  Those who know the Spirit have no reason to fear physical death because it is temporary.

"But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:10-11)

Praise be to God for his grace and mercy.  Praise be to the indwelling Spirit for the life he gives because of Christ's righteousness.  Now live the life we have been given with confidence.  Live for Him.

Malaise

What is malaise and what does it have to do with me?  Check out the post by Desiring God below.  I hope it is encouraging to you.

Malaise is a mercy that feels yucky.

Malaise is that feeling you get when you’re getting sick but you don’t quite know it yet. It’s a vague sense of dis-ease. Your energy is draining. You just want to lie down. Emotionally, you might feel discouraged, irritable, depressed, or cynical for no identifiable reason. You ask yourself, “What’s the matter with me?”

Precisely what you’re supposed to ask. Malaise is the early warning system God designed for the body. It’s telling you something destructive is attacking your bodily systems. It’s a messenger running ahead of an invading enemy alerting us to get our defenses in place.

The soul also has its diseases and they are more deadly than the body’s. Soul diseases attack our belief systems. Corrupted beliefs can be very serious if left untreated. They grow and spread, wreaking destruction in us. And when contagious, as they frequently are, they harm others. Such diseases can result in soul-death.

Mercifully, there is a malaise of the soul. I’ll bet you know what I mean.

Because hope is to the soul what energy is to the body, soul-malaise manifests itself as a flagging hope in God. It’s a vague, doubty, spiritual discouragement. You wouldn’t describe it as a crisis of faith. You might avoid talking about it because it’s hard to describe. You just feel spiritually sluggish. You don’t feel like doing anything spiritually significant. You ask yourself, “What’s the matter with me?”

Precisely what you’re supposed to ask. This malaise is the early warning system God designed for the soul. It’s telling you something destructive is attacking your belief systems. It’s a messenger running ahead of an invading enemy alerting us to get our defenses in place.

So what should we do when we experience soul-malaise? Similar to bodily malaise, we pray and get prayed for, get plenty of rest, seek to identify the source (what is draining my hope in God?), head to God’s pharmacy (the Bible) for some meds (promises) and if needed (as it often is) we get some help from soul-physicians (friends or pastors) who are skillful at treating these diseases.

It’s not wise to ignore malaise. Left unchecked you will get sicker.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching (1 Timothy 4:16)

Once Bound by Death, Now Bound by the Spirit

Romans 7:5-6 (ESV) ⁵ For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Have you ever asked God for patience and found out that he didn't give it to you immediately?  As the phrase goes: If you ask for patience God won't give you patience.  He gives you opportunities to be patient.  This mindset applies to much more than patience.

Before Christ brought us into him we were bound by death and our sinful passions flooded the members of our body.  Our lives were controlled by death and we worshipped at its altar.  But Romans 7 clearly states that we are no longer held captive by death.  Death no longer holds sway over us.  This change in control over our lives is not because of anything we did to control our sinful passions.  Only the work of the Holy Spirit can make such a change. 

But the question still remains: Why then do I continue to sin?  Perhaps it is a sin that is new.  Perhaps it is a sin that is chronic within my members.  But why do I continue to sin despite the fact that I am no longer held captive by death?  I am held captive by the Spirit.  Shouldn't my life reflect that captivity?

The answer lies within the process of sanctification.  Yes, death no longer holds me captive, but the process of sanctification is very seldom easy or quick.  It may take time.  Years, perhaps.  But God will make us who he desires us to be in the time that is needed. 

Maybe, just maybe, when we ask for God to remove our passion for the sin within our members he won't take the sin away.  He may only give us the opportunity to deny the passions of the flesh and choose to live for him.

Christ Is All

O LOVER TO THE UTTERMOST,
May I read the meltings of thy heart to me
    in the manger of thy birth,
    in the garden of thy agony,
    in the cross of thy suffering,
    in the tomb of thy resurrection,
    in the heaven of thy intercession.
Bold in this thought I defy my adversary,
   tread down his temptations,
   resist his schemings,
   renounce the world,
   am valiant for truth.
Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship to thee,
   as spiritual Bridegroom,
   as Jehovah's Fellow,
   as sinners' Friend.
I think of thy glory and my vileness,
   thy majesty and my meanness,
   they beauty and my deformity,
   thy purity and my filth,
   thy righteousness and my iniquity.
Thou hast loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,
   may I love thee as I am loved;
Thou hast given thyself for me,
   may I give myself to thee;
Thou hast died for me,
   may I live to thee,
      in every moment of my time,
      in every movement of my mind,
      in every pulse of my heart.
May I never dally with the world
      and its allurements,
   but walk by thy side,
   listen to thy voice,
   be clothed with thy graces,
      and adorned with thy righteousness.

                            (from The Valley of Vision)