Imagine that this flame represent our flesh and its worldly desires. We know that it is wrong to follow our flesh, but as is the nature of a flame, it spreads everywhere and it consumes everything it comes to pass. It devours the whole of us and we are eaten by the flame of our sinful natures and habits.

Imagine that this water represents the Spirit and its fruits. We know that water is good for us for it can quench our thirst and give us a cool sensation if we plunge into it. This is what we know we want to have and where we know we would like to be. The Spirit can lift and freshen our entire being.

What if those two collide? Surely flame cannot coexist with water and water cannot coexist with flame. One will destroy the other. What is the outcome in your life? Does the Spirit prevail, or does the flesh devours you? Frankly I must say that in most of the time, I still let my flesh win, as in what happened today. Friends, it is not an easy journey I know. In Rome 6 it is said that as we die and live with Christ, so did our sins and our old self die with Christ and we are now resurrected into a new life, full of holiness in Christ. We are free from the bonds of sin and sin has no more power over us. This is TRUE, but somehow hard to do. It is said that you can simply RESIST the enemy to cast him away (James 4:7) but somehow we prefer to conceive our lust and so it brings sin (James 1:14-15). So what must we do then? Pray, ask for self-control, a spirit-controlled life full of holiness and purity.

The battle is still long, the journey is still far away. I still get down many times in the same place, for I know where my weakness is, yet I do not have the power to close it, as I am still struggling in my own. My weakness is in the lust of flesh, fornication, as written in the Scripture. Knowing my weakness yet powerless to cast it away is simply annoying. I am attacked there repeatedly and fell down almost half of the time. To wake up, and get beat down again, is twice more annoying. I must put my life's control not on myself but on the Spirit's guidance.


••• Saturday, November 22, 2003 •••