Incorruptible part 2
When I think of something that is corruptible--or worse CORRUPTED--I think of something that has been weakened. Something that has been overtaken by an outside force. Something that, despite it's best efforts, just wasn't strong enough. That's mankind before the cross. Mankind under the Law. Trying our very best to (somehow) become better than we started off. And that's mission impossible. It's like the seed that the sower planted in Mark chapter 4. Some of the seed sprang up immediately in the stony ground, but it had no depth of earth. Notice now, there was nothing wrong with the seed in any of Jesus' examples. The seed was INCORRUPTIBLE. Because the seed was the Word. Which is Jesus. Which is love. It was the outside forces that were the problem. The environment. I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you struggle with alcoholism... a bar probably isn't the best place for you. At least not at the beginning of your journey. Because, remember, we are not trying to turn over a new leaf. We are beginning to realize that we are connected to an entirely different tree. And if we want the seed--the incorruptible seed that is love--to bear fruit... we need to nourish it. What you feed is what grows, right? We need to stop trying to be someone we're not, and we need to start to figure out who we really are. We need to stop letting the outside affect us, and we need to start letting what's inside come out and affect everything else! I always use the example of a thermometer and a thermostat. One just TAKES the temperature. The other SETS the temperature. But the most important thing to remember about the seed is that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. There is nothing wrong with YOU. You are who your heavenly Father created you to be. I'm just trying to help us see how easy it can be--doesn't HAVE to be, but CAN be--to let the external sway us. Look at this example: Peter is literally "walking on water" (I always contend that he was REALLY walking on the Word of the Lord, when Jesus said, "Come.") and then this happens, "But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, 'Master, save me!' Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, 'Faint-heart, what got into you?' " (Matthew 14:30-31 MSG). If ever there was a time when you're faith was at an all-time high... that had to be it. But then, just like that, something got into Peter. Something from the outside. The water churned. And that was that for Peter. Let me say it another way: Why do we let the smallest inconvenice absolutely wreck us? I think it's because we do what James 1:24 describes: "For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." We look at what's on the surface and we forget about what--WHO--is deep inside. We listen to the world screaming at us instead of that still, small voice of love that lives in our hearts. We, if I can put it like this, corrupt the incorruptible. We forget the truth and let the lie dictate to us. Because we are trying to do it on our own. We try so hard to "hang on to Him" that we lose sight of the truth that HE is hanging on to us! And, listen, I understand that those are somewhat honorable intentions. They are just backwards intentions. Outside-in will never work. Because the love is already inside. And it works from the inside-out!