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 By: Dr. Skip Myers EdgefieldDaily.com Columnist web posted November 13, 2007 JOHNSTON – You made a vow as a young person that when you got to be a parent there were certain things you would never say to your child. Your list included all those tired phrases your parents said to you time after time. It got to the point that you could even anticipate what phrase they would throw your way based on what you did at that moment. My dad had such a phrase he would use every time I would make some type of mess. And believe me, as a kid I gave him an unlimited number of opportunities to use this phrase. My best messes usually occurred at the supper table. I would begin to act like a goof and before you knew it milk was making its way across the table and into someone’s lap. The over-turned cup lay motionless as the fountain of milk cascaded over the rim of the table and onto the floor via of my dad’s new pants. I never saw my dad move so fast. He would leap to his feet brushing his pants with a napkin and at the same time giving me the phrase I had grown so accustomed to hearing, “This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been horsing around!” This column isn’t about horsing around, or family meals around the table. It’s about the milk. Have you ever stopped to watch spilled milk? It covers everything in its path. And unless someone is really quick with a napkin, it’s going to fill every available inch of the table before falling over the side onto the floor. Milk spills are so messy because milk is fluid. It’s going to occupy every available inch of surface because of the momentum gained by the spill. Fluidity is a great concept. You want glue to be fluid so that it will fill those cracks and dents. If it didn’t the seal would be weakened. In our lives, we have what it called a sin nature. It is our natural connection to the sin of this world. We don’t have to be taught to sin or choose the wrong path. It just naturally is a part of who we are. Our sin nature is also highly fluid. It will flow quickly to fill every decision we have to make and every word we choose to speak. Proving this is easy. Listen to yourself when you get mad. We wonder how those words came out of our mouth so quickly—sin nature fluidity. But rest assured the Lord has not left us helpless against the raging fluidity of our natural tendency toward sin. Just like someone throws a napkin to stop the spread of spilled milk, the Lord has given us a “spiritual napkin” to stop the spread of our sin nature. 2 Corinthians 12:9 shares this promise, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfected in weakness. Sufficiency is like fluidity. It can fill the cracks and flow into any need no matter the shape. Grace is the practical side of the love Christ has for us. It is the napkin that absorbs the sinful impulse before it becomes action. Grace is wonderful and highly effective against the fluidity of our sin nature but unlike our sin nature, grace doesn’t come natural to us. If we are to use grace effectively we must be intentional about it. We have to employ grace intentionally. This means we have to stop and actually focus on grace rather than letting the natural reaction happen. The spiritual side of life is not the natural side to life. In order act and react spiritually, we have to give it thought and focused determination. Remember, we aren’t left to our own power to focus on the spiritual and utilize grace instead of our sin nature. We are told to, filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18. What the Lord is trying to get us to see is that we have to meet the flow of sin with the intentional filling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will serve as a levee to stop the flow of our sin nature. Then He will point us to the spiritual truth needed in order make the righteous choice. So my dad actually had very sound spiritual advice—horsing around does cause some nasty spills. Life brings a multitude of opportunities for our sin nature to “spill all over us.” Why not use the right napkin and contain the spill before it makes a mess. Grace works and is good for every situation in life. I’ll see you in His House Sunday! ©
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