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Lenten devotions 2008

MARCH 6 - FLESH VERSUS SPIRIT
By Michele Fanfair Steury, director of student activities

SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:6-11 (NRSV)
Scroll down for complete Scripture.

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DEVOTIONAL:
When I think about the flesh versus spirit, my mother comes to mind:
123 pounds most of her 62 years of life,
a loud, explosive voice,
5’3” (though she always thought she was 5’5),
always in control or controlling,
creative,
brown skinned,
short hair,
traditional (appreciative of her Guyanese culture), while remaining open to being American,
entrepreneurial,
giving, and yet forgiving,
strong,
fashionable and
living to love.

We got the word the third Thursday in November: "your mother made it through surgery but we were not able to remove all the cancer. She has a healthy diet, she’s young and mentally strong, so if anyone can beat it she can."

My brother, fighting to keep mom’s flesh alive and strong, begs her to eat as much as she can or more. My father, not seeing my mother so frail, comments, “Wow, she has lost a lot of weight.” Her sisters hearing her voice on the phone, question me on the truth of her being sick. But upon seeing her, they fight back their desire to become weak in front of her as she dwindled to 88 pounds of flesh.

So, what’s left? The spirit.

You look to find the breath as you stand over her bed, you await the moments that create laughter, you’re thankful for the days without pain, you celebrate when she gains a pound and a half. You encourage the soul to not give up or give in to the flesh that is so tired. You’re grateful to receive another hug. You welcome the calm, the peacefulness and her ability to love life, realizing that life with flesh is nothing without the spirit.

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SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:6-11 (NRSV)
To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law -- indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though 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 from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Posted at 12:26 #