Dan Cheatham
7-18-2014: FLESH ATTACK!
FLESH ATTACK
AKA: You Are Going To Blow It!

(Stay with me here and keep reading please! I know my subject title seems negative, but hang on!)

I pray ISRAEL, with God's help, crush her national enemies in Jesus name! The Bible says God will curse her enemies!

Just like Israel goes through periods of time when volleys of Palestinian rockets are indiscriminately fired on them, the believer goes through seasons of FLESH ATTACKS! These attacks come at the most inconvenient times and that suddenly without warning!

One of my government job bosses liked the joke so much that he changed my NAME PLACARD on my office door to:  "DEWEY, CHEATHAM & HOWE, Law Firm."  So what did I do?  I left it up for a couple of years to give everyone a laugh! 

Names are a funny thing!  I was on the pastoral staff of one church that had the following pastor names:  Hellmann (the senior pastor always said he was a "hell of a man"), Strickhausen (meaning strict house in German), Honeycutt, Lowery (changed from Lie-ry as ancestor immigrant, and then of course me, Cheatham!  Cheat 'em!  Give 'em hell!  Lie to 'em!  Butter 'em up like honey, then cut 'em down!  Then run the place like a strict house!   GOD HELP US!

My father-in-law, Berle, was close friends with Stan and Thad because they were golf buddies as well as Christian friends. They spent tons of time together, so much so that my mother-in-law renamed them: THADRACH, ME-STAN and a BERLE-TO-GO!

No matter how mature you are in Christ, you are going to blow it from time to time!

Give yourself a little grace to be normal!

Give yourself some space to make a mistake every now and then, and don't be surprised!

Not that we ever TRY or MAKE EXCUSES for sinning! The Bible, after all, says that we have both PARDON FROM SIN and POWER OVER SIN. I'm NOT talking here about EXCUSING SIN OR WINKING AT SIN IN OURSELVES OR OTHERS. By no means, BUT... at the same time we need to acknowledge our imperfect humanity, our journey towards spiritual growth, and the fact that we haven't "arrived yet." Even Paul the Apostle acknowledged this about himself in Philippians.

How wonderful we are in Christ but how wretched we are in our own flesh!

There is this dude that keeps getting in my way! I hate him! I don't trust him! I don't like him! But he keeps showing up! He keeps gettin' in my face! He's a pest too! And so annoying! His name is "Flesh!" Argh!

Romans 12 says we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. Someone has humorously observed that "THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH A LIVING SACRIFICE IS THAT IT KEEPS TRYING TO CRAWL OFF THE ALTAR!"

Even Moses who often communed with God face to face, wrote the Pentateuch, and was charged with leading all Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land... BLEW IT!  Once he got so angry at those rough hewn Jews with their sassy mouths that he got into trouble with God for misrepresenting Him and was not allowed to go into Canaan land himself!  Ouch!

Even the most trusted leader you revere as a worthy mentor is going to let you down, at least on rare occasion!

Everyone has a BAD HAIR DAY every now and then! Everyone! Even Christians and Christian leaders too!

The problem is that often our button has been pushed so many times in one or two areas of our life, that we have been PROGRAMMED with certain reactions and feelings and behavior. And often the REPROGRAMMING PROCESS IS ARDUOUS AND TAKES TIME. Now add to this moments of extreme fatigue, exhaustion, or stress and you have a recipe for a FLESH-ATTACK!

Sometimes a besetting sin which you were genuinely delivered from may try to bite again! (Of course I know this has never happened to you because you are so holy! Ha!)

Ever noticed that when you got saved you got what I will coin here as some "FREEBIES!" By that terminology, for lack of better words, I mean some things that at the moment of your new birth, YOU WERE FOREVER AND FINALLY SET FREE FROM. But... then there are some other things that didn't come so quickly and easy as THE FREEBIES! It seems those other things The Lord has left you to work on with His help as a lifetime PROCESS! Other believers don't struggle with those areas it would seem to you, but some do! I've always wondered about this universal phenomenon with Christians. Maybe, just maybe (not doctrine here, but just my conjecturing) it is because having a PROCESS to have to work through with The Lord in some compartments of our life keeps us seeking Him and pursuing Him. I don't have all the answers, but just saying?

Think about Peter.  He walked with Christ in person.  God used his shadow to heal multitudes of the sick and paralyzed.  Yet once he acted like such a hypocrite that Paul had to rebuke and correct him publicly in front of his peers!

Think about Jonah!  Think about David!  Think about Solomon!  Think about Jacob!  Think about Elijah!  Think about ALMOST ANY Bible character and you'll find that God doesn't hide their glaring weakness and mistakes, but still loved them and kept dealing with their hearts!

Think about ABRAHAM! He made plenty of mistakes (even some that were far reaching), yet God named him, THE FRIEND OF GOD and THE FATHER OF OUR FAITH!  Wow!

Only Jesus did this thing perfectly and sinlessly!

THIS IS WHAT GRACE IS FOR!

This is what grace is for:  To cover for us while we are being changed into His image!

I wish it didn't take so long... It seems so slow... This being changed into likeness and image thing! Ha!

Christ my worth!

Christ my righteousness!

Christ my ability to stand before a Holy God and loving Father!

Christ my value!

Christ my good standing with Heaven!

Christ my friend even in my darkest hour and my weakest moment!