It's been busy

  Summer's nearly here and I've hit a bit of a mental block.  Things have been very busy around my house and we're looking forward to vacation time.  Jana's been working alot of hours, Cassidy has been having a harder time getting to sleep at night because of the longer days, and I've been getting a little less reading done than I'd like.

   Unfortunately that means I don't have much to write on right now.

  I will share this though, this has been on my mind alot lately;

Galatians 5:22-26
22 Now the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law.
24 Now those of Christ Jesus crucify the flesh together with its passions, and lusts.
25 If we may be living in spirit, in spirit we may be observing the elements also.
26 We may not become vainglorious, challenging one another, envying one another.

  I know alot of religious folks, Christians especially, like to work at achieving these chracter qualities in themselves and then get so frustrated and beat themselves up when they can't achieve this kind of perfection. Here's a hint; it's called fruit of the spirit so no matter how hard you work in your flesh you are NOT going to achieve this kind of thing.

  I don't know if you're quite understanding me.

  Let me make it really simple.

  These qualities are a gift of the spirit.  Live in grace, embrace grace.  Love God, Love Jesus, and the spirit will bless you with these qualities as time comes.  You can't make it happen.  So just relax.

  Really, you're allowed to.

  God wants you to.  He'll give you the gifts he thinks you need.  Not the ones you think you deserve or worked hard enough for.

  You're still trapped in flesh folks, so until the day of our vivification - you are not yet living in the spirit. 

Travis