Are you a Meat Head?
I used to love All in The Family when I was a kid. It was really the biggest show on TV. In that show Archie Bunker would call his son in law a "Meat Head - Dead meat from the neck up". The Season of The Great Fast/Lent isn't about not eating meat. That is a childish view. It is about breaking the grip of the flesh on the soul and your life so you can participate with God in a demonstrable way.
So are you a meat head? Do you run your life by your own reasoning? Are you motivated by your passions, or anger, out of control need for power, fear, or feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, or revenge? Are you always trying to promote yourself? Are you unable to feel love or empathize with the struggles of others?
"For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring again st the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Rom 7:22-23)
Then its time to get a grip on yourself and you gotta get rid of what you don't need to give room to God. And you do this very precisely by living by the fruit of the Spirit. Not floating and living by your impulses under the false guise of spirituality but by LIVING through your ACTIONS by the fruit of the Spirit: Peace, love, joy, gentleness, patience, kindness, meekness, etc.
Fasting is good and prayer is essential, but ultimately you really have to do it. You have to make yourself forgive and be generous even to people you don't like. You have to make yourself b e patient even though you want to run away. You have to make yourself be gracious even though you want to slap someones stupid mouth. You have to make yourself have self control when you want to really give someone a piece of your mind. You have to make yourself be brave when you are really stunned by fear. You have to make yourself go on when you don't know for certain the outcome and go step-by-step, and day-by-day by faith in God. And we have the Spirit to help us.
Or, you can be a meat head, destroy your own life, live consumed by your childish needs and struggles, hurt other people, and in general be a jackass with less sense than Balaam's ass.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8)
Carnally minded means to be a Meat-Head. It sounds more poetic, but that's what it means.
I used to love All in The Family when I was a kid. It was really the biggest show on TV. In that show Archie Bunker would call his son in law a "Meat Head - Dead meat from the neck up". The Season of The Great Fast/Lent isn't about not eating meat. That is a childish view. It is about breaking the grip of the flesh on the soul and your life so you can participate with God in a demonstrable way.
So are you a meat head? Do you run your life by your own reasoning? Are you motivated by your passions, or anger, out of control need for power, fear, or feelings of jealousy, inadequacy, or revenge? Are you always trying to promote yourself? Are you unable to feel love or empathize with the struggles of others?
"For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring again st the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." (Rom 7:22-23)
Then its time to get a grip on yourself and you gotta get rid of what you don't need to give room to God. And you do this very precisely by living by the fruit of the Spirit. Not floating and living by your impulses under the false guise of spirituality but by LIVING through your ACTIONS by the fruit of the Spirit: Peace, love, joy, gentleness, patience, kindness, meekness, etc.
Fasting is good and prayer is essential, but ultimately you really have to do it. You have to make yourself forgive and be generous even to people you don't like. You have to make yourself b e patient even though you want to run away. You have to make yourself be gracious even though you want to slap someones stupid mouth. You have to make yourself have self control when you want to really give someone a piece of your mind. You have to make yourself be brave when you are really stunned by fear. You have to make yourself go on when you don't know for certain the outcome and go step-by-step, and day-by-day by faith in God. And we have the Spirit to help us.
Or, you can be a meat head, destroy your own life, live consumed by your childish needs and struggles, hurt other people, and in general be a jackass with less sense than Balaam's ass.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8)
Carnally minded means to be a Meat-Head. It sounds more poetic, but that's what it means.