I have a cold. \u00a0No major illness. \u00a0No major trial. \u00a0Just the minor inconvenience of a headache and a nasal system full of snot. \u00a0None the less, I will be glad when it’s over and the sickness is a memory.<\/p>\n
Colds do slow me down, but I try not to let them get me down. \u00a0It’s a pain to have to deal with the headaches and snot. \u00a0However, I realize it is only temporary. \u00a0Colds are not typically life threatening, so in a few days, this one will just be a memory. \u00a0 But today, \u00a0there is a battle raging inside my body.<\/p>\n
While I write this, white blood cells are attacking the invading virus, determined to subdue it. \u00a0In the end, the invading virus will be\u00a0conquered. \u00a0My body’s defenses will win, and I will feel better. \u00a0 In the meantime, this got me thinking about why God made the body “almost” perfect. \u00a0 His design allows my body to fight the germs, but why didn’t He design it so the germs never even have a chance? \u00a0 Why didn’t He make it so my defenses were so good that I would never even get sick in the first place?<\/p>\n
One possibility: \u00a0Because I was sick from the day I was born. \u00a0 This earthly body is not perfect. \u00a0The disease of sin means certain death to this earthly body. \u00a0 A cold reminds me of that. \u00a0Any trial, any sickness, any disease, any death of this earthly body is just a reminder that sin has to go. \u00a0It also helps me realize that eternal life in this corrupt body would be a curse.<\/p>\n
A God who would leave me to live forever in a sickened corrupted state would not be a loving God. \u00a0 Therefore, our Heavenly Father has provided a solution. \u00a0Christ is the cure. \u00a0He is a living example of the truth that the body must die so the spirit can live. \u00a0 Perhaps eons from now, looking back from the perspective of eternity, I may turn to one of my Christian friends and say, “Remember that time when we were all sick? \u00a0Aren’t you glad we got over that?”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.\u00a0\u00a0But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.\u00a0\u00a0And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.\u00a0But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.\u00a0Therefore, brethren, we are debtors–not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.\u00a0\u00a0For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.\u00a0\u00a0For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.<\/em> I have a cold. \u00a0No major illness. \u00a0No major trial. \u00a0Just the minor inconvenience of a headache and a nasal system full of snot. \u00a0None the less, I will be glad when it’s over and the sickness is a memory. Colds do slow me down, but I try not to let them get me down. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[255,26,18,256,257],"class_list":["post-1815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consider","category-misc","tag-cold","tag-death","tag-life","tag-sickness","tag-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1815"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1818,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1815\/revisions\/1818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0– Romans 8:8-14 \u00a0NKJV<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"