sacred vs secular?!?!

If you all are wondering why my Bible reading posts have not been updated, it because I just came back from Pentecost Encounter. But also, it's because it's election season, and since the guidelines on what can and not be put on a blog is so unclear, I've decided to just censor entire posts!

Pentecost Encounter, it was really refreshing and there were quite many things that I've learnt, two main issue actually. The first is about what rebellion really means. And the other was a revelation from God, about the whole issue about the Sacred and the Secular.

I've always wondered why I've never ever felt that I've struggled with the issue of seperating the sacred and the secular and always maintained that nothing is really secular, maybe except sin, but everything when looked at from the correct angle can be considered sacred. But yet at the same time, something seemed to be not right, to be lacking in that definition as I still struggled with so many thing. But God revealed through His Word what the real struggle was.

There is a sacred and secular divide, but that notion by itself is not-entirely Biblical, but secular in it's own origins. However, addressing the sacred and secular is actually a simple matter. The struggle is not sacred vs secular but rather the "Flesh vs Spirit". Which is actually our lifelong stuggle with sin.

That's what Paul was struggling with when he wrote:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. - Romans 7:14-20

Our beings can be viewed as 3 parts, not separate parts but parts that are interconnected.

Now may the God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your who spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Thess 5:23

Three parts are stated in that verse, the spirit, soul and the body. We are spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. The body can be viewed as a "container" for the soul and the spirit. The spirit, is not the Holy Spirit, but our own spirit, that is kind-of passive till the Holy Spirit comes to "awaken" it (loosely speaking of course). Our soul is where our mind, our emotions and wills interplay.

Our will is what causes our body to act a certain way. But our will is influcenced with what our minds and/or emotions want. But when our spirit has been activated, it begins to influence our will, and if our minds and emotions are not aligned to what our spirit tells us, we struggle. And that's the struggle that I've been having, and will have for the rest of my days.

And it's true that before, receiving the Holy Spirit, I had very little compunction in using vulgarities or doing stupid things, but after accepting Jesus as my Savious, all the things that I had previously had no problems doing, I began to struggle and still struggle with till today.

All this was a big revelation to me, as I had problems catergorising what was the secular and the sacred, it all seemed wrong to do it the way I did. But when we look at the struggle between what the flesh (the mind and emotions) wants versus what the our spirit tell us to do, at the influence of the Holy Spirit, it all made so much more sense.

The division between soul and spirit is even more blurred than that of what is sacred and secular; and that was why I struggled so much. But at the heart of it all, God has provided a simple to understand but yet difficult to pull off way out. And it's encapsulated in our old Sunday School song, "Read your Bible, Pray everyday". Now I understand why Pastor Aaron wants us to read our Bible and Pray everyday.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of yur mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" - Romans 12:1-2

Familiar verses, the idea of not being not conformed to this world is a lot clearer to me now and so is the idea of renewing the mind. When our mind is in step with that of the spirit, our will and thus our actions will follow. Tough.

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" - Hebrews 4:12-13

It all starts with the Word of God. How to overcome, how to deal with, and how to break away from the struggles of flesh and spirit. Now I finally understand why I've been struggling so hard.