The walk The stumbles The life of a spiritual being having a human experience.

"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."

Is this one for the people? Is this one for the Lord?
Or do I simply serenade for things I must afford?
You can jumble them together, my conflict still remains
Holiness is calling, in the midst of courting fame
Cause I see the trust in their eyes
Though the sky is falling
They need Your love in their lives
Compromise is calling

What if I stumble, what if I fall?
What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all?
Will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl?
What if I stumble, and what if I fall?

What if I stumble, what if I fall?

DC TALK - What if I stumble

We are only as good as our testimony to the ones who see our lives in action. At any time we can damage or destroy it by acting in the flesh and killing the example we seek to set for others who seek a spiritual life with God as we know him and by the instruction of his Son through the scripture.
We seek a life guided by the spirit because it is the spirit that lives in line with the will of God and the true flow of our life as he intended it.
But the flesh always lives with us and therefore with the spirit. The flesh as you know is always in conflict with the spirit. Everything it stands for opposes the other.

Paul speaks of this rather clearly in the 5th chapter of Galatians.
Galatians 5:18-25
New International Version (NIV)
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

So we see what the flesh is as contrasted by the spirit. Paul, you would think, being in some people's minds the greatest apostle, was above the conflicts of the mind involving the two. But he wasn't.

Romans 7:14-25
New International Version (NIV)
"14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 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.

21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin."


This sometimes confusing argument that Paul has with himself but shares with us in his letter to the Romans shows what he has in common with all of us. He is human. But he is a human who has accepted Christ and in turn, the Holy Spirit. Because of this he has Christ Jesus within him.
2 Corinthians 13:5-8
"5Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? 6And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. 7Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. 8For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth."

So we as Christians must always recognize everything that goes before us as a test. But we must also never see ourselves as infallible. We are after all, human. We are here on earth having this human experience. Yet we have accepted the Spirit, the Comforter as Jesus called it, into our heart. Our core. Who we are. So it lives right there with the flesh. It is up to us which we feed.

John 3:30
He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.

So, in this walk. We must always understand, there is flesh here holding us to this earth and all it has. The experiences are meant to build our spirit in a very ironic way. We, in our limited perspective at times fail to see the big picture. All these temptations, all these experiences, all of our stumbles, all of our triumphs, are a part of this thing called our testimony. We must never see ourselves as immune to the power of the desires of the sinful nature. "Sin" is Anglo Saxone word from archery meaning "to miss the mark" which is to not hit the bulls eye. The bulls eye is perfection. We as humans are rarely perfect in our lives. Therefore we are born into sin. Born imperfect. Some say if sanity is wholeness of mind, then any fraction less than the entirety of our mind or our spirit is not sane or perfect. Sinful. Fleshly. Human.
Being from a background in psychology and the study of human behavior, I will give you the psychological perspective on the human experience and the spiritual being.
Psychiatrist Philip S. Graven suggested the term "un-sane" to describe a condition that is not exactly insane, but not quite sane either.[2]

In The Sane Society, published in 1955, psychologist Erich Fromm proposed that, not just individuals, but entire societies "may be lacking in sanity". Fromm argued that one of the most deceptive features of social life involves "consensual validation.":[3]

“ It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth... Just as there is a folie à deux (The same syndrome shared by two people) there is a folie à millions. The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane.[4]

So, in a nutshell, he is saying the world we live in tends to nurture the flesh or that insanity we at times feel is very same, and that it is the sinful nature and it's devious work present in our lives. We must always be on alert and in constant communion with God in order to experience his spirit and the guidance it gives us to "pass the test". This is why we come to church each Sunday. Why we seek fellowship with two or more seeking to increase The Lord in their lives. Why we study the scripture. Why we pray. We must never lay our faith on the walk of another who is having a human experience like ourselves. Do not place your faith in man. Place it in God.

No one has ever but Jesus, set foot upon this earth and been without sin. Jesus lived to fulfill the will of his father. God. In that regard he played it out impeccably. Flawless. Perfect. Without sin. All others are but individualized expressions of God having a human experience. That goes for everyone. From the atheist, to the agnostic, to the layman, all the way to the Pope. All of us are on this journey. Some further along than others but all with the same book to read. The same God to experience. The same Jesus to accept. The same comforter to guide us.
Never get down on yourself. Always understand why you are here. To grow closer to God by knowing his Son.