The Central Theme

There's an hymn written by Helen Lemmel in 1922 that goes like this:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

I can think of few truer statements than this.
And by way of referencing it, and the deeper meaning it implies, I would like to discuss
one of the revelations I mentioned earlier during my testimony in dealing
with my struggle against lust and sin in my life.

When I was young and was struggling against lust, I
made a grievous error that I feel many of us make, when placed in similar
circumstances. I relied on my own strength to win against sin.
And when I failed, as we always do when we attempt this foolhardy stratagem,
I grew dejected. Dejection soon led to despair; despair into resentment;
and resentment developed into a root of bitterness.

The book of Hebrews discusses this root of bitterness in some detail.

"See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of
bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled..."
Hebrews 12:15

"Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart,
in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is
still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance
firm until the end"
Hebrews 3:12-14

When I was young, and even now occasionally, I realize that I'm trying to overcome
some area of the flesh in my life with my own power. This does not work.
On this point, the Scripture is quite clear.

"Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"
Galatians 3:3

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our
warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God,
and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
II Corinthians 10:3-5

So if we can't do it on our own power, how exactly do we overcome?
The answer is clearly stated a little further in the book of Galatians:

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh;
for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."
Galatians 5:16-17

"For those that walk according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh,
but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself
to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;
and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you."
Romans 8:5-9

Paul says, 'walk by the Spirit'. When we accept the gift of salvation from the Lord,
our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is dwelling within us and is willing to do a continuing restorative work
in our hearts and minds. But He cannot do this work until we are done trying to do
His work for Him. Until we stop, and surrender our hearts and minds to Him completely.

"But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him...
...Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"
I Corinthians 6:17 and 19

"He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit"
Titus 3:5

Not only was I not willing to surrender to the Holy Spirit when I was younger,
but I was also unwilling to surrender the idols that I had accumulated along the way.
The idol of lust, the idol of entertainment, the idol of pride, and many others that continued
to push God out of the center of my life. And this brings us back to the original song lyrics
I shared at the beginning of this entry.

This is, in my opinion, the locus of the Christian life.
There is no lust, no sin, that can withstand the awesome power of the Lord Jesus and
His presence. When you're under temptation. When the devil comes to you and begins
to whisper vile abominations and taunt you with your own weakness and failure to
do anything right, if you turn your eyes upon Jesus, the evil one has to leave.
He has no power where there is a Christian walking with the Spirit and filled with the
presence of the Lord Jesus.

This, then, is the crux of my walk with the Lord. Just as Paul said in Phillipians:

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in the view of the surpassing value of knowing
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but
rubbish in order that I may gain Christ"
Phillipians 3:7-8

In the Old King James, the word dung is used in place of rubbish, so that you may understand the
strength of Paul's conviction when he is writing this.
I don't feel anything else really needs to be said.
Pursue Jesus, and keep your eyes on Him. Everything else is rubbish.