Bodan

Purveyor of immoral facts and unforgivable insights.
Ultracrepidarian.

#itm

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@YourCalvinist Does your view hold that Adam's progeny inherit his moral guilt?

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@AdeleScalia Tea with honey and lemon. 🍋

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

I’ve not known Peter as one given to drama.

[Peter Boghossian @peterboghossian]

We are witnessing the fall of a civilization in real time.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@JohnKiriakou But I am funny enough to do standup

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@l_i_n_d_z__ @TemplarEngr No, it’s a will issue.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@EdLatimore Only if you’re lucky.
Can take a boatload of that stuff and not be fazed.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@BowTiedTrance I haaate the shortened daylight hours.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

Lord, grant us the grace and strength to stay still.

[Faithfulness Okom @AttorneyF_]

Every serious believer has prayed for God to kill their flesh.

When we pray that prayer, we expect an anesthetic or a kill switch. We imagine a painless transaction where God quietly turns down the volume on our worst impulses, leaving our pride and self-image undisturbed.

Instead, He answers with a mirror and a scalpel.

We often approach God believing we already know where the flesh is weak. We identify it only by its loud, embarrassing symptoms: an unexpected temper, a secret spiral, or a compulsive habit. We point to the visible stain and assume we’ve diagnosed the disease.

But those symptoms are often merely the tip of an iceberg. Beneath them lies a massive stronghold of entitlement, self-preservation, and an obsession with being sovereign over our own lives.

Before the flesh can be put to death, its true perimeter has to be mapped. And mapping it means total, humiliating exposure. The mirror is the word of God, and James warns that the man who glances into it and walks away forgets what he saw (James 1:23-24). When this prayer is answered, He doesn't let us walk away.

C.S. Lewis described this bargain in Mere Christianity. As a boy with a toothache, he knew that asking his mother for aspirin meant being taken to the dentist the next morning, he couldn't get the one without the other.

We go to God begging for painkillers just to sleep through the night, and like the dentist, He refuses to stop at comfort. He goes straight for the root, refusing to leave the rot inside us.

When that divine surgery begins, the flesh never lies down and dies with dignity.

Starved of oxygen, it thrashes like a cornered animal, manufacturing sudden panic, defensiveness, and desperate cravings. When God sends the help you asked for, a spouse asking an honest question, a mentor seeing through your facade, an accountability partner refusing to flatter you; your dying ego perceives executioners where God sent allies.

To protect itself from crucifixion, the flesh bites whatever hand is closest. Many friendships and marriages become collateral damage simply because an exposed ego is swinging wildly in the dark.

So what must our posture be when the exposure hits, the ground gives way, and we begin to spiral?

Our natural instinct is to negotiate our way off the table: "Lord, make it stop. Put the mask back on. Give me relief." But true mortification requires that you stop defending what God has marked for death.

Paul says it is by the Spirit that we put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13), which means the scalpel is in His hand and our only assignment is to stop wrestling Him for it. Heroic willpower has no part here; the posture is trembling, defenseless stillness. It is the agonizing willingness to agree with God’s verdict about who you actually are apart from Him.

When exposure makes you dizzy with shame and the urge to lash out rises, you stop bargaining for an exit. The plea nust shift from relief to endurance: the grace to stay still while the rot is cut out, the restraint not to strike the people God sent to steady you, and the resolve not to crawl off the table until the work is finished.

If you asked God to kill your flesh and you suddenly feel unmasked, disoriented, and weaker than you have ever been, do not mistake exposure for abandonment, or confrontation with your weakness for defeat. The prayer did not fail.

God just took you at your word, and He loves you too much to patch up the very self you asked Him to crucify.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@iamrjknight Prayers offered.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

You absolutely need fellowship. Humans are created to be in community, especially in the household of faith.

Flying solo is bad for anyone, but especially a believer as you (we) will be targeted by the enemy and are easy pickings alone.

Prayers offered for you brother.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@FatherChrisVor1 Then there's the novel and radical idea of only engaging in sexual activity with your husband or wife.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

Ten years ago, I'd have given them a run for their money.

[FelixTheCat @FelixThisCat]

This is the new trend and im here for it 😂

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@Rebel_ACM13 @circusap No. It’s not illegal.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@Dirtdragonmom Then wear an eyepatch, a scowl, and limp.
Lean into it.

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@amitylee13 Gotcha. Enjoy and fly safe!

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@amitylee13

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@cjscalia

[Bodan @CS_Bodan]

@WesleyLHuff Prayers offered.