Hybrid

 'What's a hybrid now?' I asked the shop owner, as I noticed the word on one of the products that he sold in his game shop.  I could not quite remember whether a hybrid was the original of something, or an original with something else grafted in.  'It's where something is grafted into something else to make a new species with the qualities of both donors.' he replied. ' Ah yes', I said.  I had been reading that morning from Colossians ch. 3, where Paul was reminding the church at Colossae how the old nature, the fleshly nature, was dead, and that we are alive to Christ.  I had thought, while reading, how careful we have to be not to resurrect that old nature .  This passage of scripture now drifted back into my mind, as I pondered on the word 'hybrid', and I thought about how Christians could become hybrid, our nature being produced by a mix of our old and new nature, or a mix of God's Word and man's doctrine, if we did not stay alert. 

That evening I was sat in my lounge with my husband.  He was watching a film on the television, which was set during the second world war.  I am not very interested in war films, and so my mind started to reflect on other things.  I was thinking about what I should take as a devotional for the writers' circle that I attend each month.  The Lord had been speaking to me about His commandment in John ch 13 to us, to love one another as He has loved us, and I was thinking that maybe I would share something on this theme.

In the midst of my thoughts, my husband said, 'That's a hybrid'.  Suddenly, my mind was alert, I had heard this word twice in the space of a few hours, and once again I was reminded of the subject of the two natures in the book of Colossians.  Turning to my husband, I asked 'What's a hybrid?'.  'That army vehicle' he said, looking towards the television screen.  'What do you mean, that vehicle is a hybrid?' I said.  'It can run on petrol or electricity' my husband replied.  How would you clarify a hybrid I asked.  'It's a mix of two' he said.  Two days later a friend rang me and said during our conversation  'My second nature's gone'.  I realized almost immediately that she was talking about a Katherine Jenkins music CD that she had, that she had told me a few days before might have fallen down the back of a unit in her flat.  The significance of what she said spoke spiritually to me, and I felt that the Lord was definitely bringing my attention to the carnal and the spiritual natures, and of how we can lose our new, spiritual nature if we do not allow the old, clay vessel to be broken and the new vessel to be moulded by heeding the Lord's teachings, and so it is on this theme that I have based the following thoughts.

If I, once I am born again of God's Holy Spirit, choose only to accept correction from God when it suits me by being a hearer of the Word and not a doer of the Word, or accept doctrine within a church when I know it is false doctrine, then my nature will be hybrid, a mixture of the carnal and the spiritual, and I will not be changed into the true image of Christ.  Hence the importance of obeying God's Word, and also checking the word of man to see if it aligns with scripture.

In Colossians ch. 3 we are encouraged to seek and set our minds on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth because if we have been raised with Christ then we have died to the flesh and our life is hidden with Christ in God.  Paul then goes on to instruct believers to put to death what is earthly in them:- fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of which, he says, the wrath of God is coming.  So we see that the wrath of God is activated through the corrupt carnal nature.  Paul further encourages us not to lie to one another, seeing that we have put off the old nature with it's practices, and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of it's creator.  Then he lists the beautiful characteristics of this new divine nature of God which is revealed in Christ, as we are told to put on compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another, forgiving each other.  As the Lord has forgiven us, he says so we also must forgive, and above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

If we look at the characteristics of love, as stated in 1 Corinthians ch. 13 we see that it is patient and kind, is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude.  Love does not insist on it's own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Jesus says in John ch. 13 vs.34 and 35 , 'A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you, even so I have loved you that you also love one another.  By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  Jesus does not say that He gives us a choice that we love one another, He says that He gives us a commandment to love one another.  So we see that this new nature is essential, not only to bind the body of Christ together in perfect harmony, but also that it will be evidence to the whole world that we are His disciples.  How important then that all of us be on our guard, and take every thought into captivity, recognising where these thoughts are coming from and if they are confessing Christ, and in line with the Word of God.

Proverbs ch. 7 vs. 1 to 5 says 'My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you, keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings  as the apple of your eye, bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Say to wisdom, 'You are my sister,' and call insight your intimate friend, to preserve you from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words.'  We need to ask the Lord for His wisdom and insight to keep our divine nature from being adulterated by worldly values.

Recently, a neighbour's house was burgled.  The thief broke a kitchen window and entered the house in broad daylight, and in full view of neighbouring houses and passers by.  This neighbour had cut down all the trees in his back garden that would originally have hidden his kitchen window from view.  Whenever he went on holiday, there were three of his friends in the street that had keys to his house and looked around his property day and night.  The Lord has shown me a spiritual principal in what has happened to my neighbour.  It is that all the carnal wisdom and protection in the world may not spare us from the thief.

I recognise in my own life how I am having to put off my old nature by examining daily, even hourly, whether my thoughts and actions are in accordance with what I see in Jesus' teachings, and the following poem is the prayer that I have written to the Lord to help me in this task.

You and me

Increase the 'You' in me Lord increase the solid rock 
increase the strength the Father sent to protect from every knock
Increase the 'You' in me Lord when I try to stand alone
remind me that I'm still a child, that in You I'm not yet grown
Increase the 'You' in me Lord, take all my foolish pride
take the 'me' that still remains in me and place the 'You' inside
increase the 'You' in me Lord that when all is said and done
and people say 'Thank you, thank you' I'll say 'Not me...God's Son.