Now I could talk all day long as to why we should reject organs (the pipe variety) in the church, but that is not what I want to address. Let's just say that pipe organs are for very metal song intros and classic horror movies.

This morning I was reading Laura's blog. You can check it here:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=5256261&blogID=410222355&Mytoken=CA8BF3C0-AF9F-4290-BFC5C485E9AF3EC0120907280 (cut & paste into your browser if it doesn't work)

As I read it I was impacted by something she was saying and wanted to offer my own view on the subject. I am not going to spend any time commenting on what she said so if you need any details you should read it yourself.

In the field of medicine, when your organs fail, you have one of two choices:

1) Die- maybe slowly, probably painfully, but certainly. Some organs are more important than others, but you just can't live without them (with very few exceptions like a gall bladder for instance). Heart, liver, lungs are all needed to live. Heart disease, failing livers and damaged lungs are all very awful ways to waste away. My mom died of liver failure and it was awful to behold the effects.

With the very few that you can live without, it is not pleasant. A man with no kidneys can continue on in life but it is not pleasant to be on dialysis or be regulated to a regimen of drugs for the rest of your life. even then, there are so many risks and problems that your health and life are seriously deprived of quality.

2) Organ transplant- risky, painful, inconvienent and also seriously deprives you of a quality life. It does give you more time though, time you might need to watch your child grow up, to make your peace with God, finish an important life task or just give you more time to live. I remember reading the story of a brilliant brain surgeon who was making huge leaps in the advancement of brain surgery only to develop brain cancer. Ironic! I will have to ask God about that one. Yet he fought on through the disease so that he might push the knowledge of his field as far as he could with the time left to him. Sometimes a transplant can give you more time...

There is a serious problem though. When you receive a transplant, your body rejects it. You have to take drugs to "trick" your body into not rejecting the very organ it needs to sustain life. This is really important if it is one of the big three: heart, lungs and liver. This is where Laura's blog came in and her discussion of struggle between flesh and soul. She got it mostly right I think, but she was a little off (in her blog because we all know that she is a "little off" but we love her anyway).

We are all born with a soul and we all have a body. Even an unregenerate man has a soul. It is the spirit that is the problem. All of us were born with a fatal condition. Our spirit was dead at birth. We have an eternally fatal condition and we are surely dying (slowly and painfully). We numb the pain and look for a cure in all the things of the world and yet find nothing. We can ease the pain, find a way to make it through life, but death is certain and just as the bible speaks of two births...it also mentions two deaths! Death one, the physical death is not good and was never meant to happen. Death two...well let's just say that you should avoid that if at all possible (and it is possible).

We need a transplant of spirit (not soul Laura). Only God can do that, but there is a cost. Why? Because body and soul will reject the new spirit. The new spirit is a foriegn "organ" that enters into the picture and we must suppress the deire of the flesh and soul to reject the new spirit that has been grafted in. This my friends is a life long struggle and many of us think something is wrong because we continue to struggle. Now soul will come into line after deliberate treatment as soul (the mind, will and emotions) can be made to come in line with our new spirit but flesh will one day need to be eliminated and God will create for us a new body as the flesh we have now is permenantly corrupted and subjected to only sin.

How do we do this? What are the "sin-suppressants" that keep us from rejecting our new "organ"? I'm sure I do  njot know all the answers and many men and women much smarter than me have done years of research in this field of study and there is yet more to discover, but let me offer you a prescription that might help:

1) Worship- we were made to worship something and all of mankind worships. There is only one pure source of worship and if you do not worship the God that created you then your body and soul will reject your new "organ".

2) Trust- we all trust in something. Whether it be our own strength, the false security of finances, the culture we live in, our friends or family or God. We were made to live as trusting people. If your trust is in anything other than the God who is trustworthy then your new "organ" will be rejected.

3) Submission- dirty word for most of us, but if we do not live in accordance of the doctors instructions then we will quickly reject our new "organ". Think of a man who loses his lungs to cigarettes and has a lung transplant. He goes back to smoking and his new lungs which are already weak from the surgery and the constant struggle to be accepted by the body are quicly damaged. So we too, once we receive our new "organ" need to submit to God's word and wisdom or we soon will find ourselves sick and dying once again, the flesh having gained control of our spiritual immune system and fighting desperately to reject our new "organ".

There are more...may more, but start there and you will be on your way to health and recovery. The good news is that God is much better than man at transplants. He is fully versed in His chosen field of study and His wisdom is second to none. I have even read that He has perfected the ability to transplant a heart of flesh in exchange of a heart of stone! Amazing, truly amazing!