A man and a fly

The Natural Man

As I was putting together this bulletin, a housefly landed on an article I was copying, walked around a bit, and then flew over to my Bible. I watched as the little creature moved over the page from here to there in "fits and starts." I suppose it was looking for something to eat, some morsel, some crumb to sustain it for its brief existence. It didn't stay long. After moving over just about an entire page and finding nothing to fulfill its hunger, it took wing and went elsewhere. That fly is like natural man. Man, as he is born, has EXACTLY as much ability to understand scripture as that fly. He, in his search to sustain his existence, may happen upon the Bible for a time, he may move across the pages, even stop here and there, but soon will fly away as empty as when he arrived. The feast of fat things that is the Word of God is not food for natural man any more than it is for the fly. It is FOOD, but food for the spiritual man, the man whom God has made alive by the new birth. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14). "But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God" (I Cor. 2:9-10). -- By Tim James (This article appeared in the bulletin of Fairmont Grace Church, Sylacauga, AL)