From The Crucible (by Pastor Linda Pugsley)

Mankind screwed up, not God! As a result, our broken nature tends to lean more toward legalism and rules to show that we love God. We mistakenly divide life into the natural and the supernatural; the unspiritual and the spiritual. We foolishly assume that we should not partake of the "natural", thus creating this world of "don'ts". Yuck. Obeying man-made rules only makes you "feel” holy. Obeying God's directions makes you "be" holy. God made all that we see (and the Hubble telescope is showing us there is a lot more we haven't seen!) And even though the earth and all of nature is under a temporary curse, (the resultant state from Adam's disobedience), they are things we should heartily embrace and not dutifully shun. I believe God intends for us to have both the natural and the supernatural. I know this because as I run a marathon with wind and sweat and pain, I am also exhilarated and it leads me to praise God. Or when I hike the Appalachian Trail and reach the summit of one of the seemingly endless mountains, my eyes soak up the majestic scenery, it pours into my brain at a pace that inundates my senses, and I am engulfed with profound wonder and joy. Are these exotic pleasures therefore sinful? How about enjoying fresh picked peaches or the sensual inundation from rich chocolate? No, my friend, these are not bad, they are good, complete and intended for our use. God is not anti-pleasure. He gave us the exotic, but we have wrongly changed it to the erotic. So, go ahead…thoroughly pursue and enjoy the "natural" but just make sure you do it from the "supernatural" nature. Then it is the "pure" enjoyment God intended; the holy blending of both worlds where nature is employed, but it leads you to where God is enjoyed! Endure the fire...it's producing pure gold!

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