Scripture: James 2:26
As the body without the spirit is dead, shop so faith without deeds is dead.

Thought for the Day: Most of the ancient biblical authors, diagnosis from Genesis through Revelation, nurse indicate that our spiritual and physical selves are separate somehow. While I understand why we want to consider our spiritual sides as somehow more pure than our corruptible physical selves, I think this general idea that we are both spirit and flesh (and that flesh is evil) is misleading and destructive. It causes us to live in a duality, and to perceive everything in dualistic terms—including, unfortunately, “us” and “them.”

I think the real key to understanding spirit is in thinking about it as the only substance, inseparable from the physical. It is spirit that creates, informs and guides. We are not body and soul; we are simply soul manifest as body. There is no separation between the Spirit of God and us. There is no separation between us and any other thing that exists. All matter is born from the same source, and is the same source. We are one, because there is only One.

Prayer: Inspire me, Holy Spirit that is all being, to embrace a new state of mind in which I am convinced there is nothing in the universe but God, everywhere I look, in every person I see, in every sound I hear. We are one in the spirit, because there is only Spirit. Amen.