|
"Natural" things... Godly things" by Rebecca Bryant Hervey |
||
|
|
 |
  Question: Were you aware that you were born with a nature that wants to sin? Yes...... No.......(check one only) Read Psalm 51:5... "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." This was not to say that the act that caused conception was sinful, because his parents were married to each other, but he was saying that he was born with a sinful nature. (personality, soul). Since Adam, the first man, sinned by disobeying God, each person in the human race except for Jesus Himself, carries the sin of Adam on our record and in our human nature.. Jesus came to pay the price for our sins because none of us could ever be good enough or holy enough to meet God’s requirements for righteousness. The weakness, the foolishness, the rebellion... of Adam allowed satan to come into the nature of the entire human race. This explains why people do WRONG things even when they know better. It’s in their "Adamic" nature.... the human nature that wants to sin.... and that’s the nature we have to work to overcome and can only BEGIN to do that by being born again. Question: Are you aware that this is why we must be born again? yes...... no....... This is why God gives us a choice... to choose either blessings or curses. Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14. Question: Is that how your life is going?....... Are you blest in every way? yes...... no...... Or are there some plagues or rebukes or confusion in your life? yes...... no...... If there are, then keep reading Deuteronomy 28:15-25. Does that sound like anything that’s happening in your life? yes....... no....... God says that the wicked...(the rebellious, the liars, thieves, sexually immoral, etcetera...) have NO RIGHT to claim His covenant. (Psalm 50:16-23) You are old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong.... even though your mind and your body may be saying some things to you that are very tempting. Therefore you are old enough to make choices between blessings and curses. You are old enough to be held accountable for either obeying God... or disobeying God... letting Him rule your life or going your own way no matter what‘s right or wrong.. Are you wondering now something like this...."Well, if I’m born again, why do I still think evil thoughts and have evil desires? I can tell you what the apostle Paul said about it.... Romans 7:15..(reading in the book "The Message") "I can anticipate the response that is coming: ‘I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not.. Isn’t this also your experience?’ Yes, I’m full of myself-- after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myseelf and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command (The Commandments) is necessary." Paul goes on.." but I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. Ican WILL it, but I can’t DO it! I DECIDE to do good, but I don’t really DO it: I decide NOT to do BAD, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time." "It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that NOT ALL OF ME joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I‘m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isnt’ that the real question? The answer is...thank God.... that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I WANT to serve God with all my heart and mind, but I am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different." Rom.8:1..."With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who ENTER INTO Christ’s being -here-for-us no longer HAVE TO live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Splirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death"............... "The law always ended up being used as a band-aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldnt deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us." "Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them... living and breathing God!" "Focusing on the SELF is the opposite of FOCUSING ON GOD. Anyone completely absorbed in self IGNORES God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what He is doing. And GOD isn’t PLEASED at being IGNORED." "But for you who WELCOME Him, in whom He dwells, even though you still experience all the limitations of sin... you yourself experience life on GOD’S TERMS." "When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), YOU ARE DELIVERED FROM THAT DEAD LIFE. With His Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!" "So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent? There’s nothing in it for us. Nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent BURIAL and get on with your NEW life." And in 1 Corinthians 15: Paul says (in The Message) "Bad company ruins good manners" " Think straight. Awaken to the holiness of life. No more playing fast and loose with resurrection facts. Ignorance of God is a luxury you CAN’T AFFORD in times like these. Aren’t you embarrassed that you’ve let his kind of thing go on as long as you have?" |
