nov 20

Romans 7:21-25
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22 I love God’s law with all my heart.
23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Look at this list: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Attila the Hun, Jack the Ripper, Benedict Arnold, Genghis Khan. Compare that list with these names: Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, St. Nicholas, Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther. Most people would label the first list of names as "bad" people and the second list of names as "good" people. Ah, but there's a problem with those categories. The line between good and evil doesn't separate us (people like you, me, and Mother Teresa) from them (people like Hitler, Stalin, and your seventh grade P.E. teacher); as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a famous author, once wrote: If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.* Like Paul in today's Bible reading, as much as we want to be "good people," all of us do wrong. Sometimes we do good. Sometimes we do evil. It's not that we want to be rotten people, but the evil that lived in Hitler's heart lives in our heart, too. Pretty crummy, huh? Paul would agree. He said, "Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24-25). In other words, we don't have to give in to our sinful natures. We don't have to keep sinning. God sent his Son, Jesus, to take the punishment for our sins; he sent his Spirit to live in us and deliver us from the power of sin, day by day, decision by decision. He can overcome the evil in our hearts and help us to do good.

REFLECT: Have you accepted Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as punishment for your sins? Do you trust his Spirit to deliver you from the power of sin, day by day, derision by derision? If not, why not do it today, right now?

PRAY: "Loving and righteous God, I need you. I admit that I'm a sinner and that evil lives in my heart. Please forgive me for the wrong things I've done. Thank you for forgiving my sins through Christ's death on the cross. Please take charge of my life through your Holy Spirit, who lives in me. Help me to trust him to deliver me from the power of sin, day by day, derision by derision. In Jesus' name. Amen."

*Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago (New York: Harper and Row, 1973).

The devo for today says that the "line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being".

The way that this was translated for me was that nobody in this world is really perfect in any aspect, less to say every. So really, we do need to help each other out as a community and build upon each other, instead of having a journey with Jesus on our own. It's harder to get further with just Jesus and ourselves, and it is mentioned countless times in the Bible for us to spread his teachings across the globe. God desired events to happen for our own good, and from how I see, by having people across the globe contributing for our cause, we'll have more people to help ourselves bring ourselves closer, personally with God.

God is truly the most loving God that anyone will ever hear of. he had sacrificed his one and only son to redeem our sins. nobody is perfect. humans were pretty much made to sin ever since adam and eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit. despite all the bad things that we may do, God always forgives and loves us human beings more than any other creation he has created. we all put God at the back our our heads for a ceratin time like maybe during school. i cannot imagine the pain God must feel because of our neglection to him. we should try and do something with God in mind or something we can do for God. he deserves just THAT much attention from us...he really does deserve our undivided attention because of everything he has done for us. i think that it is important to try and do that because it really is hard keeping God in your head 24/7. just start off small, like praying before an exam or something?

Committing sin is just a natural thing for humans. Kind of sad to say, but Christians too!
Christians might even be worse! We tell people to not sin and do bad things, but sometimes we don't even practice what we preach! I don't remember exactly where in the bible, but I remember Jesus saying how he hated Hypocrites!

But like Paul said we have Jesus Christ to always turn to, and ask for forgiveness. Plus, I think showing Satan that we have the power to turn back to God, probably gets Satan annoyed even more. Which is a good thing!

It's important that we don't forget that we are all sinners. This devo reminded me of that verse where it explains that one sin is no different from another. Murder is the same sin as stealing and though society may look at it differently, no sin is less severe or heartbreaking to God than the next. That means to God, we are not much better than those people that society has branded as monsters. This also means that we have no place in looking down on other people because of a shameful sin they may have committed. So remember to keep try to keep free of sin and live a humble life as well.

I guess what this means is that we all have a adolf hitler in us. BUT we hide it deep inside of us because i am sure we have had thoughts not as much as hitler but a time when u hated someone for something or somethign like that. We are all sinners and we all have the possibility to turn out like hilter or stallin. But Jesus died on the cross for us to free us of sin. How great is that, he gives us a free walk pass sin and we dont have to be afraid. We were all sinners and we could, would and shoul be doing bad things IF we do not havbe Jesus christ in our hearts =)

There has been a lot of conflict between my dad and I. Prayer would be appreciated. Ill do this tomorrow.

I always love reading verses like this where it constantly reminds me that sinners are sinners
We can't look down on people because they seem to have a more "severe" sin than us.
Sin is sin. To God, we're all the same in terms of being perfect, or in our cases, imperfect.
In society, it's so easy to judge others who are "seemingly" worse than us because of our social acceptances.
We should try to have a more Godly perspective and see through it the way God would.

Ever since the begining, himans were always sinners. we would have fallen by now if it weren't for Gods love and compassion.
Humans are hopeless but we are always looked after. as Christians, we keep him in our hearts and live our life of faith. Christians are strong in spirit.
Eventually satan will try to bring these people who are slowly getting closer to God. It gets harder and harder. And that is why christians are so strong. We are able to still go over to God.

That's all...
~Audrey~

Sorry for the delay on this devotion, my internet was down, I slept early so I could do homework on the internet early in the morning
What I take from this devotion is how equal are our sins from one another. Although it isn't the same magnitude, sin is still considered sin, at least in God's eyes. But ONLY his eyes matter, do they not?
Homosexuality is obviously a sin, but people admit to it, and God obviously takes into consideration that it is wrong.
But God also sees that lying, stealing, and adultery is also a sin. One we may commit consistently.
Its only up to HIM to decide on how it should be dealt with.
As we have the devil on our shoulder and an angel representing God, may God lead us through the right path, splitting it from sin.

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
22 I love God’s law with all my heart.
23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.

PUH-REACH.
Seriously, I don't know about you guys, but I feel this way quite often.
Part of me wants to be a perfect christian but the other part so easily falls into temptation.
And to be honest, most of the time, I feel like the part of me that is easily tempted, wins.

But that's something I've been trying very hard to balance out for my whole life.
And obviously it's hard, but I feel like the wins between the angel and devil on my shoulder (reference to Yeni's talk), are 50/50 right now.
So I'm very thankful for that.

Yes i have accepted that Jesus sacrificed himself for our sins and saved us. I trust in the power that he will save us again only if we remain faithful and strong. If we give into temptations and sin but do not repent and ask for forgiveness, why would Jesus want to die for something or someone that isnt even trying. God gives us a choice of purity and eternal life or death. Its our choice to determine whether or not Jesus will die for us and deliver us from sin again.