THE
WAGING WAR WITHIN
BREAD
6 Then
the Lord said to Cain, “Why are
you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But
if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to
have you, but you must master it.” Genesis
4:6-7 (NIV)
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law
but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know
that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves
to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death,
or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be
to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the
form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been
set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in
human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to
offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing
wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were
slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit
did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things
result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have
become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is
eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans
6:15-23 (NIV)
21 So I
find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I
delight in God's law; 23 but I
see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law
of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my
members. 24 What a
wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God--through
Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:21-25
(NIV)
5 Put to
death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of
God is coming. 7 You
used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid
yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and
filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off
your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed
in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:5-10 (NIV)
1 It is
for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1 (NIV)
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me
and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NIV)
13 I can
do everything through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13 (NIV)
BUTTER
“The heart is
constituted such that the only way to dispossess it of an old affection is by
the expulsive power of a new one…and when God stands revealed as an object of
confidence to sinners—and where our desire after Him is not chilled into apathy
by that barrier of human guilt which intercepts every approach that is not made
to Him through the appointed Mediator…it is when released from the spirit of
bondage…and admitted into the number of God’s children, through the faith that
is in Christ Jesus, the Spirit of adoption is poured upon us—it is then that
the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is
delivered from the tyranny of its former desires and the only way in which deliverance is
possible”. Scottish Pastor, Thomas Chalmers, 1780-1847
“We must be aware of the various ways sin pulls us to wrong thoughts about God, righteousness, grace, ourselves and sin itself. Only the truth of God’s word and meditation in prayer can reveal the deceitfulness of sin.110 Sin works against God. Sin will either deceive us into thinking God is a cruel taskmaster, or, if that will not work, will deceive us into thinking He is like a doting grandfather who really does not care what we do. Sin affects every Christian’s view of God and leads us to worship idols, figments of our own imaginations, and not the true God. Sin will deceive us concerning grace. We will either be deceived into thinking it is too good to be true, or we will buy into cheap grace and think that ethics are unimportant.” Dr. Bob Flayhart
“What are believers
saved from? From their former position
under the wrath of God, the dominion of sin, and the power of death; from their
natural condition of being mastered by the world, the flesh and the devil; from
the fears that a sinful life engenders, and from the many vicious habits that
were part of it. How are believers saved
from these things? Through Christ, and
in Christ. Our salvation involves first,
Christ dying for us and second, Christ living in us and we living in Christ,
united with Him in His death and risen life.
This vital union, which is sustained by the Spirit from the divine side
and by faith from our side, and which is formed in and through our new birth,
presupposes covenantal union in the sense of our eternal election in Christ.” J I Packer
“Oh! That I had a trumpet voice
to warn you. Oh! While you are dying,
while you are sinking into perdition, may I not cry to you; may not these eyes
weep for you! Take to heart, I beseech
you, the realities of eternity. Oh,
turn, turn! Why will you die? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and ye
shall be saved.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“By continually abiding in Christ, the one who has been pruned to
bring forth much fruit will bring forth much fruit.” Elmer
Towns
“I
have continually to mourn that I follow at such a distance and learn so slowly
to imitate my precious Master.” Hudson
Taylor
“It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad
world. But I have discovered in the midst
of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and a wisdom which is a
thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they
care not. They are masters of their
souls. They have overcome the
world. These people, Donatus, are
Christians…and I am one of them.” St.
Cyprian, 200-258
HEART SAVOR
- · I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength. It is not me – I cannot muster up the ability within myself to walk as Jesus walked. In my flesh, I do not possess the power and I will fail dismally. I must willingly allow His control over my own weaknesses. This is a moment by moment prayer which, btw, He delights to answer. It is the Holy Spirit within me who accomplishes this task as I release my grip on the right to my life. I am not my own – He has bought me with an enormously high price. I honor Him with my body as I relinquish control to the Holy Spirit. True freedom is only found there.
- · The most amazing miracle the world will ever see is a transformed life through the power of Christ.
- · I am not to be mastered by sin which leads to death, rather Jesus which leads to life and life to the full.
