I can't think of anything else to put here. I'm tired. Like I said two lines up. It's still before 7 am... I'm tired. So I guess I'll just do ze NIPTO stuff now... My apologies if this is unintelligible.
Romans 7:14-25
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
We as people aren't spiritual because we sin. The law, however, is spiritual.
(And now begins a lot of "do" and "do not do" statements. It gets confusing but bear with me!)
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
I just don't get what I do! Have you ever heard someone say that? yeah. Me neither. For what I want to do (like... exercising?) I do not do. But what I hate (me eating ice cream?) I do. (these are examples. I should exercise more than I do (heh heh...) but I don't hate eating ice cream. I enjoy it very much. Maybe eating ice cream until you feel sick would be better. hah)
16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
If I do what I do not want to do... that is too many do's in the same sentence. That should not be allowed. But it's the Bible, so I guess we can let it go. Serious now: if you do what is wrong, then you agree that the law is good. I'm not sure I quite get that. I think this is what it means: If you do the wrong things, you can see that the law is good. And you want to follow what is good instead of what you don't actually want to do.
17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me
Soooo... he's blaming stuff on sin that lives inside him. Nice, Paul. Very nice. That's all I get out of this. Is that really bad? haha. Nah. That isn't all I get out of that. What I really get out of this is that we have a lot less control over ourselves when we sin. When you live according to God's standards, he makes it easier for us to have self-control. That is one of the fruit of the spirit. (Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) I'm noticing that self-control is the last one. Is that because it might be one of the harder ones to achieve? I don't know.
18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Nothing good lives in his sinful nature. That seems kind of obvious, but isn't really. I mean, can anything good come out of sinning? Not in the long run. Lying a little about something might make it better for a while, but in the end, the truth is going to come out and things are going to be worse than if you had told the truth up front. (Just an example :)
19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
He just keeps going on an on. But I guess this is the point he's trying to make: Sometimes, you really don't want to do stuff. But you do it anyways. Sometimes people sin habitually and want to quit, but it's kind of like smoking or drugs or something like that. Yes. I'm comparing sinning to drugs. It's something that can give certain people great pleasure. But once you feel like it's something you don't want to do anymore, it's a prison. Thankfully, Jesus came for us. He died for us so that we can be released from the prison that is sin. We don't have to follow the Law to a T to get to heaven. All we have to do is believe that Jesus came to earth as a man. That he died on the cross. That he was dead for three days and rose again. How crazy is that?!? But he did it for us. He did it for you and he did it for me.
If you were the only person on earth who would've sinned, he would have died solely for you. It's crazy, ridiculous, unashamed, unrestrained love. That's what God is. He is love.
(That was a little bit of a tangent! But it was a good tangent.)
20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
See? It's all sin's fault. When we get to that point that we don't want to sin, the spirit of sin is the thing that is really holding us back. I hope this isn't super confusing. I feel like it kind of is. But I hope it isn't.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
This is just a general principle. When we're doing good, evil is right beside us waiting to pounce on any kind of weakness that we face. I know at Urban Vision when I'm volunteering, it can sometimes be hard to be patient all the time with the kids. They're tired. They've had a long day at school and now they're going somewhere else to do more school type stuff. I don't blame them for not wanting to do some of the stuff. But when you're the one in charge of the math game or a reading game, you just want them to sit down and listen. And it's hard to be patient. And I see that as a kind of evil. You want to snap at the kids. You don't want to have to be kind all the time. But it's what Jesus would do. And you have to remember that.
22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but 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
Really, we love God's law. It's like in books about raising kids: They secretly like having boundaries. It makes them feel safe. We have boundaries. It's good stuff. BUT... (there's that awful word...) sin isn't going to stand for us feeling safe. It's trying to keep us prisoner (I used that word earlier. I totally didn't realize that it was used down here. BOO YAH for me. =P). Sin isn't just trying to keep us prisoner of our bodies, sin is trying to keep our minds prisoner. That is a powerful thing. This made me think of one of the Who I Am In Christ statements: I am a believer, and the light of the Gospel shines in my mind (2 Corinthians 4:4) Cool cool!
24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Eek. That seems really sad. Why is Paul so down? Well, I think it's because he's been writing about all this sin stuff. Look at the next verse!
25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
Ahhhhh something about GOD and JESUS. Hallelujah. haha.
Jesus will rescue you. No matter how dire your circumstances. And that is sweeet.
We are slaves to God's law in our minds but our sinful nature is a slave to the law of sin. Conflict. There's always conflict!
Okay. I think that's all for NIPTO today.
I think that today is going to be the hardest day of my facebook fast. Because I can get back on tomorrow. And I got a tiny little taste yesterday because there were two birthdays that I didn't want to miss, so I got on facebook for less than 5 minutes (with supervision from my sister. She will tell you that I was like "oh... look at what so and so just posted! NOT GOOD. haha)
But this has been a good break for me. It's nice to realize that Facebook is not a necessity, although it is nice to know what other people are doing.
Today is Day 3 of 100 Days of Holiness. There are mini devotionals that go with every day. I'll link them daily and tell you if anything noteworthy happens! I have dance tonight. Dance is my biggest opportunity. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!
A funny video that deals with a common fear: evangelism.
Well. I think Imma "peace out" and eat breakfast and start school and such. I hope you have a Wonderful Wednesday! (And yes, it took me over an hour to write this post. I'm not super productive in the mornings!)
Adios!
2 comments:
Dear Abby
I laughed. I love that video.
Sincerely,
H.
Dear Abby,
Following this post was not "doable".
I kid, I kid!
AJ
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