"Word of God, Speak" -2

"To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice." (Psalms 68:33) There might be something to be said for recovery programs, in that they help to deal with the lingering desires of addiction, what ever that substance might be. If Christ has delivered you from your sins, that does not mean that you are free to keep on sinning; although, believe it or not, there are people that will try and tell you that you are. Seriously, it's true; there are certain churches that try and teach that sinning does not matter any more, because those sins have been dealt with. I know it sounds crazy, but you can find a church for whatever suits your needs. The problem is, that it is not our needs that we should be trying to satisfy, it is the needs of our Master, the Lord Christ Jesus, that we should be trying to obey! Forget about doing anything for yourself, do it for Jesus! Every time we start doing something for 'me' we get ourselves in trouble; 'me' does not care about what is right, only what feels good for 'me'. God does speak! But if 'me' is living for itself, 'me' will not listen even when He does speak; even when 'me' knows that it is His voice that 'me' is hearing, 'me' will still ignore Him, 'me' will still keep on doing what 'me' is doing. That is the thing we must understand about "The True God", is that He is gentle and patient in the way that He deals with His children. Yes, He does discipline us, but it is not to destroy us, as some might teach; it is to break our spirit of rebellion, and to make us more like His Son. Save yourself some unnecessary anguish, and start listening to that "still small voice!" I am talking to myself today... "Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God's good commands for it's own evil purposes. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I really don't understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life - that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. 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. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 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." (Romans 7:11-25) NLT