Romans 7:18-25 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." I wish I could say that I walk in complete victory over my flesh, but that would be a lie. And it is the same flesh that entices me to pride to think I am somehow better, more spiritual than others, that then immediately turns on me bringing condemnation when it has successfully lured me into some carnal, fleshly indulgence. It often feels like a civil war within my soul and how I long to be free from it...forever. Resurrected body please!! Maranatha!!! Yes, in this fleshly body we all sin daily. Each one has a weakness and the enemy knows and tries to tempt us to sin so we break our fellowship with the Lord. But take heart, we have this great verse to comfort us to bring us back into fellowship with Jesus and our prayers aren’t hindered. :yes: I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Soon very soon this life on earth will end and we will have that glorified body and no more enemy can tempt or try to steal our joy and fellowship. Indeed having been made a little lower than the angels and unlike both Jesus and Satan who have seen God, we were handicapped lacking that experience. Herein lies our greatest testimony, our faith is in that we still believe! This is why I am grateful that He saves me from myself, for His self! But I also believe it is for this reason that we shall sit in judgment/rule over the angels. Lacking the innate knowledge of both God and Heaven and yet still believing we are also able to lay up treasures in Heaven! Watchman - it is indeed a tiring struggle, as Paul said in Romans 7:19-21 “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me, so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand”. The toils of life are far greater than just meeting daily physical needs, the spiritual battle is very draining to the soul and it is constant. I woke during the night with physical pain (sinuses due to atmospheric pressure changes) that let to a spiritual cry for the trumpet to sound because our bodies and mind get easily tired of the battle. but this one thing we know, Titus 2:13 “looking (longing) for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ “ Hang in there just a bit longer, our redemption is truly drawing close, I have to believe that, or I would go crazy!! :wacko: :prayer-hands: :flyup: :yes: :prayer-hands: The whole concept of it all is pretty amazing. Its hard for me to imagine God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who always was and created everything, was lonely. And after He created the angels He had a plan to create man to have fellowship with. Then humbled Himself and took on a human body to die in our place to redeem us back into fellowship with Him and to be part of His family. This is why I can’t understand when the unsaved reject the free gift of eternal life. I got saved when I was 8 yrs old and as a young child, even with a happy childhood, I thought of heaven a lot and I wanted to be with Jesus. My mom was newly saved but was still in the Catholic Church and I was attending catechism class. One day an Arch Bishop from Rome brought over a statue of Mary and they made us say the Our Father and Hail Mary’s soo many times, then they wanted us to either kiss the statue or touch it. One toe on the statue was literally gone from all the handling. I barely touched the statue as I walked passed it. Then they handed out these ugly felt scapulars and they said if you ever take them off you will go to hell. Well I double knotted it. One kid asked what happens when you take a bath or shower can you take it off, they said no. While driving home my mom asked me what I learned, usually I said nothing but this time I told her all that happened. She almost crashed the car when she said “whaaat? You take that necklace off right now.” But I refused, I said “I will go to hell.” So she knew I was ready to hear the Truth. In the kitchen she got her Bible and said “do you believe this is God’s Word?” I said “yes”. Then she showed me John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, etc. I said “they lied to me ... I don’t have to work to obtain heaven!” I then asked Jesus to be my personal Lord Savior that afternoon and I couldn’t wait for her to get a pair of scissors and to snip that ugly necklace off of me. This was the catalyst for my mom to make the move out of the Catholic Church and to search for a Bible believing church. She did go back one more time though to witness to the priest but he didn’t want to obey the Bible ... he placed his trust in the traditions of the church instead. When I witness to people and hear them say they don’t need Jesus or don’t want Him ... I just can’t understand their reasoning. Nothing in this world can match what is freely offered to whosoever will. Nothing in this world can fill the empty void but Him. No amount of money, cars, homes, vacation, etc. will ever satisfy or make a person happy. The unsaved still search and sadly some day many will realize the invitation was right in front of them, but they rejected it all. Indeed as an ex Catholic as well, I found a lot of church traditions not scripturally based. I had innate difficulties with much of it's teachings and artificial prayers by rote replacing scripture readings and personal prayer! They were the epitome of deciding they were the only true and approved way to God, arbitrarily dispensing and withholding salvation and eternal destiny. Now we have a Pope embracing every known religion in the world, so long as he remains on his papal seat! Oh my, lions and tigers and bears! TR Yeah I think there are a lot of lazy people who don’t want to search the Scriptures for the Truth and just rather depend on sinful man’s advice. I had one boss give me back the Bible Tract and say he didn’t need Jesus because he went to Catholic school and the nun said he is good enough for heaven. Another co-worker visited Rome to get “holy” water blessed by the pope John Paul and it was placed in a small glass vial to hang around her neck. She made sure she showed that to everyone. This was before they came out with the pope-on-the-rope soap :wacko: Geri wrote: Its hard for me to imagine God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who always was and created everything, was lonely. It wasn't loneliness that caused God to create the universe, Geri. That would suggest that there is something lacking within Himself, and that is a theological impossibility. God is utterly self-sufficient and does not require our praise our existence to be complete. That would be a faulty concept of God, based on our own sense of incompleteness as created beings. A better way to express it would be that God chose to reveal His attributes to others apart from Himself, that they could have life and know His love. Good point, David. I didn’t think of it that way. Thanks for the clarification and the SeanMcdowell link. :good: I will certainly be studying this topic further. :yes: Throughout eternity they shared their love with one another and had constant fellowship! Then God decided that so much love needed to be spread abroad to others that could appreciate His glorious love. I believe that's when God decided to create humans! Though the angels had been around for some time I would expect, they were simply servants. For when Lucifer and the angels saw that the Lord's heart would be offered to men rather than to them, their pride kicked in. I believe that this scorned lover syndrome came into play which caused the rebellion in the hearts of the angels! Especially in light of the fact that we had less glory than the angels! Lucifer's pride was damaged. They were neither offered forgiveness, nor a divine romance with the Lord God! That's my story and I'm sticking with it! TR 
