Wretched Minds

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.

 - From Romans 7

For decades I have fond myself, occasionally, entertaining the thought that, if could just continue as a lost person, without any hope or promise of eternal life, without any aspiration of ever become holy, that perhaps than I could rest.

The bad thoughts that pop into my head - that only happens because I have set myself up to be targeted in the spiritual realm. God's adversaries do not need to go to war with the lost.

The Apostle Paul turns it all around into proof that there is a God, and a Christ, that there is sin, and that there is hope that we will become good people. He says that - - - if we want to do good, but keep fighting off the desire, and will, to do wrong, that it is evidence that the law, and sin, and redemption, are everything God says it is, in His word.

The readings this week are concentrated on the Return of Christ, the purification of the world, the redemption of Creation, and our hope that things will get better, and that we will live forever.

Here Paul grieves that we are such awful people in need of salvation. He boils it down to the simple idea: Just doing good is not good enough. The more good you do, the more wicked seem to be one's hidden thoughts. I think that this is true. And I also think that few people would admit it.

Paul concludes, "Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

The answer is everywhere else in this week's readings: The Groom. The King. The Son of God. 

If you ever wonder why you need a savior, just try to contemplate all the bad things you ever think about, and see how easy it is to remove them from your mind.