THOU SHALT NOT lie with mankind, as with womankind: IT IS ABOMINATION. –Leviticus 18:22 (KJV)–
God gave them up unto VILE AFFECTIONS: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is AGAINST NATURE: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, BURNED IN THEIR LUST TOWARD ONE ANOTHER; MEN WITH MEN working that which is UNSEEMLY, and receiving in themselves that RECOMPENCE OF THEIR ERROR which was meet. –Romans 1:26-27 (KJV)–
DO NOT BE DECEIVED: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, NOR MEN WHO PRACTICE HOMOSEXUALITY, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD. –1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV)–
Thou hast loved righteousness, and HATED INIQUITY. –Hebrews 1:9 (KJV)–
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. –Psalm 14:1 (NIV)–
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. –Romans 1:18-20 (NIV)–
I had a dream that made me afraid. As I was lying in bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind terrified me. –Daniel 4:5 (NIV)–
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the Gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. –Galatians 1:11-12 (NIV)–
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. –Romans 8:16 (NIV)–
—
The contempt it puts upon the honour of God: for there is something of practical atheism at the bottom of all sin. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. We are sometimes tempted to think, “Surely there never was so much atheism and profaneness as there is in our days;” but we see the former days were no better; even in David’s time there were those who had arrived at such a height of impiety as to deny the very being of a God and the first and self-evident principles of religion. Observe, [1.] The sinner here described. He is one that saith in his heart, There is no God; he is an atheist. “There is no Elohim, no Judge or governor of the world, no providence presiding over the affairs of men.” They cannot doubt of the being of God, but will question his dominion. He says this in his heart; it is not his judgment, but his imagination. He cannot satisfy himself that there is none, but he wishes there were none, and pleases himself with the fancy that it is possible there may be none. He cannot be sure there is one, and therefore he is willing to think there is none. He dares not speak it out, lest he be confuted, and so undeceived, but he whispers it secretly in his heart, for the silencing of the clamours of his conscience and the emboldening of himself in his evil ways. [2.] The character of this sinner. He is a fool; he is simple and unwise, and this is an evidence of it; he is wicked and profane, and this is the cause of it. Note, Atheistical thoughts are very foolish wicked thoughts, and they are at the bottom of a great deal of the wickedness that is in this world. The word of God is a discerner of these thoughts, and puts a just brand on him that harbours them. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; for he thinks against the clearest light, against his own knowledge and convictions, and the common sentiments of all the wise and sober part of mankind. No man will say, There is no God till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to an account.
Joseph Stalin, the leader of the U.S.S.R., that is, communist Russia, had a daughter–her name was Americanized once she moved to the United States: she took the name of Lana Peters. She had mixed up feelings about her family and Russian patriotism while growing up; but she became a poet and writer; and made friends with other writers. Much to her frustration she found that being a writer in the Soviet Union wasn’t all its cracked up to be. She came to feel depressed, isolated, controlled, as she and her friends lived in constant fear of arrest by the KGB and getting their manuscripts confiscated because of Russia’s anti-free speech laws. Because of her position among the political elite, she was fortunate enough to have a Russian passport and travel outside the country. Most Russians were not allowed to. Her father died in 1953. She finally made up her mind in 1967 and moved to America at the age of 41. “I came to the rejection of communism totally,” she said (34:09). Stalin and his Russian communist leaders were Antisemites. In her opinion, Russian antisemitism grew out of Stalin’s rivalry with Leon Trotsky, who was Jewish, and whom Stalin had assassinated. Stalin believed that “all Jewish people were against him,” because they were fans of Trotsky–in Russia, they simply came to be viewed as political enemies of Stalin (43:15). Her impression was that “millions of people feel very much discontented with the regime…I don’t believe in a combination of freedom and communism…generally these two things do not go together” (50:12). Coming out of atheism and into Russian Orthodoxy and then Catholicism was explained by her in the following way: “It was based on some inheritance of religious feeling, which I had from my grandmothers; and then the conditions of life, when life becomes difficult: then the inner life becomes very important for a human being. The moment comes when you feel you just cannot exist in this…YOU JUST FEEL THAT THERE IS GOD, I cannot explain to you how you feel that” (55:25). Its what Wesleyans call the witness of the Spirit: this is what brought Stalin’s daughter out of atheism; and emphatically not rationalizing through C. S. Lewis type arguments. –J.B.
What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of SINFUL FLESH, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. –Romans 8:3 (KJV)–
WALK IN THE SPIRIT, and ye shall not fulfil THE LUST OF THE FLESH. –Galatians 5:16 (KJV)–
ABSTAIN FROM FLESHLY LUSTS, which war against the soul. –1 Peter 2:11 (KJV)–
I CHASTISE MY BODY, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. –1 Corinthians 9:27 (Douay-Rheims)–
—
Every man knows that the sinner, out of sympathy with God, must be changed before he can enjoy God’s presence and love. Every man, unchanged by God’s grace, knows himself to be a sinner and not holy by nature. –Charles Finney, “On Following Christ”–
—
Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk), but it is the corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that continually. –The Articles of Religion, VII. “Of Original or Birth Sin”–
—
A life worn out by endless reflections Has shattered every single last hope of rising again Has defied Your advise and counseling
The sinful nature causes a weak discipline And drags me to the human frailtie’s grave
Self inflicted wounds Innumerable false steps Unforgivable mistakes repeated to a frightening degree Gradually growing conscious of the habit-forming addiction Through me all actions fail
The human weaknesses Are once again at force In unrecognizable shapes New structures each time Fragile symptoms constantly show new characteristic sides
I myself am weak, am nothing Uncontrolled line of thought colors my manners I know there is more to reach for I know where strength is found The overflowing, everlasting source With You my maker
With You by my side The safely directly journey In me, around me, Your presence Enriches, creates, gives life You offer completeness You are hope
