At shift change, a firefighter has just gotten off duty. The night before, bedtime was preceded by an awesome time of Bible study and prayer. As he drives home, he prays for the upoming events of the day. A red mustang pulls up beside him at a stoplight. Wow! What a hottie! She gives him a sultry smile and leaves him in a cloud of dust and a quickened pulse. Cruising along,she is still in his mind. He scopes the other cars as they pass by, scoring the other women in comparison. He pulls into his driveway, goes inside, and finds his wife in the kitchen starting her day with a cup of coffee. He notices right away that she's not the hottie in the mustang and he hears his mind say, "Man, I wish she...".
Whoa! Let's stop the tape here before it gets any worse! What just happened? Romans 7: 14-25 summarizes Paul's struggle between the two natures of man:
"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I 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. For 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. Now 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. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but 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. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God- through Jesus Christ our Lord!". (NIV).
The sinful nature is something we are all born with. It is the reason for the separation between God and man. It also is characterized in some of the toughest men's issues we deal with today: Identity, Relationships, Money, Time, Temperament, and Integrity. These are the general topics of study in "The Man In The Mirror" by Patrick Morley. The sinful nature is persistent in that it never ceases to exist. It will always be there as long as we are human. Living in the sinful nature alone, we have no hope of ever getting close to God. But God provided the means to reconcile our relationship with Him through believing in His son Jesus Christ and accepting His ultimate sacrifice as payment for our sinful nature. As we grow in our journey to become more Christlike through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we inherently develop a spititual nature. This is the second nature of man. It is in continual conflict with the sinful nature and can result in confustion, tension, and frustration. The sinful nature is Satan's tool for destroying our relationship with God and fellow mankind. Realizing that the devil is constantly attacking us through this sinful nature, don't you think it is necessary to fight back? In studying "The Man In The Mirror", we will look deeply into these issues, proclaim God's promises and principles, and provide solutions for minimizing the acts of the sinful nature and maximizing th spiritual nature. To God be the glory.
At shift change, a firefighter has just gotten off duty. The night before, bedtime was preceded by an awesome time of Bible study and prayer. As he drives home, he prays for the upoming events of the day. A red mustang pulls up beside him at a stoplight. Wow! What a hottie! She gives him a sultry smile and leaves him in a cloud of dust and a quickened pulse. Cruising along,she is still in his mind. He scopes the other cars as they pass by, scoring the other women in comparison. He pulls into his driveway, goes inside, and finds his wife in the kitchen starting her day with a cup of coffee. He notices right away that she's not the hottie in the mustang and he hears his mind say, "Man, I wish she...".