The War Within – Part II

February 6th, 2007

The War Within – Part II

The procedure went well. I am in pain, but it is in my back. I will also give a bit of a warning: I am typing under medication and fatigue (which usually happens most of the time anyway… but still) so I may not have a great flow with my words. Any questions, feel free to contact me back, and I will do what I can to answer.

There is a battle between good and evil. It is true. I believe it. And actually, the battle wages within my conscience, within my mind in what decisions I make each day. I recently had this thought and have been rolling it around in my head:

I can make decisions to do wrong:

• I can create actions to feed those decisions.
• If I want to do wrong, I can and sometimes will go out of my way to make it happen.
• I can tear down road blocks so that when I want to do wrong, it isn’t as difficult.
• I can put people in my life to reinforce my wrongful decisions.

Now, check this out.

I can make decisions to do right:

• I can create actions to feed those decisions.
• If I want to do right, I can and sometimes should go out of my way to make it happen.
• I can put up road blocks so that when I want to do wrong, it is difficult.
• I can put people in my life to reinforce my rightful actions, should I need encouragement.

Genesis 4:6-7
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Genesis 4:6-7 (JRV)
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do what is wrong, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

I just made a slight change there… to just put in a “light” that matches more with what I am talking about above. Here is a version of the Bible I have been reading lately. It’s the New Century Version…

Genesis 4:6-7
The Lord asked Cain, "Why are you angry? Why do you look so unhappy? If you do things well, I will accept you, but if you do not do them well, sin is ready to attack you. Sin wants you, but you must rule over it."

So, there has to be a “master” and “rule” over sin. What does that really entail? It may seen straight forward, but sometimes things can get a little jumbled up over time, words misused, thus the dictionary gets a little longer, and before you know it, “gay” went from being happy and having a good time, to being a descriptive of someone’s sex life.

Let’s see… I must master sin.

Master (verb):

• To overcome or defeat.

Now, I must rule over sin.

Rule (verb – used with object):

• To control or direct; exercise dominating power, authority, or influence over; govern.
• To decide or declare judicially or authoritatively; decree.
• To be superior or preeminent in (a specific field or group); dominate by superiority; hold sway over.

This is extremely important. I think the “rule over” knocks it home. Without master, thought the picture wouldn’t be there, either. I have to defeat sin and exercise DOMINATING power over the sin. How does that compare to addiction? Well, I think I will dig more into that later. I’m really feeling “it”, so I’m going to crash. Johnny Out.