my burg

Bible reading for Aug 17.  I Samuel 9. "When Samuel saw Saul, the LORD told him, 'Here is the man of whom I spoke to you! He it is who shall restrain my people.'" (1 Samuel 9:17) ENTER SAUL. He is handsome, tall, and wealthy (v 2). He will be the one to restrain (that is, rule over) the people and deliver them from the Philistines (vv 16-17).  His appearance is impressive and at this point he seems humble. He will in fact be an excellent military leader. This is exactly what the people have been looking for. In the end, though, he will not be a very good king, but he will prepare the way for a better king.  REFLECT. How often do you make judgments based upon appearance and initial impression? If you are a U.S. voter, how do you get around the sound bites and the public relations hype to really know the candidates in an election? Or can you?    ==============   Romans 7. "So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous a...

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,  but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.   (Romans 7:21-23 ESV) John Stott writes, "...why does Paul describe his experience in terms not only of conflict but of defeat?  why does he say not only that he wants to do good, but that he does not and cannot do it?  The simple answer, surely, is this.  In the previous paragraph (verses 7-13) he has shown that as an unbeliever he could not keep the law.  In this paragraph (verses 14ff.) he shows that even as a Christian believer by himself he still cannot keep the law.  He can recognize the goodness of the law, he can delight in the law, and he can long to keep the law, none of which was possible to him as an unbeliever.  But the flesh, his fallen nature, which was...