The Christian Life: Do Christians Feel 'Wretched'? - Banner of Truth banneroftruth.org I like the biblical description of those things that oppose us as sin and corruption. When I think of my weaknesses I try not to use these psychological terms that are used to describe the human condition. Because in trying to describe the moral problem ...using medical terms or psychological terms we are guilty of changing the christian context that defines the our culture. There is a reason that bible uses these simple terms like sin and corruption because our opposition includes the corruption that we cannot understand. In other words sin is much deeper than what we think it is. So the biblical term sin is speaking of a spiritual problem. I think we are always battling with over defining our opposition so that we think the term "sin" is an old fashion term. But there is no better term to define personal identity than speaking of ourselves as intrinsically sinners. I accept the bibles definition of who I am as a happy source of protecting me from other judgments of men who do not like the old terms.

The Christian Life: Do Christians Feel 'Wretched'? - Banner of Truth banneroftruth.org Yes Denise...thats why I included corruption because I believe the bible teaches that when we are saved we no longer are under the legal pronouncement of death because of sin. So when I talk about sin I believe that under the new creation our sin is looked on as weakness and interchangeable with corruption. So we can use sin to our advantage when we petition God in overcoming all opposition that we face both inward and outward. I ve prayed the Psalms for 30 years and this way of approaching God has drawn me near at times I struggle with sin the most.     The Christian Life: Do Christians Feel 'Wretched'? - Banner of Truth banneroftruth.org I dont like medical or psychological labels.....these terms may be used in a very light sense ...in the current culture but our corruption is a spiritual enemy. I spend very little time thinking of this philosophical approach to life. Everything that Ive gone through in my life has been squeezed through meditation. I believe that our sin and corruption are from our old state under the curse. But the curse has been lifted and yet we still struggle with it because we experience the effects of physical death. In this sense we feel our sin the most when we suffer physically...rather than in our old life we experienced sin under the legal obligation of guilt. Our spiritual preservation is tied into our physical health in the sense that we can struggle with the experience of the weight of the curse. This is why we have petitions of creation ...ie let, let not, do not grant the desire..etc. All of these petitions are our obligation to unite our desires with Gods desires...these affect the general health of our physical and spiritual deposition.    McGee's post. I agree Vicky...loving our brothers in Christ is not an option. Yet most people think that God needs them or the circumstances to promote the growth of others. This is why Ive been going at pragmatism for quite awhile. Because pragmatism is really based upon how I see the other guys experience through my own experience. Ive ween myself from this view because it is very painful. Ive seldom feel that the pragmatic ends of my experience would be as I imagined. This is why we always need to put Gods ends off everything before our minds in the scripture. Because all the things we learn about others and ourselves come from an indirect source.. instead of communication...comes illumination...instead of hot disagreements ...pronouncing the curse of the scripture upon Gods opposition...instead of focusing on the need for rewards ...praying the blessing of scripture for others through which we all catch the united focus of giving. Any other application Ive learned ends in pain. Because im focused on the reaction of others.    Truth's photo. i do not believe that the bible says that our prosperous times are gonna outweigh our troubles in this world. Salvation is in God alone. The bible teaches that salvation is a gift of God that is potentially too wonderful for us to imagine. So faith has this fundamental basis for the entire paradigm of Gods causes and potential. This is why the Psalmist proclaimed that the wicked said to Christ on the cross..."He trust in the Lord ,let the Lord rescue Him. " These words express how a person places value on things in this life. Those who are outside of salvation are living according to a working principle. The power of the curse is in the obligation to work for value in this world. In this way they are saying that a person cannot be valuable by a simple trust in God. Tho these words are the basis of the wicked curse , they are the confidence that we have which reduces all of false value that the world has taught us to a simple defense of our faith ...which is the power of the law that curses those who work for value. This is the point of the Psalm 30 "For his anger last only a moment. Weeping may remain for the night but joy comes in the morning". This is the way to express our dissatisfaction with suffering. The Psalmist always complains about suffering as Gods expression of anger. Most people teach that the Psalmist is talking about Gods dealing with sinners..but the Psalmist thinks of salvation as being in Gods hands ...like the molding of a Pot. Gods anger is always expressed toward the nations...God declaring war upon the nations in order to save His people. The Psalmist is saying that God who never turns His anger toward His elect is as concerned for the Psalmist suffering as He is for the way the Psalmist feels about his suffering. This is the way that we learn to hate pragmatism...or thinking that God needs circumstances to change us. This voice that a person should trust in God to rescue him as if we are mocking grace is our natural response to the suffering in this world. We do not share in the power of the saving effects as if God needed anything outside of Himself to bring glory to Himself. But the suffering that we endure is also being redeemed by God.Whatever anger we experience in suffering, we must see that since God directs His anger toward the opposition that we experience in the cause of our suffering that salvation is based upon our full rescue from all that opposes us. This is why the expression of the curse is the anger we express to all the opposition to God and everything that opposes Gods elect. This is the standard of wishing blessing in all circumstances. Unless we are expressing the curse toward the opposition to the full salvation of all of Gods people then we are in some ways remaining in our own hardness. We must hate as God hates all suffering in this world in our expressing the curse. The Psalmist is teaching that we must seek Gods anger and His love in cursing and blessing in order to find pleasure in both of these dispositions in which we are not naturally balanced. The cry of the Psalmist at night brings joy in the morning.