The devil made me do it.

[2ndAmendment]

That is a lie.

God made me do it. Another lie.

While you live this life, you have free will and the devil cannot and God chooses not to force you to do anything. You, for this life, have free will and you choose your path, to follow God and His word or to follow the devil. Those are the choices whether you believe in God or satan or not.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote if the two natures of man in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So did Paul.

Romans 7:14-24

14For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.

15For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

16But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.

17So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

19For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

20But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

21I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,

23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

24Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

So how are we to deal with the two natures within us? Who will deliver us? Paul gives us the answer.

Romans 7:25

25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Romans 8:1-39

1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

3For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

4so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

5For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

6For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

7because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

10If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

12So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--

13for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

17and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

19For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

20For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope

21that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

22For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

23And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.

24For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

25But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Our Victory in Christ
26In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

27and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

28And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

29For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

30and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

31What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

33Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies;

34who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36Just as it is written,
"FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."

37But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Only we, through our free will, can choose to separate ourselves.

If you are a Christian, which being are you going to feed and which are you going to starve? Are feeding your spiritual being by being with other Christians, reading the Bible, praying, and seeking God's will; or are you feeding your sinful being choosing to sin just a little and strengthening satan's hold on part of your life. If Christians keep playing with sin, just like Mr. Hyde took over Dr. Jekyll's life so that Dr. Jekyll could never come forth again, sin and satan will keep gaining portions of our lives until our sin nature overtakes our spirit nature.

I am not speaking of those sins we all commit and confess. I am speaking of the sins that we actively pursue and do not confess.

In this life, we can choose. As the old knight in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" said, "Choose wisely."

 

[Dougstermd]

Hey 2A not tryin to match wits with you but who made Abraham take his boy up in the hills for a sacrafice. What if the goat was not there would he have killed his boy? Also I wonder if that lady that drowned her kids would have had a goat would that have stopped her?

I always say the beer made me do it and beer is the devil

 

[2ndAmendment]

Hey 2A not tryin to match wits with you but who made Abraham take his boy up in the hills for a sacrafice. What if the goat was not there would he have killed his boy? Also I wonder if that lady that drowned her kids would have had a goat would that have stopped her?

I always say the beer made me do it and beer is the devil

God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God did not force him. Abraham could have not done it. That is why it is an "offering"; it was not compelled. And God sent an angel to stay Abraham's hand and provided a ram (a sheep - a male goat is a buck) for the sacrifice.

Genesis 22:1-22

1Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

2He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

3So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

4On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

5Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you."

6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

8Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

9Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

10Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

11But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

12He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

13Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

14Abraham called the name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it will be provided."

As to the "lady", what lady?

Beer is not the devil. Getting drunk can certainly release the sinful nature in us.

 

[Dougstermd]

I have never studied the bible that much. I was reading that bible story to my son when he was about two years old and it almost turned my stomach. Because some wierdo some where is gona act on what God told him to do and that he how he is gona get out of jail. I am not sure I understand the difference between being told to do it and being made to do it. When I tell my kids to do something they do or face the conquences. Is not that the same thing ?

 

[Toxick]

That is a lie.

God made me do it. Another lie.

While you live this life, you have free will and the devil cannot and God chooses not to force you to do anything.

What if you're Possessed?

 

[2ndAmendment]

I have never studied the bible that much. I was reading that bible story to my son when he was about two years old and it almost turned my stomach. Because some wierdo some where is gona act on what God told him to do and that he how he is gona get out of jail. I am not sure I understand the difference between being told to do it and being made to do it. When I tell my kids to do something they do or face the conquences. Is not that the same thing ?

If I tell you to jump off a bridge, do you have to do it? No if I grab you and throw you off the bridge, then I made you do it. It is a pretty simple concept.

 

[2ndAmendment]

What if you're Possessed?

Demon possession is as real today as it was when Jesus cast legion out of the man in the country of the Gerasenes.

Mark 5:1-16

1They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.

2When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him,

3and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain;

4because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

5Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones.

6Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him;

7and shouting with a loud voice, he said, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!"

8For He had been saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"

9And He was asking him, "What is your name?" And he said to Him, "My name is Legion; for we are many."

10And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

11Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain.

12The demons implored Him, saying, "Send us into the swine so that we may enter them."

13Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

14Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

15They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the "legion"; and they became frightened.

16Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine.

That is of course a different case where the body performing an act is being controlled by a spirit or spirits other than the spirit of the person the body belongs to. So the devil did not make the person do it; the demon did it using the body of the controlled person. As soon as the person is freed of the controlling spirits, the spirit of the person takes control again as is evidenced in verse 15.