“The Lamb of God comes to take away the sin of the world.”   T. Austin Sparks spoke to that in this morning’s posting on Daily Open Windows:   “What is the sin of the world?  It is pride….what is the root of pride? What is pride? It is selfhood come to life, risen up, active – that is the root of pride; and the branches and the fruit – how many they are!”    I had all the branches… and all the fruit.

It all goes back to that lie in the garden when Satan explained to Eve that God was nervous about her eating from the  Tree of Knowledge  because then she would be  “as God, knowing god and evil”….    Pride comes in…. and sin enters into the world.

Pride is what kept me from ever being able to deal with any of the  myriad things  I was enslaved by…. in captivity to…  I mean… I can stop smoking  any time I want!   says Phil… as he worked his way thru 3 packs of Camels every day…. so I stopped  2 or 3 times a year,  just to prove it.   Drinking doesn’t control me,  I only drink because I enjoy it… I can stop any time I want… say Phil,  the alcoholic,  who cannot admit  he is not in control  of everything in his life.  Hey… sex is fun… can I help it  that all these women want me… married, unmarried, didn’t matter…. I wasn’t  controlling that one  very well either…. but never saw it as  “captivity”…. not back then.

I was in  captivity to everything…. food?… are you kidding me…. food owned me… I was in denial to my obesity, my obsessions, my fantasies, my sugar intake…. and today I am paying my dues… dealing with my diabetes… I was even in denial that I was a diabetic until my sugar tested at 419…!!

The only way out… is the Lamb of God.…  there is nothing in my  natural man… in my  “self-hood come to life”   that can deal with anything I am enslaved by.  I will start telling my stories of  freedom from captivity… on the ‘morrow… and how that freedom differs from the best that the  natural man  has to offer.

🙂