The halfbaked Bard

Gal:3:22 But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin; so we receive God's promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ. Prisoners of sin, can be set free only by believing in Jesus Christ. Both ultimately from the consequence of sin, for eternity. Also from the power of sin , daily. Jesus Christ, set us free from the penalty of sin. He is setting us free from the power of sin. One day He will set us free from the presence of sin. Only He can do that today. Not my strong will. My will is not strong enough. The devil is stronger. The world is stronger. The temptations are real. But the one who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world. But do we really desire to be set free? We are in a Stockholm syndrome with sin. Flee. Image credit https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/10/freed-prisoners-must-access-their-basic-human-rights

Wretched man that I am. Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom:7:24-25 I need to realise my wretchedness. I was indulged in sin. God saved me. Even after being rescued, I struggle to do things of God. To revert from sinfulness. To love God with all my heart. I follow the cravings of my flesh. That shows my wretchedness. My plight. My rebellion to the one who loves me.  The truth of I cannot save myself has to sink in. I cannot set myself free. And only Christ. He loved me first. He pulled me out unto His bosom. The contrast between my limitless wretchedness and Gods unending love. My perpetual rebellion and God's tagless love. Not out of compulsion. But out of compassion. When I least deserved it. Image courtesy: https://www.dreamstime.com/beautiful-close-up-zebra-high-contrast-black-white-high-contrast-black-white-zebra-close-up-image171761708

Rom:3:9. All under sin. Under sin. Yoke of sin. Slaves to sin. We were under sin. Not able to come out of it. Being forced to do only sin. Our only option was to sin. Helpless, grappling in the darkness. Rom:3:23. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Unless we realise this helpless state of ours, we will not recognise, from where we have been saved. Unless we realise this helpless estate, we will not completely depend on Him, for a life designed for us. Only then will we recognize that Christ our Redeemer is our only hope. His pure and blameless blood is our only hope.  We cannot gain salvation by obeying the Law. For we cannot obey it fully. God looks at our heart's motive. And the Bible says the heart is the most deceitful of them all. The Bible also says, if you have faultered in one of the Law, it is equivalent to breaking them all. We have to understand it in God's perspective. The only hope is in Jesus, the Son of God who came to earth to die ...

What change has the gospel brought in you? Acts:19:18-19 Many confessed their evil deeds. Sorcereres brought their scrolls and burnt them publicly. What is one thing that you have renounced recently? May be something changed quiet early in your Christian life. But off late?  What small sins still lingers around in your heart? It might be an overt sin that you have been struggling to put away or a harmless one which the Holy Spirit has been nudging. Why are you not able to put away with it? Why no indignation to that which the Lord abhors? Why the love for it is greater than the love for the Lord? It is a helpless cry that rises out of your forlornness, that would help you. Are you in desperate need to get rid of this? Do you realise that a fruitful relation with Him is more important than nurturing these insignificant thing? Do you abhors it because your Father abhors it? That would be the first step to renounce and throwing away baggages. And if you do not have that in...

Why do I fall in sin? I am not a desperate rebel who looks for ways to sin. I as a child of holy God, do hate sin. Yes my heart is inclined to sin, because of my fallen nature. But deep down inside, I am now a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. But still, sometimes I stumble and fall. Forgetting my master's cruel death, a penalty for my sin. Why? As Paul says, I do things which I hate to do. I end up doing things which I don't want to do. Why? Peter, though He was warned, fell for it because he was warming himself, instead of being close to the presence of Jesus. David fell for it, because he was in the terrace at the time when he was supposed to be in war. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, because he hardened his heart first. Lot slowly drifted away, because of the subtle compromises he made. Be not, where you are expected not to be. Do no things which you are not expected to do. Do not start a chain of events which will lead you further to sin. If y...

Go and sin no more. Jn:8:11 Jesus came not to condemn you of sin; but to forgive. The woman caught in adultery did not deny her sin. She admitted. Therefore she went forgiven. What about the man involved? Where is he in the picture? He has never admitted that he wronged. Therefore he went unforgiven. He thinks he has escaped; he has fooled everyone. But the truth is - she remains forgiven; and he unforgiven. The instruction that Jesus gives after the forgiveness is to go and lead a life without sin. To lead a pure life. To take sin seriously and evade from it. How do you approach sin? Conceal it and you will remain unforgiven. Admit it and confess it, you will be forgiven. Once forgiven, avoid it and lead a pure life. Image credit: https://christourhope.blog/2020/01/31/lust-1-corinthians-618/amp/

I don't know this man Matt:26:70,72,74 Oh! How cruel of Peter. After walking with Jesus day in and day out. After witnessing His miracles with his own eyes. After experiences that made him proclaim that He is the Son of God. Now Peter confesses - I don't know Him, for the fear of his life. Yes how often have I deserted my Lord for my own comforts? At least Peter denied Him for the fear of death. My case is not that - so that I would not be pulled out of my couch. How lowly? How silly of Peter -  when he said, curse be upon me, if I am lying. Did he not know he was lying? Did he not know that God was watching? Did he not know that the Son of God was looking even now? Sin makes  you blind and deaf. Wanting to continue in that rut makes you blinder and deafer and dumber. All will know that you are lying except yourself. You are trying to fool yourself by defending. Do not harden your heart when the Spirit prompts you. Repent when He tells you that you were wrong. Pete...

They began to spit ------ Beat him with their fists ----- Some slapped him, jeering Matt:26:67-68 It would be humiliating to be spat upon the face. His face would have been fully red out of bruise. A racoon eye probably. It is menial to be made fun off - more menial when people make fun of you disbelieving what you claim or what you really are. Matt:27:26 Jesus was flogged with a lead tipped whip  Skin might have shredded to pieces, pieces of muscles torn away, splurting blood everywhere. Pain unable to be described in words. Psalm:129:3 The plowers plowed upon my back. Hematomas everywhere. Anaemic because of the blood loss. Internal organs lacerated. Excruciating pain from the tip of the hair to the toe. Dehydrated. Stinking. Stripped naked and made to walk through the streets in front of the ones you loved, the ones who loved you. Thorns on His brow. Nails driven through the median nerve. Struggling to breath hanging on the cross. He has to pull Himself up to expand ...

Matt:18:8-9 Did Jesus literally mean that you should cut your hand off or gouge your eye, if that causes you to sin? By just gouging out your eye, did He really mean that you can go to heaven. Seriously not.  What He meant was to be serious about sin. Take radical steps against sin. For these are things which your Holy Father abhors. And if it disgusts Him, why should you love it? Why should you cherish it? Why should you not cut it off?  Severe relationships which are not holy. Cut on the pay if it is untrue. Do not go to places where the Lord is not there. That might have dangerous outcomes in your social and economic life. Let it be.  Which is better? To enter eternal life without a hand or a foot or an eye, or be thrown to eternal fire with both of your hands and feet and eyes.  It all depends on what you value? Whether these ties here on earth? Or an eternal relationship with your Father. You cannot put up with sin and then enjoy a fruitful relationship with you...