"Save Us from Ourselves"

Recently, I've been reading through some of the Pauline epistles, and last night I read the first chapter of Romans. My pastor has mentioned many times before that this chapter could be very well applied to the modern times, and having read it, I would have to agree! It is incredibly sad to see that no point that he made in the chapter could be dismissed. I have been thinking a lot about that last part, "they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." That one is a big problem for me. There was this one time, a little while ago, where this guy who had gone to Egypt was saying how he'd like to talk about his sojourn there, and I was talking to someone else, say how much I'd like to go there and other places like Israel. But I was again reminded of the danger involved in a journey to places in the Middle East and I said as much, in a laughing way that encouraged sympathy--in fact, I asked them to join in my cowardice. So many people are like that nowadays! They feel cowardly about something, and want everyone else to feel exactly the same. Or there's the opposite way of thinking, which is just as sinful, and of which I have just as much tendency; to lean on my own understanding, to lean on my own strength. I saw on a sign just today, "Inside of you is a hero" or something like that. Almost every time I see that word,  hero, I have to think of the song by Jars of Clay. It is one of my favorite songs! But I just love that part where it says, "we need a Hero"... I know that that Hero is my Savior, Jesus Christ! We can never be our own hero. We need someone else to be that for us. A Hero to save us from ourselves!

Shalom