~.: Can anyone fully control another person? Can you make someone do exactly what you want, can you make their heart beat or stop by sheer force of will? Can you decide when they blink, when they breathe, what they think, what they believe? Can you change what they feel?
~.: It's not true. The answer is no. When it comes to free will, human beings are ultimately their own god. Certainly, God is the only one who can change a person's heart, but between us humans, no way, man.
You only can decide what you feel and think.
You only can decide what you believe and what you will do. I cannot change you, I cannot make you do anything. The same goes in reverse.
I alone can decide what I will feel or think, regardless of what someone else says or does.
I alone can decide what I will believe and do, regardless of how hard another person will try to convince me otherwise. In the end, the choice is mine. In the end, the choice is yours. I am responsible for me. You are responsible for you. Joe-shmo down the street is responsible for himself. Even love of the purest kind cannot change another person, aside from God's.
~.: I'm learning how fallen the human race really is through all of this. Humanity is so full of sinfulness, selfishness, that when it comes to even our own flesh and blood, there is no limit to what we can and will do to feed the Enemy's seed in our hearts. Sin does not care about you, it does not care about me, it does not care about family- brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children. It cares only about itself, about feeding itself. It cares only about that next bottle of alcohol that will numb more of the loneliness and emptiness that has been festering inside for thirty years. It cares only about the closeness of everyone that it can control, everyone in the house, everyone that will rush to its bedside when times get bad. It cares only about that next score of cash that can be smoked away in a matter of a few hours. It cares only about the revenge it seeks, it cares only about the lusts it can satisfy, it cares only about its SELF. This is what we are damned to. This is what we have brought upon ourselves. This is me, this is you, this is everyone. This is the nature that we cannot escape. Even when we feel we have a handle on it- you didn't drink, you didn't say something cruel to your child, you didn't gamble your money away, you didn't have the dangerous-but-pleasurable encounter- it is only temporary! TEMPORARY! For a short time! It
is going to come back up! Because that's what sin does! That's what sin is! The Enemy goes around like A ROARING LION, looking to find who he can devour. DEVOUR! Eat in its entirety, leaving no traces behind, utterly and completely destroying it. That's what that means, and that's what sin does, because sin is the result of the Enemy's first trick in this world. Sin is always going to be here.
~.: Unless it is destroyed. Unless it can be fought and killed. Unless the battle can be won. It can be won. But we're human only- we are captive to it. This is one coup we cannot win on our own. We need a much stronger army to back us up, an army led by a powerful King, and King that has already fought and won this battle. We rely on Him, then all of these results of sin, of our fallenness, will be killed along with it. Once you kill the virus, the symptoms will go away. Sin is our virus. There is only one cure.
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