March 1 ~

... we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind ... For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all ... all men ... are under the power of sin, as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God ... in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes" ... "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy" ...
Eph.2:3 (RSV); Rom.11:32; 3:9-11,16-18; 9:15 (RSV)

No effort does it take poor man to be
(or do, or think) things that come nat'rally.
No effort to be angry, selfish, grim,
inflexible, annoyed, dismayed within,
self-loving or self-hating, anxious, proud,
bored, lonely, timid, cold, obnoxious, loud,
self-vaunting, slothful, vengeful, arrogant,
unfaithful, unforgiving, prurient ...

All these, and countless more, come nat'rally.
A child of wrath doth man by nature be!
-- consigned to sin, to disobedience.
Swift as the rattlesnake he takes offense!

And those Thou call? Thou bid them overcome
this awful nature. Through Thee, Lord, 'tis done!

Wretched man that I am! ... What a miserable man I am! Who will rescue me from the body that brings me to this death? ... from this body of death? ... who on earth can set me free from the clutches of my own sinful nature? ... thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ ...
Rom.7:24 (NAS,Beck,RSV,JBP); 1 Cor.15:57 (NAS).

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