My underlines and notes that I never finished, but I am going to post it anyway!
INTRODUCTION
Those who do not believe think that all the wrong int he world is due merely to human mistakes and lack of progress. We disciples see it as due to sin, to the choices people make to ignore what God wants and to do what we want, instead. That choice brings with it all the wreckage around us - in ourselves and in our world.
We can't deny the wreckage, but we deny that humanity can overcome it. In our worldview, all the evils around us are rooted in humanity's prideful decision that we will choose our own purposes We cannot. Our purpose is already set: to love God, others, and self.
Without Christ, the chaos and wreckage in the world remains senseless.
Can we accept the gift of recognizing that we are doing wrong without having to hate our broken selves?
We know that, even if we are broken, we are not unlovable...we were "destined to be molded to the pattern of his Son" [and share inwardly His likeness, AMP] (Rom. 8:20).
PRAYER TALK
Planning, puzzling, problem-solving -- take these to prayer. For the Lord intends that we serve and love our Creator in the tangle of our minds as well as in the welter of our feelings and emotions.
SIN IN ME IS A MYSTERY
These things would not happen were we all to put God first and keep God first. We don't. Instead, banks, schools, the media, governments -- all are structured to serve first of all the little gods: profit, pleasure, and power, "the ruling forces ... masters of the darkness in this world" (Eph. 6:12).
Like polluted air, that earthly order gets into every one of us and every one of us makes it, the earthly order.
Gratitude is your best defense against the mysteries
Day 1
Everyone pays attention to the news, watching politics and the economy. You go deeper: you see how what is happening has everything to do with the way people are using their freedom.
You've thought and prayed about the chaos you are being shaped from. "Sin in the world" is the disciples' name for that chaos. And only Jesus Christ can save us from it.
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