Schizophrenic

The closing show of KingsFest was Newsboys, the favorite band of my 7 year-old daughter. It turns out that the long-time front man (lead vocalist) for the band Peter Furler was no longer touring with the band. Michael Tait, formerly of dc Talk, had taken over the role.

While Tait is a great singer and wonderful performer, it just wasn't the same. It seemed as though the band couldn't make up its mind whether to play Newsboys songs or dc Talk songs. The set included about a 50-50 split. It was if the band had suddenly become schizophrenic!

The whole thing reminds me of Paul's struggle captured in Romans chapter 7:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me... For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. verses 15-18

We all go through this life as believers struggling to do what God's will is. Yet even though we know what God's will is in most situations, we still struggle to do it!

The battle between evil and good rages, and find ourselves with a Jekyll and Hyde complex. From moment to moment, we walk through life schizophrenic. The proverbial angel sitting on one shoulder tells us, "Love your neighbor as yourself." while the devil sits on the other shouting, "Forget him! You don't owe him anything!"

Paul gives us great comfort with the first two verses of the following chapter:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

It is the mind that plays such an important role in our life with Christ. We struggle emotionally in our walk in goodness and righteousness because we hear the voice of the enemy calling us towards that which we don't really want.

That's why Paul tells us to take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10:5)! He tells us that the "mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God." (Romans 8:6-7) And Paul gives us the secret to the victory of this emotional pathology in Romans 12:2-

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.