July 20

NT -- Romans 6:1-23
So, now that we are Christians, we know what is right and what is wrong. And if we are good Christians, we no longer sin. I think this is what Paul is saying. Could be wrong.
Well, then. I failed the Paul test because I certainly do sin and in some ways, worse than what I did when I didn't call myself a Christian.
Slip ups, for me, are inevitable. Usually, it involves my mouth. Oh, I know when we get to the letter from James, I am going to be in so much trouble.
I remember when I started going with Don to his parents' house. My mother would tell me that she was going to pray the whole time I was gone "Lord, keep one hand on Sylvia's shoulder and one hand over her mouth." Yep, big problems there.
So what are we to make of this passage in Romans. Yes, when you become a Christian you WANT to do right. But human nature and circumstances, old patterns and old buttons show up and off we go being awful.
Paul makes me feel like a low life. Guilty. And I just about hate the feelings of guilt.

OT- 2 Chronicles 1:1-3:317
Weird things strike me in the readings sometimes. Look at vs. 3:17
He (Solomon) erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to north. The one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.

I know why he named the one Boaz. He was a ancestor and the husband of the foreigner Ruth. But Jakin? The only one mentioned in my Bible Concordance is a son of Simeon and Solomon came from Judah. Well, there were a couple of others who were priests but they spelled their names Jachin.
And why name the pillars anyway? While my house/property has a name (Orchard Hill), I haven't named the doors or the porch posts? I get the concept of naming the gates -- it would be hard not to get them mixed up (meet me at gate 2 or the one with the blind man leaning or whatever...) if they didn't have names. But mostly, those names were for their functions.
Find that a little weird to name the pillars.