I thank you, Lord, that we do not have to extract things from you, and that you extract things from us.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

We implore the mercy of God, not that He may leave us at peace in our vices, but that He may deliver us from them. - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), from Pensees (Thoughts), Part IV: 553, translated by W. F. Trotter. New York: P. F. Collier, c1910. The Harvard Classics, v. 48. from the INTERNET MODERN HISTORY SOURCEBOOK <<www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1660pascal-pensees.html>>

How does God state that deliverance is effected? Well, in the first place, we are not told that sin as a principle in us is rooted out or removed. To reckon on that will be to miscalculate altogether and find ourselves in the false position of the man we considered earlier, who tried to put down the twelve shillings in his pocket as fifteen shillings in his account-book. No, sin is not eradicated. It is very much there, and, given the opportunity, will overpower us and cause us to commit sins again, whether consciously or unconsciously. That is why we shall always need to know the operation of the precious Blood. But whereas we know that, in dealing with sins committed, God's method is direct, to blot them out of remembrance by means of the Blood, when we come to the principle of sin and the matter of deliverance from its power, we find instead that God deals with this indirectly. He does not remove the sin but the sinner. Our old man was crucified with Him, and because of this the body, which before had been a vehicle of sin, is unemployed (Romans 6:6).[5] Sin, the old master, is still about, but the slave who served him has been put to death and so is out of reach and his members are unemployed. The gambler's hand is unemployed, the swearer's tongue is unemployed, and these members are now available to be used instead "as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13). Thus we can say that `deliverance from sin' is a more scriptural idea than `victory over sin'. The expressions "freed from sin" and "dead unto sin" in Romans 6:7 and 11 imply deliverance from a power that is still very present and very real -- not from something that no longer exists. Sin is still there, but we are knowing deliverance from its power in increasing measure day by day.

Some days you go from bad to worse... <img src="http://glenandpaula.com/quotes/uploads/1112208072Clipboard01.gif" width="468" height="351" />