Friday, November 11, 2016

Lead us not into temptation


 "You need not be led into temptation, for you live in it already."

I read the above statement the other day as I was studying what is commonly called, "the Lord’s prayer" found in Matthew 6:9-15.  What caught my attention was the phrase in this prayer ... "Lead us not into temptation" … as if God does that.  Or does He?

If Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, and one of the petitions was … "Lead us not into temptation" … could we then rightfully ask this question … does God lead us into temptation? 

The statement I started with … "You need not be led into temptation, for you live in it already," can have two meanings.  One meaning is that some people are living in daily sin by choice.  They have yielded … they have ceased all resistance to the enemy of their soul.  Another meaning could be that we all live in a world full of sin which require guarding our mind and soul from the influence of the evil one.  We don’t need to be led into the temptation of sin … it is all around us … we live with it.

Most of what I am going to share comes from a sermon delivered on Sunday morning, May 17, 1863 by Charles H. Spurgeon.

The use of the word "temptation" in our translation of Scripture may be somewhat misleading. The word temptation itself has two meanings … to try, and to entice.  When we read that God tempted Abraham, we are by no means to understand that He enticed Abraham to do anything that was evil.  The meaning of the word in that place, is simply and only that God tried him or put him to the test.  God does not entice.

To this point, Spurgeon says … "I grant you that the word includes trial, as all temptation does, for all temptation, even if it is temptation from Satan, is in fact a trial from God."

So … if God does not tempt men, how can it be proper to pray, "Lead us not into temptation."  Notice the text does not say, "Lord, tempt us not," but it does say … "Lead us not into temptation."  There is a vast difference between leading into temptation, and actually tempting!

God tempts no man
.


Spurgeon continues with … "Our God and Father may … for wise ends, which shall ultimately serve His own glory, and our profit … lead us into positions where Satan, the world, and the flesh may tempt us, and so the prayer is to be understood in that sense of a humble self-distrust which shrinks from the conflict.  There is courage here, for the suppliant calmly looks the temptation in the face, and dreads only the evil which it may work in him, but there is also a holy fear, a sacred self-suspicion, a dread of contact with sin in any degree.

Let me observe that God, in no sense, so leads men into temptation as to have any share in the blame of their sin if they fall into it!  God cannot possibly, by any act of His, become partner with man in his crime."


The devil tempts men that he may ruin them … but God tries men, and puts them where Satan may try or entice them … but God leads them into temptation like a type of  probation; the process being a period of testing, observing their character, while closely monitoring their progress in overcoming the flesh as they walk by faith.

I love this example Spurgeon uses … "By these trials, hypocrites fall, being discovered in the hour of temptation, just as the rough March wind sweeps through the forest, and finding out the rotten branches, snaps them from the tree … the fault being not in the wind … but in the decayed branch!"

While the benefit which God brings out of our being led into temptation (learning to overcome) is a good thing … still, temptation in itself is dangerous … the trials themselves are so perilous, that it is still right and needful for the Christian to pray as Jesus taught His disciples, "Lead us not into temptation."

Though, as Martin Luther says … "temptation is the best school into which the Christian can enter; yet, in itself, apart from the grace of God, it is so doubly hazardous, that this prayer should be offered every day."

That being … "Lead us not into temptation" … but if we must enter into it, add the second part … "Lord, deliver us from evil."



Comments welcome …

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Man’s Heart and Soul


A question was posed to me a few days back which I will try to answer the best way I can using what little knowledge of Scripture I have.  The question was … "Did God make man inherently good or evil?"

I’m not sure if the word "inherently" gives the best description of what I want to center on, that being the spark of life God breathed into Adam and Eve, but I believe it fits within my narrative, meaning … "in a permanent, essential, or characteristic way."

In Genesis 1:31 … when God looked upon all that He had created He said, "It was good."  And that included the man and the woman.

He said that man was good even knowing that in time Adam would fall.  The Bible is silent concerning how long it took before the tempter would confront Eve with the lie that changed … everything.  We don’t know how long this fallen angel watched this new man and woman that were different than the rest of creation.  They were made in God’s image and likeness. 

Satan didn’t want to confront them himself.  Who were these two that some say might have looked like God, the one who had already kicked Satan and his followers out of Heaven.  The first Adam is called the Son of God in Luke 3:38.  So … could the first Adam have looked like God, or perhaps even like the Son of God … Jesus, who later by the Apostle Paul is also called the last Adam.

1st Corinthians 15:45-46 … "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual." 

It could have been years before Satan worked up the courage to send the serpent into the garden to plant the lie in the heart of the woman Eve.

At first glance, the answer to the question … "Did God make man good or evil?" … seems to be yes … God made man originally good.  He said so.  But this is not speaking of what was in Adam’s heart and soul.  It was only all good in God’s eyes, speaking of the creature He just made … because Adam and Eve met all the requirements God needed in this first man and woman.

God endued the will of man with a natural liberty called … the freedom of choice that was not …  predisposed to good or evil.  In other words … God remained completely neutral, not helping or supporting either side of the coming battle of good and evil.

God did not create them with a "bent" … with a natural inclination to choose sin.  Adam and Eve both had the freedom and power of choice to do that which was good and pleasing to God.  I believe they would never have sinned had they not been tempted with Satan’s lies.

Because of their fall into a state of sin, we today are born with a natural inclination to choose sin and we have lost all ability to will ourselves by nature alone back to spiritual good.

So what looks like permission to sin by God giving man a free will and the capacity to sin, knowing that man would sin … even so, the sinfulness proceeds only from the man and not from God who can neither be the author or approver of sin.

Today … natural man, being altogether adverse to that spiritual good, is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to save himself from that sinful nature

It is by God's grace and mercy alone … that Jesus brought to sinful man, total and complete salvation to all who would believe in Him.

I found the question … "Did God make man inherently good or evil?" … interesting.

Thank you Phillip … for always inspiring me to study.



Comments are welcome.

Friday, July 8, 2016

In His Presence



I believe that I now understand the title of the little book … "The Practice of the Presence of God" by Nicholas Herman, a seventeenth century Carmelite monk from French Lorraine, known as Brother Lawrence.

In it he tells of his practice of acknowledging that God was always present "with him" where ever he was or what ever he was doing. 

I've read the words from his heart in this little book, words like these ...

"I spent hours in thinking of God, so as to convince my mind of, and to impress deeply upon my heart, the knowledge and love of God, resolving to live in a continual sense of His presence, and if possible never to forget Him anymore."
 
It didn't happen overnight.  I'm sure he had to work at it ... and here's part of  how he did it.

"I worshiped Him the oftenest that I could, keeping my mind in His Holy presence, and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him.

At times a crowd of wandering thoughts would invade my mind and take possession of the place of God; when such happened, I proceeded straightway to expel them and return to my commune with God."


Most believers know and except that God's presence is everywhere, even filling the universe.  Simply stated ... God is everywhere.  We can't go anywhere, where God is not.

But I want to look at this from another perspective.  It's not so much that God is always present with us ... but it has become more meaningful to me if I say it this way ... that we are always in His presence.

Okay ... you say that is the same thing.  Maybe ... but what if it's not.  The air we breath is always around us.  We just take that for granted, and we are thankful that it is.  I don't want to take God's presence for granted like we do the air we breathe.

I always want to acknowledge that I am in His presence ... willfully desiring to present myself unto Him daily ... actively seeking more of Jesus, who by the way knows the worst about me and is still willing to spend time with me.   

Being aware that I am in His presence every moment ... causes me to desire that all my actions, all that I do ... will be my very best as I attempt to please the Lord in all things.  It has taken a while, but I think I'm getting a little better at including the Holy Spirit working along side of me in my daily routine.

Thru out the day I find little things that allows Me to give credit to the Lord ... like His helping hand being placed upon both Peg and me.  The Lord gives us both so much, how can we not give Him all the praise and worship as often as we remember too.

Graham Cooke says that we should never exit worship.  If we can breathe ... then worship should flow from us like our breath does.  Breathe Him in, breathe worship out.  Thanksgiving ... even for the little things that just goes right.          

If I'm out in the hot sun working in my yard and I walk under the shade of one of my trees and I feel a cool breeze upon my back, I say ... "Thank you Lord Jesus" ... for I consider that refreshing breeze, His breath reminding me that He is still there.   

To be ... in His presence.  Think about that.  We live every day in the very presence of God flowing in and around us.  What a privilege we have been given.

There is nothing like being in ... the presence of God.





Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Pray With God


Most of us pray to God the Father in and thru the name of Jesus.  This short video brings up a new thought ... at least it was for me.  Graham Cooke has so much packed into this teaching I just had to share it.  So ... open up your heart and mind and receive as much of it as you can without any fear that it's not in line with the Word of God.  I believe it is.  Enjoy ...



Friday, February 5, 2016

Thy Will Be Done



I'm looking at four words Jesus gave to His disciples, and by extension, Christians alive today as well.  That's you and me ... believers, trying our best to be followers of Jesus.

The phrase ... "Thy will be done ..." is taken from what most people call "The Lords Prayer," although it should be called, "The Disciples Prayer" because Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray with this example.  

I know I'm lifting part of this verse out of it's context, but I am of the opinion that no harm will be done to this scripture or it's meaning by doing so.  I believe the following phrase can stand on it's own.

Matthew 6:10 b ... "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

As an example to follow, Jesus models this prayer not only for His disciples, but it also alludes to the fact that we as believers should do His will here on earth just as all the inhabitants of heaven do.  Angels, as well as all the other occupants never mix sin with their obedience and life in heaven.

Let's face it ... sin is our number one problem.  Deliverance from that sin is what we need here on earth ... which leads me to the following question.

"Would God put a petition in our mouths ... which was impossible to fulfill?"  Those in Heaven no longer sin ... God's will is done there.

Does this petition to God point out that we can have total deliverance from sin?   Does this petition imply that we may live here on earth without sinning against God?  Or is this impossible as long as we live in our bodies of flesh?

If God asks something from us, whether difficult or easy ... don't you think that He would give us the tools to perform the task at hand.  The earth as a whole may not do His will, but as individual believers we can and should start the process the best way we know of. 

If you keep reading the words of Jesus in this prayer ... He does say, "forgive us of our debts" ... meaning faults, failures and even sin.

So, I must conclude that this petition, this example Jesus gave ... is the ultimate goal to attain here on earth.  To live each day learning what God's will is for us ... and then to fulfill that will ... "as it is in heaven."

Will you and I become sinless?  No, I don't think so.  At least that hasn't happened with me so far.  But I can rest in my heart and soul until then that ... I'm forgiven.