Trials and Temptations

³¹ And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. ³² But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22 NKJV)

Who would have ever thought that Jesus would have let the devil have any of His followers? Judas was allowed to be tempted by the devil just as Peter was. What is the difference between the two men that Jesus prayed for the one and yet there is no indication in Scripture that He prayed for Judas. It could be there was a difference in the men’s hearts.

God knew from the beginning that Judas would be Christ’s betrayer. He planned it that way. Predestined you may ask. No; foreknowledge. Just because God knows who will do what does not mean He makes them do it. The only predestination God tells us about is that we all have been predestined to be like His Son. Some disregard their God given choice and choose poorly.

Does Jesus pray for us? Of course He does. Does He allow Satan to tempt us? Of course He does. From the beginning God has allowed man to be tempted by Satan. Jesus was as well. Jesus overcame the temptations and thereby has the authority to intercede for us.  He took our place on the Cross and He takes our place in temptations; if we are willing to let Him. If we have never accepted Him as our Savior we cannot expect Him to be our intercessor in temptation.

How about you today? Are you tempted beyond measure? Can you not seem to shake that one temptation that you always give into? Could it be that you have never allowed Christ to intercede for your sins? Kneel at the Cross first then you will be able to stand in the face of temptation. Then you can give encouragement to someone else that needs it to overcome.

Lifetime Warranty

2 Corinthians 1:21-22   New King James Version (NKJV)

²¹ Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, ²² who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

If there is one thing we know about people it is this; they are unpredictable. Dr. Phil believes that a person’s past behavior is an indication of their future behavior. He is not alone as many psychiatrists and psychologists agree with him. They are usually right but there are exceptions. I was once involved in my previous job with a fellow that was sent out to be evaluated for violent behavior stemming from a workplace incident. When the psychiatrist wrote his evaluation one of the sentences read, “I can only confirm what I see in him at the moment, as I cannot give you a warranty on this individual.” How true! People do not come with warranties!

God is willing to give us a warranty though if we allow Him to “fix” us. When we become established in Christ, which means we put our full trust in Him and submit to Him with our whole heart and will, that God accepts us as we are but has plans to repair our sin damaged soul. We become a new creation in Christ when we totally submit to Him. Even our countenance will be changed when we allow Jesus to cleanse our hearts and protect our minds.

When we are willing to come to Christ for cleansing and repair, God will begin a good work in us that He will one day complete. We are not perfect when we come to Him as the sign on our life reads, “As is.” However He takes us in that condition, reforms and renews, and then puts His seal of approval upon us; the Holy Spirit. A guarantee from God that He has accepted us and considers us one of His own.

Hello up there . . . . .

My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. ³ He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. ⁴ Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121: 2 – 4 New King James Version)

Overall, the National Transportation Safety Board says "operator fatigue" has been tied to 39 major accidents involving planes, trains, buses and big rigs in the last 15 years, killing or injuring more than 1,000 people. (CBS News, Copyright © 2012 CBS Interactive Inc.) This is from a report about people falling asleep on the job.

It seems to us sometimes like God may have taken a nap. We pray and it seems our prayers never get past the ceiling. We have others to pray only to experience the same troubles. Where is God when we need Him? If you have asked that question you are not the first. David had the same thought. “I will say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me?”(Psalm 42:9 New King James Version).

Maybe we are like the little girl that was afraid to sleep in her bed. Her dad would tell her, “Honey its okay, Jesus is with you.” Only to have her say, “But I want someone with a face.” Because we cannot see the face of God looking down upon us it is hard to believe sometimes that He is. Another fellow said one time; “Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; ⁹ When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. (Job 23:8, 9 New King James Version)

 Faith my friend encompasses much more than just belief. Faith requires trust. We humans are not good at trusting because we have been betrayed a lot. Let down by those we never thought would let us down. We have been trained not to trust. Depend on someone and you will end up disappointed sooner or later experience teaches. We carry that same attitude over into the faith we have in God. We pretend we trust Him but do we really? If we do then fear and worry should not dominate our lives.

Andrew who?

He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”    (John 1:41   New King James Version)

Moses and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David and Goliath, Peter, James, and John are all Bible characters whose names are familiar to church goers. Then we have Andrew. Remember him? You know, Ol’ Andrew. The brother to Peter also called Simon. Peter had no interest in religion as he fished for a living. He did however know about the Messiah. Every little Hebrew boy was taught about the One that would one day deliver the entire Nation from oppression. The Savior, the Anointed One of God, the Christos, the Messiah, He was promised by the Prophets to one day come. So here on a mundane Tuesday morning perhaps, Peter may have been preparing his boat or his nets for a day of fishing, or he may have been cleaning his nets following a night trip. In the middle of his busyness his brother comes running up to him and says, “Hey Bro, lets go; we have found the Messiah!” If there was a discussion of how Andrew knew He was the Messiah it is not recorded in Scripture. There is no evidence that Peter delayed in going with Andrew. It could have been because Peter knew Andrew was into that stuff. Who knows? What we do know is there was something about Andrew that caused Peter to go with him and the rest is history.

Have you ever said that to anyone? Have you ever said to someone, “We have found the Savior.” I have learned over the years that we as Christians talk to people a lot about Jesus. We talk about His love and forgiveness. We tell them about His grace and His mercy. We explain to them why He died on the Cross and how God raised Him from the dead that we can be saved. We encourage them to accept Him. But I wonder what would happen if we just went to them with the same excitement that Andrew had that day when he came to his blood brother and said, “We have found the Messiah.” There was something about Andrew and his confidence in who Jesus was that caused a non-religious fisherman to quit what he was doing and go with him to meet Jesus.

Let Andrew’s testimony encourage us today. Instead of concentrating our efforts on winning people to Jesus, maybe we should just introduce them to Him. He will do the rest.

Pop Quiz

You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume. (Luke 7:46 New Living Translation)

One of my psychology professors shared this story with us in class. A professor teaching a course in human relations was waiting as his students came in and sat down awaiting their final exam. He stood up and told them they would have only one question on their exam. The question was; “What is the name of the lady janitor that you pass in the hallway each evening as you come to class?” To their embarrassment they could only guess what it might be as not one of them had taken the time to ask her name. They had greeted her and were polite to her, some even made small talk but not any of them asked her name.

Jesus is just as concerned with the small things as He is with the big ones. The custom of putting oil on the head of a guest signified you were honored to have them in your home. Perhaps the man forgot in his excitement because Jesus had come to his house in the first place. It was not until the Pharisee had a doubt if Jesus truly was a Prophet that Jesus brought it up. He talked about forgiveness, using a story about men owing money and He asked the fellow one question after He finished it. The Pharisee answered the question correctly and it was then that Jesus turned the tables on him.

If Jesus were to ask you one question today, what might it be? How about, “Why didn’t you greet Me when you awoke this morning?” Maybe He might ask, “Why haven’t you told Me you loved Me today?” He might even go as far as to ask, “Why have you ignored Me since Sunday?”

Forgiveness Assured

(Judges 16:22 NKJV)  (If you are not familiar with the story read the entire Chapter).      

However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.      

A friend and I were fishing on the New River one morning when a sudden rain storm came down the river. I maneuvered our boat under a railroad trestle in hopes of finding some shelter from the deluge. It did not work and we were drenched. The rain only lasted about ten minutes and the clouds began to lighten up and patches of blue sky started to appear. When the sun came through we begin to dry out and continued fishing.

What has this got to do with Samson’s hair growing back out? Samson’s re-growth was a sign of Gods forgiveness and restoration to a man that had broken his covenant with God and surrendered himself by choice into the hands of his enemies. Out of self confidence in his strength that came from God, Samson teased his enemies. During his little game of cat and mouse however he crossed the line and found out the hard way that the grace and mercy of God is not something to be toyed with. Had he failed to remember that his strength came from God to begin with he would have died in vain as an example of one who had enjoyed Gods favor and then forfeited it.

The blue sky, the sun peeking through the clouds, and Samson’s hair growing back are all indications of a God that does not withhold mercy although He may allow us to suffer consequences. The fact that Samson’s hair began to grow back instills in my soul a feeling of assurance in the forgiveness and mercy of God for His children. You and I have at some time or another broken our covenant with God intentionally. We, like Samson, became confident in our relationship with Christ to the point that we teased our human nature by tolerating sin in our lives. Like Samson, we may have gotten to comfortable and went to sleep in the lap of our enemy only to wake up one day and realize we were far from God.

You may be reading this today and say in your heart, “that’s me.” You may know someone who feels that way. Be assured that God has not given up on you, or them, so do not give up on Him! Look back to God, call upon Him as Samson did, ask for His help once more and you will find that the rain has stopped, the clouds are parting, the sun is shining through, and the hair is growing back!                              

The "B" Word

I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.                 (John 10:10  The Message)

I saw a bumper sticker on a car the other day that read, “Life’s A Bitch And Then You Die.” Now before you panic because I used the actual “B” word, understand that I do not sugar coat stuff. If a preacher cannot tell you the truth then who can?

Can you imagine what kind of life the person that had that on their car lives? They may have just put it on there for kicks but more than likely it is their opinion. There are millions of people that would agree with it. There are millions of us that would not.

Some have said life is what you make it. That is not the real truth either. The abused child never chose that life. Life is not made by us but rather given to us; to live. Things that happen during our life are experiences that are unique to some and yet common among others. Instead of thinking that life is what we make it we should actually say, “Life is from God; live it.” Look at the words of Jesus again in our text; Real life, more life, better life, and eternal life. When God gave you life it was forever. Earthly experiences, circumstances and happenings cannot take it from you. Disease or tragedy can kill the physical body you live in but it has no effect on your soul.

Things not going your way today? So what. You have a lot more of life to live than just today. Christ had a bad day once; that you may have a better day forever. Earthly life is temporary. Earthly trials are temporary. Some of them may last for years while others last for days, or hours but all are temporary. The bumper sticker gives you the impression that life does not get any better; but for the Christian it does. Death for the Christian is precious, not devastating. For those who would reject Christ and the eternal life that He offers the bumper sticker should read, “The Bible Was Right; Hell’s A Bitch.”