Temptation

Greetings!

     Today's "thought" has to do with temptation -- something every one of us is very familiar with!   In fact, it's something Jesus was very familiar with as well, according to Hebrews 4:15.  Yet, in this thought, taken from a devotional book by Michael DiMarco called "Devotions for the God Guy," (don't let the title mislead you, this one is for guys and girls alike!) he looks at temptation in a slightly different way. The more subtle ways that it works. The often overlooked ways.  The ways where temptation sometimes comes disguised as what we think is virtue.  Enjoy.

"The Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted of the devil." 

Matthew 4:1

     "The most obvious temptation is the temptation to do wrong things.  But what about the temptation to do good things for God? Have you ever been tempted to be great in the eyes of God? Have you ever thought about how amazing it would be to save the world with your gifts, or to become the best in some area of ministry?  This kind of temptation is tricky because it looks all noble and good. But at the heart of it is a bit of pride, and that pride puts the focus on you instead of God.

     We've got Christian "stars."  Those people in the faith who've made it big.  They even have fan clubs.  But that should never be your goal.  When it is, Satan uses your dream of fame to distract you and make it all about you. After Jesus was baptized, immediately he went went out into the desert to be tempted. Do you remember how he was tempted?  He wasn't just tempted to do wrong, but to do God-like things. Things that proved he was who he said he was, like commanding the angels [to keep his foot from striking a stone], or turning the rocks into bread (Matt. 4:1-11).  

     Maybe once you were saved you became tempted to do great things too, so that you could prove yourself, get the glory, be successful, or have a greater purpose. So don't look at temptation as just a chance to do bad things, but look at your heart and make sure it doesn't want to be worshiped just a little bit.  Make sure it doesn't want glory or fame.  Don't let it lead you to try and take the attention away from Jesus.  Everything you do as a God Guy should be to bring glory to God and not yourself (Isaiah 42:8)."

     These are temptations to sin that we often overlook because they're masked under the cloak of what could be seen as virtue in our society.  We have celebrities everywhere, why not in Christian circles?  How could that be so wrong -- especially if it gets us followers who heed what we say about Jesus?  Sometimes we forget that with God it is not necessarily the things we do that makes them sin, but the motive we do them for. After all, what's wrong with wanting people to admire us, look up to us, and be our "fans"?

     It goes back to the admirable attitude exemplified by John the Baptist (which I preached on this past Sunday): "He (Jesus) must increase, I must decrease."  Wrong motivations do motivate us, for self-interest is a very powerful motivator.  But it is also the road that leads us to sin in a faith where Jesus is to have the preeminence or supremacy (Colossians 1:15-20).  A faith where we are to see ourselves (regardless of the effort or endeavor) as "unworthy servants" who have simply "done our duty" (Luke 17:10).  As Paul says of himself and Apollos in I Corinthians 3:7 in regard to sharing the gospel and seeing people come to faith: "So neither he who plants (Paul) nor he who waters (Apollos) is anything, but only God who makes things grow."  In a culture which loves making idols out of people, we need to be careful we do not see as good something that is actually a temptation to sin. 

     May we ponder the words of Jesus more extensively when he says, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"-- especially when the evil doesn't seem all that evil.

Only By His Grace, Pastor Jeff

"Being poured out like wine," and "The need for confession."

Greetings All,









This week's thoughts' come to you from two different devotional books: Devotions for the God Guy - A 365 Day Journey," by Michael DiMarco,










and "Simply Sacred" by Gary Thomas.

The first has to do with "Being poured out like wine," and the second with "The need for confession."  I trust both will speak truth into your heart. Enjoy.

"But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad to rejoice with all of you."  Philippians 2:17 

     "When God uses you, he pours you out like wine and he breaks you like bread.  But what does all that mean? How can you become wine? How are you broken? Well, it's really an amazing analogy.  Wine is made from grapes. But before grapes can be drunk, they have to be crushed, smushed, turned to nothing but juice. Their former shape is destroyed and their very being translated from one essence to another.

        Have you ever felt crushed, squeezed, out of all your energy -- even to the core of your being? Don't be so quick to complain. It's very normal for the God guy to be crushed. But it's for a very good purpose: so that you can be poured out as part of the sacrifice of service.

     Okay, you can almost handle the idea of being broken by God. But what about when you are crushed by someone else? What then? Can you look at the crushing and still say, "Thank you for pouring me out, dear God."  Or do you buck against the torment and turn away from the strain?  When you are being crushed by someone other than God, don't start to wonder what you're doing wrong but think about how wine gets made.  You can't be poured out as a drink offering until you've been squeezed.

     So if you want to be turned from bitter grapes into beautiful wine, then you've got to accept the fingers that are squeezing you even when they aren't God's.  If God chooses to break you by letting you be squeezed and smushed by life, then don't start to worry that you've been forgotten or abandoned by God -- quite the opposite is true. When the pressure comes, don't sin because of it, but stand in the face of it -- and then you will be ready to be poured out as a part of the sacrifice."

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The Need For Confession

     "Dietrich Bonhoeffer shocked the [Protestant] theological world when, as a Lutheran theologian in the early part of the twentieth century, he began advocating that Protestants reinstate the practice of confession.  He did so not because he felt confession to a fellow human being was necessary in order to gain forgiveness from God [the point the first Protestants initially rebelled against], but because human confession has a practical purpose -- it makes our sin seem more real to us. 

        If you question this, ask yourself: "Why is it much easier to confess sins to God than to your pastor? Why is there more shame when another sinful human being observes my weakness than when I pronounce them before an all-holy God?"  Could it be because God's presence is so weak in our lives?  If we truly understood and cherished the beauty and holiness of God, we would shake a bit more when we approaching him.  But his invisibility often creates a buffer, thereby softening the impact of his presence.

     In and through another person God becomes real to us in human form. There is a flesh-and-blood person sitting next to me who flinches when they hear or see what should make me flinch, but doesn't -- and I see my hard heart exposed by their soft one."

        We might say that when it came to the Catholic sacrament of confession the Protestant Reformers, "threw the baby out with the bath-water."  It is one thing to reject confession to a priest as a sacrament that earns us salvific merit; it is another thing altogether to see confession as a helpful and healing practice for our spiritual growth and well-being.

     After all, if we take James 5:16 to heart, and realize it is spoken in the imperative or command form, we will see that it's really not optional for our growth in godliness. The thought that I can keep all my struggles secret, or worse yet should, simply stunts my spiritual growth, impoverishes me spiritually, keeps me in bondage to the sins I hide, and leads to self-deception regarding my true desire to move beyond that sin as well as my need for others in the body to hear me, love me, encourage me, offer me godly counsel, be firm with me, help me see past my blind spots, and hold me accountable.

       As Bonhoeffer also said (and I'll paraphrase): "Sin is like mold in a dark, damp basement.  Keep it hidden in the dark and away from the light and it grows and festers. But open the windows, and expose it to the direct sunlight, and it will soon shrivel up and die."  Too many believers feed their sin by keeping it hidden from the brothers and sisters they should be confessing it to as part of the sin-killing process of sanctification.

Just a little food for thought!  In His Service, Pastor Jeff