Temptation

Jesus cautioned us, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation..." (Matt. 26:41).  We need to pray that we be not tempted (Matt. 6:13).  As Christians our danger of being tempted lies in our flesh (James 1:14).  Our temptation is common to man (I Cor. 10:13).

Temptation hinders our spiritual growth.  It hinders our fellowship with God.  It reduces our power in prayer.  It is deceitful and gives us no advance warning.  It results in more power to the flesh and less to our spirits.  It weakens our resistance to sin.  It robs us of our rewards.

But God is faithful who will not suffer us to be tempted.  We can pray and resist temptation.  God will make a way to escape temptation (I Cor. 10:13).  God can deliver us from evil (Matt. 6:13).

We can count it joy when we are tempted (James 1:2).  Not because there is an opportunity to sin.  Instead, it is an opportunity to claim God's grace and resist the temptation.  We can claim God's power in moments of temptation.  Pray that we be not tempted.

Will You Harden Your Heart?

The Bible warns about hardening the human heart.  When a person hardens his heart he forces God to take other steps to reach this person he would never have had to reach.  It can be a man.  It can be a woman.

There are reasons for hardening the heart.  But, who hardens the heart?  God?  Or man?  Or both?  God says in Romans 9:18 "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and on whom he will be hardeneth."  God will neve harden a heart that is first hardened against him.

Why do people harden their hearts against God?  Deceitfulness of sin causes it (II Kings 17:13, 14; Heb. 3:13).  Also in Daniel 5:18, 20 Nebuchadnezzar hardened his heart against God.  In Mark 3:4, 5 God hardened some hearts because of prejudice.

What dangers are there in hardening the heart?  It cuts off all hope of salvation.  It then leads to wickedness, for which one will pay in Hell forever.  Dying without Christ means sudden destruction without any hope (Prov. 29:1).  It also means being engulfed in the terrible wrath of God (Rom. 2:5).  Don't forget Proverbs 3:7-14.

The best thing is to keep one's heart open to God.  Be saved early in life.  Live for God.  Be ready to go up in the rapture.  Be ready to live forever with God in eternity.  You will be glad you did.

Mother's Prayer of Faith

Mother, do you pray the prayer of faith?  Do you believe God will answer your prayers?  Do you know how to pray a prayer of faith?

What is faith praying?  Jesus was in a wind storm on the Sea of Galilee asleep while his apostles began to be afraid their boat would sink.  Satan was trying to destroy all 13 of them.  They woke Jesus.  Jesus stopped the storm.  Then he turned to his apostles and asked, Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?"

The storm was a perfect opportunity for the disciples to express great faith, and stop the storm.  But, being human, fear took hold of their minds.  Have we ever been in similar situations like this before?  Instead of using faith, we were fear filled?

What is faith?  Faith is facing a problem, a situation that could kill us, or destroy our desires, or hinder our hopes.  That is an opportunity to use faith.

What is faith?  Faith is correctly assessing the situation we are facing.  maybe we can remove the situation ourselves.  Or --- perhaps we need God's help in controlling the problem.  Or, perhaps we can do nothing, and must depend entirely on God.  That's what the disciples faced that day.

What is faith?  Faith is a decision.  It pushes fear away.  It makes the decision that God can solve the situation by himself.  Faith decides to believe God will.  Faith asks God to deal with the problem entirely.  Faith does not doubt that God will act.  Faith makes the decision to rest the problem in God's hands.

But what if it takes time to remove the problems?  Faith continues to believe God will act, eventually.  Yes, faith may let Satan test you.  But push the doubts away and ask God's power to resolve the problem.  Do that every time doubts appear.  Don't hesitate.  Return immediately to faith.  Your faith will grow stronger.  Praise God for victory.

God will answer!  God will give a victory!  Then you can praise for his power and blessing!

Two Adams

Adam was created.  Christ was born of a woman.  Adam had a beginning.  Christ is eternal.  He took on a body in time.

Adam was mortal, fleshly and spiritual.  Christ is Head and Lord over the new creation.  The old creation was sinful and dying because of a sinful and dying Head.  But the new creation is holy and living because of a living Head. 

God gave Adam a job.  He failed.  God gave Christ a job.  He finished it.

Adam was a son of God.  Christ was God's only begotten Son.  Adam was a worshipper of God.  Christ was God to be worshipped.  The breath of God was in Adam.  Christ was God in a human body.  Adam repudiated God's truth.  Christ vindicated God's truth.

Adam was the father of flesh of all men.  Christ was the giver of life to all who believe.

Adam was lower than the angels.  Christ was the Creator of angels.

Adam was tempted and fell.  Christ was tempted and did not fall in any way.  Adam died.  Christ died but came back into his dead body and still lives.  Adam's life was derived.  Christ is still alive forever.

Adam broke God's law and later died.  Christ kept all of God's laws and lives.

By Adam came the curse.  By Christ the curse is removed.  By Adam there are thorns and thistles.  By Christ there will be a new earth with no thorns or thistles.  By Adam Paradise was lost.  By Christ a heavenly Paradise was gained for all believers.

Stand Fast

We are to stand fast in the Lord (Phil. 4:1) as birds in the air, and as fishes are in the sea.  We are to lean on the Lord.

"...that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;" (Phil. 1:27).

Paul was writing to the chuch in Philippi, Greece.  He was urging them to stand together as a church.  They were to stand for the same faith together.  There was to be no division among them over the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Christendom today there is much division about the gospel.  Some add baptism to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  Some add good works to the gospel, and thus change the gospel.

But the gospel is entirely about who Jesus is.  It is in the character of his being.  There is no fault or sin in Christ.  he is the essence of holiness.  Thus he is pure.  Therefore when they preached Christ, they preached a pure gospel, a pure person!

When we accept Christ we believe the purity of God is in the place of our evil.  We accept his holiness to replace our unholiness.

But we are to do more.  Paul wrote the Corinthians to, "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong," (I Cor. 16:13).

We are to stand fast in the faith.  We are to belive that we stand fast in our faith in Jesus.  There are times when a believer may doubt his faith.  There are times when he may stray.  But, when he returns to his commitment, his faith is that he has Christ's sinlessness in the place of his sinfulness.  This is before God.  This is in his heart.  This is before others.  He is saved and he knows it.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free...." (Gal. 5:1).  We believers are, in Christ, made free from sin, free from the separation of death, free from hell.  We are in the liberty that Christ makes possible for us.  It is not that we are to sin.  It is that we are free from the yoke of bondage.  We are in the liberty of freedom to live for Christ in a sin-sick world.

How Does God Cleanse Us Christians?

When we accept Christ we may have much of this world with us.  That depends upon what we have said before we have been saved.  If we have lived a wicked life God has a lot to remove from us.

But God changes us believers.  God for one thing, prunes us (John 15:1-11).  The word prune means to cut off the vine with pruning hooks.  It depends on how much of the vine is pruned (Isa. 18:5).  For the vine to produce many grapes the vine needs to be pruned.  To prune is to cut off many limbs.

This cleanses us saints healthily.  By that I mean God removes all curse words.  That may take time.  God convicts us that those words are wrong and we need to stop using them.  He may embarrass us before some others and we stop using some words.  Some times we may think some bad words, and God may convict us of those words.  We must cease using them.

God makes us feel guilty when we use those words.  It depends upon how guilty we feel when we use them.  Over time God will remove those words from our vocabulary.

We need to confess our guilt to God when we use bad words.  The more we confess them the more quickly we will stop using them.  That may take some time.  Don't give up.  God will cleanse your vocabulary.

God may just stop the use of some bad words.  Other times God may, as I said above, deal with us so severely that he will purge us of them.  At any rate, God wants to clean our language so clean that we don't have to worry about what we say.  Our vocabulary is going to be clean.

Faith Makes The Difference

The difference between the world and the Christian is his faith, not his life.  Some believer's lives don't always measure up to Christ's standards.  But the Christian's faith can change situations.  That creates a big difference.

The difference between the Christian and his condemnation is his faith.  "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God," (John 3:18).

The differnce between the sinner and eternal life is his faith.  John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that beieveth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

It is by faith we become  children of God.  Galatians 3:26 says, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

It is by faith we have peace with God.  "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Rom. 5:1).

It is by faith we are purified.  Acts 15:9 says, "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."

It is by faith Christ dwells in our hearts.  Ephesians 3:17 says, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, being rooted and grounded in love."

Faith is not a feeling.  Faith is a decision we make.  We make that decision for the rest of our lives.  We may backslide in our living, but we still believe that Christ is our eternal life.  That faith never changes.