Life seems so much harder, when you decide to do the right thing.
I have believed for a while that I was an unfeigned believer and that God was the first priority for me; but it not until last night that I realized that this was not so, not as much anyway, as I thought myself to be.
We as human beings are inherently selfish, sinful and weak. There is an evil dark side of our nature that, for most, fuels our very existence. This dark side is what our first parents, Adam and Eve, let into our lives when they fell from grace and obeyed the devil over obeying God. This same human nature is against everything that we were created to be and is in constant conflict with our true nature. True in the sense that, God, in His image, created in us a nature like His, in which we were to identify with Him. It was the correct and actual semblance of what human beings were supposed to be like.
Because of His love for us, God sent His son, to redeem us from our fallen selves. Jesus took the cup of death in our place. He purchased a new life for us, through his precious blood. He saved our souls, our hearts and our very lives from damnation. The Lord, in his infinite love took our place; he died, was buried, went to hell and rose on the 3rd day- he won the battle for our souls!
How then, do not owe him our lives. What sort of justification is there, if any, for us not to give ourselves wholly unto him?
It is this understanding of what It means to surrender our lives to the Lord, and to give up our heart, soul, body and mind to him- that has led me to suffer in the realization that I have not yet wholly given up my life to the Lord.
Most of us live a double life. We waver between the things of this world and the things of God. We secretly hope that God will not be too strict so us to remember every little thing that we do wrong, so long as we go to church on Sunday, fast every month, are generally good to people; while yet we can indulge in a little sexual immorality, get drunk once in a while and be negatively good- we are “Lukewarm- neither hot nor cold”. We forget the consequences of such a life- God promises to spit such people out of his Kingdom.
The Lord requires our full hearts. We are to give ourselves wholly unto the Lord, holding nothing back. Jesus gave up everything for us, why would we think that it is sufficient to give him back just a portion of our lives? It is not right that we say a chain of prayer every Monday morning yet when we get to the office, we gossip about our boss; that we preach about being born again yet we are recovering from a hangover from the night before; that we place “I love Jesus” bumper stickers on our cars as we drive to commit acts of fornication; that we pray the morning prayer at our desks in the office yet we spend half the time on internet chat flirting with friends. God forbid!
Let us exhort ourselves through the pain of our lives to let go and let God, to really let go and let God. God demands our full commitment, not just part of it, lest we are struck dead like Ananias and his wife Sapphira for pretending to offer their hearts to God yet they kept the greatest part for themselves.
If God can help us, guide us, feed us, clothe us and keep us alive, even when we are sinful as we are and without much effort, how much more will he take care of us when we let Him lead the way? Why O why are we so in love with the flesh so as not to fully renounce our bodies, which for the most part of our lives has held us bound in chains of disease, pain and suffering? Why?
Most times, we are afraid of our fellow man. We suffer to imagine what people will say when we become born again and are liable for our actions. Many of us serve the world, the flesh during the day and then like Nicodemus we sneak into the night, secretly for fear of being judged, fall on our knees to God, with a mind to see God’s power in our lives, but inherently afraid of being ridiculed by our friends and peers. But what did the Lord say of such behavior: “the friendship of this world means enmity against God”.
But if there is anyone we are deceiving, it is ourselves, because “God cannot be mocked”. He sees our hearts and judges us thereof. True, when we choose to do the right thing, we will be judged and will be met with contempt. We may loose friends, jobs, and pride, but the price of eternal life is too grave a gift to forego. What we should let go of are the eccentricities of the world and walk the narrow path. Life seems so much easier when we follow the world, but it far less rewarding.
We should embrace the servile character of our Lord and humble ourselves before God. We should consciously seek to learn, to know and to see God and His power manifest in our lives today.
Let us think then, let us repent and change our lives. Let us receive a new and clean rebirth. We might think that we have already done much for Christ, but we cannot afford to loose even the little we have because we could not do more. Let us every day, every moment give ourselves to the full will of God, always praying, always watching and always yearning for Him to lead us to the truth- for those that are led by the spirit of God are the children of the God.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Lead us Not into Temptation
This inspired me... thought i would share- i have edited the original text for easier comprehension.
Matthew 6:13, "Lead us not into temptation."
The great and important duty which is mandatory on Christians is to guard against all appearance of evil; to watch against the first rebellions in the heart to evil; and to have a guard upon our actions, that they may not be sinful, or seem to be so.
It is true, the devil is tempting us continually, and our own evil hearts are ready to join with the tempter, to make us fall into sins, that he may obtain a victory over us, and that we may be his subjects, his servants, his slaves; and then by-and-by he will pay us our wages, which will be temporary death, and later eternal death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ saw how his people would be tempted. The devil would lay hold of every opportunity, so he could keep poor sinners from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ by:
- filling you with temptation, to drive you to some great sins and then if he cannot gain you over,
- Often transform himself into an angel of light, and by that means make the soul fall into sin, to the dishonor of God.
The Lord Jesus, seeing how liable his disciples, and all others, would be to temptation, therefore advises them, when they pray, to beg that they might not be led into temptation. It is so dangerous to engage Satan because he is so subtle and powerful. We shall be overcome as often as we engage in temptation, unless the Lord is on our side.
If you are left by yourselves, you will be overcome by every temptation with which you are exposed to.
These words are part of the prayer which Christ taught his disciples; and I shall, therefore, make no doubt, but that you all believe them to be true, since they are spoken by one who cannot lie. I shall,
1.Show you who it is that tempts you.
2.Shall show why he tempts you.
3.Mention some of the ways and means he makes use of, to draw you over to his temptations.
4.Let you see how earnest you ought to be to the Lord, that he may preserve you from being led into temptation.
5.I shall make some application for you to come unto Christ, that he may deliver you from being tempted.
I. FIRST, We are to consider who it is that tempts us.
And the tempter is Satan, the prince of the power of the air, he that now rules in the children of disobedience; he is an enemy to God and goodness, he is a hater of all truth. Why else did he slander God in paradise? Why did he tell Eve, "You shall not surely die?" He is full of malice, envy, and revenge; for what other reasons could he molest innocent man in paradise? The person that tempts you is remarkable for his tact. Because he does not have power him from above, he is forced to wait for opportunities to betray us, and to catch us by treachery; he, therefore, made use of the serpent to tempt our first parents; and to lie in wait to deceive, is another part of his character.
And though this character is given of the devil, if we were to examine our own hearts, we will find many of the tempter's characters in us.
Do we not all like to tell a lie? And if it is done in our line of work we sometimes believe it is excusable. But whether you believe it or not, it is sinful, it is exceedingly sinful. Though we value ourselves as fine rational creatures, and that we are noble beings (like when we first came out of God's hands). We are now fallen and there is nothing lovely, nothing desirable in man. His heart is a sink of pollution, full of sin and uncleanness. Yet, though a man's own heart is so desperately wicked, he is told by our modern polite that because God sees us as good creatures, gives us his grace. But this, though it is a modern, polite, and fashionable way of talking, is very unscriptural.
These preachers talk of than doing no one any harm, living honestly, loving your neighbor as yourselves, and do what you can and that Christ is to make up for the deficiency. This is making Christ to be half a savior, and man the other part.
But let these modern, polite gentlemen paint man in as lovely colors as they please, I will not do it; I dare not make him better than the word of God does. If I was to paint man in his proper colors, I must go to the kingdom of hell for a copy; for man is by nature full of pride, subtlety, malice, envy, lust, sensuality, pleasure, revenge, and all uncharitableness- and are not all these from the devil?
And this is the man, who is told, that he must be part his own savior, by doing good works, and what he cannot do Christ will do for him. Good God!
This is giving the devil great room to come in with his temptation. The devil may make a soul to follow moral duties like go to church, take the sacrament, read, pray, meditate. The devil is ok that you do all these. but if they are done in your own strength without the Spirit or if you go no farther than here and do no more than these, you are simply smoothening your path to hell.
Why he tempts you, is the second thing I am to show you.
He endeavors to keep you from getting close with Jesus. and if he can keep you from laying hold by faith on Christ, he knows he has you safe enough; and the more temptations you are under, and the more unsettled your thoughts and emotions are, the more you will think that if you were to go to Christ in this state full of emotions and unsettled, that Christ would not receive you. This is a policy of the devil- to make you have low and dishonorable thoughts of the blessed Jesus and by so doing the devil works upon your minds that you do not care about Christ. This, this, my brethren, is the design of the tempter.
Nothing will please the devil more, than to see you ruined and lost forever. He tempts you for this reason- that you may lose your interest in Jesus Christ, and that you may dwell with the devil and his spirits to all eternity. He knows that Jesus Christ died for sinners, yet he would fain keep these same sinners from seeking Jesus.
The devil endeavors to blind our eyes, that we shall not see what danger you are in, and how much evil there is in our hearts; and as long as he can keep us easy and unconcerned about having your hearts changed, he will tempt us to sin until we are hardened in sin. Do not give the devil a handle were he can lay hold on you. That is why he tempts you, when he finds you at the disco or a bar. if you are doing the devil's work, he will convince you to continue sinning. So how can we say "Lead us not into temptation," in the morning, when we are planning to run into temptation at night?
So when we have go to church and read the prayers, it is like offering the sacrifice of fools when we say “Amen” to them with our lips, when in our hearts we are either unconcerned at what we are doing, or else we think that simply saying of our prayers is sufficient and that we have balanced our debts with God.
But let us not deceive ourselves; God is not to be mocked. We are only ruining ourselves for time and eternity. We pray, "Lead us not into temptation," when we are tempting the devil to come and tempt us.
I shall now point out some of the ways and means; the devil makes use of to draw you to himself.
But this is a field so large, and I have but just begun to be a soldier of Jesus Christ, that
I cannot say everything to you. I shall therefore be very short on this.
a. He endeavors to make us think sin is not so great as it is; that there is no occasion for being so strict, and that we are over-righteous too much and will harm ourselves. The devil shows us the bait, but he hides the hook. He shows us the pleasure, profits, and advantages that come if we follow him but he does not show us hardships, losses and displeasures that we will have while we enjoy his world.
b. When he finds he cannot allure us by flattery, he will try by frowns, and the terrors of this world. He will make people to point at us, and say, "Here comes another of Christ’s followers;" He will make them up to jeer, scoff, backbite, and hate us. but if he still finds this will not do, then he throws in doubts and discouragement in our minds or he will suggest, “What! Do you expect to be saved by Christ?” Also, “He did not die for you; you have been too great a sinner; you have lived in sin so long, and committed many sins against Christ, which he will not forgive.” Thus he rushes poor sinners almost into despair. And very often, when the people of God meet to worship, he sends his agents to disturb them.
These, my brethren, are some of the ways Satan takes in his temptations, to bring us from Christ. Many more might be named; but these are sufficient, I hope, to keep us on our guard, against all that the enemy can do to hinder us from coming to Christ.
I come to show you, how deep we ought to be with Jesus Christ, either so that we are not led into temptations, or to persevere under them.
And here let me beg that we go to Jesus Christ when we are attacked by the evil one, who lies in wait for our souls. We should tell him we are not able to master the devil in our own strength. We should beg Christ’s assistance, and then we shall find him ready to help us, ready to assist us, and to be our Guide, our Comforter, our Savior, and our All. He will give us strength to resist the fiery darts of the devil. Jesus Christ knows what it is to be tempted, he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and he will give us the assistance of his Spirit, to resist the evil one, and then the devil will flee from us. In Christ Jesus we shall have the strength we stand in need of, the devil shall have no power. Therefore fear not, for in the name of the Lord we shall overcome all our spiritual Amalekites.
Let the devil and his agents rage, let them breathe out threatenings, yes, let them breathe out slaughters, yet we can rejoice in the truth that Jesus Christ has all these evil agents in his power. They may rage, they may rage horribly, but they can go no farther. Blessed be to God that we can commit ourselves to Christ’s protection. He has been our protector before, he will be even now. Then sincerely, we should ask of the Lord to support us under these temptations which the devil may attack us with. He is a powerful adversary; he is a cunning one too. He would be too hard for us, unless we have the strength of Christ to be with us. But let us be looking up unto Jesus, that he would send his Spirit into our hearts, and keep us from falling.
Matthew 6:13, "Lead us not into temptation."
The great and important duty which is mandatory on Christians is to guard against all appearance of evil; to watch against the first rebellions in the heart to evil; and to have a guard upon our actions, that they may not be sinful, or seem to be so.
It is true, the devil is tempting us continually, and our own evil hearts are ready to join with the tempter, to make us fall into sins, that he may obtain a victory over us, and that we may be his subjects, his servants, his slaves; and then by-and-by he will pay us our wages, which will be temporary death, and later eternal death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ saw how his people would be tempted. The devil would lay hold of every opportunity, so he could keep poor sinners from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ by:
- filling you with temptation, to drive you to some great sins and then if he cannot gain you over,
- Often transform himself into an angel of light, and by that means make the soul fall into sin, to the dishonor of God.
The Lord Jesus, seeing how liable his disciples, and all others, would be to temptation, therefore advises them, when they pray, to beg that they might not be led into temptation. It is so dangerous to engage Satan because he is so subtle and powerful. We shall be overcome as often as we engage in temptation, unless the Lord is on our side.
If you are left by yourselves, you will be overcome by every temptation with which you are exposed to.
These words are part of the prayer which Christ taught his disciples; and I shall, therefore, make no doubt, but that you all believe them to be true, since they are spoken by one who cannot lie. I shall,
1.Show you who it is that tempts you.
2.Shall show why he tempts you.
3.Mention some of the ways and means he makes use of, to draw you over to his temptations.
4.Let you see how earnest you ought to be to the Lord, that he may preserve you from being led into temptation.
5.I shall make some application for you to come unto Christ, that he may deliver you from being tempted.
I. FIRST, We are to consider who it is that tempts us.
And the tempter is Satan, the prince of the power of the air, he that now rules in the children of disobedience; he is an enemy to God and goodness, he is a hater of all truth. Why else did he slander God in paradise? Why did he tell Eve, "You shall not surely die?" He is full of malice, envy, and revenge; for what other reasons could he molest innocent man in paradise? The person that tempts you is remarkable for his tact. Because he does not have power him from above, he is forced to wait for opportunities to betray us, and to catch us by treachery; he, therefore, made use of the serpent to tempt our first parents; and to lie in wait to deceive, is another part of his character.
And though this character is given of the devil, if we were to examine our own hearts, we will find many of the tempter's characters in us.
Do we not all like to tell a lie? And if it is done in our line of work we sometimes believe it is excusable. But whether you believe it or not, it is sinful, it is exceedingly sinful. Though we value ourselves as fine rational creatures, and that we are noble beings (like when we first came out of God's hands). We are now fallen and there is nothing lovely, nothing desirable in man. His heart is a sink of pollution, full of sin and uncleanness. Yet, though a man's own heart is so desperately wicked, he is told by our modern polite that because God sees us as good creatures, gives us his grace. But this, though it is a modern, polite, and fashionable way of talking, is very unscriptural.
These preachers talk of than doing no one any harm, living honestly, loving your neighbor as yourselves, and do what you can and that Christ is to make up for the deficiency. This is making Christ to be half a savior, and man the other part.
But let these modern, polite gentlemen paint man in as lovely colors as they please, I will not do it; I dare not make him better than the word of God does. If I was to paint man in his proper colors, I must go to the kingdom of hell for a copy; for man is by nature full of pride, subtlety, malice, envy, lust, sensuality, pleasure, revenge, and all uncharitableness- and are not all these from the devil?
And this is the man, who is told, that he must be part his own savior, by doing good works, and what he cannot do Christ will do for him. Good God!
This is giving the devil great room to come in with his temptation. The devil may make a soul to follow moral duties like go to church, take the sacrament, read, pray, meditate. The devil is ok that you do all these. but if they are done in your own strength without the Spirit or if you go no farther than here and do no more than these, you are simply smoothening your path to hell.
Why he tempts you, is the second thing I am to show you.
He endeavors to keep you from getting close with Jesus. and if he can keep you from laying hold by faith on Christ, he knows he has you safe enough; and the more temptations you are under, and the more unsettled your thoughts and emotions are, the more you will think that if you were to go to Christ in this state full of emotions and unsettled, that Christ would not receive you. This is a policy of the devil- to make you have low and dishonorable thoughts of the blessed Jesus and by so doing the devil works upon your minds that you do not care about Christ. This, this, my brethren, is the design of the tempter.
Nothing will please the devil more, than to see you ruined and lost forever. He tempts you for this reason- that you may lose your interest in Jesus Christ, and that you may dwell with the devil and his spirits to all eternity. He knows that Jesus Christ died for sinners, yet he would fain keep these same sinners from seeking Jesus.
The devil endeavors to blind our eyes, that we shall not see what danger you are in, and how much evil there is in our hearts; and as long as he can keep us easy and unconcerned about having your hearts changed, he will tempt us to sin until we are hardened in sin. Do not give the devil a handle were he can lay hold on you. That is why he tempts you, when he finds you at the disco or a bar. if you are doing the devil's work, he will convince you to continue sinning. So how can we say "Lead us not into temptation," in the morning, when we are planning to run into temptation at night?
So when we have go to church and read the prayers, it is like offering the sacrifice of fools when we say “Amen” to them with our lips, when in our hearts we are either unconcerned at what we are doing, or else we think that simply saying of our prayers is sufficient and that we have balanced our debts with God.
But let us not deceive ourselves; God is not to be mocked. We are only ruining ourselves for time and eternity. We pray, "Lead us not into temptation," when we are tempting the devil to come and tempt us.
I shall now point out some of the ways and means; the devil makes use of to draw you to himself.
But this is a field so large, and I have but just begun to be a soldier of Jesus Christ, that
I cannot say everything to you. I shall therefore be very short on this.
a. He endeavors to make us think sin is not so great as it is; that there is no occasion for being so strict, and that we are over-righteous too much and will harm ourselves. The devil shows us the bait, but he hides the hook. He shows us the pleasure, profits, and advantages that come if we follow him but he does not show us hardships, losses and displeasures that we will have while we enjoy his world.
b. When he finds he cannot allure us by flattery, he will try by frowns, and the terrors of this world. He will make people to point at us, and say, "Here comes another of Christ’s followers;" He will make them up to jeer, scoff, backbite, and hate us. but if he still finds this will not do, then he throws in doubts and discouragement in our minds or he will suggest, “What! Do you expect to be saved by Christ?” Also, “He did not die for you; you have been too great a sinner; you have lived in sin so long, and committed many sins against Christ, which he will not forgive.” Thus he rushes poor sinners almost into despair. And very often, when the people of God meet to worship, he sends his agents to disturb them.
These, my brethren, are some of the ways Satan takes in his temptations, to bring us from Christ. Many more might be named; but these are sufficient, I hope, to keep us on our guard, against all that the enemy can do to hinder us from coming to Christ.
I come to show you, how deep we ought to be with Jesus Christ, either so that we are not led into temptations, or to persevere under them.
And here let me beg that we go to Jesus Christ when we are attacked by the evil one, who lies in wait for our souls. We should tell him we are not able to master the devil in our own strength. We should beg Christ’s assistance, and then we shall find him ready to help us, ready to assist us, and to be our Guide, our Comforter, our Savior, and our All. He will give us strength to resist the fiery darts of the devil. Jesus Christ knows what it is to be tempted, he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and he will give us the assistance of his Spirit, to resist the evil one, and then the devil will flee from us. In Christ Jesus we shall have the strength we stand in need of, the devil shall have no power. Therefore fear not, for in the name of the Lord we shall overcome all our spiritual Amalekites.
Let the devil and his agents rage, let them breathe out threatenings, yes, let them breathe out slaughters, yet we can rejoice in the truth that Jesus Christ has all these evil agents in his power. They may rage, they may rage horribly, but they can go no farther. Blessed be to God that we can commit ourselves to Christ’s protection. He has been our protector before, he will be even now. Then sincerely, we should ask of the Lord to support us under these temptations which the devil may attack us with. He is a powerful adversary; he is a cunning one too. He would be too hard for us, unless we have the strength of Christ to be with us. But let us be looking up unto Jesus, that he would send his Spirit into our hearts, and keep us from falling.
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