25. LESSONS I HAVE LEARNED.

“The steps of a good man are ordered by The Lord.” Prov 16.9. I have recently turned another year older and am surprised that it’s taken me this long to understand, acknowledge,and accept the simplicity of God’s word. To know that He says exactly what He means, without us putting our own spin on it. Or if situations don’t quite suit us making changes; blaming the culture, language or ignorance of Biblical times, etc. God is God and I believe He knew then and still knows what He was and is saying and doing. Also I believe, If one professes to be a Bible believing Christian, that should mean they believe the entire Bible, not just the pieces they are comfortable with. For instance:-- there are those who don’t want to believe in Hell, . Yet it says quite emphatically, in several places, (look it up, Google it) that Hell is a specific place, and warns us against heading in that direction. Angels is another point some people seem to have their own opinion about, but Scripture mentions them as real messengers sent by God, on particular errands and some even get mentioned by name. eg Gabriel and Michael. Of course these people have a “field day” in the book of Revelation, and put it all down to John’s extended years or his inability to accurately describe what he saw and thereby resorted to fantasy. The Bible has hundreds of prophecies in it, most of which have already been accurately fulfilled except those pertaining to the book of Revelation therefore there is no reason to think that this prophetic book will not also be fulfilled to the letter in God’s timing, In fact, God’s written and spoken Word is being fulfilled everyday as we live through this final generation. I find it difficult to understand why some people can’t take The Holy Bible as the Word of Almighty God and accept it as it is written. There is no place in Scripture that says it is going to be easy, convenient or comfortable, but, it is the only true path to Heaven given by the Creator of the Universe Himself, and He should know. Most of us these days have a gadget in our cars called a GPS. It is a clever little thing that shows us the best, but not always the quickest way to reach a given destination. It tells us when and where to turn. When we are exceeding the speed limit, even if we are heading for a potential accident, some I’ve heard, will tell us how far it is to the nearest Service Station. No guessing, no problems no confusion, all sorted. Recently I have come to the realization that I have my very own built in Devine GPS “The Holy Spirit.” If we allow Him, He will choose our destination, the route and the timing of our mission, by listening to Him I have learned four valuable lessons, which I’d like to share with you… . 1 Faith and Trust;--This was the most difficult and took the longest to learn. But, without it nothing else works. I had to learn to believe, trust and depend on God even in contrary circumstances. If we have prayed and asked God to show us His Will in a given situation, we must not doubt. Even if it doesn’t make sense. I had to learn to trust His Word, keep praying and believing. God honours our faith and perseverance. In this way I learned patience (which is not one of my strong points) to depend on God rather than on myself I found it extremely difficult. I assumed I knew all the twists and turns of life which made me act without consulting God. Like Samson I reckoned I had figured out just how the system worked and when Delilah sold him out and the Philistines bound him with ropes a third time, he thought he would handle things as he always had “I will do as before and shake myself free.” he said, but he didn’t realise his arrogance had caused The Lord to leave him (Judges 16.20) The most valuable lesson I learned here was, if I wanted to live a victorious life, I had to humbly, take God at His Word. In (John 15.5) “Without Me you can do nothing.” If you believe and act on that Word, you will be victorious. 2. The second lesson I learned was—I had to change my perspective. I didn’t always look where I was going, but I always ended up where I was looking. This cost me dearly. So what was the answer? As It slowly became clear, I found I had to start looking in the right place, or I would end up like David who, after paying the price for following his own lower impulses changed his perspective and prayed in Psalm 141.8 “My eyes are fixed on You Lord” I am convinced that unless our perspective is on The Lord we run the very serious risk of our choices and direction in life going completely astray. Our perspective always determines our choices and direction in any area of life. So keep looking to The Lord, listening for His leading. 3 The third Lesson I learned was –The secret of prayer, there is no substitute for Prayer, I had to learn about keeping in communication with God I used to feel lost in unfamiliar territory, uncertain of what my next move should be, but God used those times to get my attention, to call me back to Himself, to encourage me to talk to Him, I gradually learned to lean on Him, to regard Him as my unfailing source of strength and wisdom rather than trying to figure out everything myself. In Jeremiah 33.3 God tells us “Call to me and I will tell you things you don’t know and I will answer you.” So I’ve learned to take my problems to The Lord and ask Him for the solution. He hasn’t disappointed me yet. Also James tells us “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” That means always saying, doing and thinking the right thing, check your motives, remember, God knows and sees everything about you, we can’t hide anything from Him. That’s not as easy as it sounds, why? because the right thing is not the first thing that comes into our minds. You see, human nature says “Keep out of trouble, blame someone else, hide the truth, plead ignorance. The Word says “Bare one another’s burdens, take the blame to save another, show kindness while standing up for the truth, making sure no one gets hurt or damaged. No! it’s not easy, in fact sometimes it’s very hard but, True Christians are required to take the high road which leads to Glory. 4 Patience---I had to learn The power of Patience, this was not easy for me to achieve and I don’t think Ive mastered it yet. Whenever The Holy Spirit puts a goal or dream in my heart, I want to be quick on the trigger and have it happen overnight. I had to learn that timing is crucial, it is in God’s hands and under His control not mine, I also had to learn that waiting for God’s timing is not a waste of time, it is essential to develop two qualities in all of us which nobody can have too much of, and only God can give, they are Faith and Hope; Romans 8.25 tells us “If we hope for what we don’t yet have we wait for it patiently.” So while I am learning patience, God is at work arranging things on my behalf and at the same time producing Christ-like qualities in me. The psalmist said his hope was in God. So I have to constantly ask myself what or who is my hope in?.. My Family, Good Luck, the Economy, the Doctor’s Prognosis?... As long as my hope is in anything other than God’s unfailing love and goodness I will wrestle with uncertainty for the rest of my life. So what’s the answer? Mine is found in Psalm 112.7“My heart is steadfast and trusting in The Lord.” I hope you don’t take as long as I did to learn the above lessons, they have changed my life greatly and I wish I had learned them earlier, they would have saved me a great deal of time, blood, sweat and tears.!!! God bless and teach us all something new today. Phaline. --------------------------

24. TEMPTATION MATT 4. 1-11.

Although temptation is not sin, it is something that dogs every one of us everyday and let’s face it, we give in to it much more than we’d possibly like to admit. However, if it is not dealt with it will take over and what was just a temptation becomes much more than just that, it becomes SIN. We all have our own Battlegrounds in some cases they are things we surrendered to years ago that now lurk in our innermost thoughts. That’s why The Scriptures warn,”Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. ” Max Lucado writes, “I’m at a desk in my hotel room far away from home, the voices that encourage are distant, the voices that entice are near, A placard on my night- stand invites me to the Lounge “to make new friends in a relaxing atmosphere.” Another on the TV that promises late-night movies “that will make all my fantasies come true” In the phone book, several columns of escort services that offer “Love away from home” Voices, some for pleasure, some for power. The world hammers at your door, Jesus taps. The world offers fleshly pleasure, Jesus offers us a quiet dinner… with Him… “I will come and eat with him and He with me” (Revelation 3.20) Which voice will you obey? You ask How should I handle tempting situations? In two ways, first by filling your mind with Scripture so that your first response is always “it is written” second by keeping your eyes on Jesus who said “If your hand should cause you to sin cut it off and cast it away, it would be better to go to Heaven minus a hand than to go to hell with both your hands.” He said the same about one’s foot and eye. In other words, don’t look, touch or walk in the direction of where temptation is leading you. That’s how strongly Jesus felt about anything that causes sin in our lives. That’s why I have chosen to write about temptation, There is no sin without temptation and, temptation ALWAYS comes before SIN. And that’s the time and place to deal with it. So how do we handle temptation before it handles us. I thought we might see how Christ handled it and also bring out a few ideas of my own which I have picked up on my Christian walk, The best way of all is to throw Scripture at it, that is what Jesus did and it worked. I thought we could look at the temptation of Jesus in the desert. In Matthew 4.1. We read, “Jesus was led by the Spirit in to the desert to be tempted". Not led by the Devil, not by any earthly desire of His own, not even by any weakness on His part, but by the Holy Spirit Himself. Why? Because this is the perfect example of how God works with the people He has chosen to be in His Fighting force against Satan and his Minions. There has been war between Heaven and Hell ever since the fall of Adam and Eve. Once we make a choice to follow Christ we have been enlisted into God’s Army against sin, death and Hell. We can’t join any army without going in to training camp for several weeks or months. One can have all the commitment in the world to the cause, but if you don’t know how to handle yourself, you are a lost cause and no use to yourself or to the other people around you. When Young people go in to training, they are up at dawn, running for miles with a heavy pack on their backs, crawling under barbed wire barriers with bullets flying all around them and listening for orders from somebody they don’t know and don’t like. But, when they pass the test, they get to proudly wear the uniform. If we want to wear the uniform of Jesus Christ, we too have to pass the test. Jesus being God, was also fully man and as such He also had to pass the test, He shows us here how to combat temptation and also see how the enemy (Satan), works and the tactics he uses. Let’s look at these temptations and see how Jesus handled them and how they apply to us The First attack, (Mat.4 v3.” Turn these stones into bread.” The first area Satan will attack is our senses, A couple of examples are:-- Adam and Eve with a rosy red apple. David with a beautiful woman.. and Esau with a bowl of stew. It’s an interesting exercise to go through Scripture and see how greed and Lust dominated the lives of so many people. It is no different to-day, one can look at T.V. any day of the week and see the foothold the devil has on people’s lives in just these two areas. Was Jesus hungry? Of course He was, He hadn’t eaten for forty days, but He knew from his forty days training that He had to put His spiritual needs first and if He did that, God would take care of His natural needs (food) And so He was able to say in Matt 4.4 “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Only when we are convinced God will take care of our natural needs will we start putting Spiritual needs first in our lives. Until that happens we think we have to take care of ourselves. As a result, we walk in fear that our natural needs wont be met. and not in Faith. That is not how God wants us to live. Matt 6.33. “Seek FIRST the Kingdom of Heaven and ALL these things WILL be added unto you.” When we worry about the natural we are telling God we don”t trust Him. Because when we trust God we don”t have to worry. I know it’s easier said than done, but we just have to ask ourselves one question, Has He ever let me down? The Second attack The attack on the pinnacle Matt 4v5 “The devil took Him up into the Holy City and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple” If Satan hasn’t got us through our senses, he will try fear and failure, he will tell ,you “You are on the pinnacle of success now, but you can easily fall off” he will remind you of your past failures, your inadequacies and short comings and tell you “You’re just not good enough, People will not respect you any more.” How do we handle this sort of temptation? When the devil told Jesus to jump what he was saying is “You can do anything if you are the Son of God” And he’ll say to us “If you are a Christian The Bible says God will protect you.” As soon as he starts quoting Scripture, be on your guard, He knows Scripture better than you or I do and he’ll use it to his own advantage. . So all we have to say is “I will not tempt The Lord my God. Nor will I put Him to the test”. God does not have to justify Himself to anyone particularly not the devil. It has to be said here that there are two kinds of fear, Healthy and unhealthy fear. Healthy fear will keep us dependent on God, it will protect us from Pride and self-sufficiency (1Cor.10.v12.) says “Therefore let him who stands take heed lest he fall.”(That means don’t get proud stay dependent on God). The unhealthy fear will keep you in the boat when Jesus is calling you to walk with Him on the water, having Faith doesn’t mean at times you won't experience that sinking feeling that Peter did, But we have a choice, we can give into fear or trust in the God who has called us, sustained us and never failed to give us the strength to cope with whatever we’re facing, If our own intellect and talents are the bases of our confidence we have good reason to fear, but if God is the bases of our confidence we have nothing to fear. That is a good adage and worth keeping in mind, asking ourselves,Where does my confidence lie at this particular time in this particular situation. The third attack. Matt. 4.v9 “All these things I will give you.” Satan”s final temptation was over the cross-less life. He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and that’s what He’s showing you and me And what is he saying to you and me? “You don’t have to take up your cross everyday, You can have the world, all its Bright lights, all it’s good times, and all the pleasures this world offers I will give it all to you if you will just follow me,” And He was saying to Jesus ‘You don’t have to carry that cross just bow down and worship me and you can have it all. In Scripture Jesus calls him “The Prince of this World” and so he is, but not for much longer for the time is coming when this world and all that is in it will be under the feet of Jesus Christ and Satan knows this very well and wants to take as many of us as he can with him. Don’t join him. In Matt.4.10. Jesus says “Away with you Satan you shall worship God alone and Him only shall you serve.” In Galatians 2.v20 Paul writes “I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I that lives, but Christ who lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Has God promised to bless us? Absolutely He has, but that doesn’t mean we’ll never get hurt, or face lack or fatigue, or be betrayed and disappointed by others, we are living among other Human Beings most of whom don’t know Jesus Christ or much about Christianity, be kind and patient with such people God will Bless, help and keep you safe, He will give you the right words to say to them. This will not always be easy or comfortable and sometimes take a deal of humility, but this is what Jesus meant when He said in John 12.v24. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies (to self) it remains alone, but if it dies (to self) it produces much.” To get to that new level of blessing, we have to die to our own Pride,Wills and Selfishness, this is a daily process and if we are willing God will lead and help us along the path that leads to Glory. It’s His Kingdom we are fighting for, all we have to do is sew a Faith seed. This can be done in several easy ways, By just talking to someone about Jesus or about what God has done for us, or By the life-style we live, or even by just refusing to do something that you’re not happy about doing. A smile and a kind word goes a long way with some people in this lonely yet busy, hostile world. Yes, we can have it all now if we are willing to put our eternal life in danger, but we all know someone who has done just that to their cost. That’s why we spend so much time in prayer for our loved ones, please God He will hear our prayer and turn them around. Thank you for reading these thoughts on temptation, I hope it has helped us all to understand this topic and how to handle it a little better. May Almighty God Bless us and open our minds and hearts to His unchanging Word. Phaline. -------------------------