Word for Today, Mon, 25 Apr 2005: Sin and Temptation
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Today's devotional message comes from Neil Anderson's series
called Daily in Christ, which can be obtained through an Email
subscription from Crosswalk.com, viewed on the devotional Web
pages at Crosswalk,com, (this article comes from the Web site:
http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/devotionals/dailyinchrist/544502.html)
or you can go to http://www.ficm.org/DailyInChrist/0424dic.htm to
see today's Daily in Christ message.
The pastor of my local church talks about sin often, not because
it is a popular topic, but because in order to desire what God
offers to us in Jesus Christ, we must see our need and the
consequences of our actions.
Our God is not a mean God at all. Quite the opposite. God is
gracious and kind, very slow to anger and abounding in love. It
is because He desires what is best for us that He establishes
rules and principles to govern our lives. Because of His amazing
grace, He became man in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and bore the
penalty for our misdeeds, our sins. That doesn't mean that we
don't also have consequences for our sins, but our consequences
need not be eternal - unless we refuse to realize our condition
and refuse to turn to Christ.
Neil Anderson has written a multi-part series on the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These are
the three major areas that separate us from God. Fortunately, we
can know about them, turn away from them, and have peace with
God.
I encourage you to read this article, read the scriptures
associated with these comments, think about them, and consider
applying principles to your own life. If you don't really
understand all of this, ask God for wisdom and seek wise counsel.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
____________________________
by Neil Anderson April 24
SATAN'S THREEFOLD TEMPTATION
1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not
from the Father, but is from the world
You will be better prepared to resist temptation in your life
when you realize that, according to the Scriptures, there are
only three channels through which Satan will entice you to act
independently of God. They are summarized in John's instructions
to believers concerning our relationship to this world: "Do not
love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in
the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the
world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the
one who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
The three channels of temptation are the lust of the flesh ,
the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life . The lust of the
flesh preys on our physical appetites and their gratifications in
this world. The lust of the eyes appeals to self-interest and
tests the Word of God. The pride of life stresses self-promotion
and self-exaltation. Satan confronted both the first Adam and the
last Adam through each of these three channels of temptation.
Notice how Satan used precisely those three channels to
deceive Eve: "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food
[lust of the flesh], and that it was a delight to the eyes [lust
of the eyes], and that the tree was desirable to make one wise
[pride of life], she took from its fruit and ate" (Genesis 3:6).
The first Adam failed miserably and we still suffer the
results of his failure. But the last Adam--Jesus Christ--met
Satan's threefold temptation head-on and succeeded triumphantly.
In Him we have the resources and the power to conquer every
temptation Satan throws at us.
Prayer:
Dear God, please tear down any pride or self-deception I may
have concerning Satan's strategies of temptation. I know I
can never become complacent about spiritual warfare.
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
mail.yahoo.com