"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death." Revelation 12:11
"Let no one say when he is tempted, "I'm being tempted by God";
for God cannot be tempted by evil,
and He Himself does not tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is carried away
and enticed by his own lust.
Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin;
and when sin is accomplished,
it brings forth death."
James 1:13-15
I am really looking forward to the culmination of my salvation - when I am completely transformed into Christ's image. The day when Jesus returns. The day of glorification. The day when the child of God will shed all vestiges of sin. No more battles with it. We will see Jesus and when we see Him, we will be like Him - utterly and completely pure. Sin, gone.
Can't wait.
In the meantime, we are to be working out our salvation with fear and trembling. We didn't have to work for being delivered from the penalty and power of sin. Jesus did all that work for us. People dead in their sin can't work to get out of their sin. They are lifeless. Helpless. The Holy Spirit breathes life into us and then, we are to actively pursue obedience, to work at sinning less and less and looking more and more like our Savior, with a healthy fear of offending God and a righteous awe and respect for Him.
God has no vulnerability to evil because of His divine, holy nature. He cannot be tempted. It's quite the contrary with us, even after we are granted salvation. We still face the strong desire within ourselves to acquire something to fulfill the flesh. These are corrupt, deformed desires, rooted solely in ourselves. The passage above is not teaching us that the devil is roaring like a lion here, dragging off the unguarded believer into sin. James is teaching us that it is the believer who drags himself off into sin. We are the cause of giving in to temptation. This passage is teaching us that sin is a result of a process. We desire something we shouldn't. Sex outside of the context of marriage. Withholding intimacy within the context of marriage. Too much food. Watching that movie. Reading that book. Hurting someone. Spending money we don't have. Wanting clothes we don't need. Gossiping about someone. Honor and glory for what rightly belongs to God. Worrying. The list goes on and on. When we don't cut the desire off as soon as we recognize it, we enter the next phase. We entertain ideas on how to get that desire met. We plan for getting that desire met. Sin is born. We execute, and our peace and joy in Christ and our communion and fellowship with Him and the Father is gone. We are reveling in our sin.
So what can we do about this?
Know your weaknesses. Take time right now to identify them. Identify the sinful desires that visit you. Figure out who you are in this area so when the desire appears you recognize it and cut it off, immediately. Take the thought captive to the Word of God. Replace the deformed desire with the Word of God and thinking upon that which is true and lovely and pure and good and excellent. (Like Jesus, and seeing Him, face to face.) You will then have success in keeping the temptation from turning into sin. We will never be perfect at this, but we can get better and better at it.
that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14
"For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified."
Romans 8:29, 30
"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."
2 Corinthians 3:18
"I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted."
Job 42:2
Planned before creation, with God's everlasting love and the absolute power of The Spirit behind it, we have an incredible, guaranteed, unthwartable destiny.
How you hot tub when you leave your suit at home...harumph...
This mural was in the pool room.
Can you tell what it is depicting?
We LOVED it!
(Click on the image to get a better look...)
Precious...
And one last pic for you...twins with twins. I watch Vivie and Annah on Fridays. Karin and I got to hang out with these two cuties today. They are so much fun!
Karin, my older sister by eleven minutes, is here for the week. Yes, we are twins and this picture was taken in Leavenworth, not the penitentiary in Kansas, but a small Bavarian Village in the beautiful Cascade mountains.
We are having great fun, more pictures coming soon...
I've been thinking this morning, about Adam and Eve. When they were created, they came into life having wonderful, sweet, daily, communion with God. I believe it was Jesus with Whom they walked in the Garden of Eden, it was Christ pre-incarnate. When they chose to listen to the counsel of Satan, rather than the Wonderful Counselor's, they lost that wonderful, sweet, daily, physical-presence-communion with God. They gained death - physical as well as spiritual separation from God and their bodies began to age and eventually returned to dust. How excruciating it must have been, when they began to realize what they had lost. Choosing not to listen to God gained nothing good, only death, misery, and separation from Him. Man was created to live by the Word of God. Suffering is still the consequence when we choose not to walk in the counsel of God. But Jesus did not leave Adam and Eve without hope. Before He sent them out of the garden, He gave them a picture of what He was going to do someday. He killed an innocent animal, spilling its blood, to cover guilty Adam and Eve. The Creator, Jesus, would come at the fullness of time, as The Redeemer, and pay the price for sin with His blood, restoring relationship. His death would release His children from the bondage and power of sin. His death would release His chosen ones from Satan's domain, which Adam had plunged the human race into by choosing to heed Satan's counsel.
You are I were born into sin. We were born enemies of God, unable to please God, not even desiring to have communion with Him. Before the fall, Adam and Eve's hearts must have leapt with joy when they heard the sound of Jesus coming to them. Don't you think they ran to Him, eager to hear what He would teach them that day? Not so with us, before Jesus opens our eyes and reveals Himself to us, we do not seek Him. We do not desire Him. We do not desire righteousness and holiness. We do not desire His wisdom and counsel. We are blind to the goodness and holiness of God. We are unable to revel in the glory of God. We revel in self-glory. We are attracted only to self. We are born self-pleasers. We are so sinful, the Father must drag us to Jesus.
Jesus paid the price to restore our relationship back to what Adam and Eve had in the garden, before the fall. Jesus paid the price to release us from the bondage and power of sin and the kingdom of Satan. Jesus paid the price to restore that sweet and intimate communion with God. We'll never fully comprehend the price He paid, the shedding of His precious blood. We'll never understand the wrath He bore because we didn't have to pay the price. Jesus, while on the cross, experienced an eternity's worth of torment - of being separated from the Father, for each of His children, His gift's from the Father. The Innocent paying the price for the guilty. We deserved the torment of the Father's wrath and separation from Him. We deserved the nails driven into our hands and feet. Instead of it being our hands and feet, Jesus, without struggling, quietly and willingly laid His hands and feet out and took the searing pain of the piercing. We will never experience God's wrath for the punishment for our sin so we'll never completely understand what Jesus endured, what He bore to accomplish our redemption, but we can choose now to serve and love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We now hear His wise, sweet voice. We also now have an eternity with Him, to thank Him, Thank Him, THANK HIM!
