TEMPTATION’S DOOR

Blessed... happy and to be envied, is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive the victor’s crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted from God; for God is incapable of being tempted by what is evil and He Himself tempts no one. But every person is tempted when he is drawn away... enticed and baited, by his own evil desires, lust and passions. Then the evil desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured, brings forth death. Do not be misled, my beloved brethren.

Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands, who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm, take heed lest he fall into sin. For no temptation... no trial regarded as enticing to sin, no matter how it comes or where it leads, has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man. That is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear. But God is faithful to His Word and to His compassionate nature, and He can be trusted not to let you be tempted, tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance... beyond your power to endure. With every temptation God will always also provide the way out... the means of escaping sin’s snare, that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.

In a sense all sin is idolatry... loving, venerating or desiring anything more than God, the product of weak faith overwhelmed by wrong desires. Therefore, my dearly beloved, shun... keep clear away from and avoid by flight if need be, any sort of idolatry... of loving or venerating anything more than God.                       

ALL SIN IS IDOLATRY

(James 1:12-16, 2 Cor. 10:12-14)

WELLS... DRINKING... AND GOLD...

“Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Jesus is teaching the Samaritan woman something about wells... and spiritual life, a lesson made harder to follow in the old KJV. Let’s deconstruct this verse to see if we can find any gold nuggets of truth:

The first “drinketh” is in the present participle expressing continuous action, and the second “drinketh” is in the aorist subjunctive expressing simple punctiliar action, speaking of the fact of the action at a point in time: “Whoever keeps on drinking of this water will thirst again, but whoever takes a drink of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” The reason one drink of eternal life satisfies without repeated drinking is given in the context by the two Greek words translated “well.” “Well”, as in Jacob’s well, is from the Greek word phrear and means a pit dug in the earth into which water seeps, and becomes stagnant and brackish. “Well”, as in God’s well, is from the Greek word pege and means a perpetual spring, always fresh, overflowing and alive.

Continual drinking from the wells of this life in this world will never quench the soul’s thirst for heart satisfaction, but one drink of eternal life satisfies forever. Just one drink of eternal life... salvation, becomes, in and of itself, a supernatural spring, always alive, refreshing and satisfying to the person in which it flows. But there’s more: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. But this He spoke concerning the Spirit ...” The Holy Spirit is the well... the implanted eternal spiritual fountain of God, the water that instantly and forever satisfies the thirsting heart. And... God’s well is meant to be shared... it flows outward. And “river” here is the Greek word potamos, a swollen overflowing torrent... a flood, Saints are meant to be ready sources of Living Water... flooding everything in their path...

Better translations, such as the NKJV bring some of this out, but you won’t find the gold without diligently digging...

“FLOODS OF LIVING WATER”

 (Jn. 4:12-14, 7:37-39)

GOD’S IN OUR SANDBOX

My dear wife Frankie has been having a difficult stressful time at work, so she prayed for God to give her guidance while on her way to work Thursday. When she arrived at work a pastor in another department sent her an e-mail quoting 1 Thess. 5:18: “In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” During the day she received three more e-mails from people in different departments with a paraphrase of this passage, “In all things give thanks.”  Friday Frankie was in St Louis at the Science Center. Upon entering a man... a total stranger, stopped her and said, “In all things give thanks.” For anyone out there who is struggling and thinks God has deserted their sandbox... think again! These five people all independently chose this passage to share with Frankie, and four paraphrased it the exact same way, all at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Work is still difficult and stressful; the problem hasn’t been fixed yet. And we don’t really know how God will intervene. But somehow, knowing God is right there in our sandbox... real-time, makes everything bearable. The clearest personal promise of God in scriptures is “Fear not, for I am with you.” This point is documented with some variation in over thirty scripture passages, normally in the Imperative Indicative, a command followed by an undergirding statement of fact: “Fear not”, the command, followed by “For I am with you”, the statement of fact: “Fear not, for I am with you.” Being thankful during adversity demonstrates our trust in the God who is always right there with us, working our things... our difficulties, into good in accordance with His divine purpose. If we look closely we will see His footprints in the sand... feel His breath on our shoulder...

“IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS ...

FOR I AM WITH YOU”

KISSIN SAINTS

Ever notice how saints will choke on a gnat in emphasizing insignificant shades of doctrine than swallow a camel ignoring very clear commands of scripture. Take for instant the command, “Greet one another with a holy Kiss.” Deconstructing this verse:

* “Greet” is the Greek aspazomai, a greeting which means, contextually, “to embrace.”

* “One Another” is identified as “The Brethren”, being substituted as such in one passage. 

* “Holy”: This adjective is spoken of those who are purified and sanctified by the influences of the Holy Spirit and included in the Christian community, assumed of all who profess the Christian name. Here holy qualifies its noun kiss as a sacred Christian act, the pledge of Christian affection. 

* “Kiss” is the Greek philema which means “a kiss, a token of love and affection, by implication, on the cheek.

* Peter further clarifies this command by adding the phrase “Of Love”: “Embrace the brethren with a holy kiss of love.” This “Love” is the Greek agape, the love which is of and from God, which God lavishly pours into the willing hearts of His children. But this agape love is not to be a stagnant inward directed pool but rather an outwardly directed river of living water. When we greet our brethren with an embrace and holy kiss of love we are demonstrating our willingness to live out Christ’s second Great Commandment, to love others as we love our Self.  

This verse appears five times in the New Testament, always in the aorist imperative, a command. The God of love is determined to force His children to learn to love His way, to demonstrate sibling affection, for we saints are brothers and sisters in a greater sense than any human relationships. We just don’t act like it, and don’t want to act like it... do we?  And remember what Jesus said: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” The first Great Commandment, to love God, is imbedded in the second... we love God by loving others... Selah. God tests our hearts with simple truths like this command; the force of our resistance to obedience is a measure of the truth’s importance. We can debate and rationalize... and eventually swallow the camel, but we will, one and all, give an account as to why we chose to ignore such a clear and direct love command of God’s word. Some are probably sorry they read this...

 “AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE”

(Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14; Matt. 22:37-39)