I know, I know, I haven't posted in a while. It's just that I never intended to make this a "must do", but only share when I had something to say.
That being said, I have a lot of thoughts in my head and heart from over the past couple of weeks. God has worked a GREAT WORK in me - just as he promised, and I bless Him for that.
He has shown me some wonderful truths - life changing stuff, all of which I just don't know how to put into words here.
Disney was awesome AND overwhelming as usual. We have gone many, many times and we always enjoy it. Some of our fondest family memories have been made there.
We were traveling on the monorail from EPCOT to the Magic Kingdom one night. I was looking at the full moon thinking about the mass of humanity that one encounters there and MY seeming insignificance, when God told me that He STILL knows ME! Yes, even though satan tells us that we are nothing, the Holy Spirit tells us otherwise.
Which leads me to something I've learned - that satan uses our God-given desires/needs and (can I say) "bastardizes" them. We have a natural desire to eat - so satan tells us to overeat. We have a natural desire for sex, and I don't need to be specific here, but just say that after thousands of years, he knows what buttons to push!
So...the ultimate truth is that satan tempts us to sin when he gets us to meet our OWN fleshly needs OUTSIDE of God's plan. We eat too much to satisfy some emotional need that God CAN and WILL meet, and satan knows that overeating will KILL us sooner (or at the very least, affect our health and well-being). But, we just have to trust Father to meet our need.
God tells us in Philippians "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. " Do I believe Him or not? I have a choice. And if I exercise my choice to meet my OWN need outside of Him, then THAT is sin.
Could we go on to say that we tell ourselves (and ultimately agree with satan!) that we are independent from God and can ACT independently from Him? Isn't THAT what the Fall WAS?! The deceiver doesn't change his tactics because he knows that it works EVERY TIME!
I know that the sin(s) that so easily besets ME can absolutely be described that way! Ultimately we can believe God or satan. We HAVE a choice. THAT is why we have to renew our mind daily and to "set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. "
Praise be to YHWH and glorify His Name!
Posts
Chapter 11: Love, Rest, and Play
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Note: This is the eleventh in a series of letters written for those living
at the end of the age, whenever that comes in the next fifteen years ...
The po...
2 days ago
2 comments:
John,
James 1:14 reinforces exactly what you are saying: "14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his OWN lust, and enticed." We are truely or own worst enemy.
But then I am reminded of one of my favorite Bile verses. 1Cor 10:13
" 13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
God is still in control!!
I'm a little late... but welcome back!
Yep indeed Satan twists so many natural things around. There's that whole "angel of light" thing. I think he also has gotten the church of today to have an ungodly focus on sin... So much so that we remain focused on the bad things we do rather than the righteous person that God has made us to be, in reality, as a gift of His grace.
Satan got Adam and Eve to believe that the focus in life was "right and wrong" (good and evil), when the reality that God gave them was Life in Him. I think that the more we dwell on the Life that God has freely redeemed us to in Christ, the more we'll realize that 'right and wrong' isn't the issue, but rather the gift of Life.
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