Tuesday, Jul 01, 2008

TWG - July 1, 2008

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TWG - July 1, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Exodus 34; Psalm 46; Acts 7:20-38

Today is July 1, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. This is your invitation to take one step forward every day in your relationship with Christ. We invite you to do something unbelievably radical. We invite you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus

Yesterday was Monday. Not a lot going on around the Kreiss household. I lounged around until about nine in the morning before trying to get some stuff done. I had some accounting to do and that took me most of the afternoon. Then I mailed a few letters and went to work out. Not an eventful day. After that I spent some time on the computer working on some ideas to help me be more effective in discipleship. If you are interested in them, let me know and I’ll share them with you. Then I watched an hour or so of the Olympic trials. That was fun. I haven’t watched track and field in years! I put up a picture of our “snipe hunt” on the blog at timewithgod.mypodcast.com. check it out. While we were at camp, Dave and Ken spearheaded a night time snipe hunt. It was great fun but, as usual, we didn’t catch anything.

This week’s theme verse is 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Life is full of temptations! The tempter is lurking just around the next corner, waiting to spring his latest enticement on us. If you walk into it blind and unprepared it will snare you! Temptation will overtake you like an oblivious fly droning mindlessly about on a summer day. He never sees that spider web until it’s too late! He’s caught! The spider is a master at his craft of deception, placing the web right where he is sure to catch the fly. And struggle as we may, once we have entered the spider’s lair, we won’t leave without a little poison in our system. But don’t think for an instant that you are the only person ever to get sucked into that sin. In that respect, you are not unique. There is a common theme that runs through the blood of every man, woman and child. It caught Adam in its web, and every man and woman since. We all have similar weaknesses. Lust, greed, covetousness, addiction, pleasure seeking, hatred… different spins, similar sins. James 1:14-15 explains how the temptation game works. 1st each one of us is tempted when we are drawn away by our own desires and enticed. Temptation is like the worm on a hook to a fish. The tempter is fishing. You’ve heard the saying Flip Wilson made famous, “The Devil made me do it!” Not true. All the tempter has to do is bait the hook and hang it in a conspicuous place. Then he yawns, stretches, lazily pulls his straw hat down over his head and lays back against a comfortable tree waiting for the fish to bite. But the fish (that’s us!) swims by and oh that lure looks good. It flashes in the sunlight. It alluringly dances for us. We want what it has got. It is our own weakness that draws us in and entices us. The tempter would have nothing on us if it wasn’t for the fact that we are our own worst enemy! So we strike the lure and we are caught up in the temptation. That’s step 2. When desire is conceived it gives birth to sin. It takes time for temptation to run its course. It has to germinate, ruminate and percolate in our mind a bit. If we refused to allow conception, temptation would never give birth to sin. The key to fighting temptation is to turn our thoughts away from our fantasies and replace those thoughts with Scripture and every other good thought. If you do not, you are on the hook. And that leads us to step 3. When sin is full grown it brings forth death. You may think that you can get away with your sin once, twice, even dozens of times… but eventually giving in will be your Waterloo. You will be so trapped by its enticements, so hooked by its pleasures that you won’t notice that the tempter has reeled you in, netted you, and has his knife out to gut you to the gills. By that time, you are done, washed up, used up and caught. Before that happens, you and I had better find a way of escape! Good news! There is always a way of escape into the arms of God.

Dear Father in Heaven. Please keep me from temptation. I want my mind to be stayed on you. I want my heart to be in perfect peace. Please make the way of escape from temptation clearly marked so I don’t miss it. I want to gain strength and so live a godly life.

Come unto me all you who are weary and heavily burdened and I will give you rest.

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:04 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

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