Few people wake up one morning intending to ruin their testimony.
They don’t plan to drift from Christ, compromise the truth, or throw away years of faithful service.
Yet it happens with heartbreaking regularity.
Pastors. Ministry leaders. Faithful church members. Even people we once admired.
Rarely does it begin with outright rebellion. More often, it starts with something much subtler—flattery, fear, success, money, influence, relationships, or simply allowing distractions to pull them away from God’s priorities.
Nehemiah faced all of those temptations while rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall. Yet he refused to allow the enemy to sidetrack him.
How did he recognize the enemy’s tactics? And what can we learn that will help us guard our own hearts, ministries, and testimonies?
Today’s readings offer timeless wisdom for anyone who wants to finish faithfully.
Last fall the leadership team at our church met to plan out the following year. We talked about goals, scheduled events, and budgeting issues. Most people understand that planning is important. Sadly, even evil men and women spend time planning to do evil. But, what if we could make another kind of plan, a plan to do right rather than wrong, a “spiritual obedience plan,” if you will?
As I thought about this subject, it brought to mind parachuting. When a parachutist jumps out of a plane, he first wants to know that his parachute was packed properly and in working order. But, even then, he knows that things can go wrong. So, there is a plan “B,” a reserve parachute. In a way, a spiritual obedience plan can be both. It can guide us through the normal tests and temptations of life, help us to form new habits, and because it is written out, it can serve as that reserve parachute when emotions are running high.
So, what might it involve, how can we make one, and could it actually help us grow and steady us in tough times?
Joseph had been betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. He was far from home and from the eyes of everyone who knew him. But God was with him and allowed him to be promoted to steward in the house of his master, a man named Potiphar. That must have been heady stuff for a young man. But Joseph was not just smart, he was also handsome. And his master’s wife had taken notice. The next thing he knew, he was faced with a moment of temptation. With Potiphar away on business and the house empty, Potiphar’s wife made an all-out attempt to seduce him.
Remember, Joseph was a man in his prime, single, abandoned by his family, and alone. Who would know? Why not do what everyone else does and simply give in to the temptation?
How many of us have been faced with that kind of temptation? Given the attention of an important person? Told we can have what our heart or our flesh craves? Away on business, so who will know? What happens in Vegas … and all that? Do we give in?
Today, we’ll look at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and how He responded because the same principle can help us when we are fighting temptation or spiritual attacks. We will also look at how memorizing Scripture fits into all this and how the devil can, actually, use Scripture against us.
Also, did you know that every major civilization has a “flood story” as part of its oral or written history? What does the biblical account of the flood teach us about God, His character, and His sovereign control of world events? And why should this be so comforting to us in the sometimes dangerous times in which we’re living?
It started right there in the garden. The serpent tempted Eve with a thought, “Did God really say …?” The first step in his deception was to get her to doubt God, and he’s still whispering the same question today. What is he tempting you to doubt?
But God didn’t give up on mankind. His response provides hope to us all. And in the next chapter of Genesis, He counseled a young man. Could that counsel be something you need to hear?
Also read about the murder of dozens of innocent babies by a jealous, paranoid king, the danger of thinking we’re smarter than God, the importance of honoring parents, and some examples of fulfilled prophecy.
God does not want us ignorant of the process of sin. He shows us how, like a fisherman, the devil offers us the bait and how it connects with desires in our own hearts. God has clearly explained this process of sin so we can avoid being ensnared. But would you recognize it, if it was happening to you? Or could you be nibbling on some temptation designed just for you? And could he be about to reel you in?
Most of us think of holiness primarily in terms of what we do or don’t do. But God’s standard goes much deeper. He is concerned about what is happening in our hearts long before anyone else can see it.
That means the thoughts we entertain matter.
We may tell ourselves, I’m only thinking about it. I’d never actually do it. But Scripture warns us that the thoughts and desires we allow to take root can eventually control us.
In the book of James, God gives us two powerful pictures of how temptation and sin work. One comes from fishing and the other from conception and birth. Together, they show us how our desires can lure us toward sin and how thoughts that seem harmless can be fed and nurtured until they eventually produce something destructive.
The sinful thoughts we believe we can handle may eventually end up handling us.
So, how do we stop that process before temptation gets its hook into us? And how can we pursue the kind of holiness that begins in the heart?
We’ll also look at how God says we should respond when someone who has hurt us falls and why spiritual gifts were never intended to make us feel important or superior to other believers.
LIVING BETWEEN THE ALREADY & THE NOT YET – Part 3 Several weeks ago I started this series, “Living Between the Already and the Not Yet.” “The already” is who we are in Christ and have been since the day that...
