"Conflicted, But Not Convicted"

“temp·ta·tion”

Noun \tem (p)-ˈtā-shən\

Definition of TEMPTATION

1: the act of tempting or the state of being tempted especially to evil: enticement

2: something tempting: a cause or occasion of enticement

Synonyms: allurement, enticement, lure, seduction

Back in the 70’s when I first accepted Christ as my Savior I was led to believe that things would suddenly change and living would be easy…I no longer had to be concerned with the issues of life; just live and trust in the Lord…

Through the years I have learned to put my trust in the Lord, but I can also admit that life as a born again believer has not been easy. Back then I didn’t take into consideration all of the variables and nuances that have always been a part of just living. We used to sing a hymn that said: “be not dismayed what ere the tide, God will take care of you…” Such a sweet, comforting song; and truthfully so. But I also remember a popular country/western song in those days that said: “I beg your pardon; I never promised you a rose garden…”

The Apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians 6:12 that we are confronted with conflict in the spirit realm daily. We fight and struggle from one battle to another.

As a former U.S. Marine I understood that the threat of war was always present and warfare is never easy; many would be wounded, captured, or killed. Our bravery and courage would be challenged regularly as would be our commitment to preserve the freedoms we experience. There are many who at one point or another are tempted to desert their post thinking that desertion may prolong their life.

“The same serves true for all of us.”

Ask yourself Christian: how many times were you tempted to stand in the lottery lines when urgent financial needs came into play? What about you unmarried Saints, how many times were you tempted to seek companionship when you were feeling lonely and un-wanted? And let’s not forget those of you who don’t mind a good brawl every now and then; how many times were you tempted to confront the person whom you felt  wronged you in some way?

What’s confusing about all of our temptations is that somehow we were led to believe as Christians that we aren’t supposed to be tempted on any point.

“Who Has Bewitched You?”

Jesus himself was tempted by Satan in the wilderness on all points (Ref. Matthew chapter 4)… Are we better than our Savior?

Ask yourself this question: Why would Satan dare target Christ, his master? The answer is a very simple one. Satan is our adversary and if he could entice the “King of Kings” to surrender to his will, then the promises found in the Gospel would be rendered null and void. Can you imagine Jesus deserting his post as the sacrificial lamb for our sins?

Here’s another thought; if we were never tempted during points in our walk, then it could possibly mean that our adversary was no longer our enemy, but an ally. In other words at one time or another, we gave in and caved-in.

The book of James has this to say concerning temptation:

“My brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers temptation; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire; wanting nothing.

(James 1:3-4)

You must understand that God does allow us to be tempted, but He does not tempt us…

“Let no man say when he is tempted that I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.” (James 1:13-16)

While it’s true that in God we live, move, and have our being, we are not untouchable from the wiles of the Devil. From the beginning of time mankind has always been involved in conflict be it spiritual or physical. If we are “over-comers” we must realize that we were made so by the conflict’s we incur day in and day out. Conflict is a daily staple of our walk with Christ.

It’s okay to be conflicted at times; just don’t allow yourself to be convicted.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23)

 

"What Do You Do When The Bottom Falls?"

“3 So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captive. 4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5 And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, and every man for his sons and daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. 7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. 8 And David enquired at the Lord…” (1^st Samuel 30:3-8)

It’s not surprising that for 365 days life just happens…and when it happens it doesn’t discriminate. You come home from work one day, pink-slip in hand, pick up the television remote only to realize that the television is not working… and the reason it’s not working is because there is no electricity. Suddenly the phone rings; its little Billy’s school, seems he had an accident during recess and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital. You run out to the car only to see it being towed away by the repo-man. But not to worry, the phone rings again and your wife is on the other end letting you know that she’s already at the hospital with Billy; and although you can breathe easier  you can’t help but to worry just a little.

So you walk over to your favorite recliner to take a load off, but there’s a knock at the door. The gentleman on the other side identity’s himself and then hands you an envelope… your wife has just served you with divorce papers. That explains the thin look in the closets and both bedrooms, and you thought little Billy finally remembered not to leave his toys scattered all over the place. You reach for the phone and begin to dial your wife’s cell, but all you get is dead air space because just that quickly your services have been terminated.

No; this is not a calgone moment…you are in a state of Ziklag and everything in your life is heading south. You decide to walk to the neighborhood bar for a few drinks and end up closing the place. As you semi-stagger homeward the thought comes to mind to stop at the ATM.

No sooner than you withdraw your money some masked man whose name is not The Lone Ranger or Zorro puts a gun in your back and demands that you hand over all of your cash. You say to yourself; man I was gonna pay my best friend Jimmy back with that money. Wasted and dejected you head homeward.

As you draw near to your house you notice someone parked in the driveway. It’s Jimmy, your bosom buddy and life-long pal; he wants his money. You try and explain to him how you were just jacked at the ATM, but he’s not in the mood to listen because he’s in a financial jam and his wife is also threatening to leave him. Jimmy wants to fight; he warns that if you don’t have his money tomorrow there will be trouble and leaves you sitting on your front stoop with your head in your hands wondering what to do next….

In that moment you think you’ve hit rock bottom but truthfully speaking, the bottom has fallen.

This scenario or something similar has happened to all of us at one time or another. Even today someone’s mortgage has been foreclosed on, car repossessed, services discontinued, a loved-one hospitalized, the dog ran away and the cat was run over…society calls this “Murphy’s Law” meaning whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

In society when the bottom falls it is customary to surrender to the circumstances. One popular solution is to drown yourself and your bottomless troubles in the alcoholic beverage of choice, or just fix it all with narcotics; some have even contemplated suicide. Neither of these solutions will rid you of the problem, in fact they will only lead to more bottom falling incidents.

When David hit rock-bottom he was at his wits end; family taken into captivity, and his buddies threatening to kill him because they followed him into the same situation. David could have taken matters into his own hand from the start, I mean the man had just cried until he couldn’t cry anymore, why not wield his sword against his own men and afterwards head out by himself to search for his family.

The real question here is; what would he have gained by pursuing that line of thinking? Better yet; why take matters into his own hand?

Proverbs 16:25 states – “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are ways of death…”

David did the proper thing; he sought the Lord for instruction.

One of the requests that Jesus taught his disciples to make when they pray was “give us this day our daily bread…” this should tell you God already knew about the dilemma that you are going through beforehand, but he’s waiting for your permission before he steps in to lead the way out.

“He’s a Gentleman”

More importantly, a relationship must be established between you and the Lord which moves you to trust that he’ll deliver you from all of your troubles. There is no time to fear what’s happened and there most certainly is no time to fear in man.

“The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” Proverbs 29:25

By seeking counsel from the Lord David was able to employ a strategy that allowed him and his men to pursue and destroy their enemy; and ultimately recover everyone and everything that was stolen from them.

Eventually all of us will experience those moments when the bottom falls. Life happens…. When it does you can cry until there are no more tears left. But the moment your tear-ducts dry up, that’s not the time to get high only to be brought low. “CALL ON THE LORD!”

 “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” Jude 1:24-25

Thank God for putting the floor back under your feet!

"Following In Dad's Footsteps"

One of the most heartwarming scenes to witness today is the loving interaction between a good father and his son. Right away you notice how the father dotes on the son, and how the son reverently looks up to his dad.

I'm constently reminded of how I saw my own dad; he was my hero and there was nothing that he couldn’t do. In our younger days my brother and I often went everywhere with him whether it was to his job, or the gym where he trained. We were afforded the opportunity to witness him in many facets of his life. Dad truly believed in the biblical adage of “train up a child…” with that said you can figure out that we grew up in church. In fact; dad was an ordained minister who would later become a pastor.

I recall how everyone in our large family always revered him and how people in our community respected him, and with moms help they raised four pretty decent kids. As we grew, dad dealt with each of us on a different level according to our various personalities. My sister was his little princess, my brother who was a year younger than I was the one he could easily pull pranks on, and my youngest brother was to dad what Gilligan was to the Skipper. But things were much different for me: being the first born my dad had greater expectations for me. The problem early on is that I had other plans for myself.

To be completely honest, I was very prodigal in my thinking. But no matter what or how I thought, dad always knew best and dad always had a plan. He’d often tell me that there would be no bums or jail birds leaving his house; and he meant every word. So from my mid-teen years till my early adult years I could be found with him almost daily because my dad believed that I should follow the same path as him. You can’t imagine how boring my summers were. While my buddies were attending summer football practices, I had to work with my dad on his tractor-trailer; and on Friday evenings I would be so tired from working that I often just wanted to sleep. During those long truck rides I’d often get an earful of do’s and don’ts; right and wrongs, one sermon after another…etc.

I thought that I was ignoring him, but to my benefit I heard every word. At some point I ended up serving my country in the military…just like my dad… I became a boxer…just like my dad… Would you believe me if I told you that in no way was I purposely attempting to follow that path? I tried everything that I could to not be like dad from gang-banging, to bar hopping. From being a booze-hounding, lie-swapping womanizer to eventually becoming a drug addict.

Then one afternoon, after an all-night crack smoking binge I realized that I’d finally reached my lowest point in life and I could no longer stand myself. Right away my thoughts went back to those many lectures that my dad would give me while we were on that tractor-trailer. By this time dad had gone home to be with the Lord, but his words came to me as clear as a bell. I could also hear my mother reminding me that whenever I found myself in a situation that I just couldn’t seem to bring myself out of, to just call on the name of Jesus…That’s what I did.

I guess you could say that dad’s ultimate plan for me was beginning to take shape. It only stands to reason that my dad never ceased to seek the Lord in reference to me and my siblings, because the very words that he spoke over our lives are still coming to pass. But here is the caveat; the path I now take wasn’t just a plan formulated by my dad. God set the wheels in motion before the foundation of the world.

Psalm 37:23 reads – “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.”

So today according to plan I find myself doing many more of the same things that dad did. In fact, today I’m an ordained minister…just like my dad… With each passing day I find that I’m doing many of the same things that he did and I enjoy them just as much as he did, to the glory of God!

Even when I thought that I wasn’t paying attention to him, I was taking in every bit of his instruction and observing his actions very closely.  I was aware of his prayer time; our family studied the word of God together on a weekly basis. I listened intently to his sermons and gave equal ear to the many explanations and answers he’d given concerning biblical questions. I could often overhear the counsel he presented to the many visitors who came to our home seeking answers. Little did I realize then that one day I’d fill his shoes.

Jesus once said: “Verily, verily I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these…” John 5:19-20

This is so amazing; it does my soul good to know that not only am I walking in the path which God has designed for me, but I’m also:

“Following in Dad’s Footsteps”

"The Believers Bucket List"

In 2007 Rob Reiner directed a movie titled “The Bucket List”. The movie follows an auto mechanic (Morgan Freeman) and a billionaire (Jack Nicholson) who are both diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the same time.

Prior to being diagnosed, the mechanic had already written a list of things to do before he kicked the bucket but decided against the idea when he was told that he had cancer. The billionaire stumbles across the list and convinces the mechanic to go through with it. They both set out on a vacation to fulfill their bucket list wishes.

They begin their vacation by going sky diving, driving a Shelby Mustang, having dinner in France, they visit the Taj Mahal in India, ride motor cycles across the Great Wall of China, go on a safari in Africa, and stand atop of the Great Pyramid in Egypt…

The obvious observation that comes to mind from the movie is that each of these men having knowledge of their soon coming death had an opportunity to fulfill many of their desires before they died.

I’m certain each of us have dreams that we wish to see come true before we die, but as “Kingdom People” we also have much work to do. Even Jesus confessed:

“I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work”. (John 9:4)

While we understand that these are the last of the last days, we have no knowledge as to when Christ will return. We see the signs that Jesus foretold of, and each day we are witnesses to fulfilled Biblical prophecy. However unlike the characters in the movie, we don’t know how close we are to kicking the bucket. The Savior has declared: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Matthew 24:36)

As born again believers we have a purpose to demonstrate the works of Christ in our daily living, and we must work the works of the Father who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light while it is still day.

For the above reasons I’d like to introduce “The Believers Bucket List”. Things we should do before we’re raptured; or kick the bucket.

 

1.      Continue in LOVE – Mark 12:30-31, Jude 1:21, 1^st Cor 13:1

2.     Continue in constant PAYER – 1^st Thess 5:17, Eph 6:18, Acts 12:5

3.     Continue FASTING – 2^nd Chronicles 20:3, Luke 2:37, Mark 9:17-29

4.     Continue in WORSHIP – John 4:23-24

5.     PRAISE God always – Psalm 34:1, 117:1, 135:1, 147:1,

6.     Stay in THE WORD – 2^nd Timothy 2:15

7.     Share the GOSPEL – 2^nd Cor 4:3, Ezek 3:18, 33:8 Matt 28:19-20, Acts 1:8, Matt 5:16

8.    TRUST in the Lord – Proverbs 3:5-6, 28:25, 29:25

9.     WAIT on the Lord – Psalm 27:14, Isa 30:18, 40:31

You might ask; “What’s so amazing about this bucket list?”  the answer is simple: we can achieve these goals daily.

But always remember; Tomorrow is not promised...

"When Life Imitates Art"

When I was a boy growing up in the 60’s it was a common thing for us to go to the moves on Saturday afternoons. Back then we had what they called “The Saturday Matinee” which meant that we would pay 50 cents to see two feature films and four cartoons. It was always an exciting time for us. We’d watch movies with such titles as; “Jack the Giant Killer”, “The Mighty Hercules”, “The Magnificent Seven”, “James Bond”…etc.

On our way home we were all so excited about what we saw that we couldn’t wait  to get home and pretend to be the heroic characters who were portrayed in the movies.  Most of the time we would pretend to be cowboys, one group would be the outlaws and another would be the sheriff’s posse; other times we would make swords and shields from wood that was found in our basements and garages of our homes, then pretend to play Vikings vs. Romans….

For us it was all about imagination and having good clean fun, it was our way of acting out and without having to harm anyone or break the law; even as kids we could separate fantasy from reality. Common sense, along with having great parents, would not allow us to think that it was real. It was clear to us that the actors on the big screen were merely pretending to be the characters that they read from a script. We never attempted to conduct a hanging like in the old west, nor did we try to run each other through with the sword, it was simply a game.

Just yesterday I was in a conversation with my pastor and he mentioned that recently police shot a man who attacked another man and began eating his face like a zombie; we talked about a second young man in Maryland who murdered his roommate and feasted on his brains. I recalled how a couple of years ago I had a conversation with a guy who was so fascinated with vampires that he had his teeth filed to make him look like one. Now I’m no stranger to horror movies myself, we saw many at the Saturday Matinee’s, but I can’t recall anyone coming out of the theater wanting to be Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, or the Wolf Man.

Today society is being saturated with movies that depict zombies, vampires, werewolves, and lycans. In many cases these demonic creatures are portrayed as heroes. Going to the movies has become an instruction guide to living in a dark and evil culture.

Some may respond to this message by saying that we are living in the last days and I agree. But what’s even more frustrating is that on a daily basis many in Christian society are succumbing to this madness. Television ratings continue to rise for series like True Life and The Walking Dead, and yet there are many Christians who have adopted the attitude of; “I’m sorry but I watch it and I like it”  Forgive me but the last time that I checked; we are commanded to let our light shine (Reference Matthew 5:16)

In Genesis the 13^th chapter we read that there was strife between Abram and his nephew Lot; in the twelfth verse it states that “Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom”. 

In other words, Lot and his family became daily witnesses of every wicked behavior that was practiced in Sodom and ultimately became partakers of that very same behavior. We have a saying that “you are what you eat”, therefore if you constantly feed your spirit man a diet of things ungodly, you will ultimately become that what you’ve been seeing.

“For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”. (Ref. Galatians 6:8)

As a blood-washed believer I admonish you to not allow your life to imitate media art; instead let it imitate the giver of life.

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting God who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NLT)

Within each of us lies the power that can cause art to imitate the life of Christ because the Holy Ghost has come upon us and lives inside making us martyrs to the glory of God. (Ref. Acts 1:8)