I’ve been praying for you, and for all of us in this challenge. Each time I am aware I’ve crossed the line, I repent, confess, but also wonder about the how and why.
My son Ashton is awesome. We were putting a shelf together for a neighbour, very serious work 😝 and the fitting wouldn’t fit, so along comes my habit, and without even thinking I say the bad word. Ashton simply says, “no cursing dude” and suddenly I’m aware of it. I thank my brother in Christ, I contemplate.
Some scripture came to mind this morning as I drove from A to B in my school bus.
Matthew 4:11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
If we get past the temptation, it is in speaking the truth to the lies! And have any of us ever gotten to the other side, to find God filling the need, that Satan’s counterfeit has prevented us from ever tasting?
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Have we called out to God, to show us the way out?
Hebrews 12:4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Have we been willing to suffer, real loss? Have we been willing shed our rights, our entitled things? There’s nothing sinful about the blood staying in our veins!
1 Peter 4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is done with sin. 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.
Peter uses the plural YOU/YOURSELVES… is this an indicator that points to what we are doing here in the Be The Man challenge? I think so!
James 5: 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Finally, when we have done with doing what we already know! Living up to the truth we have already been convinced of, we move to a maturity where God can move us to DO, and our obedience is we know the sound of his voice.
Hebrews 5:11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Here is a strange one, but worth contemplating! Taken on! Argue about this last point! For we are the bride of Christ! What kind of wife are we?
Proverbs 21:9 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
Sin… look at Romans 14:23
23 …and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
and James says something similar>
17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
The idea is that God wants us to know that’s it’s all spiritual, it’s all obedience. It’s all sacred and Holy! We belong to him, he owns it all! I heard about a donkey, Jesus told them to just go and take it! I am not claiming I know exactly what’s going on there! But Jesus said “…If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”
I have called you friends…
Oh! Take a hold of this! Wrestle with this! Argue about it with your own hearts! Talk about it with me!
Take a look at this verse! Don’t miss it! He is wants us to join with him, to elevate from being babies (Hebrews 5:11-14) to running alongside of him in reaching out to those around us!
but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
And this is my prayer for us each and everyone of us>
25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Running Down Vimy 