It is Written

 Here, in this segment, I would like to quote from a highly respected commentator, Matthew Henry.  His explanation and text relates so well to what needs to happen for us to maintain the gift of liberty we have been given through Jesus Christ.  In Matthew 4:4-10, there is a famous passage of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.  The following are excerpts of Matthew Henry’s take on that experience:

1)                  It is a comfort to us that Christ suffered, being tempted:  for thus it appears that temptations, if not yielded to, are not sins, they are afflictions only;

2)                  It is one of the wiles of Satan to take advantage of our outward condition;

3)                  Outward afflictions are the great augments Satan uses to make the people of God question their sonship;

4)                  The devil aims to shake our faith in the word of God, and to bring us to question its truth;

5)                  Christ answered all the temptations of Satan with, ‘It is written.’  He is himself the eternal Word;

6)                  The devil can but persuade, he cannot compel; he can but say, cast down thyself; he cannot cast us down;  

7)                  Every man is tempted, when he is drawn aside of his own lust {all lust is not wrong, some lusts are God given i.e. Hunger} . . . [lust is] not forced, but enticed;

8)                  Is Satan so well versed in scripture as to be able to quote it so readily?  It seems he is so.  He misquotes it;

9)                  If we expect that because God has promised not to forsake us, therefore he should follow us out of the way of our duty:  that because he has promised to keep us, we may willfully thrust ourselves into danger… This is presumptuous this is tempting God;

10)             The best of saints may be tempted to the worst of sins.  It is their affliction, but while there is no consent to it…it is not their sin;

11)             Christ was tempted to worship Satan.  Some temptations are openly wicked, they are not to be disputed, but rejected.  It is a just indignation;

12)             Satan will yield, if we keep our ground.  Knowing the truth about God is a must, in order to believe in the good news about salvation as well as what is written about yourself.

~Did you know that God made you good?~

Think about what this means.  Because remember, God is holy.  All that He created was of an excellent nature.  Anything contrary to His holy nature is known as abomination (falls into the abomination category). You may read in your Bible where many such things pertaining to the earth are viewed in this context by a Holy Father.   Any person, place, or thing opposite of what God originated, is basically opposing what and how the Creator of the person or thing authorized him or it to be used.

 For example, God has given us Saturday as the Sabbath Day of rest, but certain people choose Sunday.  Why?  Just because they want to.  Because they can.  God has the sovereign right to claim that doing so is an abomination! 

  Look at it this way.  As long as something is brand new, its status is subject to change almost immediately after the first handling of it.  Everyone accepts this as normal business practices, the cost of doing business.  Drive a purchased, brand new car off the lot of any dealership and then try to return it a day later.  You won’t get the same price that you paid for it, only the day before, will you?  New shoes become scuffed shoes the first time you wear them.  A new stove in the department store won’t look the same anymore once you fry grease on it in your own kitchen, will it?  Same with furniture, clothes, or anything you can name.  Department Store policy does not permit them to resell an item as ‘new,’ even if unopened or unused.  Everybody knows that.

The point being, God, in His role gave the perfect start to man!   Whatever falls short of that perfection will always be characterized as abomination or as unacceptable to receive God’s approval.  He is simply communicating to us, via His veto power, regarding such substandard conditions in which mankind reduced themselves.  He did not do this to man or make man this way.  He did not play a part in this outcome.

For our natures to perform in this way so easily; finding these acts to be quite enjoyable, is far from holy.   It should be understandable, therefore, if God’s reaction is likened to a disgruntled restaurant patron, who declares,

“Excuse Me, I did not order this!”

Here is the very last example on this.  Let’s say a most famous, expert pastry chef is contesting with rival chefs in a bake-off.  No one is privy to the others secret recipes, containing all the pertinent ingredients and precise measurements that make these cakes world renown.   Everything is meted out as it should be, according to the directions.  When this unsuspecting chef turns away to preheat the oven, however, sabotage takes place behind his back.  One of his unscrupulous competitors has added a cup of salt to the cake batter while this chef is busying away.  Salt is now the dominate flavor of the entire mixture as it is baking, without any clue that there has been a violation in this contest.   A golden beauty, the cake finally comes out of the oven; it smells delicious.  It evenly stacks up to a five-star quality.   Pristinely decorated, it is plated and placed before the tasters.  Yet, there is the matter of the one ingredient which dominates all of the other ingredients (like sin).  One after another, judges are seen spewing cake from their mouths, crying,

“Foul!”  

“This cake is foul!” 

Now, of course, God was well aware, unlike the chef, of Satan’s wiles in the Garden.  He knew that Evil was present.  I think He was counting on Adam and Eve to trust Him in regard to handling any “knowledge of evil.”   All they would have had to do was enjoy the benefits of the “good.”  However, they had been tricked into eating.  And as soon as they ate, their eyes were opened (they tasted a mouth full of salt).  Just as the salt dominates, sin now dominates all of Adam and Eve’s posterity. 

While under better circumstances, salt usually would be appreciated, if used in accordance.  Likewise knowledge would usually be appreciated for its value, if used in its proper terms.  But, it’s just that “obedience is better” than all the knowledge in the world!  Obedience is better than knowing how evil tastes, no matter how sensual it may look.  Negate the desire to touch, when God says, “Touch not, taste not, handle not.”  It should suffice.

This audacious deed (disobedience) cannot be undone unless you were to bake another cake that is entirely new.  One that does not have impurity in the mix.  Our Father understands this, frankly.  That is why He put on our same flesh and experienced the promptings from our same nature so that He could understand it even more.  Take notice of how every day that He would visit in the garden in Eden, He did not come to smell the flowers or pet the animals.  He came there to be with us, mankind.  He has always wanted to be “God, with us.”

      ~Where do we go from here then?~

Let us admit this much about ourselves—the term abomination is suitable to us and none should be offended.  As well, let us acknowledge that God alone is the One who is Holy.  God is the only One who is set apart, chaste, clean, untainted.  He is pure in His holiness to the nth degree.  We mustn’t take things so personally as against us, then.  Now that we understand a little better. 

Furthermore, be willing to acknowledge that everything we do runs adjacent to the legality or lawfulness of the claims that Satan is enabled to make against us.  Yes, he makes a claim against us.  For all of God’s children are on Satan’s hit list. It says in I John 3:4, “Whoever commits (practices) sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”  And for this reason, there does stand a legitimate claim, from birth, because by nature we have all inherited Adam and Eve’s thirsts’ and lusts’. Recognize this fact for what it is.  Stop minimizing it.

 It remains that we will always be susceptible to sin because of this original body that we live in. The one that is perfectly new (a resurrected body) will be just that, perfectly new.  Flawless.

b

The Book of Colossians carries a treasure chest filled with principles that can help us to stabilize our preoccupation with sin.  If you read the entire Chapter three, it will bless you.  It is a subtle rendition which might have to be read and reread to make the connection:  The sum of this particular part of the letter to the inhabitants of Colossae is a message encouraging you to set your mind and keep it set on higher things, not on base, or basic things. Realizing, everything we have to do with on this earth is basic.  In between life and death, all of us fill our moments with needs and wants.  Our life is haplessly diluted with all sorts of perishable, unprofitable busywork.  Eat.  Sleep.  Sex.  Text.  Work.  Fight.  Repeat.  

Insatiable appetites have power to exercise formidable cravings over us which tend to dominate our lives.  But on the whole, our life becomes hidden, and is with Christ.   Because we are now informed, we don’t have to go as to the brink, as we once did, catering to our monstrous appetites.  Rather, our only aim should be to give a basic nod to our needs with temperance and moderation.

 A further explanation.  Unless you’re sick, any impulse to lounge around all day after sleeping a regular eight hours would be overdoing it, even for a sloth.  Or how about pandering to food cravings as though in need of a fix.   Hacking into food supplies throughout the day.  Having all-day snack attacks that overload the digestive system worse than an addiction.   Hour upon hour your ‘glutton’ is filled with food and drink,  

“Got to have my coffee!”

 “Mmm, bacon!”

“What’s for lunch?”

 “What’s for dinner?”

“Yes, I’ll take fries with that!”

High on the list, is sex on demand.   Frequently indulged with no restraints, no commitment, no strings, no love, and no thought to consequence.  Porn, masturbation, fantasy, solicitation, infidelity, whatever your pleasure.  ‘Kinky is the new….’  The whole point to all of this is, whether it is homosexuals or heterosexuals’ behaving in this manner, you ought to respect and honor your body! 

Easier said than done, I know.  But at least you do not have to say yes every time, and go along with every craving, stirring, arousal, or social order that stirs your appetite.  Not every time!   We should exercise the power of ‘No’ in these times of temptation, when we feel strong enough to do so.  Use your own stated veto power.   Implore for God to help you.

~So think~

Why would you feel obliged to feed the cravings of a dead body any longer?  Think of how these same cravings are not real, anymore.  Even though the spirit or ghost of sin still haunts our thoughts to try to resurrect that old, dead man that used to rule and consume the way you lived. Resist it. Think back to when Yeshua, our Savior, left his burial rags inside the tomb.  Why not let the new you have a chance to live.  The new you is spirit and it wants to rule and show you a new, meaningful way of life.  And later on, when you turn in that old body for a new body—the one that cannot house infirmities and does not have imperfections—you will never have to worry or ever have to be afraid again.  All that remains from our old life are the rags (a body once doomed to death). 

Hang in there and you will be free at last!  Forever redeemed by Christ!

b

Whatever Christ is or has done, we take after Him in all things.  His experiences here on earth have now become our own.  This is why it is important to encourage yourself by reading what is truly written about you.  Try to read beyond Deuteronomy and Leviticus (the book of laws).  Find words in the Bible where there is a treasure chest of reconciliatory, love language aimed at the heart.  At your heart.  And mine. 

Although you may think that what is written in the Bible has little purpose for you, I tell you, it does.  You may not be aware of the depth of wisdom it contains.  Trust the writer, I do not aim to steer you wrong.  As you read the Bible, you are reading a life-giving, life-altering document.  It is a holy Book.  It is a healing Book.  The words of those old, ancient scripts are not vain words.  Each and every “jot and tittle” contains spiritual DNA.  

Your eyes might strain to stay open as you attempt to read hard-to-pronounce words, genealogies about somebody else’s family, and history lessons of the past.  Don’t stop!  Don’t dismiss it!  This is just the medicine you need!  Your ears may barely be open enough to understand because the Word is so foreign and hard to comprehend.  No appetite for it, I get that.  But do it for your soul, the unseen part of you that cannot live on burgers and fries.  Literally. 

This same Bible teaches that a man cannot live by “bread alone” but lives by every word (decree) that proceeds from the mouth of God.  Think about that.  Consider the benefits.  Try it, and see for yourself that the Lord is good.