On the nature of temptation ...

From my reading of the Philokalia, and in the experience of my daily life I have discovered that there is an order of preference for temptation. If you are tempted towards on type of sin (say lust) and you manage to overcome it, even temporarily, the devil comes back at you with another temptation - such as anger. This is why it vital to ask God for guidance and support when you are battling sin.

Here is a way to ask ...

Dear Lord - please give me the strength to resist the temptations of the devil,
Give me the wisdom to see approaching temptation fro far off - and the fortitude to avoid it.
Thank you Lord - in the name of your son Jesus - amen.

God bless - N

Backsliding, repenting, backsliding, repenting ..

How ever many times we backslide into sin, we must never give up the attempt to live without sin. We are not like Jesus - we are not sinless. We are always subject to temptation. The best we can say is ..

From this day forth, I shall not fall into temptation.

And more importantly, we should fall upon our knees and beg the Lord to lead us not into temptation, but to deliver us from evil.

Pray every day, that God will protect you and guide your steps. And then make your own effort to live without sinning. Your own effort will not be good enough, but it is still required that you attempt it - and that to the best of you abilities.

Dear Lord please guide my steps,
Give me the strength to resist temptation,
I ask this in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen

And my God bless you - N

Blessed is the lion which becomes man

I have just been reading about the gospel of Thomas. This is a gospel that did not make it into the New Testament but is believed to have been written in the first century. The gospel of Thomas is not a narrative gospel (like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) but a 'sayings' gospel. It is thought to contain the sayings of Jesus as collected by the apostle Thomas. There are 114 verses (sayings) in all. Some of these have obvious parallels in the NT but others are more esoteric. One that paticularly interest me is verse 7.

Jesus said, "Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man; and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man

The meaning of this is open to interpretation but I believe the Lion represents 'The World'. So the meaning is something like:- A man can make the ungodly world holy by being holy, but if the ungodly world seduces the man, the man becomes ungodly. Something worth considering as the seductions of the world seem to increase.

God Bless - N

The establishment of Christian behaviour

It occurs to me that the one of the best ways to develop a really Christian life is to hold your faith in your mind as much as possible. I have recently read Way of a Pilgrim by Walter J. Ciszek (Foreword), Helen Bacovcin (Translator) This is an old Russian book that tells the story of an honest poor pilgrim who travels about the countryside looking for a way of including the Jesus Payer into his life. The Jesus Prayer ..

Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me,
a sinner.

The pilgrim seeks to make the Jesus Prayer part of his daily life by repeating it over and over again, as often as he could. At first he mumbled it and then only said it in his head, like a Hindu mantra. I have decided that I shall try this approach and see what happens. I shall Post again in a month or so and let you know what happens - N

God's Yellow Pages

I found this on www.christianforums.com - Thanks "His4Life" for posting it.

Where to look when:

• Afraid
  • Psalm 34:4
  • Matthew 10:28
  • 2 Timothy 1:7
  • Hebrews 13:5,6
• Anxious
  • Psalm 46
  • Matthew 6:19-34
  • Philippians 4:6
  • 1 Peter 5:6,7
• Backsliding
  • Psalm 51
  • 1 John 1:4-9
• Bereaved
  • Matthew 5:4
  • 2 Corinthians 1:3,4
• Bitter - Critical
  • 1 Corinthians 13
• Conscious of sin
  • Proverbs 28:13
• Defeated
  • Romans 8:31-39
• Depressed
  • Psalm 34
• Disaster threatens
  • Psalm 91
  • Psalm 118:5,6
  • Luke 8:22-25
• Discouraged
  • Psalm 23
  • Psalm 42:6-11
  • Psalm 55:22
  • Matthew 5:11,12
  • 2 Corinthians 4:8-18
  • Philippians 4:4-7
• Doubting
  • Matthew 8:26
  • Hebrews 11
• Facing crisis
  • Psalm 121
  • Matthew 6:25-34
  • Hebrews 11
• Faith fails
  • Psalm 42:5
  • Hebrews 11
• Friends fail
  • Psalm 41:9-13
  • Luke 17:3,4
  • Romans 12:14,17,19,21
  • 2 Timothy 4:16-18
• Leaving home
  • Psalm 121
  • Matthew 10:16-20
• Lonely
  • Psalm 23
  • Hebrews 13:5,6
• Needing God's protection
  • Psalm 27:1-3
  • Psalm 91
  • Philippians 4:19
• Needing guidance
  • Psalm 32:8
  • Proverbs 3:5,6
• Needing peace
  • John 14:1-4
  • John 16:33
  • Romans 5:1-5
  • Philippians 4:6,7
• Needing rules for life
  • Romans 12
• Overcome
  • Psalm 6
  • Romans 8:31-39
  • 1 John 1:4-9
• Prayerful
  • Psalm 4
  • Psalm 42
  • Luke 11:1-13
  • John 17
  • 1 John 5:14,15
• Protected
  • Psalm 18:1-3
  • Psalm 34:7
• Sick - In pain
  • Psalm 38
  • Matthew 26:39
  • Romans 5:3-5
  • 2 Corinthians 12:9,10
  • 1 Peter 4:12,13,19
• Sorrowful
  • Psalm 51
  • Matthew 5:4
  • John 14
  • 2 Corinthians 1:3,4
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
• Tempted
  • Psalm 1
  • Psalm 139:23,24
  • Matthew 26:41
  • 1 Corinthians 10:12-14
  • Philippians 4:8
  • James 4:7
  • 2 Peter 2:9,3:17
• Thankful
  • Psalm 100
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:18
  • Hebrews 13:15
• Traveling
  • Psalm 121
• Trouble, in
  • Psalm 16+31
  • John 14:1-4
  • Hebrews 7:25
• Weary
  • Psalm 90
  • Matthew 11:28-30
  • 1 Corinthians 15:58
  • Galatians 6:9,10
• Worried
  • Matthew 6:19-34
  • 1 Peter 5:6,7

A note on avoiding temptation

It has occurred to me that we (or at least I) complain about temptation towards sin. We are told in scripture that God never allows us to be tempted beyond our means to resist it. But the simple fact is.....we are very poor at resisting temptation.

Therefore, it seems plain to me that we should take every precaution to avoid temptation. And a real key to this is NOT THINKING ABOUT IT. I have found that the more I concentrate on resisting my temptations the more importance I give them and the more hold they have on me. Because of this it is vital that we do not dwell on temptation, but deliberately direct our minds to loftier thoughts. I shall elaborate further upon this in a future post.

God Bless - N

Temptation

It is uncommon now to talk about the Devil.  But sadly he is very real.  The Devil is usually thought of as a grotesque 'Hellboy' looking character.  Instantly recognisable and terrifying to behold.  The promotion of this (false) image is, in fact, one of his cleverest strategies.  The Devil is far more subtle.

The Devil is discreet but he is easy to find if you know what to look for.  The Devil exists in you most powerful temptations.  Temptation has always been the Devils province.  In the Bible we read how Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness.  This story, at first glance, seems harmless enough.  We are always sure that Jesus will not succumb, why would he? The temptation to show his power was not that great - or was it?

Perhaps for Jesus the temptation to display His great power (to turn stones into bread, to defy death) was the greatest temptation of all.  How much easier to control the world than to die for it?

The Devil attacks us in the same way that he attacked Jesus: by finding our most powerful temptations and using them against us.  Big temptations, to commit unspeakable crimes, are easy to spot and resist.  But some temptations seem too trivial to bother resisting - but those are the most dangerous ones!  The temptations to make us mean in a petty way, or lustful, or boastful, or unkind, or selfish.  These are the real dangers because they ‘slip in under our guard’.

We must always be aware of the workings of the Devil lest he should turn us aside from heaven, which has always been his intention.

N