What Tempts You?

Week 4 or our Bible Study

Read Genesis 3: 1-6

Look at how Satan works to destroy Eve and Adam 

(and this is how he tries to destroy you and me)

First he questions the Word of God to cause Doubt

"Did God really say....."

Then he denies the Word of God and Ridicules the Word of God

which distracts us from the Truth of the Word of God

"You will not die..."

Now weakened in the Truth of His Word, Satan lays out the Temptation

"...you will be like God"

 Do you see Satan working like this in today's world?

(would love to see your thoughts in the comments below)

I think Satan has created enough doubt and ridicule over the millennia  that it has resulted in a secular society that not only doubts God exists, but ridicules those who continue to believe in and follow Him

Read 1 John 2:16

John warns us to beware of things that appeal to the flesh, the eyes and our pride.

The lust of the flesh are things that gratify our physical senses.

For Eve that was finding the fruit to be "good for food"

For us it might be gluttony of food, or alcohol, or drugs or sex.

The lust of the eyes are those things that we see and desire to have.

For Eve she saw that the fruit was good, it was a delight to her eyes.

For us it is those material things we must have, no matter how we get it our who we hurt:  wealth, car, clothes, jewels.

It could also be as simple as video gaming so much that we isolate ourselves from family, friends and time with God.

Pride may be the easiest way to lead us to sin.

For Eve, Satan said she would be like God--that implies power---and pride.

What do some people do to achieve popularity? celebrity? power?

How does Satan do it?  How does he tempt us?

First he tries to make us believe God nor he exists.

I think this is his greatest accomplishment!

How easy it is for him to lead us down a path of self destruction if we don't believe in God or Satan.

Who defines right and wrong if there is no God?

Without God's morality, what couldn't Satan lead us in to?

Think of how secular (godless) society 

floods our sense with sinful things 

and normalizes them?

Dress provocatively

Be sexy.

Have lots of Sex

Party! Party! Party!

Drink / do drugs to be popular

Disrespect authority

Want it? Take it!

A little lie never hurt anyone.

Abortion is not murder

Another ploy of Satan is to trick believers into thinking he is God.

From this point of view he can lead "believers" astray.

And you get the development of Cults, or so called Christians who hate others.

(google the westboro baptist church)

When you think of the titles the Bible gives Satan

I think it becomes easier to understand who and what he is:

The Accuser

The Great Deceiver

Father of Lies

Evil One

The Adversary

God of this World

Prince of this World

The Enemy 

How can we Avoid Tempation?

1. Identify temptations that are hard for you to resist.

(what would that be? gossip? pride? popularity?)

2. Pray about the temptation

(Ask God to help you recognize sin and give you the strength to  walk away)

3.  Avoid the Temptation--avoid situations that put you at risk

(You may have to loose friends to do so)

4. Use the Bible for Inspiration

(for some example scriptures click here )

5. Use the Buddy System

Surround yourself with Christian friends--they will help you and strengthen you.

6.  Use Positive Language to help you overcome the temptation.

For example, don't say: This is too hard

Instead say: God can help me, its not too hard for Him.

7. Give yourself an "out"----See the escape.

For example if you are tempted to lie and not hurt someone's feelings you can find other words telling the truth that are uplifting.

Sin Promises:  Freedom, Wisdom, Pleasure

BUT

Sin Delivers: Bondage, Guilt, Shame

Created in His Image

Week 3 of our Bible Study

I hope you are enjoying this and learning as I am!

Read Genesis 1:26 and a simple 2 and then 3 letter word may pop out at you:

"US"  and "OUR"

What???

We are taught there is One True God--So who is "us"??

Now Read Genesis 1:27 

And we are back to the singular of God "He" and "His".

This must be some kind of contradiction revealing to us how untrustworthy

 the Bible is and therefore NOT possibly the Word of God!

Anyone who argues this does not understand the Trinity.

Right here in the first chapter of the Bible God is revealing to us 

His Triune Nature. 

(although at this point we wouldn't understand this until we read other scriptures later on)

The expression of "He /His" reveals the unity of the Trinity

and the expression of "Us / Our" reveals the Fullness of the Trinity.

These two verses also explains how unique we are as 

we are made in God's Image.

God does not create anything else in all of creation in His Image.

So this must be very meaningful and something very special.

Being made in God's Image means:

1. We are His creation, We belong to Him--BUT--we are NOT animals

(Evolutionists will wrongly insist that we are nothing but mere animals)  

2. Being made in His Image means that we are like God, such that:

a. We create because He creates

b. We are spiritual because He is spiritual

c. We communicate because He communicates

d. We are intelligent because He is intelligent

e. We love because God loves

3.  Because we are God's Image Bearer it is a sin 

to commit murder or abortion 

thus destroying one of God's Image Bearers.

Think about this:   The Human body is NOT essential to image bearing.

We might NOT "look like" God.

Our bodies are the dwelling place, or vessel, for our soul

and our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit....

That makes me feel pretty special, how about you?

And can you see how that would make us unique and set apart from the animals?

And why it would be sinful to harm / destroy the vessel of someone's soul 

and the Temple of the Holy Spirit?

So---If God Created us---then what about Evolution?

We can't "evolve" into becoming the Image Bearer of God

If we did, then to what end point? 

If we evolved from "Hominid"  to "Human + Soul"

 then what do we evolve into next?

Evolution is a Theory, not a Law (like Gravity)

So it is not proven---and it never can be because it is not testable.

But that doesn't mean it's entirely untrue!

There are 2 kinds of Evolution;

Micro-evolution which is natural selection, or speciation which is when, over time, an animal adapts to changes in the environment and becomes a new species.  This is what Darwin discovered when he hypothesized how one species of sparrow might evolve into another.

Macro-evolution is the changes over millions of years from one "kind" of animal into another "kind".  Like a Fish to a Frog, or a Dinosaur into a Bird.

This is what Darwin proposed in his Theory of Evolution---that over the course of millions of year and through a long series of micro-evolutions a creature evolves from one "kind" into another.

But there is no proof of Macro-evolution

And it is impossible to test this theory as we do not have a billion year life span

And there are no examples of the evolution of complexity, such as eyes, or feathers, or even the flagellum of a bacteria.

Atheist take it on FAITH that Evolution is true.

In fact, there is less Proof for Evolution than there is for God.

Check this out:

Atheist turned Christian---Lee Strobel 

Explains why Creation Makes Sense: