A Weapon Against Temptation

I was recently talking to my cousin who is about twelve years older than me. We didn't really grow up together so I was telling her a little about my teenage years. I can't go into detail because it may hurt innocent people, but I was in a situation as a young teen that was not good. I was being tempted and even encouraged to sin. My mother had instilled a moral conscience within me but I had no Biblical mooring to ground me. But then in April of 1965, when I was 16 years old, I accepted Jesus as my Savior and I was a changed person. I was a new creation in Jesus. The old had passed away and I had become a new babe in Christ. And I knew in my heart that I couldn't even entertain the thought of giving into this pattern of sin. But how to remove myself from this situation? I struggled for a year, resisting as well as I could. So in my youth and immaturity, I finally decided to come up with something different to fill in that segment of my life so I wouldn't be able to be with that person and in that situation.

My Christian friends told me about an opportunity to go on a summer service team. I applied and was accepted! But how was I going to pay for the airfare? I told my pastor about it and to my surprise and amazement, the men of the church decided to sponsor my trip to San Francisco in the summer of 1966, between my junior and senior year of high school. (This church was not the same denomination that was organizing the mission trip which made it even more amazing!)

Being able to go was such a benefit to me. First of all, it broke the chain of bondage in which I felt trapped. Second, it increased my faith that these men would pay my way to go. And third, it opened up my mind and heart to doing things beyond my capabilities. It broadened my horizons!

As I was talking with my cousin, I said, “Somehow I had heard and learned a few Scriptures that said to "abstain from all appearance of evil.”

( I Thess 5:22) Also I Corinthians 16:13, “Be alert. Continue strong in the faith. Have courage, and be strong”  Be alert means to know what tempts you so that you can stay away from it. These truths hit me like a light bulb!  Because I had this scripture hidden in my heart, I was able to remove myself from this situation! I had not thought about this part of my life for a long time and had never put it together how important hiding the Word of God in my heart was to me at that time as a new Christian, especially. Looking back now I really believe I can say that God rescued me! He rescued me from a potential life of sin and degradation.

When you think about it, the Lord Jesus set the example when he was confronted by Satan in the wilderness. Three times Jesus said, “It is written . . .” in response to a temptation. And three times Satan was defeated. (Matthew 4:1-11) We can do the same thing as we appropriate the word of God that we hide in our hearts.

Here are some verses out of Psalm 119 to encourage all of us to delight in His Word:

Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

15, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

16, “I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”

18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

35, “Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.”

105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

133, “Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.”

The Bible doesn't just contain the Word of God, it is the Word of God.

II Timothy tells us, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”

I am so thankful for the Lord's protection over my life and especially over my soul. I feel like I was snatched out of the snare of the evil one over 50 years ago plus many times since. And I believe we have no concept how often God has watched over us and out for us that we don't even know about! It is paramount to be living in the center of His will, within His protection. Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

I challenge you to hide the word of God in your heart and mind so that you have a weapon to fight the enemy when he comes to tempt you to sin.

Psalm 91:4, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place – the most high, who is my refuge – no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent, for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.”

Cleaning House

 Last week I was power washing my patio at the back of our home getting ready for a picnic with a large group of our friends. As I was working, the thought came to me, how interesting it is how we clean and spruce up before we get company. We dust, clean, cut grass, pull weeds, wash windows, sweep the sidewalk and it seems the more we do, the more we see that needs to be done. I do admit that I don't usually go to these extremes but this gathering has served as the catalyst for extreme measures! I should get company more often.

 

Before

After

 This made me think of how we as Christians need to keep our lives/souls clean and above reproach, because Jesus lives within us, in our spiritual house.

 Another reason is that He is coming back for His Bride and we need to be ready. 

 Are we living our lives in a conscious manner to be pleasing to God? Are we doing all that we know to do to stay in fellowship with Jesus? Are we exercising our minds and hearts to grow deeper in the things of God?

 

Follow his teachings. Colossians 2:6 tells us, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” After we come to Christ and He gives us the gift of salvation, it is up to us to “walk in him”.

I next thought of King David who allowed his eyes to see what he shouldn't have seen and then acted upon that temptation with Bathsheba. But David repented of his sin and cried out to God, “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” -Psalm 51:10 Is there anything for which you need to repent?

We can't do this on our own: I Peter 1:5, “ . . .who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We need daily communion with God. He wants a relationship with us!

We have the promise in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” Zechariah 13:1 tells us, “there is a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness”. A soul steeped in the tears of repentance and bathed in the blood of Christ is made pure.

Surrender is so important in the life of a Christian. Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lie, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Never give up, never quit! Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15b, “Let us hold true to what we have attained.”

I challenge us all to take account of how clean our heart is before God. Works will never save us, but it is important to keep in tune with the Lord. Have we slacked off in our devotion to Him? Is there anything or anyone more important to us than Jesus? Do we consider his teachings to be paramount in our daily lives? How clean is your spiritual house?

See Yourself Through God's Eyes

It happened when Jesus was teaching a crowd of people at the Mount of Olives. A group of scribes and pharisees brought a woman into the crowd for the purpose of testing Jesus that they might find a transgression of the Jewish law against him. They accused this woman of adultery. The law said this woman should be stoned. But Jesus knelt down and wrote something in the dirt. What did he write? There are assumptions made by biblical scholars. Some think he was writing the sins of the people. Then he stood up and said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Whatever he wrote spoke so loudly that the scriptures say, “they heard it!” So one by one, from older to younger, the crowd dispersed and only two remained; Jesus and The Woman. And Jesus said to her, “Where are your accusers?” and she answered, “No one, Lord.” This is the first time she spoke. But she called him Lord. And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on, sin no more.” quotes from John 8:1-11

There is another woman found in another crowd that was following Jesus. Jesus had just returned from casting demons out of a man and into pigs and found a crowd waiting for him. A ruler of the synagogue named Jairus, implored Jesus to go to his house and heal his daughter who was only twelve but dying. So Jesus began walking and the people crowded in on Jesus. There was a woman, poor from going to doctors for twelve years who had an issue of blood but she had faith that just touching the hem of Jesus' garment would bring healing to her body.

And when she touched the garment, she was immediately healed! Jesus knew that someone had touched him in faith because he said, “I perceive that power has gone out from me.” But then the woman was fearful when Jesus asked who it was who touched him. But she explained why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. And Jesus called her “Daughter” and said, “Your faith has made you well; go in peace”.

Jesus was sitting by a well in the town of Sychar, in the country of Samaria. He was tired from walking from Judea and was on his way to Galilee. It was about noon and a woman of this country came to fill her water pots. She came in the heat of the day to hopefully avoid travelers and foreigners. Jesus asked her for a drink of water. She said, “How is it that a Jew is asking me, a Samaritan, for a drink?” And Jesus said if she only knew the gift of God and who I am, you would be asking for living water.” She was perplexed and asked, “Where do you get that living water?”

Jesus explained, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said, “Sir, give me this water.” In John 4:10, Jesus had said to her that she needed to ask and in verse 15 she did ask! Then Jesus reveals her sin in that she was living in adultery having had five husbands and not being married to her current husband. She went back to town and witnessed to many so that in verse 39 it is recorded, “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me everything that I ever did.”

All three of these women looked into the face of Jesus. All three were sinners. But they all received grace, forgiveness, pardon, cleansing, and power to be witnesses to others. The woman caught in the act of adultery and brought before the crowd to be stoned was forgiven and not condemned. The woman with the issue of blood received healing in her body but more important, she received peace. The woman at the well received living water that “wells up to eternal life”. She also became a powerful witness to the fact that Jesus was truly the Messiah.

Do you see yourself through the eyes of Jesus? Or are you believing the lies of the crowds around you?

It is written in Psalm 139:14, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” He sees you as his perfect creation, but also in need of a Savior. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus sees you as beautiful, creative, worthy; He sees you as Friend, Daughter, Child of God. Ephesians 5:1 tells us to be imitators of God as beloved children. This contemporary song, Remind Me Who I Am by Jason Gray, will encourage you to see yourself as a child of the King. You can listen to the song here and if you watch the video to the end, you will realize that you are Beloved.

When I lose my way,
And I forget my name
Remind me who I am
In the mirror all I see
Is who I don't wanna be
Remind me who I am

In the loneliest places
When I can't remember what grace is

Tell me, once again
Who I am to You, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to You, that I belong to You
To You

When my heart is like a stone,
And I'm running far from home
Remind me who I am
When I cant receive Your love
Afraid I'll never be enough
Remind me who I am

If I'm Your beloved can You help me believe it

Tell me, once again
Who I am to you, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to you, that I belong to You
To You

I'm the one You love, I'm the one You love
That will be enough, I'm the one You love

Tell me, once again
Who I am to you, who I am to You
Tell me, lest I forget
Who I am to you, that I belong to You

Childhood Memories

Originally written and published in our local newspaper, Public Opinion, in July 1996:

Anita

Gathering Easter Eggs
with my nephew!

 The red and white faced beef cattle graze languidly in the meadow. The butterflies flit from one flower to the next. And under the shade of a maple and two buckeye trees is the sound of laughter. A path has been worn into the lawn by the rumbling of bare feet playing tag.

Its a lazy summer afternoon. A blanket is spread on the soft grassy cushion and there are three children, resting from their morning's chores ad play. This scene is about 60 years old.   I was one of those children. The place is Franklin County, Hamilton Township, Cashtown (not the one in Adam's County). This is where I was brought as a newborn infant. I grew up here.

I remember . . .husking corn till night fall. Pulling weeds out of the field corn. Butchering steers on the barn floor and hanging the halves up in the garage. Going sledding, sometimes at night; I recall the time there was a crust of ice on top of the snow – how we flew down the hill but had to poke our heels into the crust to walk back up the hill!

In the summer, we would tie a rope from two trees, drape a blanket over it and this became our tent! We made it our secret place to talk and play and occasionally, to sleep in overnight. I recall sitting up at night and looking up at the moonlit sky. I used to imagine various shapes within the moon.

Anita in the middle between two foster children

Other summer activities – sitting on the wall and eating watermelon, spitting the seeds out into the road; taking my red Radio Flyer wagon out into the pasture fields. Dad would chop off the thistles with a dirt shovel. We children would gather them into the wagon with a pitchfork and one of us would put a spoonful of salt on the exposed root to kill it.

I remember the smell of hay as we fed the cattle; the flurry of cats and kittens as milk started to fill the pail; the cackle of chickens as we moved among them gathering eggs; the sound of rain as it beat against the tin barn roof.

If it was a “warm rain,” Mother would allow us to go out and gather water from the rain spouts. We had great fun throwing the water on our siblings as we chased each other around the house.

Winter time we were restricted to the kitchen and living room. Each had a stove to provide heat. We played Checkers, Parcheesi, Monopoly and Dominoes. Sometimes Mom and Dad would play “Hot or Cold.” One of them would hide something – a bean or a button or maybe a jar lid. As we children hunted for it, they would say we were getting close (hot) or cold (far away).

Anita and her Pappy

As a young child, I spent many hours under the kitchen table. It had places to hide things underneath

and it became my play house. Sometimes we would drape a blanket over two chairs for a club house.

When we became school age, Dad would sit in his rocking chair and ask us our spelling words. He was a whiz at math and could do lots of figuring in his head. He called it mental arithmetic. I recall him sitting there when I was about five; I was sitting facing him and he patiently taught me to tie my shoes. If I awoke early before he left for work, I would sit on his lap as he rocked in that rocking chair.

Our community had a typical country store when I was a kid. We felt rich with a nickel or dime to spend. It was a challenge to see how much candy you could get for your money. Mrs. Over would wait patiently as we took our time deciding.

My Dad holding his grandson and me with
my Pappy reaching out to me

The scene hasn't changed much. Instead of cattle – there is a horse grazing in the meadow. We still have the butterflies, the crickets and the katydids. But now I am the “woman of the house,” the mother, the grandmother. The sound of children laughing is that of my grandchildren and they are too young to have a path worn in the grass. But it's a great place to live and preserve memories for another generation.

Anita playing in leaves

Epilogue:

It is now twenty years since I wrote this article. We sold the farmhouse and built a new house on the back side of the farmette in 2004. We drive past the old home place occasionally to “take a look” and renew memories. Some of those grandchildren have grown up and more have been added. Now there are great grandchildren!

But no matter where we live, we are still making memories, living life and loving all those who join the family. We have been blessed and try to be a blessing to those we meet.

The Great Anniversary Festival

A great number of people will celebrate Independence Day here in the United States this weekend. July 4^th is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on this day in the year 1776. It was declared by the Continental Congress that the thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as a new nation, The United States of America, and no longer a part of the British Empire.

For some it is just a day to have a picnic and get together with family and friends or go to carnivals, fairs, baseball games etc. Others attend parades, political speeches and ceremonies highlighting the history, government and traditions of our country, a National Day of the United States.

 After voting for independence, Congress turned to writing the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a Committee of Five, with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. A day before the signing of this document, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail: “ . . .I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.” (From history found in Wikipedia.org)

We are so blessed to be part of this great nation. And it is good to remember and celebrate. In this day and age we sometimes forget that Biblical principals were the foundation upon which our nation was founded. It was really interesting to me to read the words of John Adams that July 4^th should be commemorated as the day of deliverance. The people of this time period were burdened with taxation and oppression from England and wanted to be free. So this was a great victory to be released as a people to govern themselves in their own country. Even more important to many was the freedom to worship in the faith of their choosing and not the Church of England that had the king or queen as its official head.

I had to think of this in the spiritual sense. Because of Adam's sin, we are all burdened with the sin nature and need a Savior. The day we accept Christ as our Savior is our day of deliverance. Romans 6:17-18 tells us, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” Colossians 1:13-14 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

John Adams then said we should celebrate with solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty! How do we do this? At first I thought the words, celebrate and solemn, don't seem to go together. When I first looked in the dictionary at the word solemn, these synonyms were what I was thinking of: serious, grave, sober, somber, stern, grim, dour, humorless. But then I read another meaning with these words: dignified, ceremonious, ceremonial, stately, formal, courtly, majestic”! I think this is what John Adams had in mind. When I really thought about this question, How do we celebrate with solemn acts of devotion?, the answer came to me – worship!

Worship is to have or show a strong feeling of respect and admiration for God; worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. The purpose of our worship is to glorify, honor, praise, exalt, and please God. Our worship must show our adoration and loyalty to God for His grace in providing us with the way to escape the bondage of sin, so we can have the salvation He so much wants to give us.

Our worship should be humble: James 4:6, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.”

John 4:23-24, “ . . .true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

Our worship is also for our own edification and strength: Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.” Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Worship should be joyful: Psalm 95:1-3, “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”

So this July 4^th or whenever you get together with your friends and family, celebrate our great country and the freedoms we enjoy. But also think of the great gift we as Christians have been given, deliverance from sin and a Savior that loves us so much he died for us. And celebrate with solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty!