On Temptation

How often has temptation led you to a time of praise? This question may seem a little odd, but just think about it a moment. Have you ever been tempted by something, which in your former life you would have given into? I had one of those experience in the last couple of days. When I turned my head and walked away, I first thought that I was the biggest idiot in the world. But, as I thought about the events I was brought to the realization that I had just been shown by God the greatness of the changes in my life. I was brought low and found myself in a period of praise to God for the miraculous transformation he works in peoples life.
I think, that this is a part of what Paul meant when he told the Philippian church, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." When we find ourself being tempted by the things we found delight in before we knew Christ, we must work to avoid those things as well as realize that God is working in us as well. Is this not also a part of what Paul meant when he also commanded us to, "conduct (our)selves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ?"
I guess what I am trying to say is best understood in light of a comment made by C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity. "We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means- the only complete realist." When we fight temptation, and at least do not give in with in five minutes, we become more aware of the hardness of avoiding sin and running to God. Do not loose heart brothers, God desires to work in us.
Bottom line: The next time you are tempted by sin, allow that temptation (once overcome) to drive you to a place of thankfulness and praise for the work of Christ.
Suggested Reading:
John Owen, Mortification of Sin
J.C. Ryle, Holiness

Effective Preachers

I am not sure where this came from but I am sure that it will be worth the read.
"How to Make an Effective Preacher"
*Author Unknown *
“How do you make an effective preacher?” Fling him into his Office. Tear the “Office” sign from the door and nail on the sign “Study.” Take him off the mailing list. Lock him up with his books and his Bible. Slam him down on his knees before a holy God and a holy text and broken hearts and a superficial flock.
Force him to be the one man in our surfeited communities who knows about God. Throw him into the ring to box with God until he learns how short his arms are. Engage him to wrestle with God all the night through. And let him come out only when he’s bruised and beaten into a blessing.
Shut his mouth forever from spouting remarks, and stop his tongue forever from tripping lightly over every nonessential. Require him to have something to say before he dares break the silence. Bend his knee in the lonesome valley.
Burn his eyes with weary study. Wreck his emotional poise with worry for God. And make him spend and be spent for the glory of God. Rip out his telephone. Burn up his ecclesiastical success sheets. Give him a Bible and tie him to the pulpit. And make him preach the Word of the living God!
Test him. Quiz him. Examine him. Humiliate him for his ignorance of things divine. Shame him for his good comprehension of finances, batting averages, football static’s, and political in-fighting. Laugh at his frustrated efforts to play psychiatrist. Form a choir and raise a chant and haunt him with it night and day: “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
When at long last he dares assay the pulpit, ask him if he has a word from God. If he does not, then dismiss him. Tell him you can read the morning paper and digest the television commentaries, and think through the day’s superficial problems, and manage the community’s weary drives, and bless the sordid baked potatoes and green beans, ad infinitum, better than he can.
Command him not to come back until he’s read and reread, written and rewritten, until he can stand up, worn and forlorn, and say, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Break him across the board of his ill-gotten popularity. Smack him hard with his own prestige. Corner him with questions about God. Cover him with demands for celestial wisdom. And give him no escape until he’s back against the wall of the Word.
And sit down before him and listen to the only word he has left --- God’s Word. Let him be totally ignorant of the down-street gossip, but give him a chapter and order him to walk around it, camp on it, sup with it, and come at last to speak it backward and forward, until all he says about it rings with the truth of eternity.
And when he’s burned out by the flaming Word, when he’s consumed at last by the fiery grace blazing through him, and when he’s privileged to translate the truth of God to man, finally transferred from earth to heaven, then bear him away gently and blow a trumpet and lay him down softly. Place a two-edged sword in his coffin, and raise the tomb triumphant. For he was a brave soldier of the Word. And ere he died, he had become a man of God.

Is self defense a basic human right?

I have often thought about if I (as a Christian) would be willing to harm or even kill another human being in so-called 'self defense.' What about someone breaking into your home, would you be willing to kill? What about being on the mission field, what would you be willing to do?

I remember being in India and feeling very unsafe at a particular evangelistic service in a remote village (a place the cows didn't even go). I remember sitting there waiting to preach and watching a group of men that seemed to be hostile toward the message. The questions ran through my mind: Would I fight to the death? Would I submit and not fight? These are tough question.

So here are two links asking the questions:
1) John Piper- His answer, "Don't fight back"
2) James White- His answer, "Yes fight back"

So what do you think. Do you agree with Piper or White? What of their logic and exegesis?

Just another note: After the meeting that night in India I was told by the native pastor I was working with that we were surrounded by a known Islamic terrorist group that night. Praise God nothing happened, because I am not sure what I would have done. That was a huge wake-up call in my life.

I'll never tell who I agree with. But, if you want to know just make a surprise visit to my house in the middle of the night. :)