Satan’s Schema – Part 2

Jesus is tempted three times in Matthew 4. The first temptation goes something like this: “Turn these stones into bread so you can have something to eat.”

On the surface, it looks like the temptation has something to do with a meal, but it goes much deeper than that. The root issue here is that Satan is trying to get Jesus to DISTRUST THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE AND SUPPORT OF GOD THE FATHER.

In other words, Satan is saying: “Because you are hungry and God is obviously not providing for you, you should take matters into your own hands.”

This temptation comes in many forms to us on a daily basis.

Here are three ways in which we are tempted to distrust the divine providence and support of God the Father:

1) IN PRAYER

Often times I find that it is rather hard to spend a significant amount of time in prayer in the mornings or throughout he day. I am tempted to instead get on my laptop and start working away. I doubt that my dependence on God through prayer will actually be more productive than my ability to get things done. Instead of relying on God to work and provide for my family and ministry, I take matters into my own hands and rely on myself.

2) IN GIVING

Research has shown that the average person tithes about 2% of their income. And with the economy the way it is, that number is expected to go down. Many churches currently are getting hit hard – finding that their giving has dropped 30% in 2008. Satan, during this financial crisis, would tempt us to believe that we need to stop trusting in God’s providence and to cut back on our giving. Are you listening to this temptation? Or are you trusting that God will take care of all your needs?

3) IN PATIENCE

Since I work with college students, I have to mention that many of them neglect patience when it comes to friendships or dating relationships. I have seen many college students make poor decisions on the friends they select or the guys/girls that they choose to date because they have lost patience with God. Since God is obviously not providing them with their dream guy or girl right now, they have to take matters into their own hands and lower their standards. This leads to one big mess. Are you continuing to trust in God’s providence in the relationship area in your life, or are you giving into the temptation to neglect patience?

We’ll cover the second temptation in the next blog.

Nudity Is The Point: Part 1 of 3

For years people have been wearing clothes.

Our attire has evolved from leaves to leather since our first parents, Adam and Eve, entered the scene.

When Adam and Eve sinned for the first time, they felt ashamed, not only emotionally but physically – spurring them to grab a few leaves and run for cover. I would argue that this physical act of “covering up” is a demonstration of what is going on inside the heart.

For some reason, for the however many years that Adam and Eve lived in the garden before they sinned, they felt no need to wear any clothes. We have to ask ourselves, “Why?”

Donald Miller, in his book Searching For God Knows What, says that he thinks Scripture teaches us that “Man is wired so he gets his glory (his security, his understanding of value, his feeling of purpose, his feeling or rightness with his Maker, his security for eternity) from God, and this relationship is so strong, and God’s love is so pure, that Adam and Eve felt no insecurity at all, so much so that they walked around naked and didn’t even realize they were naked. But when this relationship was broken, they knew it instantly.”

Once the relationship between Adam and Eve and God was broken, they continued to drift into insecurity more and more. They began to believe that what they did was so terrible that God could not possibly forgive them. So they ran and hid.

Perhaps counseling people in our world should be simpler that most people think. What if the majority of all our problems can be traced back to the idea that we have a broken relationship with our Maker and therefore are trying to find security and value in other things besides Him? What if the reason for the lusting of business success, popularity, or money can be traced back to the fact that we are cut off from the Source of Life and therefore are desperately trying to fill these huge voids in our lives.

What if a college student went on a drinking binge not because he or she was trying to take their satisfaction to the next level, but because they didn’t have any satisfaction in God and His way of doing things in the first place? What if a college girl had sex with a random fraternity guy not because she was intentionally trying to do evil, but because she didn’t feel like she was accepted and loved enough by God?

Maybe every act of sin or evil can be traced back to the fact that a broken relationship with God propels us into a life of filling the holes in our heart with things or people other than God - a life that causes us to put on our clothes and enter unsafe territory.

In part 2, we’ll contrast the characteristics of a “relationship with God” and a “broken relationship with God.” We’ll also connect these characteristics to spiritual nudity – the wonderful thing that Adam and Eve had going before the Fall, the kind of thing that God desires for us right here, right now.