How Good Is ‘Good Enough’?

… and the slides are here:

1. Step up to your wrongdoing – own it.
   • “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14
2. Repent of it & confess it.
   • I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. – Psalms 32:5
   • If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:8-9
3. Trust in God for forgiving and forgetting.
   • I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. – Isaiah 44:22
   • The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. – Psa 34:18
   • “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” – Hebrews 8:12
   • as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. – Psalms 103:12
   • For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23
4. Stop bringing it up – start living. You’re free of it.
   • There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. – Rom 8:1-2
   • Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. – Romans 5:1
5. Make sure you do your bit too – forgiving others is essential.
   • “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” – Matt 6:14-15
   • Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (22) Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. – Matthew 18:21-22
   • “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” – Matthew 18:35
6. Why forgive?
   • Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. – Ephesians 5:1
   • But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. – 1 Peter 2:9
   • See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. – 1 John 3:1
   • Applying to temptation resisted, sin confessed and life lived in Christ Jesus:
     Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. – 1 John 4:4
7. Summary.
   • Your best is never so good that you can redeem yourself; your worst is never so bad that God won’t redeem you.
   • The devil wants us to stay focused on our sin so we don’t focus on God.
   • If we are truly children of God, then we are princes and princesses of His family for all eternity – immortal. Isn’t it time we acted like it?

… and more clearly in Romans chapter 7, in each of these verses:

There are times we don’t want to do something, even though we know it’s the right thing to do – but we know we should want to do it.

We don’t do it because we don’t want to do it. But we wish we wanted to do it.

Similarly, each of the ‘works of the flesh’ as Paul calls them (as opposed to the fruits of the Spirit) has this characteristic: we want to do those for which we have a weakness, but we don’t want to want to. How many times have we caught ourselves in a rage about something, for instance, only to realize that (a) it felt so good and (b) it was so wrong? ¹

I think we’re designed that way, and I think it was done for a very specific reason. Over and over again, I find that God limits Himself and us. He could have made us perfect, but for our benefit He didn’t.

So where does all this leave us? Are we helpless pawns to our desires and weaknesses? I don’t think so – for these reasons:

1. As Christians, we are children of Almighty God. Good Dads don’t leave their children defenseless. We are tempted, and it seems that the temptation is permitted in order to produce endurance:
   No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.– 1 Cor 10:13
2. We are called to ACT, not to REACT. When we act, the things we do and the thoughts we think originate new sequences of events. He who starts something controls it first – the other side must work within the scope of the original action. The enemy longs to reverse that, in order to keep us off balance. But if we get into the habit of ‘checking in’ with the Father before everything we do, then everything we do becomes an initial action, and it is as if every prior wrong step is redeemed thereby. Bad steps are stopped. Poor choices are corrected. Good decisions are strengthened. And best of all, that habit will spill over into the rest of our lives. Thus every thought will be checked out first with God as well – held hostage to the Lord:
   We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, …– 2 Cor 10:5

As the leading proponent of Galatians 5:19-21 thinking, I can attest to the fact that – on the rare occasion when I remember to – when I tell God that I want to think these thoughts but I don’t want to want to, I find it’s easier to shift my mind onto some more healthy topic. Similarly when I don’t want to apologize to someone who deserves an apology, etc..

Life isn’t easy, but then – it was never intended to be.

Oops – that was pride slipping in there. Maybe I’m not quite perfect.

In which case, I’ve also just told a lie. (Gack!)

Oh, like you’ve never fibbed before. (Uh-oh, that wasn’t a very nice thing to say. I’m getting in deep here.)

OK, I’m not perfect. There. I’ve admitted it. (Phew! That wasn’t too hard.)

So I can’t be all that bad. (Arggh! Pride again! It just snuck up on me!)

If I had been made perfect, I’m wondering what the implications would be…

1. Being perfect, I would never sin – never hurt anybody, always do the right thing.
2. Therefore being perfect, I would have no personal understanding of what sin is.
3. Therefore being perfect, I would never have a sense of wrong-doing.
4. Therefore being perfect, I would never be aware of my separation from God.
5. Therefore being perfect, I would never understand the power of sin.
6. Therefore being perfect, I may experience sympathy, but would never experience empathy; and any compassion would be academic and patronizing.
7. Being made perfect would have removed my free will, because I would be able to do nothing but perfect things.
8. Therefore being perfect, I would never have the chance to fail. I would never have the opportunity to succeed despite myself.
9. Therefore being perfect, I would never be stretched. I would never grow.
10. Therefore (also from #8) being perfect, when God told me to do something and I did it, there would be no just reward because there was no chance I’d do the job badly or fail to do it at all.
11. Therefore being perfect, I would never experience humiliation, shame or contrition; but I would also never experience forgiveness, rebirth, reward, praise and grace.
12. Being perfect, God’s righteous perfection wouldn’t astound me, terrify me or shatter my complacency because – hey lookee! Me too!
13. In fact, being perfect, I would be self-contained, so I would have no reason to reach for God.

On the other hand:

1. Since I’m not perfect, eternal damnation is not my guaranteed end.
2. Since I’m not perfect, Perfection took compassion on me.
3. Since I’m not perfect, Perfection chose to redeem me.
4. Since I’m not perfect, Perfection perfected me.
5. Since I’m not perfect, Perfection adopted me.
6. Since I’m not perfect, Perfection uses me (yes – Because, not Despite).
7. Since I am far, far from perfection, I have a great many chances to blow it completely… Ah, but when I get it right the angels go nuts and God Himself says, “Well done!”

And that last is really where I’m headed here. Amongst other reasons, I was made imperfect in order that God could give me a piece of His action – a task that He wanted completed. And each time I fulfill a task in obedience to His design, I – Mr. Imperfect – get the pat on the back from the Everlasting King of Glory.

And that, I think, is a pretty good trade-off.

I thought I’d try to jot an entry here about a verse in each day’s chapter…

You can know facts, but you don’t have any true sense of your place in life, the universe or eternity until you realize there is a Creator who built it all and put you in it. Until then, you simply don’t have the appropriate context in which to understand your place and how you fit in. An awful lot of people try to deny God’s existence, preferring to use their provincial and relative view on life rather than the universal and absolute view that God gives.

Tempted recently? Yeah, me too. Doesn’t matter what we’re tempted about – stealing, gossiping, lust, cheating on a test, cheating on your taxes, cheating on your spouse – it always seems to start the same way, doesn’t it? ‘Go ahead,’ this voice says. ‘Everybody does it. You’re a schmuck for holding back. What’s the harm? You’re not hurting anybody. It’s just a little thing really – so ordinary. It’s easy – nobody will know. Who’s going to find out? You deserve it. They deserve it.’

I mean, there’s a list of these encouragements … you know them by heart … they apply to everybody … and THEY DON’T EVER CHANGE. Ever. You could add a couple more that I’ve left off, but it’s a standing list.

So why do we have such a hard time with them? Why haven’t we figured out how to get past them and move on? Why haven’t they become so old that they are as hackneyed in reality as they sound on paper?

Why haven’t we gotten to the point where we just say, ‘Shut up!’ to the little voice that says them all the time?

A good salesman works hard at selling his product. He creates a desire in the customer – he sells the ‘sizzle’ – in order to get to the end result, the commit. He invests hard in the first to bring off the second. And make no mistake about it: the Tempter is a very, very good salesman.

Society has moved from a rigid ‘Thou-shalt-not’ set of values to a permissive one, and while I think that we prefer (for the most part) to not be living in the Victorian Age, I also think it’s true that we tend to be very easy on ourselves. Good at forgiving ourselves any little indiscretion. Skillful at justifying ourselves.

2

So we do it. Whatever ‘it’ was. But, this was a one-two whammy – a sucker-punch. We were set up. All the time he was saying that litany of things, and moving us to the ‘sale’, he was anticipating the payoff. Commit the sin, the crime, the indiscretion and then it’s no more ‘yeah, go on – do it’. Now you hear him scream – ‘Look what you did!!!! You’re in for it now! Don’t you feel rotten? How could you have <insert sin here> like that?’ Oh, the glee in that voice. He stands before the throne of God and points the finger at … you. His primary role as the Accuser is in full play now. You are condemned by your own actions – what could be more wonderful to him?

3

Well, there is one thing more wonderful: Thing is, it’s not just a one-two. There’s a three as well. And the saddest part of all is that we do the third part to ourselves (talk about being set up!). Because – especially if this is the second or third or ‘nth’ time we’ve done this – if it’s a habit, for instance – we say to ourselves, ‘I can’t believe I’ve done that again! What a worm! I can’t bring this to God – I’ve already done that and asked for forgiveness – I know I don’t deserve to be forgiven again. And anyway, I’m too ashamed to bring it in front of Him – to admit it – to confess it – to ask again for forgiveness.’

And this is the Accuser’s coup de grace – the cherry on the top. He didn’t work the sizzle for this – just the accusing bit would have been enough – this is a freebie that we hand him: We deny full and free access to God to ourself. This is neither God’s doing, nor that of the Father of Lies – it’s all us!

Here’s what one small book near the back of the Bible has to say about forgiveness:

Here are some essential facts that we must keep in mind when we reach this point:

1. God is big. Very, very, very big. Infinite. Don’t put Him in that box you’ve built for Him, ‘cause there’s no way He’ll fit. If you could put the entire universe into the box – you still couldn’t fit God in.
2. God hates sin. Very, very, very much. Yes He does – no denying it. We’d be dead if the message stopped here, but we can only fully live if we understand this. You see: until you ‘get’ that He hates sin, you’ll never ‘get’ what His love cost Him – so you’ll never ‘get’ the fullness of His love.
3. Standing in front of God, we are a Nothing. A small, infinitesimal zero. Less than a dust bunny by comparison. Slave to our own ego.
4. So here we are: nobodies – slaves in the worst meaning of the word (the way Paul used the word – bound by the habits and chains of our own perversions) – and sinners, standing guilty in front of an infinitely good God who hates sin.
5. Gulp.
6. And yet God loves us. Very, very, very much. Infinite love from an infinite Being. Love that works out a way to get dust-bunnies washed clean of their own filth. A love that does insane things – like sending His only Son to be killed by a bunch of slaves so that those very slaves themselves might not just live, but be adopted . Now let’s be honest – that’s insane.

So what does all this mean? God understands the bit about temptation; He understands about sin; He even understands about repeated, devastating, perverted, habitual sin. He’s seen it all. He’s seen you do it.

And He still loves you more than you love yourself. Like I said – insane.

4

In the face of all this love blazing down from Heaven … we need to understand this little point:

For as long as we decide that our sin is too big for God to forgive;

for as long as we decide that God is too small to forgive our sin;

for as long as we are so sublimely arrogant as to believe that we make the choice about coming or not coming to God –

we will stay disconnected from God; sin will be our master, and we will remain blind.

And the Accuser will win a much more permanent prize.

The point is not all the sin.

The point isn’t that we should stop sinning (we can’t).

The point isn’t even that we should at least try to stop sinning (we should).

The point is that there is something far better than sin that we can spend our time – our lives – thinking about.

The Glory of His Grace is so overwhelming, and His love is so all-consuming that when we think about it in its proper perspective we have no time for petty things like self-esteem, self-worth or worry about sin.

Listen: you are eternal; you are immortal; you should reflect His transcendent beauty; you are a prince or princess, the child of Almighty God … and you’re wasting your time thinking about sin?

Get over it. You’re far, far, far too valuable to be focused on that junk.

Get in front of God and unload that guilt. While I’m certainly not encouraging more sin (shades of Romans 6:1!), I will point out the mathematically obvious – that the person who commits a thousand sins in a thousand days and confesses each one immediately is a far cleaner and more useful person to God than the one who commits one sin and can’t confess it for a thousand days.

In love He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.
– Eph 1:3-14

Not for the first time, I was struck by this passage as I read it the other morning. It’s like a smushed-down version of the essence of the Gospel – Paul’s packed all the vital bits in. Lookit – as Christians:

Now that’s worth meditating on for a week or two!

A great book about using excellence and common sense in helping people to find value in your church. ‘Marketing’ doesn’t have to be all about our perceptions of sleaze-ball Madison Avenue hard-sell. This is about connecting and communicating. A great book – lots to learn in here.

“The battle for growth is first fought in the hearts of churchgoers who want to better the lives of those around them”

Much of what Chan is writing here is obvious. I don’t mean that slightingly. Sometimes we need to have the obvious thrust upon us because we’ve ignored it for too long. Sometimes it’s time to recognize that, just because a whole bunch of people say something, it doesn’t make them right.

“To put it bluntly, when you get your own universe, you can make your own standards. When we disagree, let’s not assume it’s His reasoning that needs correction.”

His chapter on lukewarm people is particularly damning, but the encouragement throughout the rest of the book is powerful – what does “God is Love” really mean? What do people who are obsessed with God do and think? If you’re really in love with God, life gets different.

This was a gift from good friends last Christmas – an excellent account of the way Lewis’ radio broadcasts became Mere Christianity. More on the book in my review here

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I bought this because I sensed that the minister of the church I was attending was planning on leaving – as indeed he did, 6 months later. It gave me some good insight for what was about to happen, and in general, I thought that – for the narrow scope of life it was tackling – it did a pretty good job. I wasn’t overly impressed with the organization of the material, and I seriously question using the CMM approach for a church! However, other than small specific points of disagreement there are some excellent points being made from both common sense and experience. One significant shortfall however: There are a number of innocuous reasons for a minister to leave – such as retirement, ill-health or term limit – but there are also far more painful reasons, such as crises brought about by divisiveness between ministers or between clergy and laity. I felt that one quick chapter on low-performing churches was inadequate to cover this painful area. But there aren’t many books on this topic, and as a starter it did cover some much-needed ground.

All about the post-modern church – although Kimball defines the ‘modern’ church as being ‘seeker-sensitive’ and the ‘post-modern’ church as being ‘post-seeker-sensitive’. My impression is that seeker-sensitive services were on the cusp between modern and post-modern – a brief movement that was tried by a number of forward-thinking congregations and found wanting. The book has the same friendly layout as Emerging Worship, and a great deal of helpful and relevant material based on Kimball’s experience in developing a post-modern church. Good stuff.

“…Scripture indicates it’s the parents’ responsibility to teach their children the things of God (Deut. 11:19). The church should supplement rather than replace the parents’ role.”

This was the first book I read on post-millennial worship, and it was very much the eye-opener. I was excited about how many times throughout the Bible the call to worship is made (190 times), either by God, priest, prophet, king or apostle. My copy is full of highlighting and checkmarks (and a few scratch-outs as well). Definitely an exciting book.

“To be blunt, many modern … worship services are more anthropocentric than Christocentric. Jesus’ name is mentioned here and there, yet he [sic] is almost a side issue to the real focus…”

More on the book in my review here

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I was able to download a free version of this book as a PDF, and while in general it’s an interesting book, it seems to be very confused about statistics. It pulls a great many of them, and displays them as authoritative, but I was often unclear as to how the statistic proved the point being made. It seemed as if the conclusion was arrived at by common sense, then the statistics were retro-fitted to confirm it- a very dangerous use of statistics. The book also suffered from some terribly ‘hokey’ interview descriptions:

“How do you feel it’s your fault?” She stared at the wall several moments. We could tell she was choosing her words carefully. (p. 71)

And

“I was raised in a Christian home,” he said softly. … John swallowed hard for a second and then gave us his story about becoming a church dropout. (p. 2)

Definitely not on a par with Rainer’s previous offering, Simple Church.

The book states that the Roman way of evangelism was to offer a rigid protocol – this is how you must ‘do’ Christianity – and get people to adopt it, often by carrot and stick. The Celtic way of evangelism was for the missionaries to adapt their own lifestyles so that they could reach people from the local culture; then those people could understand (a more fluid) religion and faith. Hunter then goes on to posit that newer churches in America are successful when they break from the traditional European denominational views and speak to local people in local terms. The denominational (Roman) approach focuses on the institution; the Celtic approach focuses on the movement – a sort of ‘religion vs faith’ debate. Examples of this ‘Celtic’ approach today are the Alpha courses offered by so many churches, and the cell-driven church movement.

An excellent book with excellent insight on simplifying church so that it can do what it’s supposed to do. I’ve written more extensively on the book here, so I’ll leave you to it. In contrast to Rainer’s later book, Essential Church, statistics are used much more clearly, and possibly because of that, more effectively.

Imagine that you are in high school and best friends with someone who is a superb athlete. It could be any sport – we’ll say football. This friend has speed, power, stamina and brains. It’s obvious to everybody that he’s not just good – he’s exceptional. His plan is to get a football scholarship through a big-league college and then turn pro; and while for other people you’d just think it was a dream, for him everybody is convinced that it can be accomplished. He’s just that good! He’s also friendly, confident, approachable and popular.

He’s so good that the whole school turns out to watch him play. In fact, he’s so good that the whole community comes out. He’s so good that the college scouts have visited. Then one day in his senior year, he is hurt – deliberately and brutally. He’s hurt in such a fashion that he will never play ball again. He won’t get a football scholarship. He won’t turn pro. He can barely walk.

This premeditated attack was made by a person he recognized, and he took his attacker to court. As his best friend, you are with him in court. The evidence is presented, and it is irrefutable. Witnesses saw the attack, and they give testimony. There’s no question in anyone’s mind that this person will be put away for a long time. Further, he’s enormously wealthy, and will be able to pay for the mounting medical costs. The jury gives their verdict – guilty on all charges.

The time comes for the judge to pronounce sentence. He says something along these lines: “It’s very clear that this attack was deliberate and premeditated. It’s also clear that the attacker is very young and foolish, and that this is his first offense – this must be taken into account. He has shown remorse in court for his actions – this too must be taken into account. I have therefore decided that his punishment shall be limited to a written warning and probation. He will not be put away, and will not be liable for payment of any fines or fees.”

Everyone sits there stunned! It’s inconceivable! Slowly the courtroom empties. Your friend hobbles painfully out on his crutches. The room is empty except for the defendant and the judge gathering up his papers. On your way out through the door, you overhear the defendant say to the judge, “Whew! Sure dodged a bullet there, Dad!”

What do you think of this judge? Do you have any shred of respect for someone who should have recused himself before the trial began? Any respect for someone who perverts justice to that degree? We expect someone who has the authority of a judge to uphold the law – no question, no deviation from the absolute rightness of the matter.

Yet we expect God to go easy on us because we are His creation. We are so taken with – so indoctrinated with – the idea that ‘God is love’ that we expect all law-breaking, all failings, all sin to be forgiven and glossed over. For everyone.

I guess what that says is that we have lost respect for God. Because although we are told that God will judge us at the end of our days, we’re assuming that He will say, “No problem. I forgive you. I won’t look at all the wrong-doing you’ve committed. You won’t be put away from my presence, and there doesn’t need to be payment of any fines or fees.”

We hear so much in church today that reinforces this view:

• God will forgive everybody for everything.
• Live a fairly nice life and be fairly nice to others.
• What matters is that you mostly do your best.
• Be sincere.
• Just believe in God.

At funerals, what priest is going to say, “Well, sorry about this … Alice never believed in Jesus, so she’s in Hell now.”?

People have acquired such distaste for ‘Hellfire and brimstone’ sermons that the priest or pastor believes the very mention of sin from the pulpit will empty the church – so he doesn’t speak of it. And in the avoidance, he does his congregation a great disservice, for a warning now and then is essential if we are to counteract the view that the world has of a wussie conflict-avoiding God.

The truth is, God does want to forgive us. He understands better than we do why we commit each sin. He doesn’t want to condemn us, and He wants us to live forever in a loving relationship with Him. But He’s not just Love; He is also Holy, and Righteous, and Perfect. And there will be that reckoning at the end of our days.

A judge that would say “I’ll just forget about your crime” is a judge who cannot be worthy of our respect. He merits no glory, no praise, no honor. He is the kind of judge in our story. God cannot cover up our crimes; He has to punish wrongdoing – to fail to do so would be to be untrue to the Righteousness and Justice that is His nature, and He cannot be that. But the punishment that should be exacted is a punishment so complete and eternal that no one could ever be in relationship with Him.

In our place, and in an act of extraordinary Grace, He sends His infinite Son as payment of any fines or fees for our sin, so that we won’t be put away from His presence. And all He requires in return is that we own up to our own sin and acknowledge Him as our Savior. The debt is paid in full; we get a new start. We’re not even expected to be perfect (we are expected to try, though) – and in the new life we have His strength and His guidance.

Temptation can only occur when there is opportunity to fall, an exploitable weakness of spirit, and desire to commit. Opportunity, exploitable weakness and desire. Satan isn’t going to waste his time in convincing you to do things you know are impossible, or in fighting areas of strength; nor will he attack you in areas that you don’t care about. If it doesn’t excite you to gamble, you won’t feel the urge to do so. But if you have a hard time resisting shopping, that will be a temptation even when you have no money to spend – think ‘credit card debt’.

That being the case – and it’s a pretty obvious case, I think you’ll agree – the question that has to come up is, “How was Jesus tempted?” Perfect God and perfect man, He could have no wrong desires, so how could He ever know what mankind goes through in temptation?

The answer comes when we look at Matt 4:1-11 or Luke 4:1-13, which begin: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” There are two things we should note in that little phrase:

• It was the choice of the Holy Spirit to lead Jesus into the wilderness. We think that God’s desire is to protect us against all problems. Wrong.  In fact, He desires to expose us to those very problems. It is only through effort and strain that we develop strength and power. He wants the best for His kingdom.
• It was the choice of the Holy Spirit that Jesus endured temptation. We think that temptation is something bad, an indication of spiritual weakness. Wrong.  In fact, temptation is an essential component to our spiritual growth. Temptation isn’t an indication of weakness – rather, the duration of temptation is an indication of strength. (Be careful with that statement. I don’t mean that a really long time of temptation means that you’re really strong. There are ways we can deliberately extend our own temptation – become our own tempter – as we play with thoughts that we ought to have turned our back on.)

The temptation of Christ didn’t happen when he was at a “spiritual high”. Step one was to go to the wilderness. Step two was to fast for nearly six weeks. And at a time when He was physically weaker than He had ever been – desperately hungry – along comes Satan.

Look at the temptations Luke lists (Matthew flips the last two):

1. Turn the stones to bread.
2. Worship me and you can have the whole world to worship you.
3. Throw yourself down to prove to the world that the angels will catch you.

Would any of these tempt you seriously? Can you turn stones to bread? Is it possible that the whole world could worship you? If you jump off a building will you be caught before you hit the ground? None of these challenges are possible (for you), so you’ve never been tempted along those lines. Again, temptation can only occur when there is opportunity to fall, an exploitable weakness of spirit, and desire to commit. But for Jesus these challenges were all possibilities: (1) He turned water into wine – He could have turned the stones into bread. (2) His mission was to “draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32) That mission would be successful if Satan didn’t try to stop it at every turn both during Jesus’ lifetime and ever since. And Jesus wouldn’t have to die on the cross to accomplish that mission. (3) Of all the people in the world, He knew with complete certainty what His mission from God was. And since the mission was not yet complete, He knew He wouldn’t die until “It is finished” (John 19:30). So if He jumped off, the angels would have to save Him (is the apparent logic) – and the world would see the miracle.

For Jesus as God, these were all possibilities and all (or at least we can see that the first two) were desires. That was the function of the wilderness temptation – to tempt in ways specific to His Godly nature. He was tempted at other times in ways peculiar to His humanity – in the garden, for instance: ‘Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” ’ (Matt 26:39 NIV)

So take heart! Even God Incarnate was tempted in ways that were specific to Him. But He stayed the course because He was stronger than the temptation. We can be too, when we draw on His strength (1 Cor 10:13)

• Abram takes 318 men to battle against the united kings of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam and Goiim (who had already defeated Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Zoar) – Gen 14:14
• Gideon leads 300 men (of the original 32,000) against the Midianites and Amalekites and the ‘children of the East’ without number – Judges 7:7
• Jonathan and his armor-bearer climb a cliff and kill the garrison (which turned out to be 20 Philistines) – 1 Sam 14:13
• Ahab of Samaria in Israel (the northern kingdom) can raise just 232 commanders and 7,000 troops against Syria and 32 other kingdoms and routes them – 1 Kings 20:15
• Ahab in Israel again against the same enemy – the Israelites kill 100,000, and city walls fall on 27,000 more – 1 Kings 20:29
• Asa raises 580,000 men of Judah & Benjamin against 1,000,000 from Ethiopia. The Ethiopians run away – 2 Chron 14:8
• Hezekiah besieged in Jerusalem and can raise only a prayer; the Assyrians lose 185,000 men – 2 Kings 19:35

So what’s the big deal for me when I go out to fight my Goliaths? My enemies aren’t trying to poke holes in me with swords; they’re trying to poke holes in my walk with God instead. Four problem areas come to mind immediately where these enemies are trying to work against me:

1. Waiting – sometimes I want to get going.I think part of this command (just look at all these “Wait on the Lord”s – Ps 27:14; Ps 37:9; Ps 37:34; Prov 20:22; Isa 40:31; Zeph 3:8) has to do with keeping us centered on Him, although the more obvious bits have to do with curbing our impatience and coordinating His plan across several people’s activities.

   Where battle is concerned, how about Saul getting tired of waiting for Samuel (1 Sam 13:9-14)? When he didn’t wait on the Lord, he lost the dynasty for his descendants.

   Or where home life is concerned, how about Sarai and Abram taking matters into their own hands by using Hagar? (Gen 16:1-4) Never a good idea to run God’s plan for Him.

2. Listening – sometimes it’s a struggle.Quite a lot of the time I used to find myself (a) getting an idea, then (b) working out how to execute it, then (c) bringing it to the Lord and saying, “What do you think? Good, huh?” and I justified this process by saying that we are expected to use our brains – that’s why God gave them to us.

   But God wants a different process, and I’m determined to move into this pattern. After (a) the idea, He wants us to (b) bring it to Him, and (c) work out how to execute it while being open to His guidance. I liked the other way because it meant that I had control over how the idea was to be executed. But pushing God out of the picture so I can have my own way – that’s pretty much the definition of sin, right? So I’m trying to move away from that pattern.

3. Understanding – sometimes I just don’t get what He’s saying.No duh – God’s thoughts are pretty sublime, after all (Isa 55:9; 1 Cor 1:18). But He’s very good at making those lofty thoughts simple for me. Usually when I just don’t get it, it’s because there’s something else I’ve put in the way. I’m determined to go in a certain direction, and God has His work cut out to redirect me. This is the hardest of all of these points for me right now, but (Prov 3:5) I’m working on it.
4. Obeying – sometimes I don’t want to do it.Confronted with something we don’t want to do, I think the human response is to find some alternative that is more acceptable. Busywork! It’s like a sacrifice – “Look at how good I’m being and how hard I’m working.” (Psa 40:6; Ps 51:17; esp. 1 Sam 15:22) Unfortunately for our escape plan, God doesn’t want the alternative we’ve come up with. Sin again.

I’m sure I’ll come up with others soon – I’ll leave them for another post.