Category Archives: Awareness

Awareness, Christian Living, Encouragement, Satan's Attacks, Temptation, Tests

Temptation

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Wow!!!  What a powerful, and encouraging passage of Scripture, especially for us Christians.  Contrary to popular belief, even among Christians, there is no such thing as a superhuman temptation that can overpower us, and force us to summit to sin.  That is great news, is it not?  God, through the Apostle Paul, teaches us a great lesson about temptation.

First, let’s define temptation. Nelson’s Bible Dictionary defines temptation as “an enticement or invitation to sin, with the implied promise of greater good to be derived from following the way of disobedience.”  Notice that temptation is nothing more that an enticement or invitation to which we have the power to decline.  What makes it so hard to resist is the promise of something “good” for our disobedience to God.  Always remember that Satan is the great tempter (Matthew 4:3: 1 Thessalonians 3:5), and the father of all lies (John 8:44).  So, if Satan is enticing us to do something that is wrong in God’s eyes, and promising us something good for doing what is wrong, IT’S A LIE!!!

There are five very important things we are able to take away from today’s passage of Scripture:

  1. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity.” – Paul reminds the Corinthian church, and us, that there is no such thing as a superhuman temptation that can not be resisted by humans.  There is no need for us to trow our hands up and give in to temptation.
  2. “God is faithful.” – when we are tempted, God is always there for us.  He “never leaves us or forsakes us”, especially in times of trouble.
  3. “He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able,” – God will not allow Satan to tempt us beyond what we are capable of resisting.  God knows the full measure of our strength.  Therefore, He will not allow Satan to tempt us beyond what we are able to resist.
  4. “with the temptation He will provide a way to escape…” – God not only controls how hard we are tempted, He also provides a way to escape temptations.  When we’re in a dark theater we can be comforted in the fact that if something happens, there are always lit exit signs that will help us escape danger.
  5. “so that you are able to bear it.” – so that we are able to resist it.

So, what are our God given defenses against temptation?

  1. God’s Word –  God demands immediate, radical, costly obedience to His commands.   The Psalmist says, “I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you (Psalms 119:11).”  Jesus fought Satan’s temptations by quoting Scriptures (Matthew 4:4-10).  We must make time to study God’s Word: “Oh, how I love thy law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies (Psalms 119:97-98).”
  2. Prayer – The night Jesus was betrayed, Jesus prayed and commanded Peter to pray so that he would not fall into temptation (Mark 14:38).”  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray that we would not be led into temptation (Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4).”
  3. Common sense – We must not put ourselves in situations that will exploit our weaknesses.  If gambling is a weakness, do not go to casinos or places where where betting games are offered.  If alcoholic beverages are our weakness, we must stay out of places that serve alcoholic beverages…we get the point, don’t we?

So now that we are well equipped to fight and overcome Satan’s attacks (Ephesians 6),

  • How will we obey what we’ve learned in today’s lesson?
  • With whom will we share what we learned in today’s lesson?
  • With whom will we share the story of our salvation, and the story of what Jesus did for us?

In Christ’s love,

Phil Covone

Awareness, Christian Living, Doing Good, Freedom, Hope, integrity, Salvation, Tests

How Well Do We Know Ourselves?

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalms 139:23-24)

Because of our sin nature, every one of us has a skewed view of our selves.  Sin is what is familiar to us, which blurs what’s important.  Because of our sin nature, we excuse the wrong we do and lessen our guilt for doing it.  This is what is normal to us.  The result of this is that we see ourselves very differently than others do, and even how God does.  There could be, in each one of us, an evil habit, or a strong pull to do what is wrong in God’s eyes, which, if not dealt with, can overpower and destroy us.  Not only that, there could also be something in our hearts or lives, that causes us to think less of ourselves, nullifying our ability to be an influence for good.  Here’s the thing, we may not even be aware of all this.  Look at what God tells us about ourselves, through the Prophet Jeremiah:

“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).”

The very next verse (verse 10) aught to cause us to tremble, and to be grateful at the same time:

“I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve Jeremiah 17:10).”

  1. “Tremble” because He is going to judge us and punish us according to whether we live our lives according to His will, or our will.
  2. “Grateful” because He loves us enough to warn us and give us the opportunity to drop our own way of living and live according to His ways.

The reality is that we do not know ourselves as well as we portray ourselves to.  Therefore, the wise thing to do on our part, is to ask our Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent God to do for us what King David begged Him to do for him in today’s passage of Scripture.  King David asks God to do four very important things for Him:

  1. “Search me, God, and know my heart;” – He asks God to search the very depths of his heart – that God would search every part of his being, leaving nothing about him unstarched.
  2. “test me and know my concerns.” – He asks God to test and see that he is not representing himself as a God loving, God fearing man, when he is not.
  3. “See if there is any offensive way in me;” – He asks God to make sure there is nothing in himself that is offensive to God.  He does not want to offend God in any way.
  4. “lead me in the everlasting way.” –  King David asks God to put him on the path to, and lead him on the way to eternal life. In others words, He wants to live according to God’s will, which will lead him to an eternal life in heaven with God.

King David was afraid of breaking God’s heart again, and becoming useless to Him. How well do you know yourself?  Is there anything hidden in your life that is hindering you from being an instrument of God for good?

Will we all have the courage to ask God for what King David asked Him?

In Christ’s love,

Phil Covone

Awareness, Encouragement, God's Misteries, Hope, Promises

God’s Mysteries

“But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind— God prepared this for those who love Him.”                      (1 Corinthians 2:9)

There are so many religious denominations and doctrines in the world today that were started by men and women who base their beliefs on their own limited, spiritual wisdom and understanding, rather than on God’s revelation through the Holy Spirit.  This is why God warns us and tells us to not believe every spirit, but to check to see if it’s from God, before believing them:

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 John 4:1).”

Sadly, as I’ve said before, most people don’t want to take time to read, much less study, God’s Word.  Thus, they foolishly follow false doctrines taught by false prophets, who are leading them straight to hell.  Let’s not let that happen to us.  Let’s see what God is really teaching us through today’s verse.

First, let’s take a look at the context.  In verses one through eight, the Apostle Paul makes it very clear to all of us that he is speaking about the spiritual realm of both God and man.  It is a spiritual communication between the all-wise Holy Spirit of God, and the spirit of man, whose wisdom is severely limited.  He explains that everything he had taught the church at Corinth, did not come from him, but from God’s revelation to him through the Holy Spirit.  Understanding this, now we can look at what today’s verse says. Paul goes on to say:

  1. “But as it is written:” – although Paul’s source for his following quote is not known, it is clear that it has it’s origins in Scripture because of what is revealed through it.
  2. “What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind…” – refers to God’s mysteries, things that humanity in its own wisdom could never understand or explain.  Mainly, His love and grace shown to us through what He did for us through His Son, Jesus.
  3. “God prepared this for those who love Him.” – from before the foundation of the world, God chose to open the spiritual eyes of those who chose love Him and put their faith and trust in Him.  He did this so that we could get to know Him, understand Him, love Him, and thus, serve Him.  The more we know and understand God, the more we are compelled to love Him.

God’s greatest mystery is His amazing love for us.  Do you want to know about His love for you?  Do you want to know what His love compelled Him to do for you?  Let me now by responding below on this blog.

In Christi’s love,

Phil Covone

Awareness, Christian Living, Encouragement, Obedience, Wisdom

Motives

“All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord evaluates the motives.” (Proverbs 21:2)

 

It amazes me that there are so many of us, who profess to be Christinas, who continue to live their lives according to their standard of living.  They live a selfish, self-centered, self-serving life that excludes God.  Today’s verse is one of those verses we love to hate because it tells a truth about ourselves we’re not willing to admit, and a truth about God we don’t want to accept.  Let’s break it down, and take a closer look at it.

  1. “All…” – the word, “all”, in this verse, is an all-inclusive word. It means, with no exclusions, or exceptions.
  2. “a man’s ways…” – this includes all we think, all we do, and all we say, with no exceptions.
  3. “seem right to him…” – selfish, self-serving pride convinces us that everything we think, do, and say, is right – that there is no wrong in us, so much so that we often pick a fight when others disagree with us.
  4. “but the Lord evaluates the motives.” –  God is our Lord.  He, alone, has the right, power, and authority to examine, evaluate, judge, and give us our just rewards for what motivates us to think, do, and say what we do.  Whatever He finds to be our motivation, He will give us our just rewards.  Take a look at what He says about us:

“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve (Jeremiah 17:9-10).”

This is the part that we don’t want to accept about God.  There are many of us who truly believe that, because we are under grace, God will not judge, or punish us, for our sin.  Friends, when God said this, He was talking to His chosen people, the Israelites.  As Christians, we are also His people, adopted into His family through faith in what Jesus did on the cross for us.

God, through the Apostle Paul, says:

“Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things (Philippians 4:8).”

Everything we think, everything we do, and everything we say must honor God. The only way to truly honor God is to strive to live in immediate, radical, costly obedience to His commands.  Now, stop for a moment and ask yourself if your the motivation for the things you think, say, and do are to love and obey God, or to continue living according to your own agenda for your life.

So, then,
– how will we obey today’s Scriptures?
– With whom will we share today’s lesson?
– With whom will we share the story of our salvation, and the story of what Jesus did for us?
In Christ’s love,
Phil
Awareness, Christian Living, False Prophets, Freedom, God's Word, Temptation, Tests, Wisdom

Test

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)

The book of 1 John was written to address several problems with believers.  One of those problems was the preaching and teaching of false prophets, especially those teaching  against the incarnation of God in Christ Jesus.  This is confirmed in verses 2 and 3:

“This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now (1 John 4:2-3).”

There are many religious leaders out there who claim to be Christians, yet deny the incarnation of God in Christ.  According to God in verse 2 and 3, those who deny His incarnation are false prophets, and are an anti-christ because the Spirit of God (Spirit of Truth) is not in them, but the spirit of deceit.

In verse one, God, through the Apostle John, tells us that we are not to believe everything we hear from our religious leaders because they are fallible human beings.  God Himself warns us about human nature.  Here’s what He says about us,

“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve (Jeremiah 17:9-10).”

This is why we must test everything any religious leader, or teacher, by comparing it with what God’s Word actually says.  Here in is the problem, though.  Most Christians do not want to take the time to read and study God’s Word.  They just want to go to church, sit down, and open their mouths, like little birds, to be fed and don’t even know what kind of poison they’re being fed.

So, how do we recognize these false prophets? Jesus also warns us about false prophets and tells how we can spot them:

“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20).”

A false prophet is rarely known just by their false teachings, but also by their lives.  If they’re living contrary to the Word of God, they are false prophets.  We must always be aware so that we do not fall prey to them.

So, take a moment to ask yourself if you’re under the teachings of a false prophet.  If you are, run, and find another Bible believing church that will teach you how to study the Bible correctly, so the you can know the truth, and obey it.

In Christ’s love,

Phil Covone