How Do We Handle Temptation?

I have a friend who one day saw an unfamiliar dog sniffing around in his back yard. The dog was a beauty --- seemingly thoroughbred, with clean lines and friendly disposition. My friend called the dog over to him and saw there was a dog collar which had the name, address and phone number of a person, apparently the owner, who lived on the other side of town.

My friend said he then had two conflicting thoughts.  Should he call the person identified on the dog collar to come and collect this dog?  Or, should he take the collar off and adopt this beautiful animal for himself?  Clearly, my friend was being tempted.

What is "temptation"?  Webster says that to "tempt" is "to entice to do wrong by the promise of pleasure or gain."  It seems to start when we become aware of a desire inside of us.  It may be a sinful desire, like the desire to get revenge or to control others.  Or, it may be a legitimate, normal desire, like the desire to be loved and valued, or to feel pleasure.  But "desire" starts to become "temptation" when we think about giving in to evil desire, or to fulfill a legitimate desire in a wrong way or at the wrong time.  Temptation always starts in one's mind, not in the circumstances outside of us.

Next, in the progress of temptation, some doubt arises about whether what we are tempted to do is really wrong.  Clearly, this dog was the property of another person, but every dog needs shelter, food and love, and my friend was ready, willing and able to provide those things.  Did God really say not to keep the dog?  Didn't God mean this prohibition for someone else or some other time?  Didn't God want my friend to be happy!?

The next step would be deception, a step that some people attribute to the work of Satan.  In this view, Satan is incapable of telling the truth. Satan offers his lie to replace what God has already said in his Word.  One can expect Satan's little voice inside us to say things like: "You can get away with it.  No one will ever know.  It will solve your problem.  Besides, everyone else is doing it.  It is only a little sin."  But a little sin is like being a little pregnant ---- it will eventually show itself.

Finally, my friend would need to act, or not act, on the thought he had been toying with in his mind. Would what began as an idea, get born into behavior?  Would he now give in to the desire to keep the dog?

Understanding how temptation works is in itself helpful, but there are specific steps one can take to prevent wrong choices.

In his book, "The Purpose Driven Life," Pastor Rick Warren says that some Christians feel ashamed just for being tempted.  This is a misunderstanding, says Pastor Warren.  One never outgrows temptation.  It is not a sin to be tempted.  Jesus was tempted.  Temptation only becomes a sin when one gives in to it, says Warren.

Pastor Warren goes on to urge us to recognize our patterns of temptation and be prepared for them.  He says there are certain situations that make us more vulnerable to temptation than others.  Some circumstances will cause us to stumble almost immediately, he says, while others don't bother us much.  Ask yourself, "When am I most tempted?  What day of the week?  What time of day?  Where am I most tempted?  At work?  At home?  At a sports bar?"  It may be when we are tired or lonely or bored or depressed or under stress.  It may be when we have been hurt, or are angry, or after a big success or spiritual high.  Wise planning reduces bad outcomes from temptation, urges Pastor Warren.

Importantly, Rick Warren says that heaven has a twenty-four hour emergency hot line. Pastor Warren believes God wants us to ask for assistance in preventing bad temptation choices.  When temptation choices develop, he says, you may not have time for a long conversation with God ---- you simply cry out!

Rick Warren concludes by asking, "If God is waiting to help us defeat the unwise temptation choice, why don't we turn to him more often? Perhaps sometimes we don't want to be helped.  We may want to give in to temptation even though we know our choice is wrong.  At that moment we think we know what's best for us more than God does.  At other times we are embarrassed to ask God for help because we keep giving in to the same temptation choice over and over.

Oh, and what did my friend finally do about the temptation to keep that handsome, wandering dog?  Just then, his wife came home and found him struggling with the temptation.  "Don't be silly," she said, "give me the dog collar so I can call the dog's owner !"

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Haven't I Given Enough Already?!

Hardly a day goes by when I do not receive a couple of phone calls and letters inviting me to donate some money to a worthy cause.  Hardly a year goes by without one of my kids or my house or my car also needing some financial help.  Sometimes the steady drumbeat of financial needs makes me wonder if perhaps the only thing important about me is the money I have to give to others.

Most of us are familiar with the story Jesus tells about the Good Samaritan (Luke 14:25-37).  A Jewish man was riding through a mountainous, remote area where he was robbed, beaten, and left in the road "half-dead."  A Samaritan came along the road.  Samaritans and Jews were the bitterest of enemies.  Yet when the Samaritan saw the man in the road, he was moved with compassion.  He braved the danger by stopping, giving the injured man emergency medical aid, and transporting him to an inn.  He then paid the innkeeper and directed him to care for the man until he had fully recuperated.  That would have been a substantial expense.

What was Jesus doing with this story?  He was showing us what it means to love your neighbor.  Jesus shows us the Samaritan meeting the material, physical and economic needs of the injured Jew ---- the Samaritan planned for the injured man's recovery and paid all the related expenses.  But, the Samaritan's time with the injured man was brief --- he did not give much of himself, other than his money.

I realize that this is exactly what most of my charity-giving requests are asking of me. Would I please simply write a check, mail it and thus be done with this charity ---- until next year?  This is not enough to really satisfy me, and perhaps you feel the same way. We each have more to give "our neighbor" than just our money!

Three on-going activities at Central Church have helped us fill this "giving gap."  One is the CPC High School Mission Trip, where more than 25 teenagers and adults go for a week to live in some needy place, do some construction repairs on houses and roofs, but most importantly develop relationships with the destination hosts.  These "hosts" are so different in life experience from the CPC Mission trippers, that the latter must exit their shells and give something of themselves (so, it is no longer just about giving money).   What can they give?  For the children of the hosts, who are seriously considering dropping out of school, or who have no real plans for their lives, our Mission Trip teenagers encourage these host kids to raise their sights ---- they help the kids define a vision for themselves that could be more fulfilling and perhaps even more financially rewarding.  But, will only a week of contact and friendship really do this in a lasting way?  We do not know until we give it a good "college" try.

Now, consider the Elizabethport Tutorial Program which meets at Central Church every Tuesday evening from October until March.  On a typical Tuesday night about 100 kids gather in the CPC auditorium.  We bus 40-45 kids to Summit from the Elizabethport Presbyterian Center, and they are joined by about 60 teenage tutors from local high schools.  On-going relationships are developed between student and tutor.  The tutors find themselves encouraging their students to apply themselves more fully, and for many students the encouragement of the tutors has boosted student career goals and study habits.  The tutors are not giving "money" ---- they are giving something more priceless.  They are giving their own example as achievers, and showing the Elizabethport students some of the things that are possible for them in the future.  This is a priceless gift.

A totally different Central Church practice is the "Midnight Run."  Each month or so, CPC Youth and accompanying adults, make a hundred or so sandwiches and a supply of coffee or soup, and troop into places in New York City where homeless folks are known to gather in the evenings.  It may be under bridges or in city parks.  There they deliver their gift of food; but, more than that, they talk with these "friends" whom they sometimes meet again on subsequent "Midnight Runs."   The great thing about this endeavor is that each side discovers they are dealing with real people.  Each shared story is different for both the CPC participants and the homeless, but the encounter is not quickly forgotten.  Which do you think is worth more?  The sandwiches and soup, or the cordial human encounter?

Sure, not-for-profits will continue to ask for your money and mine ---- they must do so in order to keep going.  But, ask yourself whether you have something more to give "your neighbor" than merely your money.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Could Our Culture Be Obscuring How We Understand Scripture?

Should we be surprised that Bible text is sometimes confusing, or even beyond our belief?  Consider the origins of Scripture ---- some of it is more than 2,000 years old, was written in various languages by authors who may not have compared notes very carefully, and has been translated by people of different cultures and different eras.

Nevertheless, many of us believe that Scripture is divinely inspired and contains very important guidance on how we should live our lives.

However, the readers of Scripture themselves may also bring some "blinders" to their understanding of what they read from the Bible.  Let's examine four such reader "blinders," so we keep them in perspective:

1.) Forgetting that all of Scripture is about Jesus.  If you think the Bible is only about you ---- what you must do and how you must live ---- then you do not need Jesus.  All you need are the rules.  Actually, there are just two ways to read the Bible:  a.) you can read the Bible as if it is all about you and what you must do to please God and be a good person; OR  b.) you can read the Bible as if it is all about Jesus and what he has done for you.

2.) Failing to distinguish between the Bible's major themes and message, and its less primary teachings.  Some people say, for example, that they cannot accept what the Bible says about gender roles or politics, so they are not sure about any of the other things the Bible tells them.  However, Christians all agree that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.  Are the doubters saying that because they do not like what the Bible says about gender roles, let's say, that Jesus could not have been raised from the dead? 

If Jesus is the Son of God, then we have to take his teaching seriously.  If he is not who he says he is, then why should we care what the Bible says about anything else?  In short, people should not worry about such things as gender roles, until they have decided what they believe about the central teachings of their faith.

3.) Jumping to false conclusions about what a Bible passage is actually teaching.  Be patient with the text.  Many of the things people find offensive can be cleared up with a decent commentary that puts the issue into historical context.  The text may not be teaching what you first thought.

4.) The culture in which one grows up may uniquely shape how we "hear" what the Bible teaches, and be the source of some misunderstanding. Perhaps one is offended by certain biblical texts because of an un-examined assumption of the superiority of our own cultural moment.  The disciples traveling on the road to Emmaus misunderstood the prophecies about the Messiah because as Jews they were thinking of the redemption of Israel and not the redemption of the world.  It is very easy to unconsciously read a Bible passage through one's cultural "blinders" and therefore misunderstand what the text really teaches.

Some people may say a passage is regressive and offensive because it is a problem for their culture, but other cultures may think the same passage is perfectly acceptable.  For example, in some cultures, what the Bible says about sex is a problem, but there are no issues with what it says about forgiveness.  In other cultures, they like what the Bible says about sex, but what the Bible says about forgiveness is considered ridiculous.  Why should one set of cultural sensibilities trump everybody else's?

If the Bible really is the revelation of God and not the product of any one culture, why wouldn't it be inevitable to offend some cultural sensibilities at some point?  Could the problem with some Biblical texts simply arise from an un-examined belief in the superiority of one historical/cultural moment over all others?

Finally, might there be value in reading and re-reading, discussing and pondering, a Scriptural passage over and over, in hopes of weakening our reader's "blinders" and thereby gradually finding the "truer" meaning of that Scriptural teaching?  For many Bible students, part of the thrill of reading and studying Scripture is precisely wrestling with the text and pondering the questions with which it leaves us.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage some personal growth this year at CPC.

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Do You Know The Date When The Church Has It's Birthday?

As you do know, after several years of teaching,shepherding and encouraging his disciples, Jesus departed from the disciples.  But, he had given his disciples some encouragement.  "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever ---- the Spirit of Truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you."  (John 14: 16 - 18)

Soon after Jesus' ascension to heaven, the Jewish world (centered in Jerusalem) celebrated their annual celebration of Shavuot.  Because it was the end of the winter wheat season, it was their long-standing tradition now to thank God for a good harvest.

Perhaps more importantly, however, Shavuot also commemorated God giving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus.  This celebration has also been a long-standing Jewish tradition. 

Shavuot was one of three annual feasts celebrated in Jerusalem ---- Passover, Tabernacles and Shavuot (later called Pentecost by Christians).  Every Jewish male was required to participate in these three festivals.  More than a million Jews from all parts of the world were said to stream into Jerusalem to celebrate and worship in the magnificent marble Temple.  The city was filled to capacity and throngs of celebrants filled the streets.  

Suddenly, during the Temple service of Shavuot, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came and filled the house where the disciples were gathered.  The disciples were filled with a new spirit ---- the Holy Spirit.  Tongues of fire seemed to rest on each of them, and they spoke in other languages.  Immediately, bewildered people "from every nation under heaven" gathered around them.  The people marveled that they could understand the disciples as they spoke and preached.  The disciples were thus empowered to proclaim the gospel of the risen Christ.  They went into the streets of Jerusalem and began preaching to the crowds gathered for the festival of Shavuot.

Although some people mocked, about three thousand others believed and were baptized.  Christ had promised his Apostles that he would send a counselor as his replacement, and on Pentecost they were granted the "gift of the Spirit." 

(Acts 2:1 - 4)

At Central Presbyterian Church we celebrate Pentecost each year.  In 2014, we celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, June 8.  "Pentecost" means "fiftieth day" and is celebrated fifty days after Easter.

What Christians saw on the day of Pentecost, was God giving his power to the people.  The Holy Spirit, who was thought by the Jews to reside only in the Temple, now had moved into a new temple ---- the "temple" of individual Christian believers.  God was demonstrating that he was beginning a new age, an age rooted in his people.

These people were like you and me, but they were suddenly inviting Christ into their lives.  Thus they were allowing God's spirit to fill them and to empower them to do his will.  In an important sense, this was the birth of our church, because it was actually the birth of a community of believers.

Whereas in the era of the Old Testament, the Spirit was poured out almost exclusively on prophets, priests, and kings, in the age of the New Testament, the Spirit would be given to "all people."  All would be empowered to minister regardless of their gender, age, or social position.  The church of Jesus Christ would be a place where every single person matters, where every member contributes to the health and mission of the church.

Each Christian needs to ask: Am I serving God through the power of the Spirit?  Am I exercising the gifts of the Spirit in my life, both in the gathered church and as I live for God in the world?  Pentecost is a time to ask God to fill us afresh with the Spirit so that we might join in the ministry of Christ with gusto.

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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.

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