Spectacular
Saturday….moving right into the weekend here on the Front Porch…for a great
deal of us we are off ‘work’ as in the 40, 40+ hour a week job we get paid to
do…no matter how rewarding and fulfilling…how glorious it is to wake-up or
sleep in… whichever you do…and have the day stretching before you…you can meander
through it, for the most part, however, whenever you desire. Even if you have young children, scheduled sports
activities, recitals, birthday events…there is still flexibility from the usual
routine…a good thing!
So, today on
the Front Porch…the word...TANTALIZE….a red
hot, sizzling word…word that can get us into trouble, wreck
havoc in our lives, set us on a course of disaster…if we let it.
TANTALIZE: means tormented by the sight of something desired but out of reach; tease
by arousing, to provoke, to taunt, to tempt, to frustrate.
Hmmm...mighty powerful
word…jam packed with trouble.
In our Christian
walk, we encounter ‘tantalizing’ situations…those
things around us that can tease, tempt and test. Something we MUST be aware of,
vigilant about and constantly on the look out for.
1 Peter 5:8 states:
‘Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy
the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’
That someone being me and you. It is the war of the ages…Satan, a fallen angel
who rebelled. He is at war with God and His
creation...God, me, you…
The Devil is often identified as the serpent
in the Garden of Eden who TANTALIZED Eve. He, ever so slyly, cunningly, taunted and
tempted her. Teased and tested her. Telling her God was holding out on her…and if
she would do the very thing God had told her NOT to do…she would be like God…and
she fell for it. This is referred to as ‘original
sin’. The bad news for her and Adam and
certainly bad news for the rest of us…Long story…look in the book of Genesis
for the ‘rest of the story’.
The
Good News! God had a plan. Redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation
through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
TANTALIZE: our world is filled with a plentitude of things,
stuff, people, places, situations, promises…to fulfill our desires, dreams and
wishes...Our world has turned into a big pleasure, seeking playground, a
pleasure palace: with the motto: ‘if it feels good-do it’.
TANTALIZE: The enemy of our souls, beware, be on guard, and
have your full armor on as described in Ephesians Chapter 6.
Be sober - Avoid drunkenness of your senses, and drunkenness in your
souls; be not overcharged with the concerns of the world.
Be vigilant - Awake, and keep awake; be always watchful; never be
off your guard; your enemies are alert, they are never off theirs.
Your adversary, the devil –IS NOT your friend, is not looking
out for your good…but has a mission, to kill, steal and destroy.
He is an ever active, scheming,
subtle enemy we must be aware of and be equipped to contend with. He roams
about…not in the sense that me and you move about. He is subtle, sly and sneaky. He has access to you everywhere; he knows
your feelings and your weaknesses, secret desires and wishes. Bad Dude…Bad
News. BUT, Good News!
As sung by Chris Tomlin:
Our God is greater,
our
God is stronger,
God
you are higher than any other.
Our God is Healer,
Awesome in Power,
Our God! Our God!
TANTALIZE: Satan tempts, traps, tests us:
The subtle , sneaking, sly serpent; tries to bewitch us TANTALIZE our senses, twist, turn and tamper with our judgment, and carry
us away in our own imagination. That tantalizing thought calls to us; it is soothing, silky, sensual…could be
brought on by something we saw, something we heard, or somewhere we should
never have been.
Satan just seems to have the knack of situating us in the wrong
place at the wrong time, with the wrong people with the wrong attitude.
“Just one look, just one
drink, just one taste, just one night, just one smoke.”
As the Lay’s potato chip commercial
used to promote:
“One is not enough.”
Got that right!
Just so you don’t think something like this could never
happen to me or you…take a look at King David in 2 Samuel 11.
King David was supposed to be in battle. For some reason at this particular time, 'he
remained in Jerusalem’. (wrong place)
He had a sleepless and restless night and while
walking on the roof of his palace, (wrong time) saw Bathsheba, who was then the
wife of Uriah, taking a bath. Hmmm...why was he looking?
He immediately desired her (wrong person) and later
made her pregnant. (wrong decision)
Wrong, Wrong, Wrong…
what was he (man after God’s own heart thinking or NOT thinking)?...
TANTALIZE…
During one of our pastoral
sabbaticals, Preacher and I sat under the ministry of a very wise Pastor. 33 years later I still remember one of the
best sermons I heard him preach:
We can justify (rationalize) anything we want to…
In other words we can talk ourselves into doing, saying
Anything and think we have every right to do so!
Think about it…how fools justify saying things, doing things, not doing things because they have made it right in their own perverted, twisted thought process…oh, and with a little help from the enemy of their soul: satan.
This must have been one of those moments for David…he
encountered a Tantalizing
moment, a test, a tease, a temptation…and succumbed to it…hook, line and
sinker.
TANTALIZE...
BUT, sin begets sin,
wrong begets
wrong,
lie beget lie...
it did not end there…
as usual and customary...
Sin pays and we do not like the wages…
and in this case it involved death.
David somewhat came to his senses…what a mess... an effort to conceal his sin, David called Bethesda’s husband Uriah from the heat of the battle and hoped that Uriah would... hmmm...putting it plainly...have sex with his wife. So, he would think the child was his. BUT, Uriah was unwilling to violate the ancient kingdom rule and chose to remain on duty at the palace.A man of honor.
He refused to go home to the comfort of his home,
his bed and his wife.
Thus, David conceived (no pun intended) more sin, more wrong.
David , having lost every good brain cell he was every given, told Joab to place Uriah in the front lines of the battle, where it was the most dangerous, and thus for sure, left Uriah to the hands of the enemy. Certain death...ordered by the king he had vowed to serve.
It gets more bizarre-see that enemy, the serpent, sneaky, sly, slimy…will drive us to such a deep, dark place that exists in each of us-because of that original sin.
David had Uriah himself carry the message that ordered his very death. He probably carried those orders with a sense of pride, a sense of duty…a mission for the king.
David rendered heartless, conscious seared, no sense of right…
TANTALIZE: wrong, wrong, wrong.
Sin cannot be hid-forever. It may
be kept low; secret for a time…sooner or later it spills, seeps and springs forth.
Hmmm... Such as this baby that would come forth in 9 months and Uriah
would know and so would everyone else-that it was not his.
Funny, or not so, Christian folk-get caught up in the heat of a 'moment' and succumb to a relationship out of marriage...A baby is conceived and 5, 6, 7 months later-an ‘early’ baby arrives.
Please folk-just don’t tell us a lie. Don’t say “I am getting married and honest I’m not pregnant”...We can do the math…but forget about us…
it is God who is never fooled...
After Uriah was dead David made it official-he took Bathsheba as his wife…
Wonder what the people he ruled thought?
We find out pretty quick what God thought.
The prophet Nathan came to David and told him about
2 men and sheep. One was rich and had
countless cattle and sheep (David) one was poor and only had one little lamb
(Uriah). The rich man took the little lamb from the poor man to feed some
travelers.
Upon hearing this David was furious! He stood up
with every righteous indignation he could muster and said,”This man should be hung and repay for this crimes
Hmmm...going way back to a Front Porch
talk on 'beams and splinters'…we see everyone else’s mistakes…not our own…
Anyway, the Prophet Nathan pointed to
David and said, ”You are this man”.
David must have been cut to the core, slashed to the bone, broken to pieces. He was the man indeed. Much to his credit, he repented. BUT, there was a penalty to pay. The child conceived would die. There would be trouble, turmoil, testing, TANTALIZING in his household the rest of his days. His son raped his own daughter, 2 Samuel 13. His son, Absalom, murders the brother who raped the sister. 2 Samuel 13. David had to flee his home because of this same son’s treason. Absalom had to be murdered to stop his devious, deceitful, descent into madness. Trouble followed David the rest of his life. The man who worshipped God, taught us so much through the book of Psalms about praise, worship and adoration…fell into defeat, downfall, disaster after disaster…all because of one look at the wrong time, in the wrong place at the wrong person.
TANTALIZE
Satan, as a roaming lion is always on
the prowl, looking, seeking, and searching for the opportunity to devour – gulp
us down. GULP.
He is patient, oh, so, patient. Much like a chess game and the chess players…he
plays a deadly game and we play right along…even thinking we can outsmart, outmaneuver,
out play him-much like David with trying to set up Uriah.
In the end, play with fire-get
burned. Satan will play along, smooth,
silky, seductive…until he has you backed in the corner...checkmate! Too often
we don’t even realize who we are playing against...or if we do, we think we
have everything under control…we can handle it…hmmm…look how David ‘handled it’
and look at the consequences.
TANTALIZE
I will say it again and again… do not
drink, do not swallow down Satan’s snares; His lies, his teases, his tricks and
especially falling under the sway of drugs and alcohol. If you swallow strong drink down, the devil
will swallow you down. Hear this, ye drunkards, topers, tipplers, or by
whatsoever name you are known in society, or among your fellow sinners. Strong
drink is not only the way to the devil, but the devil's way into you.
BEWARE, your soberness, your vigilance, your guard, your good common
sense, your decencies, your thought processes…all become cloudy, fuzzy, unclear
and disappear under the influence. There
is a reason it is called ‘under the influence’.
You are no longer in control and you have given your control to someone
else-satan. Look at the countless number
of lives ‘stolen, destroyed and killed (my father) in the name of a drink.
TANTALIZE
There is hope! Realize we are under construction. God is not
finished with us. Construction is
messy, takes a great deal of time, and is very costly. Construction entails cutting, hammering,
sometimes great pressure, heat, tearing it out and starting over. So be
patient, submit to the Carpenter’s handiwork.
This is not His first rodeo!
Use self discipline, bring your
thoughts, body, wishes and desires under subjection-but hard to do if you are
not in control. I know one young lady
who said “drunk sex is best’…she has got to be kidding…what kind of deception
is she living under?... Please join me in praying for her and thousand, millions
like her who have this mindset.
TANTALIZE
Take charge!
Oswald Chambers, great evangelist,
teacher in the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s, very well known for his
devotional book, “MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST’ stated: “The Christian life is gloriously difficult’ ( my note: I read this and
gasped). He went on to state: “But the difficulty does not make us faint and cave in; it rouses us to
overcome.”
TANTALIZE
That thing or those things that TANTALIZE us…lay hold, seize, shake, grip tightly then destroy, throw
them down, along with Satan and put them under our feet! Oh, they will try to resurrection from time
to time, BUT
BE SOBER, BE VILIGANT….be ready and
prepared…
Whew, had no idea the thought TANTALIZE would take us into such a discussion.
Our little chats here on the Front Porch, in
such intensity, are fixin’ to come to a close…few more days and I will have met
my 28 day challenge to seek, search, pour and pound my way into these words,
find the meaning, pray about how they need to be addressed in my life.
YOU?
Why, I just happened to invite you to come sit with me here on my Front
Porch here in Texas, to talk to, share with, help me discuss and find meaning to these words....
Haven't gotten a whole lotta
feedback…guess you couldn’t get a word in edgewise…
Anyway, deep, soaking, soul searching…
What am I going to do with these word
studies and ’revelations’?
Hmmm, first gonna hide them in my
heart and ponder on them, chew on them, revisit them, pray about them, apply
them and hopefully live them…my 2013 Lifestyle Living….
So, going to stretch into this Splendid
Saturday…gonna live, move and breathe…in Him
Until tomorrow…here on the Front Porch
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