Fighting Real Temptations

The prophet said long time ago..........

"Those who are partakers of the divine nature will not give way to temptation. The enemy is working with all his might to overcome those who are striving to live the Christian life. He comes to them with temptations, in the hope that they will yield. Thus he hopes to discourage them. But those who have planted their feet firmly on the Rock of Ages will not yield to his devices. They will remember that God is their Father and Christ their Helper. The Saviour came to our world to bring to every tried, tempted soul strength to overcome even as He overcame. I know the power of temptation; I know the dangers that are in the way; but I know, too, that strength sufficient for every time of need is provided for those who are struggling against temptation." MYP p81


When Jesus taught us to pray He said we should say "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"Matthew 6:13.

This is kind of prayer we should not just mention but live.If God is to answer this part of prayer it means that then we should obey the word by not inviting or leading ourselves into temptations.God cannot bless disobedience.

NB--"When the youth attempt to break away from Satan's control, he will redouble his temptations. Taking advantage of their ignorance and inexperience, he attempts to obscure the distinction between right and wrong. He transforms himself into an angel of light, and beguiles by promises of pleasure in a forbidden path. If the youth have formed the habit of following inclination rather than duty, they will find it hard to resist temptation. They do not see the danger in indulging even once in forbidden pleasures. The suggestions of Satan will stir every lingering element of depravity in the heart."--The Signs of the Times, January 19, 1882.

"If you are not experienced in discerning the devices of Satan, your only safety is in prayer." Sons and Daughters of God, p 191.

Jesus said himself "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation."

But we may be praying and still find ourselves overcome by temptation.Why?

Here is a list of the reasons why we find ourselves overcome by sin

1. Not having Christ in your life.
2. Not keeping your eyes on Christ.
3. Allowing your mind to be diverted from God.
4. Failing to realize the need of a constant dependence upon God.
5. Neglecting prayer.
6. Neglecting silent prayer.
7. Appetite and intemperance are the greatest reasons.-Testimonies, vol 3, p 485
8. Not being faithful in the little things.
9. Doubt.-SC-119
10. Impure thoughts.-PP p459
11. Inward sins.-PK p82
12. Not having a correct knowledge of self. 4Tp246
13. Love of money and earthly treasures.-3T p480
14. Ambition for and love of the world.
15. Love of rank and position.
16. Selfishness.
17. Being self-confident or self-righteous.
18. Unbidden association with worldlings and corruption.MYP p82
19. Inviting temptation.
20. If overcome, is easier to fall again.

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded." James 4:7-8.

Ways on how to resist every temptation are :

1.Knowledge and use of the Scriptures as used by Jesus.-Mathew 4:1-11 i.e by By Christ's example.
2.Obedience to God's word is a shield.
3.Restrict reading to Bible and spiritual books only.-3T p81-2
4.Fully surrender your heart to God.
5.Continual prayer is necessary and essential.-MHp509-10
6.Pray, then firmly resist with every nerve and power.MYPp 248
7.Agonize in prayer.-EW p46
8.Victory over appetite is power to resist all other temptations.3Tp491-2
9.Call and claim divine aid/God's promises.-DAp129
10.Realize own weakness.-DAp382
11.Self knowledge on weak points.-GW p276
12.Unite your weakness with Christ's strength.-MYP p50
13.Strength increases with every victory gained. 5T p183
14.By a godly conversation.
15.Form holy habits of thought.MH p454
16.By faith.-1 John 5:4
17.Practice and spread the present truth.-4T p397
18.Sing praises to God. AH p443
19.Do not reason with it. CH p587
20.Avoid evil associates .-1Corinthians 15:33

"When the first suggestion of wrong is heard, dart a prayer to heaven, and then firmly resist the temptation to tamper with the principles condemned in God's word." SDA Bible Commentary, vol 3, p 1155.

Lastly ....God has given us the promises to claim

1. God will keep you from the hour of.-Revelation 3:10.
2. God gives strength to overcome.-Temperance, p 105.
3. Light from heaven will come as we pray. DAp113; SCp 95.
4. Angels are sent to rescue the faithful. 3Tp47.
5. All can overcome. -1SM, p 226
6. Divine power unites with human power to resist. 4T,p 32-33.
7. Every provision has been made to help. 5T,p 574.
8. God removes for sake of the weak. PKp 255.
9. God will bring truths to memory to combat. GCp 600.
10.All things work together for our good. -Romans 8:28; MHp489.
11.God permits none to come which cannot be resisted. -1 Corinthians 10:13; PPp332.

"Temptation and trial will come to us all, but we need never be worsted by the enemy. Our Saviour has conquered in our behalf. Satan is not invincible. . . . Christ was tempted that He might know how to help every soul that should afterward be tempted. Temptation is not sin; the sin lies in yielding. To the soul who trusts in Jesus, temptation means victory and greater strength."Our High Calling p87

Lets "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."-1 Timothy 6:12.

God Bless as we look for that city.

The Character of God

The Character of God-

"The Glory of God is His Character!"

He values and loves the individual.
He always focuses out and down to the little others.
He has never disowned us as his children- even though Satan has worked to make us ugly and disgusting.

Agape love, the true alterocentricity, other oriented, finding one's fulfillment and purpose in the other ones, that is God.
He has never been self centered or alone, the Father, Son, and Spirit always looked to and loved each other.

He has utmost respect for the individual and the right of choice that He gave to us-- without which there can never be any true Love or meaningful relationship.
He makes Himself small and pale as it were, so that his creatures can come into a relationship with Him.

Eros pride, which is the root of sin, on the contrary always seeks to become big and powerful and inspire fear and force obedience.
He is the one that is totally realistic, the day to day realities of our lives are meaningful to Him.

Little things, ordinary things, little people all have value with Him.
He is the one self sufficient being in the universe and yet He made Himself dependent-- on His creatures

He has even gone so far as to allow Himself and His government to be put on trial by His creatures
He will do everything He possibly can to save each of us and make us happy in His universe
His law is what holds the universe together-- that law is based on Agape love, His very essence.

Beings that persist in refusing to allow themselves to be brought into harmony with that universal law will at last have to be returned to where they came from-- nothingness.

This is not a tyrannical arbitrary decision on His part- He will have done everything in His power to give them the chance to see His love and if they consent to belong to Him He will use His mighty power to recreate them to fit into His universe.


He does not, however, at any time impose His will on us -He leads He never forces, drags or shoves- That is why we have to constantly ask Him for this changing, each little step in the process is shown to us a bit at a time and we have to agree and ask for it to be done for us- this is so He will never trespass on our freedom of choice.
Sin only leads to suffering & death, we don't always realize that here in this world but it is inevitable.


Death, decay, dissolution follows separation from God's law of life and His mighty power is what holds the universe and us together. He holds together both the good and the wicked at present as He is giving them a chance to choose and time to see the contrast between His government and Satan's ideas.

When Jesus was tortured to death- it was not His suffering that paid the penalty - somehow satisfying God's Justice- No! No! It was Jesus obedience to His Father's will and law that was needed. Satan did the terrible torture in a desperate attempt to force Jesus to violate the Law. He tried everything to force Jesus to retaliate, loose His temper or use His divine power to defend Himself. Satan failed!! Praise Jesus' name!


God makes Himself totally dependent on our decision and He will never use force or anything that takes from us that power of choice. Anything or anyone that uses force or coercion is in Satan's camp, not God's!


Ultimately there comes a time when some persons have had every possible evidence and yet will still be in rebellion and refuse to co-operate with God and then He will heartbrokenly return those ones to the oblivion they came out of.
He will never force anyone to live with Him who doesn't want to. It is not His wish for any to perish but there is no universe out there that can support life that is not in harmony with the life giver.


Satan cannot support even his own life- all his kingdom is is a fabrication of lies and fantasies- there is no reality to it- the reality is this- only those beings that are in harmony with God and His law can continue to exist- things out of harmony will ultimately perish. There is no problem for God to recreate - the same power that created us and sustains us will change us- but only with our full approval, co-operation and permission.

That is our God! That is the kind of God He is-- And that kind of God I can love forever!

=^..^=

We are Living in Earth's Final Hours!

The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude. The agencies of evil are combining their forces, and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.

Seek the Lord most earnestly while he may be found. We are in the day of God's preparation. Let nothing be regarded as of sufficient worth to draw your minds from the work of preparing for the Great Day of Judgment.

Get ready! Be Ready! Stay Ready!

Perfection of Character is the Aim set before Us

"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"- Matthew 5:48

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"-Hebrews 12:14

" 'When the fruit is brought forth, immediately He putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.' Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced In His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.

"It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3:12, margin. Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how "quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain." Christ's Object Lesson, 69:1-2.

"None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before us the example of Christ's character. In His humanity, perfected by a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through co-operation with Divinity, human beings may In this life attain to perfection of character. This is God's assurance to us that we, too, may obtain complete victory." Acts of the Apostles, 531:2

"We are not yet perfect; but it is our privilege to cut away from the entanglements of self and sin, and advance to perfection. Great possibilities, high and holy attainments, are placed within the reach of all." Acts of Apostles, 565:01.

“Christ came that He might recreate the image of God in man." Desire of Ages, 478:2.

"God will accept only those who are determined to aim high. He places every human agent under obligation to do his best. Moral perfection is required of all. Never should we lower the standard of righteousness in order to accommodate inherited or cultivated tendencies to wrong­doing. We need to understand that imperfection of character is sin. All righteous attributes of character dwell in God as a perfect, harmonious whole, and every one who receives Christ as a personal Saviour is privileged to possess these attributes." Christ Object Lessons, 330:2.

"As was Enoch's must be their holiness of character who shall be redeemed from among men at the Lord's second coming." 8 Testimonies, 331:3.

"We can never see our Lord in peace, unless our souls are spotless. We must bear the perfect Image of Christ. . We shall never attain to this condition without earnest effort. We must strive daily against outward evil and inward sin, if we would reach the perfection of Christian character." Review, May 30, 1882, para. 1.

"When Christ shall come, our vile bodies are to be changed, and made like His glorious body; but the vile character will not be made holy then. The transformation of character must take place before His coming. Our natures must be pure and holy; we must have the mind of Christ, that He may behold with pleasure His image reflected upon our souls." Our High Calling, 278:3.

"When He comes He is not to cleanse us of our sins, to remove from us the defects in our characters, or to cure us of the infirmities of our tempers and dispositions. If wrought for us at all, this work will all be accomplished before that time. When the Lord comes, those who are holy will be holy still. Those who have preserved their bodies and spirits in holiness, in sanctification and honor, will then receive the finishing touch of immortality. But those who are unjust, unsanctified, and filthy will remain so forever. No work will then be done for them to remove their defects and give them holy characters. The Refiner does not then sit to pursue His refining process and remove their sins and their corruption. This is all to be done in these hours of probation. It is now that this work is to be accomplished for us." -2 Testimonies 355:1.

"Now is the time to prepare. The seal of God will never be placed upon the forehead of an impure man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of the ambitious, world-loving man or woman. It will never be placed upon the forehead of men or women of false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who receive the seal must be without spot before God—candidates for heaven." 5 Testimonies, 216:2.

"I saw that none could share the 'refreshing' unless they obtain the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and over every wrong word and action." Early Writings, 71:2.

"Those who come up to every point, and stand every test and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation." 1 Testimonies, 187:1.

"It Is a solemn thing to die, but a far more solemn thing to live. Every thought and word and deed of our lives will meet us again. What we make of ourselves in probationary time, that we must remain to all eternity. Death brings dissolution to the body, but makes no change in the character. The coming of Christ does not change our characters; It only fixes them forever beyond all change." 5 Testimonies, 466:2.

"Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless."-2 Peter 3:14

May God help us—each one—to be faithful to the end.

God Bless