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Above all, we must be especially alert against the beginnings of temptation, for the enemy is more easily conquered if he is refused admittance to the mind and is met beyond the threshold when he knocks…. The longer a man delays in resisting, so much the weaker does he become each day, while the strength of the enemy grows against him.
–Thomas à Kempis

This is a principle we all have experienced before – that when we continue to contemplate the thing that is tempting us, it is more likely for us to lose the battle and step into sin. Flirting with temptation is dangerous. The flirt often ends up with us in an improper embrace. That is why God tells us to flee from temptation and to “resist the devil.” The very first moment temptation shows up, we need to get out of there. “Run, Forest, Run.”

So, when the enemy comes knocking at the door with some appealing temptation, instead of arguing with him (or with yourself) about it, shut him out and never let him in the door with his arguments. He is much better at sales than the best door-to-door vacuum cleaner or encyclopedia salesman ever was. When we start giving arguments as to why we can keep flirting with the temptation instead of slamming the door and high-tailing it to some other place (whether that be physical, mental, or both), we find our resistance gets weaker and weaker while our urge to give in to the temptation gets stronger and stronger.

Today, make a choice before your particular temptation ever shows up at your door, that when it arrives, you will slam the door and flee from temptation. Make a determined choice that your days of flirting with temptation are over starting this very moment.

We need Christians in all sorts of vocations, because we are in a spiritual battle every day and…

The “war” is being fought along the line between sin and righteousness in every family.
It is being fought along the line between truth and falsehood in every school…
between justice and injustice in every legislature…
between integrity and corruption in every office…
between love and hate in every ethnic group…
between pride and humility in every sport…
between the beautiful and the ugly in every art…
between right doctrine and wrong doctrine in every church…
between sloth and diligence between coffee breaks.

You don’t waste your life by where you work, but how and why.
–John Piper

I hope as you head to work today (and throughout this entire week) that you will keep your eyes open for the great opportunities God is giving you to impact people for His kingdom in your workplace. Don’t waste the opportunities He places in your path!

I have discovered that prayer’s real purpose is to put God at the center of our attention, and forget ourselves and the impression we are making on others.
–Rosalind Rinker

I imagine we have all prayed at some point with ourselves as the central focus.
I imagine we have all prayed at some point to try to impress others.

As we pray today…
May we each pray with God at the center… not ourselves.
May we each pray to please God, our Audience of One… not to try to please someone else.

Leo Tolstoy became a Christian at about 50 years of age.
He provided the excellent statement below in regard to those who would be critical of his choice to follow Christ, critical of how he was walking the path of the Christian life, and critical of Christianity itself:

Attack me… but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side?

No, do not gloat, but give me your help and support.
–Leo Tolstoy

What excellent advice for us all.
1. Do not attack Jesus and Christianity for my poor example of following Him. I never claimed to be the Perfect Savior, I just claim to follow Him.
2. Attempt to point out the right path to everyone who asks – attempt to point out where the path lies – the path the Jesus set before us.
3. Keep walking the path that Jesus laid out, even if you do a bit of staggering along the way. Keep making forward progress, even if it isn’t a perfectly straight line.
4. Help others walk the path well. When they get off the path, help them back onto it. Do not mislead.
5. Do not celebrate the misfortunes of others, don’t celebrate the errors they make as they walk the path. We are so competitive that we are often inwardly happy when something negative happens to others. That is not walking the path well. Do not gloat, do not take any joy that someone else has stumbled or is lost.
6. Give your help and support to all others – to those who are not yet walking the path, point it out to them. To those who are stumbling on the way, support them so they walk without tripping. To those that are walking the path well, let them be a support and an example to you.

Walk the path that our Perfect Savior laid out for us – it is the Way!

I know of no more poignant contrast between two human destinies than that of Peter and Judas.
    Both assumed leadership within the group of Jesus’ disciples.
    Both saw and heard wondrous things.
    Both went through the same dithery cycle of hope, fear, and disillusionment.
    As the stakes increased, both denied their Master.

There, the similarity breaks off. Judas, remorseful but apparently unrepentant, accepted the logical consequences of his deed, took his own life, and went down as the greatest traitor in history. He died unwilling to receive what Jesus had come to offer him. Peter, humiliated but still open to Jesus’ message of grace and forgiveness, went on to lead a revival in Jerusalem and did not stop until he had reached Rome.
–Philip Yancey

And we are all in the same boat as Peter and Judas. We will all go through cycles of hope, fear, and disillusionment. We will all rebel against Jesus. The question will be whether we will remain open to Jesus’ message of grace and forgiveness. Or will we let our shame be used like a dagger twisting into our hearts and consciences to the point that we believe the lie: God could never forgive me for ____________ (fill in the blank with your most difficult sin).

Sin is serious. Sin is tragic. But the greater tragedy is not confessing our sin to Jesus and allowing Him to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. Never forget that Peter and Judas were in the same boat, both engaging in the terrible sin of denying Jesus. But Jesus forgave Peter because he came to Him with a repentant heart. And Jesus was willing to forgive Judas. Judas just refused to come to Jesus with a repentant heart. Don’t make the tragic mistake of Judas.