Today's Devotions

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Showcase: Assorted Treats

  • Because of Who You Are +

    Time and again Vicki Yohe provides us with songs that simply capture the heart of someone devoted to Christ as… Read More
  • Who are you? The roles of elder, pastor and congregation +

    Todd Nighswonger of Cornerstone Simi Church, talked about the role of elders, pastors, and the congregation living in community. http://storage.cornerstonesimi.com/sermons/audio/11_103_A_People_of_Worth_pt3.mp3… Read More
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200px OswaldChambersWe do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin -Hebrews 4:15

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed."

But through regeneration we are lifted into another realm where there are other temptations to face, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced. The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature. Our Lord's temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers. The temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man, but the temptations of God as Man. Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life He has the same setting that He had on earth. Satan does not tempt us just to make us do wrong things- he tempts us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God. He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin, but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us. This makes the temptation of our Lord explainable. After Jesus' baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One "who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29) He "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Matthew 4:1) and into the testing devices of the devil. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation "without sin," and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.

 

Reflections to Consider

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Publications

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Music

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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Embracing God's Mystery +

    One of the sad aspects of humanity is our jadedness, Read More
  • Soaring by Surrendering +

    How do birds soar? Read More
  • Transcendence & Immanence +

    Scripture Isaiah 57:15 For this is what the high and exalted One says— Read More
  • October Devotional: Deliverance +

    Isaiah 49: 8 This is what the Lord says: Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows… Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic… Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the… Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St… Read More
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