Assaults Of The Flesh
Posted by jerrywhite on Jul 25, 2010
My people are bent on turning away from me.
Hosea 11:7 (ESV)
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“The divine life has its dwelling-place in a fallen fleshly nature. It is encompassed by all the corruptions, weaknesses, infirmities, and assaults of the flesh. There is not a moment that it is not exposed to assaults from within. There is not a natural faculty of the mind or throb of the heart that is favorable to its prosperity, but all are contrary to its nature, and hostile to its advance. As there is nothing internal that is favorable to a state of grace, so there is nothing external that encourages it forward. It has many and violent enemies. Satan is ever on the watch to assault it. The world is ever presenting itself in some new form of fascination and power to weaken it. A thousand temptations are perpetually striving to ensnare it. Thus its internal and external enemies are leagued against it. Is it then any wonder that faith should sometimes tremble, that grace should sometimes decline, and that the pulse of the divine life should often beat faintly and feebly?
The saints in every age have felt and lamented this.”
Octavius Winslow
Morning Thoughts, May 31
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“If we hope to overcome them [the spiritual forces of evil], we shall need to bear in mind that they have no moral principles, no code of honour, no higher feelings. They recognize no Geneva Convention to restrict or partially civilize the weapons of their warfare. They are utterly unscrupulous, and ruthless in the pursuit of their malicious designs.”
John R. W. Stott
The Message of Ephesians, 264
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Longing For More
Posted by jerrywhite on Jun 14, 2010
“All through the ages the saints have literally sobbed about the sin resident in their hearts. ‘My heart is the very dunghill of the devil, and it is no easy work to wrestle with him on his own ground,’ said Jacob Behmen. ‘My heart is a cage of unclean beasts!’ cried a mediaeval saint. ‘I am made of sin,’ lamented Bishop Andrewes. It is not, however, the fact of indwelling sin that causes the saints distress so much as inability to deal with it.
In the first flush of the joy of his conversion the young Spurgeon was transported to the heavenly places and felt himself ‘an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, forgiven, accepted in Christ, plucked from the miry clay, his feet set upon a rock, and his going established.’ But, even so, after a few weeks he records that ‘certain follies had begun to sprout again….My soul seems to long after the flesh pots of Egypt, and that, after having eaten of heavenly manna. Help and forgive me, our Saviour.’
Still more penetrating is the testimony of Oswald Chambers: ‘The sense of depravity and the bad-motiveness of my nature was terrific. I knew no one who had what I wanted. In fact, I did not know what I did want, but I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, then the thing was a mockery.’
G. H. Morling
The Quest for Serenity, 34-35
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Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:24-25 (ESV)
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Dear longing child of God, saints through the ages have struggled with indwelling sin just as you do and pursued the truth in the Lord Jesus that would enable them to live a purer, holy life for the Lord Jesus. Did He not promise, “Seek and you will find” (Luke 11:9)?
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Be Not Discouraged
Posted by jerrywhite on May 6, 2010
“All of you have faced temptation, times of conflict between your natural conscience and the law of God. But that is not the contest in the believer’s bosom. It is warfare between the Spirit of God in the heart and the old man with his deeds. If any of you are groaning under this warfare, learn to be humbled by it, but not discouraged. It is intended to make you lie in the dust and feel acutely your need for Christ’s power and forgiveness. Even after you have received the Holy Spirit, you are still prone to wander and leave the God who rescued you.
Let this make you lie low. Let this teach you your need of Jesus. You need the blood of Jesus as much now as at first. You never can stand before God in yourself. You must go again and again to be washed. Even on your dying bed, you must hide under Jehovah, our righteousness. You must also lean on Jesus. He alone can overcome the sin in you. Draw nearer and nearer to Him every day.
Don’t be discouraged. Jesus is willing to be a Savior to such as you. He is able to save you to the uttermost. Do you think your case is too bad for Christ to save? Everyone whom Christ saves had just such a heart as you. Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold of eternal life. Take up the resolution of Edwards: ‘Never to give over, nor in the least to slacken, my fight with my corruptions, however, unsuccessful I may be.’”
Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)
The Best of Robert Murray McCheyne, 15-16
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For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.
Romans 7:18 (ESV)
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“Christians pray to Christ to save them from their sins, but they know very little how the blessed work is done. The living Christ reveals Himself to us, and through the power of His love the love of sin is expelled. It is through personal fellowship with Him that Jesus saves from our sins.”
Andrew Murray
The Secret of Fellowship, 12
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Testing of Temptation
Posted by jerrywhite on Mar 29, 2010
“Fire tries iron, and temptation tries a just person.
Often we do not know what we are able to do, but temptations show us what we are.
Yet we must be watchful, especially in the beginning of the temptation, for the enemy is more easily overcome in the beginning if he is not allowed to enter the door of our hearts, but is resisted outside the gate at the first knock.
Therefore someone said, ‘Withstand the beginnings, for later the remedy comes too late”.
For first a simple thought comes to the mind, then a strong imagination, followed by delight, an evil impulse, and then consent.
So when our wicked enemy is not resisted in the beginning, little by little he gets complete entrance.
And the longer we wait before resisting, the weaker we daily become in ourselves, and the stronger the enemy is against us.”
Thomas a`Kempis
The Imitation of Christ, updated by Harold J. Chadwick
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“O my crucified but never mortified sinfulness!
O my life-long damage and daily shame!
O my indwelling and besetting sins!
O the tormenting slavery of a sinful heart!
Destroy, O God, the dark guest within
whose hidden presence makes my life a hell.
Yet thou hast not left me here without grace;
The cross still stands and meets my needs
in the deepest straits of the soul.”
The Valley of Vision, 127, Edited by Arthur Bennett
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No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
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Flee Temptation
Posted by jerrywhite on Mar 11, 2010
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
James 1:14-15 (ESV)
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“In our members there is a slumbering inclination toward desire, which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery of the flesh. All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames. It makes no difference whether it is a sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money….
At this moment God is quite unreal to us. [Remember those words.] He loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real. The only reality is the devil. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God…. The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us. The questions present themselves as, ‘Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?’ And, ‘Is it really not permitted to me, yes, expected of me now, here in my particular situation to appease desire?’…
It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God…. Therefore the Bible teaches us in times of temptation in the flesh, there is one command: Flee! Flee fornication. Flee idolatry. Flee youthful lusts. Flee the lusts of the world. There is no resistance to Satan in lust other than flight. Every struggle against lust in one’s own strength is doomed to failure.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quoted by Charles R. Swindoll, David, 185-186
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Sin in your bodily members continues while you live on earth. Although the Lord Jesus broke its enslaving power over you at the cross, sin’s presence has not been eradicated from your flesh. It just waits for opportunity. Therefore it is a constant threat that must be overcome by your vigilance and dependent cooperation with the Lord.
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