God created us with the desire for sex, but if we seek to fulfill that desire outside of the commitment of heterosexual marriage, we sin. You cannot serve God and mammon.". Eve was no different and as she looked at the fruit, she might have contemplated what “mind-blowing” experience she might enjoy and what limitations might be blown away. Those who do not yield to temptation will be rewarded.

3. ", Joseph is an example of someone who successfully resisted temptation. Then he remembered his diet. Skeletons or rotting corpses would be a more accurate picture!

Someone has said, “Watch your thoughts, they become words. God’s moral law is written in the heart of every human being ( Romans 1:20 ), and when a sinful temptation is introduced, our consciences immediately sense danger. God tested Job by allowing Satan to afflict him with all of his trials (Job 1:8-12; 2:3-6). As believers, we are not to live by our feelings, but by faith and obedience, based on the knowledge of God’s word of truth.

It's in the Bible, Matthew 6:24, NKJV. What a tremendous example! To overcome temptation, recognize its source—your own sinful desires. Wise parents do not let their children play with dynamite, because they know that it has a powerful, destructive force. He says, “God cannot be tempted by evil.” It is impossible because of His holy nature.

From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California.

James nails that fallacious and sinful line of blame shifting.

It seemed certain that, sooner or later, the pair would stumble, step by step, into the abyss. Also, we need to distinguish between the manner in which Jesus was tempted and the way we are tempted. Acting on the truth of my new position, the power of sin is broken.

2:11. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”. It's in the Bible, Romans 13:13-14, NKJV. "Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. Why did he go there?

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.

“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. (2) Avoid tempting situations. This is what the Bible says about temptation: A person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. God’s Word is like that altimeter.

Why? Joseph might have been tempted to “dabble” with the temptation without actually committing adultery – ‘the twilight world of sins not quite committed’ as one writer has described this sort of situation. Resolve not to buy the publications concerned and thus avoid the temptation; if the puzzle is sitting there under the nose then the decision to spend “no more that ten minutes” is futile because we know that the ten will be multiplied many times over; more drastic action is required. Did he hope that perchance he might see something titillating? John Calvin (ibid., p. 290) says that James’ object is “to teach us that there is in us the root of our own destruction.” If we ignore the danger within, or think that it has been eradicated, we are in a most precarious position!

More drastic still, perhaps, take your television set to the local car boot sale!

It's in the Bible, James 4:7, NKJV.