Being Tempted?

But people are tempted when their own evil desire leads them away and traps them. This desire leads to sin, and then the sin grows and brings death.

James 1:14-15 

 

I love the pastors of the church my Bride and I attend.  Our Senior Pastor told a story the Sunday:  A Protestant man, we'll call him 'John', moved into a predominantly Catholic community.  They all got along quite well until Lent Season.  Every Friday, John would be found on his back porch grilling steaks, much to the chagrin of his Catholic neighbors.  They got together and decided something had to be done because the smell of those steaks was too great of a temptation!

 

So the neighbors met and decided to convince John to become a Catholic.  They invited him to their men's events and got him involved in their various church activities. Finally, they asked John if he would like to become a Catholic.  John agreed and the priest poured the water over John's head saying, "You were born a Protestant.  You were raised a Protestant. Now you are baptized a Catholic."

 

Everyone celebrated and was hopeful the next Lent Season would be much better not that John was part of the Catholic faith.  However, the next Lent Season, the smell of steaks were back on Friday.  So the men of the church came to see why John was not honoring his faith during Lent.  When they arrived at his back deck, they saw John pouring water on the delicious looking steaks and saying: "You were born a cow. You were raised a cow. I baptize you a fish."

 

The funny thing about temptation is that we are tempted with things we actually want!  Think about it.  Try to tempt me with broccoli, or asparagus, or bungee jumping, and I will have no problem resisting that temptation.  However, if you tempt me with warm peanut butter cookies, Zorba's calabash extra crispy chicken bites, and I will break out in a sweat.

 

Our enemy knows what to use as bait, so we must be learn to be strong enough and well versed in Scripture enough to counter the bait.