Tempted? You sinner!!! Um... Maybe not.

Temptation. How does it make you feel? I'm not talking about how chocolate makes your mouth water. I'm talking about real, full goose bozo temptation, whether it's to slam into the car of the rude driver who cut you off, to jump into the sack with the sexpot who keeps flirting with you, to lie to your boss to get something you want, or to stealthily pick up the money you saw someone drop.

A lot of people feel dirty, as if being tempted is a sin.

But... if that's the case, then Jesus did NOT live a sinless life! Yet we know that he did. Again, we confuse temptation and sin.

Paul wrote to the Hebrew church, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest ... Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-- yet he did not sin." (Heb 4/14-15 NIV)

What does this mean? We know the tempter came to Jesus after 40 days of fasting in the desert. (In fact, Mt 4/1 says the Holy Spirit led him there to face the Devil! Why? Not so that he would suffer, per se, but so that he could lead the way in kicking temptation's butt!)

I think we pass this off too lightly. We see this simply as Satan trying to tempt Jesus. Especially because of the matter of fact way the story is told. But the verb implies that he was tempted.

Let's see, what did he face here?

40 days with no food. "Here. Have some bread. You can turn all these stones into more bread than you could eat in 40 days. Or 40 years." You know Satan had to be giving this all he had. Jesus probably saw the place turn into a bakery before his eyes, each rock a freshly baked, steaming loaf of bread. Do you know how good that smells? How good it would smell to a starving man?

"If you are who you say you are, you can easily prove it, and prove whether your Father really loves you or not at the same time." Are you really God, God's son, anyone at all? Does he really give a damn about you? Prove it. If you dare. Pride, insecurity, a whole rash of hot buttons for us humans.

By this point he had to have some idea of where he was headed (the cross) and what that meant (every sin of every person, past, present and future; separation from the Father and Holy Spirit; his enemies winning). And what does Satan offer? "You can avoid that whole trap. Easy way out. I already rule this kingdom. Bow to me instead of your Dad and all that crap he's leading you into, and I'll give it all to you-- free and clear, no pain, no cross, none of that yucky sin. You do know that stuff never comes off, right? And that the cross is going to hurt like Hell? Trust me on that one. I know Hell like the back of my hand."

Yeah. I'd say he was tempted. Hardcore tempted. Did he waver? No clue. The Bible doesn't say. We only know that he didn't give in.


The other time we hear about him being tempted was at the end. In the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed so hard he sweat drops of blood. I've struggled with things; I've prayed hard-- I have never sweat blood.

So, that's the list recorded-- food, pride, insecurity, fear, idolatry in the
guise of the easy way out.

But... according to Paul he was tempted in all things. Everything. Lust (perhaps when a half naked woman caught in adultery was brought to him); hatred (how did he manage to avoid hate while he was chasing thieves from the temple?); giving up (a million times on his last day before his death-- while being beaten and crowned and spat upon, while carrying that heavy, splintery doom up the hill; while being mocked as he tried to keep breathing as splinters dug into him; or even just when the disciples did something really, really dumb... again); stealing, lying, you name it. Many of these undoubtedly hit as he was growing up; we tend to think of him as a baby, as a twelve year old, and the last three years. But he lived thirty three full years, full of temptation, pain and loss (along with joy, love and peace, but that's another discussion). Complete with puberty, peer pressure, and other tough P words.

But he didn't sin.

Temptation is not sin. Never has been, never will be. Eve was tempted for quite some time. Satan really worked on her. The sin was when she gave in to temptation, not the temptation itself.


Why do we confuse the two? I suspect it's a combination of our fallen nature, lies of the enemy (remember Mt 4?), and a misunderstanding of Scripture. For instance, since lust is adultery and hatred is murder (Mt 5/21-30), we extrapolate too far and think that even the temptation is sinful. It's a fine line but a crucial one. I can be tempted to undress someone in my mind, but so long as I turn away from that train of thought, don't dwell on it, don't encourage it, don't run with it. don't leap on it and ravish it, I haven't sinned. Same with hatred. Same with coveting and stealing. Same with any temptation.

Now let's back up a bit; I think the verses just before Heb 4/14 add to our confusion. This is mainly because they get preached apart from it.

"For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Heb 4/12-13 NIV)

This is "sinners in the hands of an angry God" stuff for most of us. "Oh, no! He knows everything! He's right there when I'm tempted! He saw that thought that flashed through my mind! And he has a sword! Help!"

If we look at this by itself, that's a reasonable response. Abject terror leading to meltdown leading to hopelessness and despair. That way lies madness and running from God. But if we read the two together, where this is immediately followed by the revelation that Jesus experienced all those temptations yet did not sin, where might we go?

Why, right into the next verse. "Let us then approach Gods throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Heb 4/16 NIV)

Mercy. Grace. Mmmmm. Those smell yummy. Taste delicious. Feel sooo good. Dad loved Jesus. He let him take the sin of the world. He brought him back from death. He offers us all power in heaven and in earth (Mt 28/18), the keys to his kingdom (Mt 16/19), his infinite love (the Gospels).


How, then, shall we deal with temptation? There have been many ways offered historically. We can flee from it. We can fight it. We can laugh at it and walk away. Lately I find myself doing the latter a lot, but I've had to do all three. The point isn't how you resist; it's that you resist.

Most Christians are reminded all too often in sermons and by well meaning friends that "sin is crouching at your door" (Gen 4/6-7). This often gets mixed with the verse about Satan being like a roaring lion wanting to devour us, so that many of us "know" the Scripture that says "Sin is like a lion crouching at your door, waiting to devour you." Lions are strong. Lions are scary. They're the king and queen of the jungle; they eat people.

So, if we are tempted, we assume we will likely sin, and... our doom is upon
us.

But the reality is, even if we fail, even if we sin, something else is waiting for us besides a hungry lion. Grace. Grace sounds so meek, so sweet but helpless. How is an innocent little girl going to help us with lions? But Grace is far from being an innocent lass. Grace has all the power of God the Father, of Jesus the resurrected, of the Holy Spirit who resurrects, comforts and strengthens. The power of life. The power of purity. The power of holiness. The power of new beginnings. The power of the cross.

Deal with temptation as works best for you, but don't fear it. The only one with anything to fear is Satan. He fears you. That's why he spends so much time tempting you and trying to convince you that you're helpless and doomed. Otherwise, just like Jesus, you'll ultimately kick his butt. And he knows it.

Do you?

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Near the end of Friday night's worship service at Cathedral of Praise, everyone ended up down front in two rows facing each other. This seems to be standard fare; it's happened the two nights I've been, and it just felt like the groove.

Standing at the end of these rows, I had a sudden desire to do an inside out fire tunnel-- to run down the middle, touching people on the head, blessing them, seeing what God had to say to them. Being a visitor, I didn't. But a minute or two later, something a lot more interesting happened, something I haven't seen before.

I saw Jesus running down the middle, tapping peoples' heads, going, "Duck! Duck! Goose!!!" But nobody else seemed to notice .Then he ran down to me (like lightning), tapped my head, said "Goose!", ran a couple of steps and stopped, grinning in that disarming way Han Solo always did. "Well?" His eyebrows went up.

What else was I going to do? I took off after him. We ran through the line, and all the way around the sanctuary. As I came back to where I started I tapped the lady next to me and said, Goose!" She grinned and said, "OK...?" I shrugged. "Jesus wants to play." She took off. I tapped a couple more, she tapped someone, at least 10 to 12 got involved before it morphed into something else.

I think Jesus the man, Jesus our oldest brother, Jesus the resurrected Prince of Peace, wants to have fun with us. I think Daddy God likes watching His kids play as much as He likes watching them change the world. Dads are like that. The best siblings are like that. The Holy Spirit must have had a good time, too, seeing how people were falling down laughing just after this.

Later today we'll celebrate Easter at one of the local churches we love. But it's hard to see how it will really feel any more like celebrating the resurrected Lord than Friday night did.

The Nickel Song

I did a late workout today, biked (indoor exercycle, since I don't have a working bike at the moment) hard for ten miles then walked to calm down my jelly legs. On the walk, I knew it was time to look for pennies again. Or so I thought.

I rounded a corner and saw a small rabbit by the curb. I stopped, but he took off into the woods. As I approached the spot where he'd been I heard, "look here". So I started toward the curb; just as I got into the streetlight's circle of influence I saw something shiny. Not a penny. A nickel.

Several things immediately sprang to mind. First, I've leveled up. At first I wasn't sure why; I didn't take out a giant squid that shoots fireballs or anything. But there it is. I've been leveled up. I also realized there's a lot more favor flying around than I had noticed. But the answer is pretty obvious. He said I've been faithful in small things, so bigger things are coming.

Next, I realized I had my sights set too low. Looking for pennies when there were nickels coming my way. I'll take nickels, but I'll be looking for dimes, quarters and dollars (I'm not talking about money here; that's just Daddy's analogy).

Finally, even though I didn't see the bunny again, I realized even more how beautiful the evening was. It didn't hurt that my iPod transitioned right then from Kim Walker-Smith and Jesus Culture to It's a Beautiful Day's "White Bird". That song perfectly summed up parts of what have been blooming inside me the last couple of weeks (and longer, but especially now).

What was the Point of That Stupid Tree?

Like most people who grew up with the story of Adam and Eve, I always assumed the whole point of having the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (often shortened foolishly to The Tree of Knowledge, but I'll just call it The Tree herein) was to test Adam and Eve, to see if they were worthy or something. They failed. Flunked the test. They thus deserved punishment, and doomed us all.

That never made a lot of sense to me. If God cared enough to create us, why would he set us up for failure? If God is a God of love, why was he out to punish us? If God is omniscient (if he really knows it all) why would he need to test us?

Over the years, I've gotten a number of unsatisfactory answers from both Christians ("you'll understand when you get to Heaven" or "God just wanted to test us"-- simply turning my question into a statement, a total non-answer) and from non-Christians ("See? I told you he was rotten" or "He was jealous, just like the snake said!") None of those jived with what I read of God in the Bible or with my experience.

Recently it's all started to make sense, especially as I realized how many of my assumptions and things I'd been taught about the Bible were wrong. It's a matter of viewpoint, of perspective-- if you look at it wrong, it looks like something other than what it is.

I think the plan all along was to teach us about Good and Evil. But we would have learned it directly from God, our Creator, our Lover. God would have taught it gradually, in ways that would have benefited us, as we grew in our understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and even power[1] and glory[2][3].

The test had several facets, but not, I believe, the ones we usually attribute it. It was a test for Adam and Eve, but in the sense that they were being given a chance to prove to themselves and all of creation they were worthy of God's favor, worthy to rule. It was a chance to prove themselves wiser than Satan. As we know, they failed.

It was a proof that God gave free will. Despite what Lucifer had done, God was still willing to create and love and trust.

Finally, I used to wonder how God expected Adam and Eve to pass up The Tree. But over time it hit me that the Garden of Eden wasn't a garden in the sense that a child in an El Paso, TX suburb on the edge of the desert thinks of a garden. It wasn't some small thing with just a few trees, or even a few hundred. Eden's garden undoubtedly made the most fabled man-made gardens, such as Versailles, Central Park, Mirabel, Babylon, or Kensington look like the small flower beds in our back yard in El Paso.

I don't know what The Tree looked like, but even if it was amazing, Eden had to be chock full of amazing. We live in a fallen world. As beautiful as things can be now, I have to believe that they pale compared to the plants in Eden. And there's nothing in the Bible to indicate The Tree was far more beautiful or enticing than any other tree or fruit. In fact, it sounds as if Eve didn't notice it that much until Lucifer worked on her a while. "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." (Gen 3/8)

So, they had a single tree out of thousands, perhaps millions, with a fence (physical or metaphorical) around it. It wasn't a case of having to avoid something that dominated the landscape and their every waking minute. It was a case of having all of a huge thing with one tiny restriction, and refusing to accept even that one restriction. By that act of rebellion they gained what they thought they desired-- what God would surely have given them, anyway-- and lost everything.

Finally, for those still fuming over a loving God dooming us all because of one or two peoples' actions, don't forget that through Christ[4] everything is made new, and that our inheritance is restored.[5] To my great joy, I have come to find that inheritance includes God walking with me, talking with me, loving, teaching, growing, nurturing me as he did Adam and Eve. By rejecting the fruit of The Tree, by accepting the gift of grace, by being filled with his spirit, I have a deep relationship with God, growing every day in the knowledge of good and evil, and so much more.



[1] Jn 3/35, Mt 28/28-20, Mt 10/8, Acts 1/8
[2] Jn 17/22
[3] We are, after all, made in God's image. (Gen 1/26)
[4] Christ, the new Adam (I Cor 15)
[5] Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. (Mt 5/5)

"Where did my box go?"

I was in a discussion recently with some friends. Someone started talking about thinking and acting outside the box. In the midst of the conversation, I clearly heard God say, "There is no box." (And yes, I immediately saw a boy with no hair holding a spoon doing impossible things.)

"Awesome!", I thought. And who wouldn't? No boxes, no holes to fit into. It's a freeing thought. But the reality is, we've spent our lives so boxed in that we don't understand what "there is no box" means, in the same way that someone freed from years in prison has no idea what freedom really means.

Once upon a time, when this world was new born, there were no boxes. Then, for reasons we don't fully get, God put a box around one, small tree. "Don't go there," he said to Adam and Eve. "Stay out of the box."

And for a while they did. There was practically no box for Adam and Eve. They had infinity minus one to play with. They could go anywhere, do anything, so long as they avoided that one, tiny place. But, just as when someone says, "don't think of the word 'elephant'" you keep thinking the word 'elephant', Satan got them focused on the box. So long as they didn't think about it, there really was no box as far as they were concerned. But once they focused on the box, it dominated their world. And after they climbed into the box, they couldn't get out.[1] Everyone after them was born in a box. Most of us live our entire lives in our boxes.

But Jesus came to set us free. My box was gone but I didn't realize that. I wouldn't have put it this way, but subconsciously I was treating it more like an upgraded box, a bigger nicer box in many ways, and a more confining box in others, but still... just a box. Even as I realized that the constraints were mostly man-made, not God's, all I saw was a bigger, nicer box.

When I finally there was no box, I had no real way to grasp it. Walking out of a box into infinity is kind of overwhelming. Subconsciously, some part of me was dancing like a little kid, yelling, "there is no box!" while another part was adopting the patient, grown up attitude of understanding that while there wasn't what you might call a box, there must be something box-ish, a fence, a boundary, something out there.

Knowing how foolish I can be, God has been making it plain that when he says there is no box, what he really means is... there is no box. There were so many things I assumed or understood or decided or had been told I wasn't qualified to do, was unable to do, or wouldn't get the chance to do, or whatever. One by one, God has been handing me on a silver platter opportunities that destroy those concepts. I'm doing more, and having more fun doing it, with God than I thought possible, never mind likely. It's not just that there are no limits on the things he'd already called me or gifted me to do, but that through Him, I really can do anything.

Anything.

Have you got that concept yet? Anything. Everything. "All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me." Not all things within reach. Not all things to a certain extent. Not all things except these 12,933. Or even 12. All things.

Does that mean I'll get to do everything I can dream up? I have no idea. But I'm now quite confident I can do everything God can think of. Since he's infinite, and infinitely cool, that means he can dream up more than I can (and that's a lot), and even cooler stuff.

It's not a question of whether I'm worthy. It's not a question of whether I'm capable. It's not a question of whether I'm qualified. It's not a question of whether I'm called, or gifted, or passionate, or have enough faith. It's a question of whether or not there's a box. And since he said there isn't, I don't need an answer, because I can no longer find the question. (I'm not looking for it, either.)

If you've accepted the gift of grace, you also accepted freedom from your box. There's a whole, big world out there waiting to be loved on. Get out there with God and love on it. Love people out of their boxes.



[1] Some time soon I'll discuss what I believe God intended to happen with that tree. I think we misunderstand that as well.