April 7, 2020
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!  No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
New International Version (NIV)
God has used the writings of Gordon MacDonald to bless the church.  Along the way, this prominent pastor told himself for years that he could never experience a moral failure.  He had safeguards and accountability.  But he succumbed to the very sin he said he would never commit.  After submitting to a sobering time of counseling, soul-searching and rehabilitation, Gordon was restored to the ministry. 

Paul did not want the Corinthians to take idolatry lightly.  Earlier in the chapter, he reminds the Corinthians of the way the Israelites fell for idolatry and engaged in immorality.   The punishment for their sin was more than they could bear.  Then he counsels us not to proudly assume and assert that we are invulnerable to temptation.  Pride goes before a fall.

One effect of isolation is that we are left alone with our temptations.  Idle hands can become the devil’s workshop.  Temptations abound.  Remember the enemy wants to use this difficult time for evil.  But God means it for good.  So how does God help us?  First, no temptation is irresistible.  For all of our technological growth and information explosion, Satan tempts us in the same ways he always has.  Second, God is faithful.  He does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.  One person quipped, “I can resist anything but temptation.”  God’s answer to our finitude and vulnerability is his eternal faithfulness.  Third, we will be tempted.  “When you are tempted . . .”  Fourth, God will make a way out.  There is always an exit ramp from sin.  But if we miss it, we may make some laps in the wilderness.    Fifth, God enables us to endure.  We will not always be able to avoid temptation, but like Joseph, we can flee from idolatry.
Pray with me:         
Faithful Father, we are prone to wander, Lord we feel it, prone to leave the God we love.  So today teach us the truth about temptation.  Let us stand in the strength of your almighty faithfulness.  Please color the exit ramps from sin in yellow highlighter.   Empower our endurance today.  When we see sin, teach us to run from it and to run to you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen. 
Join us in memorizing the Word.  Scripture for this week:    
Matthew 5:29-30
If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan.  Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG 
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week.  In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year.  Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.  
Joyfully, 
Duane 
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