CORRECTION: ON QUESTION # 12

12).  What have you learn about temptation?

 

I have learn if we step out of God's will we may be tempted and can't escape it, but if we stay in God's will and trust Him, we can be tempted and He will make a way for us to escape it with joy in our hearts. I have learned that God doesn't tempt us, but the evil one Satan do. We must walk in the fruit of the Spirit every day and every minute of the day, so we will endure and receive God's gift. Also, God is with us and He will never leave us even through our trials and the temptation we may experience. We can trust Him to deliver us from all evil, and from the evil one. When we understand the nature of temptation, we discover why we should pray that God would keep us from them. God's Holy Spirit warns, and we must take heed, and He warns us of evil if we would just seek Him daily in prayer.

Bible Study: The Prayer Jesus Taught His Disciples Week # 13

Matthew 6:5-16

Beginning Prayer:

Our heavenly Father, we come to You in Jesus' name asking for peace in the church. Bless our Church leaders to honor You in all that they do. Bless the Holy Spirit to be allowed to lead the leaders of all Churches. Your Word says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." II Chronicles 7:14. We humble ourselves under Your almighty hands as we pray seeking Your face for answers in the Church today. Bless us to continue to turn from all ways that is not pleased to You in Jesus' name. Thank You Lord, for hearing our prayers as You have promised in Your Word. We do ask for You to forgive our wrong doings, our unbelief, and all that is sin in Your sight. Please help us the Church to obey You in all we do; Your Word says, obedient is better than sacrifice. Please help the Church of Christ to stand up for righteousness, and not give into to what men think is right. Help us to become serious in our watching and praying. Help us to love one another with a pure heart, and help us to sit our minds on things above, and not on things here on earth.  We give You glory, honor, and praise because You are worthy, everything is Your, You have all the power, and we will always give You all the glory, We pray this prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

Subject:   "The Lord's Prayer" For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, forever.

We are now going to look at something that is included in the Lord's Prayer but which probably should be excluded. You see, the words, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever" are actually not in the Lord's Prayer.  I would like to give you the Lord's Prayer from the new Revised Standard Version, but before doing so I would like to make clear that I do not recommend this version as a substitute for the Authorized. It is helpful in several places and constitutes a reference book that is useful for any well-grounded Bible student. The prayer is given as follows:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9-13, RSV)

It stops there and does not go any further. The statement, "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever" is not included. Now the question naturally arises, why is it that this petition is not included? The reason is that when the King James Version was translated, the translation was made from the best manuscripts in existence at the time. Since then, better manuscripts have been discovered, and we find this petition omitted from these better manuscripts. Now immediately someone is going to ask, "But how does this fit into the theory of plenary verbal inspiration?" And by plenary verbal inspiration we mean that the words of the Bible are inspired. As I see it, that is the only logical explanation of inspiration. Either this is the Word of God or it is not the Word of God. Either it is reliable or it is not reliable. It is not the thoughts that are inspired; it is the words that are inspired. Thoughts can be misunderstood; words cannot. There is the story of a young lady who had been studying voice, and the time came for her to give her recital. In her dressing room after the concert, she asked about the reaction of her very famous teacher to her performance. A friend, with difficulty, finally brought forth the statement, "He said that you sang heavenly." The young lady, quite thrilled, asked if those were his exact words. The friend said, "Well, those were not his exact words, but that is what he meant." The young singer, still not satisfied, demanded his exact words, which were, "That was an unearthly noise." You see, it is the words of Scripture, and not the thoughts, that are important. We believe in plenary verbal inspiration, but we also believe it applies only to the original documents, most of which have since been lost. But we also believe that the manuscripts we have today are reliable and can be trusted. Many of the manuscripts found have been brought together and all tell the same story. There are some discrepancies, to be sure, but none of these pertain to any of the important doctrines of the Scripture. Let us look at the matter of inspiration a little further. There is a striking similarity between the written Word and the living Word, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Both are human and divine. The Lord Jesus Christ is both of God and man. One of the oldest creeds of the church states it accurately: "very man of very man, and very God of very God." Therefore, you would expect to find the Word of God made flesh growing weary on a dusty road in Samaria and sitting down to rest. You expect to find Him shedding tears of sorrow at the tomb of Lazarus. Neither is  it surprising to hear Him claim to be the Messiah as He talked with the woman of Samaria; nor is it strange to hear Him command Lazarus to come forth from the tomb. He was both God and man. The Bible is a God-book and it is a man-book. The Word of God has become incarnate in the alphabet of man. The Word of God becomes a book with a binding, printed with printer's ink, and made into words that men can understand. Men transcribed it by hand even before Gutenberg printed it. It has been translated from one language into another. Scribes have made errors in transcribing the text, and printers have made typographical errors. The limitations imposed upon the Lord Jesus Christ as a man are likewise imposed upon the Bible. As a human book it requires an  knowledge of the language in which it is studied to comprehend its meaning. There is no magic method by which to memorize the fine passages of Scripture. It requires real study as it does to gain a knowledge of any subject—geography, history, literature, or philosophy. The lazy and careless student cannot come at its meaning by any superstitious method. In Proverbs 25:2 we read: "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter." God has hidden rich treasures in His Word, but it requires a great deal of searching to discover them. Diamonds are not on the surface. The injunction is: "…Search the Scriptures…" (John 5:39), "Be diligent to present yourself approved…" (2 Timothy 2:15), and "…Give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:13). As a human book, the Bible was written by about forty-five human authors who expressed their thoughts, projected their personalities, and stated their ideas. Nevertheless, they were moved by the Holy Spirit, "for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). The Greek word for move is phero and it indicates a sailing vessel borne along by the wind. The Spirit of God worked in these men in a way to secure an inerrant Word of God. This is exactly the claim of Scripture:

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16)

That word "inspiration" is the Greek theopneustos, meaning "God-breathed." Nothing less than the plenary verbal inspiration of Scripture will satisfy the language of Scripture and the need of man.

Although the human authors expressed the full feeling of their hearts and the complete thought of their minds, they nevertheless expressed the exact words of God to men. These men were not pens with which the Spirit of God wrote. Any dictator can make men automatons to express the dictator's thought and totally submerge the writer's real intention. The supernatural element in Scripture is that God did not arbitrarily destroy the personality of the writers, but instead used them to express His complete, adequate, and inerrant will. The words are God's. Having completed the canon of Scripture, God has no afterthought to submit as an addendum to the Bible. God perfectly expressed Himself through imperfect men. There is a dual authorship of the Bible that attests to the supernatural. Only God could give a book like the Bible; only God could send a person like Jesus. We have a God-book. It does not yield merely to human intellect. The ordinary avenues of knowledge are not sufficient to comprehend its meaning. We get most of our knowledge through the eye gate and the ear gate, but Scripture warns us that these are not adequate to give us divine understanding:

But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10) What the eye gate and ear gate cannot supply, the Spirit of God will compensate. He alone can take divine truths and apply them to our hearts. The facts of Scripture must be learned by human effort, but the spiritual truths must be revealed by the Holy Spirit.

The natural man does not have sufficient spiritual IQ to understand the Bible. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

REVELATION:

means that God has communicated with man.

INSPIRATION:

guarantees the accuracy of that revelation.

PRESERVATION:

infers that God maintains that revelation in the world.

ILLUMINATION:

insists that only the Holy Spirit has the interpretation for man.

TRANSLATION:

means the transference of the text of Scripture from one language into another.

Now that we have examined the solidarity of the setting in which rests this gem—the Lord's Prayer—let us look again at the phrase that has been omitted in these later translations. "For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever." It is a most scriptural statement, and for that reason I should like to have it remain as part of the Lord's Prayer. After the people brought their wonderful offerings for the construction of the temple, David lifted his heart to God in prayer:

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head over all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)

While David elaborated a great deal, it is a prayer of rare beauty and is basically the same petition that we are considering now. It is worth noting that in Luke's record we find that the Lord‟s Prayer, as given there, breaks off at a different point from that given in the Matthew account. I have a notion that the Lord broke off at a different place on each occasion of repeating the prayer. And the reason is obvious, for I feel He is attempting to teach something. Since the prayer as recorded in Luke 11:2-4 carries no "amen," it is thus open to added petitions. It was given to babes in Christ that they might know how to pray. It is the same as how we today teach our little folk to say, "Now I lay me down to sleep…." Before long they have added, "And bless Mommy and Daddy," and later, other petitions. I must confess that several times I have had to get up off my knees and tiptoe out of the room because of some of the things for which my little girl prayed. I know that the Lord understood her prayers, but I have never discovered why she prays for the little boys and girls in China and then for the boys and girls in Michigan. I do not know why Michigan should be chosen out of the fifty states. These little ones just launch out into the deep, and in this lies our illustration of the absence of the "amen."

Week # 13

Weekly Pattern:      Praise Again

Prayers from the Bible:

Questions:

1).     What do this statement means to you personally?

2).    Read this scripture in these versions (KJV, NKJV, NASB, RSV,  NIV).

3).    What is your perspective on the statement stopping at "but deliver us from the evil one?"

4).    After reading the lesson read all the scriptures for a better understanding.      

5).    Who moved men to write the Scripture?

6).    What do the word theopneustos means?

7).    What do addendum means?

8).    Where do we get our divine understanding from?

9).    What do revelation means?

10).  What do inspiration means?

11).   What do preservation means?

12).  What do illumination means?

13).  What do translation means?

14).  Who said this and why (I Chronicles 29:11)?

15).   Read Matthew 6:13 and I Chronicles 29:11).

16).  What do Proverbs 25:2 says?

Weekly Reading Assignment: (Acts 25-26)

Weekly Song:  (Matthew 26:30)

Weekly Praise:        Praise be to Your Name

Let's Hallow His name by rehearsing Who He is:

Ending Prayer:

SHARING:

 

With the Lord's prayer, as with any scripture, there's a danger in familiarity.

 

When my wife and I say the Lord's Prayer with our 5-year-old at bedtime, I listen for my daughter's voice and smile when we reach Matthew 6:13 (ESV). "And lead us not into 'temptation," she says, "but deliver us from evil." Temptation is a word that's foreign to her, even as she's tempted to disobey her mother and me on a daily basis. More than merely entertaining me, however, her deviation from the text makes a familiar passage of the Bible strange, and thereby trains an unexpected spotlight on it. With each recitation, I find myself focusing on verse 13 and repeating it inwardly because I am aware that I need to pray this prayer. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, Lord. Please.

 

What else is this portion of the Lord's Prayer but a capitulation of sorts?

Isn't it an acknowledgment that if left to our own devices, we are prone to become ensnared and—most humiliating of all—to ensnare ourselves? Matthew 6:13 puts a prayer on our lips that acknowledges our vulnerability to sin. Don't put me in a position where I might fall, Lord, the prayer says, because I will fall. You know the darkness of my heart, too—save me from its savagery.

In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis surveys the state of his own heart and finds "a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds." I find the same things when I look within, along with other unwelcome elements—a circus of schadenfreude and rabid dogs of impatience, champing at the bit. If I do not ask God to steer me clear of temptation and to deliver me from evil, should I really be surprised if I find this rabble in my life, wreaking havoc?

And if we need God to deliver us from evil within, how much more do we need Him to deliver us from evil without? I read of the latest school shooting and realize how powerless I am to protect my little girl when she's not in my presence, but I can submit to the One who is always with her. Be my child's all-powerful protector, Lord.

We might be inclined to think we're perfectly capable of recognizing and avoiding temptation and evil on our own, but what about those threats to our well-being that evade detection? Do we ever ask God to deliver us from everyday evils like hurry, worry, or busyness? Such things have the power to strangle out the peace we might otherwise find in Christ, but we seldom ask our Savior to uproot these weeds from our hearts. As a result, we live with low-grade spiritual fevers—symptoms of soul-sickness far too commonplace to ignore and far too difficult to shake without God's help. Lord, we underestimate the potential for evils such as these to lead us astray from within, and we overestimate our ability to overcome them without Your help.

We might think we're perfectly capable of avoiding temptation and evil on our own, but what about those threats that evade detection?

 

If we cozy up to corrupting elements like these without ever thinking to ask the Lord for help, how much more likely are we to overlook evils that have the appearance of goodness? We long to be more serious students of Scripture but become legalists in the process and lose sight of the divine love that is at the heart of God's Word. We become heroic workers in hopes of providing for our families but overdo it and neglect our spouses and children. How many other ways do we strive for good but end up worse off? Father, sometimes we don't even recognize evil when it's made its home in our midst. Give us discerning eyes, Jesus.

More than anything else, Matthew 6:13 position us as dependent upon God—as children who need the protection of their heavenly Father. I can't help but think that my daughter is a good model. Her prayer that God would lead her "not into 'tation" certainly makes me want to come before my Maker in a spirit of childlike reliance too. When I hear her fumble the word, I remember my speech was once purer than it is now—and that God has the power to restore my tongue and the rest of me with it. O Abba, Father, You know our predicament better than we do. Set us free, Lord. Deliver us from evil and make us as blameless again.

Let’s Hallow His name by rehearsing Who He is:

Jehovah-ElRoi

"God of Seeing" (Genesis 16:13) – the name ascribed to God by Hagar, alone and desperate in the wilderness after being driven out by Sarah (Genesis 16:1-14). When Hagar met the Angel of the Lord, she realized she had seen God Himself in a theophany. She also realized that El Roi saw her in her distress and testified that He is a God who lives and sees all.

Weekly Reading Assignment: (Acts 23-24)

I have finishing reading my weekly reading assignment!

Ending Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your grace and mercy each and every morning. Thank You for delivering us from all evil and from the evil one. We praise and thank You, Lord Jesus.  In these time things are getting rough for Your people, thank You that You have said, You would never leave us nor forsake us. Thank You Lord. Your Word is so important to us, Lord. Thank You. We thank You for our strength today and every day. We trust in Your Word and we thank You for Your Holy Spirit that lead us daily, and, that speak to our hearts. Thank You for this lesson on prayer. Keep teaching us, Lord. We need it in Jesus' name. AMEN.

Weekly Song:

(Matthew 26:30)    Great is the Lord

Great is the Lord
He is holy and just
By His power we trust
In His love
Great is the Lord
He is faithful and true
By His mercy He proves
He is love

Great is the Lord
And worthy of glory
Great is the Lord
And worthy of praise
Great is the Lord
Now lift up your voice
Now lift up your voice
Great is the Lord
Great is the Lord

Great is the Lord,
He is holy and just
By His power we trust
In His love
Great is the Lord
He is faithful, and true
By His mercy He proves
He is love

Great is the Lord
And worthy of glory
Great is the Lord
And worthy of praise
Great is the Lord

Great is the Lord,

And greatly to be praise

In city of our God, in

mount of His holiness

beautiful situation, the

joy of the whole earth.

Is Mount Zion in the north

The City of the great King.

Questions/Answers:

1).     Do God tempt His children?

The Bible says, God cannot be tempted with evil, neither do He tempt His children through evil, but they are tested to where their faith is in Him. I believe tempting and testing are two different thing.

2).    What do this statement means "it came to pass"?

This statement is amazing to me, "It came to pass!" I have interpreted it to mean whatever the problem maybe, it want last forever, but will pass. Some see it as "It happened!"  I love my interpretation "It want last!"

3).    Read 2 Peter 2:9  

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:"

4).    Read 1 Corinthians 10:13

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

5).    What is the reason most of us fall?

The reason most of us fall today is because we are in the wrong place.

6).    Who is the evil one?

Satan is the evil one who tempts God's chidren.

7).    Give the definition of forgiveness, temptation, deliverance.

a).  Forgiveness- the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven.

b). Temptation- a desire to do something, especially something wrong or unwise.

c).  Deliverance- the action of being rescued or set free.

8).    What spirit that has crept into the Church?

The spirit of unforgiveness, this spirit is of the evil one (Satan); Christian should forgive and love one another. This is the spirit Paul wrote about in (Galatians 5:19-21).

9).    Why is God able to deliver us through Christ?

He is able to deliver us through the merit, strength, and power of Jesus Christ when you and I take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Holy Spirit, He can and will deliver us. …While God tempts no one, sometimes He may lead us into trials that test our faith and that can lead to our being tempted.

10).  Read James 1:2, and explain.

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;" I believe this is God's way of saying He will be there for us, and when we see it we have seen God's hand, therefore, its pure joy to see God moving in our lives.

11).   Read James 1:12-13 and explain.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. ¹³ Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:" As said before, God cannot be tempted with evil, and when we endure all that we have to go through we will receive our crown of life at the end which God has promised to all who trust and believe in Him.

12).  What have you learn about forgiveness?

God is with us and He will never leave us even through trials and temptation; we can trust Him to deliver us from all evil, and from the evil one.  When we understand the nature of temptation, we discover why we should pray that God would keep us from them. God's Holy Spirit warns us of evil if we would just seek God daily in prayer.

Prayer from the Bible: Nehemiah

 

Nehemiah 1:4-11

4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5 Then I said:

"Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's family, have committed against you.7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

8 "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.'

10 "They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. 11 Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."

 

Nehemiah was a prayer warrior -- he prayed, fasted, wept, and sought God's will for four months from the time he received the report about Jerusalem. Why? Was God reluctant to bless Nehemiah? No, God is eager to bless us, but His chosen means of distributing His blessings is through the power of prayer. Through prayer, God is able to perform miracles in and through us, but we must be willing to do what He wants, the way He wants it done. So while Nehemiah persisted in prayer, God was preparing him for battle. 

Weekly Pattern: Protection

 After you praise God, deal with your priorities, ask God for what you need, and talk about your personal relationship, then you ask God for protection. Lord, "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil." Lord, protect me today. Being a Christian today is like walking through a minefield every day. You don't know what you're going to step on that might blow up in your face. You just need to ask God for His protection, to help you not to walk in the path where evil is.

This Week's Prayer:

Father God, in the name of Jesus, we ask You to please help us not to be tempted above we are able, if we are tempted, please deliver us from that temptation before we dishonor You. We trust You to keep us from all evil in this world.  We acknowledge that trials will come that test our faith. We need You, Lord. This we pray in Jesus' name. AMEN. Father God, we add to our prayer today that You would protect us and our families today from any hurt, harm, or danger.  Guard us Lord, and deliver us each and every day. We need Your help, Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. AMEN.

Bible Study: The Prayer Jesus Taught His Disciples Week # 12

Matthew 6:5-16

 

Beginning Prayer:

 

Father God, in the name of Jesus please help us not to be tempted above we are able, if we are tempted, please deliver us from that temptation before we dishonor You. We trust You to keep us from all evil in this world.  We acknowledge that trials will come that test our faith. We need You, Lord. This we pray in Jesus' name. AMEN.

 

Subject:   "The Lord's Prayer" And Do Not Lead Us Into Temptation; but deliver us from evil

 

… Now let us look at the next petition: "And do not lead us into temptation." This word "lead" gives us the wrong impression, because James says God does not tempt any man (see James 1:13). A better translation here would be, "Do not leave us in temptation." It does not mean to keep us out of it, but when we are in it, do not leave us there.  In a church in the South some years ago, the preacher called on the membership to stand and give a favorite verse. One deacon got up and said his favorite verse in the Scripture was, "It came to pass." Everyone looked puzzled. Finally the preacher said, "Now look here, brother what do you mean?" He answered, I'll tell you. When I get into trouble, or I get into temptation, I always turn to that verse in the Bible where it says, it came to pass and I say, Hallelujah! It came to pass—it didn't come to stay—and God will deliver me out of it.  My friend, that may be misusing Scripture, but I want to say that he was absolutely accurate. That is exactly what the Scripture says: "…the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations…" (2 Peter 2:9). And again: No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) If you have ever noticed a freight train as it was passing, you saw that each boxcar has on it, "Net weight." That means that each boxcar has a certain capacity, and they never let it get overloaded. Now God knows what your capacity is—He knows how much weight you can carry—and He will not let you be tempted above what you are able to handle. …But Deliver Us From the Evil One Finally, "But deliver us from the evil one." Satan is an awful reality. The world laughed at Martin Luther who threw an inkwell at him. But recently we have had a turn in events. I suppose that one of the greatest brains of the world was C. S. Lewis, and in his book, The Screw tape Letters, he took apart the liberal who denies the reality of Satan. Any man who stands for God knows the awful reality of Satan. As we work in any sort of Christian service, we become conscious of the presence of God and also dreadfully conscious of the presence of Satan. But we have this petition: "But deliver us from the evil one." The reason most of us fall today is because we are in the wrong place. We are like the little boy sitting in the pantry and looking at the cookie jar. His mother called out, "Willie, where are you?" He said, "I'm in the pantry." Then she asked, "What are you doing in there?" He replied, "I'm fighting temptation." That is the distance most people choose in fighting temptation today! If a fast train passes through a station, those who aren't paying attention and are too close to the tracks run the risk of being sucked by the air current into the path of the train. That is the reason some of us fall—we have gotten too close! "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." This is a prayer that comes down to us where we rub shoulders with men. It is a prayer that ascends to God from the child of God. There is forgiveness for us today; there is deliverance from temptation and from the evil one. These are three words to look at very closely: forgiveness, temptation, and deliverance. There is forgiveness with God. The world is hard, cruel, unforgiving, and that spirit has crept into the church, but God can forgive and does forgive on the basis of the blood of Christ. He can make you and me triumphant over our temptations. And He is able to deliver us through the merit, strength, and power of Jesus Christ when you and I take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in the Holy Spirit, He can and will deliver us. …While God tempts no one, sometimes He may lead us into trials that test our faith and that can lead to our being tempted. Though trials can make us stronger, when we understand the nature of temptation, we discover why we should pray that God would keep us from them.  I like to think of the Lord's Prayer as signposts on the highway. I pass the first one that reminds me to praise my Father in heaven. The next one reminds me to pray for my priorities-His rule and reign in my life. Next I come to a reminder to pray for my daily provision, and the rest contentedly in His plans for me that day. And then comes a sign that says "Personal Relationships, "So I am reminded to extend forgiveness to anyone who has hurt me. The next signpost I come to is prayer for protection in times of temptation.  Of all of the requests in the Lord' Prayer, on the surface this is the most perplexing one. We know God wants to guide us and provide for us, but is it ever His nature to lead us into temptation? Do we have to ask God in our prayer not to do something that we are not sure He would ever do in the first place? Can a holy, righteous, pure, undefiled, blameless, unblemished, virtuous God ever lead anyone into temptation? This question has been pondered by great minds throughout the history of the Church. And the best place to start our investigation into the meaning of Jesus' words is in James 1. There, James, says, "Let no one say when is tempted,' I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, not does He Himself tempt anyone" (James 1:13). Does this seem like a contradiction to you? On the one hand, we read in James that God never tempts anybody to sin. But then in Matthew, Jesus tells us that we are to pray, "God, don't lead me into temptation." How do you put those two things together?  The word for temptation in both Matthew and James is peirasmos, it is used frequently in the New Testament, and it means "test or trial." When we use the word temptation in English, it always has a negative connotation, but in Greek, it is a neutral word-"test or trial." In James 1:2, 12, the word means "test or

trial," but in verse 13, it is used to mean a temptation as we normally think of it: There is more to this, but we can safely conclude that God will not tempt us-but He will allow us to be tested. We wish that upon becoming Christians, we would hear God say that there would be no more tests or trials from that moment on that might become a temptation for us, but those are words we do not hear.

 

Week # 12

Weekly Pattern:      Protection

Prayers from the Bible:

Questions:

 

1).     Do God tempt His children?

2).    What do this statement means "it came to pass"?

3).    Read 2 Peter 2:9

4).    Read 1 Corinthians 10:13

5).    What od the reason most of us fall?

6).    Who is the evil one?

7).    Give the definition of forgiveness, temptation, deliverance.

8).    What spirit that has crept into the Church?

9).    Why is God able to deliver us through Christ?

10).  Read James 1:2, and explain.

11).   Read James 1:12-13 and explain.

12).  What have you learn about forgiveness?

 

Weekly Reading Assignment: (Acts 23-24)

Weekly Song:  (Matthew 26:30)

 

Weekly Praise:        You Deserve the Glory

Let's Hallow His name by rehearsing Who He is:

 

Ending Prayer:

Weekly Reading Assignment:

(Acts 21-22)

 

I have read this week's reading assignment! I enjoyed it!

 

Ending Prayer:

 

Father God, Your grace and mercy has set me free from holding unforgiveness in my heart. I want to praise You and thank You too. I pray for everyone in this community to come to You when they need forgiveness and when they need to forgive, so they can make that connection with You. Glory to God! God, help us to know we need You more than we need anyone else.  Thank You, God, that you offer redemption for all of us for our hearts, our life, and our circumstances. Help us to trust You fully in the redemption process so that we can enjoy the benefit of forgiveness in this life, which has been changed by You. We can not forgive if You did not help us, Lord. In our weakness, Lord, be our strength. Reveal Yourself through us in this community so that we can join You in accomplishing Your work. We praise You, Lord Jesus Christ. Grant us the healing hearts to always forgive others as You have forgiven us. In Jesus' name we pray,  AMEN.