IT IS AMAZING how many times we fall for ‘just this once!’ Have we really done something, thinking it will only be just this once, and discover that since nothing bad happened maybe we can try that again! Satan loves to play havoc with our sense of well being, by offering us titillating idea’s through family and friends, that encourages us to step across the lines we have drawn for ourselves after becoming a Christian. I know this for a fact, because many times I have thought I can eat that again, because I didn’t gain any weight! But doing it enough times, no matter how I try, I can’t change the numbers that eventually seem to get bigger and bigger until I stop!
IN MOST translations when Jesus was being tempted by Satan, in the second temptation, the offer to Jesus was pretty much the same in context. However, when you read it in the Amplified, Satan says; “Then the devil took Him up to a high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the habitable world in a moment of time...”in a twinkling of an eye; and he said to Him, To You I will give all this power and authority and their glory, (that is, all their magnificence, excellence, pre-eminence, dignity and grace,) for it has been turned over to me, and I give it to whom I will; Therefore if you will do homage to and worship me (“just once), it shall all be Yours.” Luke 4:5-7
WHAT IF Jesus had succumbed to this temptation? What if Jesus in His weakened state had bowed down before Satan and worshiped him, because He only had to do it one time? Satan is such a liar that it appears to me that Jesus was the right person at the right time to do all that God had ordained for Him to do! We are the ones that fall into Satan’s traps of ‘just once won’t hurt you; no one is going to know if you only do it once; come on, every one is doing it!” What is worse is when we are tempted and fall because we think we will be better off, or that it can’t hurt our salvation.
“AND JESUS replied to him, ‘get behind Me, Satan!’ It is written, You shall do homage to and worship the Lord your God; and Him only shall you serve.” Luke 4:8 Where would we be, if Jesus had not been obedient to the Father? Where would we be if Jesus felt drawn towards the idea of by-passing the cross? How do we feel when we know that we have failed the Lord once again? I know how I feel! My heart cries and I run to Jim but he can only give me momentary solace. But when I run to the Lord, His peace washes over me and I am able to move on!
SOMETHING ELSE I noticed toward the end of Luke 4:6 is that Satan said he had power and authority that had been turned over to him and he could give it to whomever he chose to. I heard it said that he received this power and authority from Adam. The scriptures say he is the “prince of the power of the air. We were obedient to him and were under his control, the demon spirit that still constantly works in the sons of disobedience; the careless, the rebellious and the unbelieving, who go against the purposes of God.” Ephesians 2:2 He doesn’t have that authority over us any more!
IT IS TRUE that disobedience was born through Adam, but God has allowed Satan to be in this world because He wants us to chose life everlasting with Him and to leave Satan in the dust where he crawled away in defeat while in the Garden of Eden. Living in the world, and trying things just once, can be life altering to those who have chosen to follow Jesus Christ.
JUST ONCE can bring alcoholism, drug addictions, untimely pregnancies, separations, heart breaks and remorse! Our God is a God of love and forgiveness! He is the power and authority over everything and has been from the beginning. Why should we hook up with the deceiver, knowing there is no truth in him. Why should we want a moment of self gratification which brings discontent, when we can live daily with our heads held high because the one we follow is truth!
“BY HAVING the eyes of your heart flooded with light, you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich His glorious inheritance is in the Saints; His set-apart ones!” Ephesians 1:18 If you have left your first love Jesus Christ, here is where you can return just one more time, because God loves you! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 2/20/14
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