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TeacherAide The First Epic SESSION 11 ILLUSTRATING
THE POINT Devotion Greater Than Temptation Henri
Nouwen once said in a Leadership journal
interview: I cannot
continuously say no to this or no to that, unless there is something ten times
more attractive to choose. Saying no to my lust, my greed, my needs, and the
world's powers takes an enormous amount of energy. The only hope is to find
something so obviously real and attractive that I can devote all my energies to
saying yes…. One such thing I can say yes to is when I come in touch
with the fact that I am loved. Once I have found that in my total brokenness I
am still loved, I become free from the compulsion of doing successful things. Being a Fool for God As I was
walking by, I noticed a young woman staring out of a hospital window with a
glazed look in her eye. About halfway down the parking lot, I felt as if I
should return and offer to pray with her, a feeling that completely contradicts
my non-imposing nature. Momentarily, I struggled to know whether God was
prodding my heart, or if I was simply being overdramatic. "I'm trusting
this is you speaking," I said to God as I awkwardly retraced my steps up
the parking lot and into the waiting room. As I
approached the young lady, she turned and looked at me as if I were a panhandler
asking for money. "Yes?" she asked with her eyes. "I-I-I was just
wondering if everything was alright," I managed to stammer. "Yes,
I'm waiting for my ride," was her reply. "Okay,"
I continued quickly. "I was just going to ask if you wanted me to pray with
you. But if nothing's wrong, then" She still said nothing, but her eyes
questioned my every word, and my nervousness didn't help. As I sheepishly turned
to exit, thinking it could get no worse, my ears could not believe what they
heard my mouth saying: "I'm not a weirdo. I just well, I just uh, okay.
Bye." As I walked
back to the car, I talked with God: "I knew I shouldn't have turned back in
the first place. What was I thinking? That was by far the stupidest thing I have
ever said. She probably thinks I was trying to hit on her. I hope I never see
her again. Don't count on me to pray with a stranger again. And to think I
thought for a moment it was your voice. She didn't need me at all. What a fool I
am!" As I slunk
into my car and started the engine, God spoke to my heart, "I didn't send
you back for her. I sent you back for you! You see, Tom, I can't use you like I
want to until you completely surrender yourself to me. Will you be a complete
fool for me? Will you die to yourself and your pride? Will you let me put you in
any position, regardless of the personal cost to you?" It was then
I realized that I will never be an effective tool for God until I am willing to
be a complete fool for God!
Submitted
by Tom Hess, Brazil, Indiana From this passage, God makes a promise
to Noah and to all people who would repopulate the earth...I will never again
destroy all living creatures. Verse 22 gives us God continual evidence that He
would fulfill His promise by stating, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime
and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never
cease.” His continual proof of His promise is seen in the changing seasons of
our annual year. God promises to never curse the ground of the earth in this way
again. Even though God will never destroy the earth again by water, He will
destroy the earth in the end by fire. 2 Peter 3:10 states, “But the day of the
Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the element
will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid
bare.” So, will God change His mind about destroying the earth? Not at all,
the Lord will never again destroy the earth by water, but our earth is being
kept until God brings the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21) and then
our present earth will be destroyed by fire! Our existing earth, the very
ground--from its vegetation to its creatures, has been defiled with sin and God
will ultimately cleanse it with fire. But our awesome God remembered us as He
remembered Noah and will provide a new heaven and new earth; a pure and spotless
dwelling place with our hearts and desires centered on our Lord Jesus Christ. I
THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY “To many Christians, Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal—He is not a fact. Millions of professed believers talk as if He were real and act as if He were not. Our actual position is always to be discovered by the way we act, not by the way we talk.”- A.W. Tozer “When we have the feeling that on
some occasion we have disobeyed God, it simply means that for a time we have
ceased to desire obedience.”- Simone Weil
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