Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing… He’ll Do Whatever It Takes, … declaring the truth that God will provide His saving/sanctifying grace (i.e, His power) for us to overcome the sensation of sin and to be purged of its effects, … ultimately being reformed into the image of our Lord.
Highlight Passage: Genesis 3: 4-5 [NKJV] …
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
… Sin is so alluring; … but it smells of death.
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Highlight Context – Genesis, Chapter 3 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Adam/Eve drawn by the stench of death and tempted to go against God’s will by Satan’s lure.
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Reference Passage #1 - John 10: 10 [NKJV] …
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
… Jesus declares that He has proved THE WAY to overcome the temptation and death smell of sin.
Reference Passage #2 - 1st Corinthians 10:13 [NKJV] …
13 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.
… No matter what the temptation sin affords, God will not allow a Christian to be tempted/tried beyond his/her capability, with the assistance of God’s empowering grace to overcome the sin.
Reference Passage #3 - 1st John 1:7-9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… if we recognize who we are, in our sin-ridden humanity, and confess our sin, God will cleanse us of any/all sin.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Marvin Williams, used used an interesting floral picture to illustrate the power of sin. He writes in today’s ODB. In August 2013, large crowds gathered at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to witness the blooming of the tropical plant known as the corpse flower. Since the flower is native to Indonesia, and may flower only once every several years, its blooming is a spectacle. Once open, the huge spiky, beautiful, red bloom smells like rotten meat. Because of its putrid fragrance, the flower attracts flies and beetles that are looking for rotting meat. But there is no nectar.
Williams illustrates that, like the “corpse flower,” sin is alluring to those of us who’re drawn away from the will and promise of God by our own sin nature. As it was with Eve first, and then Adam, we can be tempted to come to the sensational allure of sin; and like the insects are drawn to the corpse flower, we quite often, as did Adam/Eve, will fall to that powerful sensation of sinfulness. However, as it was God’s plan for fallen and sin-ridden humanity, to be freed from that curse (read from Genesis 3 above] in the Father’s Son, Who has given us a way to resist the allure of sin and to be cleansed by His blood (see John 10: 10 & 1John 1:7-9).
So, fellow Christian, if we smell the alluring sensation and beauty of sin, which is death, in our presence, rely on the indwelling power of God’s Spirit, residing in us by our faith in God’s empowering grace, to allow us to turn away from Satan’s promise of sin to THE PROMISE of our Savior to give us eternal life [see 1st Cor. 10: 13]. We need not partake of the alluring smell of death [i.e., sin] and honor God by turning away from selfishness to partake of the eternal sweetness of God’s fruitfulness (see Galatians 5: 22-23).
My Prayer Today: Dear Lord, … Allow me to see and sense the temptation of the enemy and to turn away to partake of Your fruit. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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