Christian Living
Smooshing Temptation
Ron Fast
[email protected] Copyright 2002 by Ron Fast
Intro
Imagine that you loved Mike and Ike’s (the candy). You loved them so much that you would do anything to get them. In fact, you loved them so much that you would dream about them when you were at school.
You couldn’t wait until payday. That’s when your mom would give you your monthly allowance. Each month, when she would give you your $12.29 allowance, you’d race to the closest grocery store, head directly towards the candy aisle and grab yourself a handful of Mike and Ike boxes.
You’d head to the checkout counter with your handful of Mike and Ikes. The checkout line seemed soooo slow every time you’d try to buy your M & I’s, but they were worth the wait. You finally made it to the front of the line and the clerk started ringing up your stash of candy. The clerk finally finished ringing them up and you whipped out your money and paid for them.
They were yours now and no one could take them away from you. You ran home as fast as you could to add them to your already huge stash of M&I’s.
You made it home and headed for your bedroom where your treasure was hidden where no one could find it. You head towards your top secret, highly confidential, enter at your own risk, camouflaged, hidden in a really, really, really tough and inaccessible compartment, for your eyes only place. You were so proud to have concealed the M&I’s in a place that only you and God could find. If you had the money, you would have put guard dogs, barbed wire and electric fences around it. But for now, you had to settle for a home-made booby trap system.
Your booby trap system was almost fool-proof. Setting it made you feel like an ultra-secret-really-stealthy-extra-super-secret secret agent. You were so confident in your booby trap, you almost wish your little bro would try to get through. That way you could pay him back for all of the times he embarrassed you in front of your friends.
You had gotten your booby trap idea from watching Star Wars Episode 1 and Home Alone. You have 5 levels of security, each one more intense than the others.
The first level was from Star Wars. You remembered the scene when Jar-Jar Binks lead Obe-Wan and his master to the Gungan city under the surface of a Naboo lake. You thought it was really cool how the entire city was covered by a sort of force field that you could see through but held the water out. It was cool when Jar-Jar went through this force field. It reminded you of a wall of clear jell-o that allowed people as they tried to go through.
You couldn’t figure out how to make a wall like that so instead you bought a bunch of boxes of jell-o (Lemon-lime flavor) and some metal tubs. You made the jell-o and poured it into the tubs before it had a chance to set up. You took the tubs filled with jell-o to your room and placed them in front of your ultra-super-secret hiding place. You figured anyone who tried to get to your stash would step into them and get stuck.
If they managed to escape the tubs of jell-o. . .er. . . Uh. . . I mean green, highly-electrically charged electro-static force field; they had to pass the second layer of security. You set up cans of spray paint in secret locations high up in your room. Then you attached string. . . Oops. . . I mean highly sensitive electronic sensor triggers to these cans so that when an intruder would pass them, the cans would spray paint all over the intruder’s head, thereby, marking them with a permanent yet colorful array of colors.
If they happened to escape the deadly pools of radio-active slime and pass through the tangle of electronic sensors that triggered the canisters of lethal paint, you were sure the 3rd level would stop them from entering your M&I lair (place to keep your stash). The third level of security was almost impossible to breach. You had used all of your resources to create this layer of security. Are you ready for this?
Okay, here it is. The third level of security consists of electronic movement sensing devices. These devices were hooked up to your computer. When some intruder would trigger these devices, a signal would be sent to the computer. The computer would then begin by playing a recording that said, “YOU HAVE ENTERED A HIGHLY CLASSIFIED, TOP SECRET AREA. YOU HAVE EXACTLY 12.5 SECONDS TO REMOVE YOUR BOD FROM THIS LOCATION BEFORE 15 HIGHLY TRAINED ROTTIES DESCEND ON YOUR PERSON AND PROCEED TO MUNCH ON YOUR BOD. PLEASE REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THESE PREMISES OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!!”
If they don’t leave, the computer plays a really loud recording of dogs barking and snarling. SCARY!!! If that doesn’t scare the intruder off, the computer started a recording of police sirens and turned on big flashing lights and red lights like the ones on police cars. You knew that your stash was safe. There is no one in this world who would dare risk going through the third level of security.
You had a highly secret way of getting to your stash without having to go through all of this security. There was a small back entry way into your stash compartment. You went through the secret door and opened up the lock box where you kept your treasure. When you opened the box, you couldn’t believe what you saw. It was unbelievable. The box was completely empty. Who would have dared to go through all three levels of security and still make it to your secret stash?
You were devastated. You had been saving up your M&I’s for months. You had at least . . . Um . . . 30 boxes. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! This was the saddest day of your life. You had looked forward to adding to your collection for a whole month. Now they were gone - all of it. At least you had the boxes you just bought, but they would only last 2 days and that’s if you rationed them.
During the next two days you enjoyed every morsel of your M&I’s. But the day came when you were completely out of them. You had to wait for another month before you could get some more. This would be a very long month indeed.
After living a couple of weeks without your M&I’s, you just could hardly stand it anymore. As you were walking to school one day, you walked past this dark alley. As you were walking by, you heard this, “Psst. Hey Mister”. That was strange. You heard this voice but didn’t see anyone. You started to walk on by when you heard it again, “Psst, Hey buddy”. Suddenly, out of the corner of your eye you caught a glimpse of someone moving out of the shadows. He had a black hat on, sun glasses, and long, black trench coat. You could barely see his eyes. He looked like a sleazy dude.
He said, “Hey man, I heard you are looking for some Happy Pills.”
You said, “No dude, I don’t do drugs.”
“I’m not talking about drugs. I heard you like M&I’s. Is that true?”
You said, “Yeah. Do you know where I can get some?”
“Yeah, I know where you can get some, but it’s dangerous. You could get caught.”
“Well, I’ll be really careful. I won’t get caught.”
“Okay”, said the bad guy, “But don’t say I didn’t warn ya. Here is what you do, you see. You head down to the end of this alley. When you get there, you will see this cage-like thing and in the middle of it sits 1 box of M&I’s. I’ve heard that if you can get them without getting caught, they will be replaced within 24 hours.”
You got really excited. You thanked the dude in the black trench coat and ran down to the end of the dark alley. Sure enough, that dude was right. You see the cage and the stack of goods in the middle. The cage looked old. You could tell that it had been there for a long time. There was rust over the bars on the gate. The gate was open and looked like it hadn’t been used for at least a millennia. The gate opened up like a trap door, and was propped up by some wires that went over some pulleys on the top of the cage. It was obvious that this was the triggering device that
was designed to trap someone inside when they tripped the trigger.
You were pretty sure that it was safe to go in. You passed through the open gate and headed straight for the stash in the center of the cage. You slowly lifted the boxes off of the pedestal on the ground. You noticed that the cable that was attached to the trap gate ran down the back of the cage on the floor and then to the pedestal. It was hooked to the pedestal and was obvious that, at one time, bait was put on the pedestal. When the bait was taken, the trap door would close. But this cage was so old that you were sure it didn’t work. Besides who would set up a trap at the end of a dark alley?
You took the box of goods and ran out of the cage as fast as you could. You made it. You knew that the trap was old and wouldn’t work.
You headed to school with your box of M&I’s, munching on them as you walked to school.
When you got home that evening, you couldn’t help but wonder if there would be a new box in the cage tomorrow. You couldn’t wait to find out.
The next morning you rushed to get ready. You sucked down a couple of highly nutritious Twinkies and drank down a healthy can of Code Red. You grabbed your coat and headed as fast as you could to the dark alley. When you finally arrived at the alley, it was so dark you could hardly make out the cage at the end of the alley. You walked slowly down the alley. You could feel someone staring at you as you walked down the alley. You finally made it to the cage, and sure enough, there was a new box of M&I’s sitting on the pedestal. You checked to make sure that the cage still looked old enough that it couldn’t possibly work.
You headed to the middle of the cage, slowly lifted the box off of the pedestal and walked out of the cage. The cage door stayed open. As you walked to school you thought to yourself, “This is a really cool deal. I probably have an unending source of M&I’s. I’ll never have to buy any ever again.”
Each day as you walked to school, you would go to the cage, grab the candy and head to school. Each day you got a little more daring. You would stay in the cage longer and longer each time. You weren’t so careful about picking the box off of the pedestal either.
One day you decided to be really bold and hang on the gate as you went through the door. You jumped up and grabbed the gate. It didn’t budge at all. It was stuck in the open position.
The next day you grew even more daring. You decided to stand on top of the gate and jump up and down on it. It didn’t move at all. You said to yourself, “Self. . . This thing ain’t going nowhere no-how.”
The next day you went into the cage, knowing that there was no way you could ever get caught in the cage. So you went over to the pedestal, picked up the box of candy like you usually do and instead of walking out of the cage, you decided to kick the pedestal.
You kicked the pedestal and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .
Nothing happened. You kinda breathed a sigh of relief. You then decided to head to school, so you started walking toward the gate . . . . . All of a sudden. . . . You heard a click. . . And then a creak. . . And then. . .
The gate swung shut. The gate must weigh a ton because it shook the cage and the ground. It was like an earthquake. You couldn’t believe it. You were trapped like a wild animal. You headed over to the closed gate and tried to push on it. The gate was thinking to itself, “No way dude”. You couldn’t even budge it. It was sooo heavy that it would have taken a huge crane to lift it.
Now you were really scared. You checked around the perimeter of the cage for any openings or weak bars but there were none.
You were stuck. I mean really stuck. You couldn’t believe you got sucked into this cage. You were soooo sure you wouldn’t get burned. You played with fire and you got burned.
Now back to reality. This story is kinda what temptation is like. If you give in to temptation, eventually you will get burned. You will get trapped in a lifestyle of sin. If you play with temptation, eventually Satan will have you trapped.
Satan makes you think that there are no consequences to playing with temptation. He will make you think that you can get away with it. But he will trap you if you give in. Eventually you will become a slave to that particular sin.
This week we are going to study about temptation and what it is. Temptation itself is not a sin. It’s when you give in to the temptation that it is sin. If temptation was a sin, then Jesus would have sinned because He was tempted in every way just as we are. The difference is that He never gave in. But often we do. Especially when we play around with temptation.
Monday
What’s Up with Temptation?
This week we are going to be looking at an age-old problem, something that has affected every human who ever lived and will ever live. No one is immune to temptation unless their head exploded (OH, GROSS!!!!) and they were no longer among the living. (Have you ever felt like your head was going to explode? You know, when you have a cold and your sinuses are stuffed up. I’ve always wondered: if you never blew your nose, would your head get soooo full that it would just kinda explode??)
What is temptation to you?
Who tempts you?
What do you do when you are tempted?
Is temptation a sin?
What are some areas that you are tempted?
What is the ONE temptation that you listed above that is the toughest to deal with?
Does your struggle with temptation frustrate you?
Do you think God gets angry when you are tempted?
Tuesday
A Closer Look at Temptation
The Bible talks a lot about temptation. In fact, it talks about it in the very first book of the Bible. Let’s head to the beginning of the Bible and take a look-see at the very first time human-being type persons of the human race and male and female types (How’s that for a run-on name of us human types?) were tempted.
Are Trees Really Evil?
Go to the New Testament and take a hard left-hand turn. When you get to Psalms, take another left and keep going. When you hit Joshua, you still need to go further left. When you hit Exodus, you are almost there. AHHHH, you made it when you hit Genesis. Now head to chapter 3 and read it. Yes, all of it!!!!
There were two very special trees that God placed in the Garden of Eden. Read Genesis 2:8,9 and write down what the two trees were called and what the commandment was concerning each of them.
Tree #1:
Name:
Commandment:
What would happen if they ate fruit from this tree?
Tree #2:
Name:
Commandment:
What would happen if they ate fruit from this tree?
First Tempted
Now let’s look at the actual temptation.
Who was tempted first?
Who did the tempting?
What was the temptation?
How did Eve respond to the temptation?
What were some of the things that Eve did wrong that helped her fall to temptation?
What lies did Satan use to tempt Eve?
Wednesday
You are not alone!!
One of Satan’s biggest weapons is his ability to make us feel like we are the only ones who struggle with a certain sin.
Turn to the New Testament to 1 Corinthians 10:13. Read the verse and then answer the following questions.
THIS IS A GREAT VERSE TO MEMORIZE!!
Is there any human-type person that has NOT been tempted?
Is there a temptation that you face that no one has ever faced before?
Can we use the excuse, “I couldn’t help sinning. The temptation was just too great for me. I had no choice”? Why or why not? What is God’s promise to us when we are tempted?
If God always provides a way out of temptations, then why do we still give in to temptations?
Thursday
Temptation – a Sin or Not
When I was living in India we used what we called “Petrol-max” lanterns (not sure how to spell that). They were lanterns that used White G
as as fuel. They had bulbs made out of nylon. The gas would be pumped into the bulb and we would light the bulb. So it was an actual flame contained in the bulb. So as you can guess, the bulb and the surrounding glass got very, very hot. The moths would fly as close to the glass as possible. They would even fly through the little holes where we stuck the match in to light the bulb. But they would eventually get too close and burn up. Okay, so you are thinking “What’s the point to this story?”
Sometimes we like to push the “temptation is not a sin” thing. I think that most Christians want to see how close we can get to sin but not actually do the sin. How close we can get to the flame without getting burned. Let’s face it, some sin is fun. The danger to that is that the closer we get to the flame (sin), the harder it is to stop and walk the other way. I think that’s the message behind 1 Corinthians 10:13.
Is temptation a sin? We can say that all we want but eventually we’ll need proof that it’s not a sin. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever felt guilty after being tempted? I have. Even though I didn’t give in to the temptation, I felt guilty as though I actually did the sin.