Last Exit Before Toll

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13

For years, although I said I believed in the Bible, this verse rang hollow to me. So many times, as I felt the strong pull of temptation, I saw no way out, I felt I was sliding on a greased slide with no brakes.

I think the problem is that this promise does not apply to only the end part just before you slide into sin. It applies to the whole process.

In USA, when you see a sign like this

the highway looks similar to the rest of the highway before it. Even though the highway looks the same as before — same lots of lanes, same median divider, etc,  if you go past this exit, you’re stuck. You will have to pay the toll. 

American highways are nice enough to show you signs like this “last exit before toll”. But here in Malaysia, they don’t do that. The last exit before the toll looks just like any other exit:

Temptation is like that. No warnings. So we need to not entertain the temptation when it first comes. Don't enter the toll road in the first place. The problem about temptation is that it’s only a temptation if you like it in the first place. You can’t be tempted if you don’t desire it in the first place.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. James 1:13-14

As Proverbs 7:21-23 points out:

So she seduced him with her pretty speech
and enticed him with her flattery.
He followed her at once,
like an ox going to the slaughter.
He was like a stag caught in a trap,
awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart.
He was like a bird flying into a snare,
little knowing it would cost him his life.

So, there is a way of escape, but you must take the exit early. Before the “last exit before toll”.

God’s still in control and we can have fellowship even when Christians disagree

Acts 20:22-23 And now I am bound by the spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.

Acts 21:4 We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem.

Acts 21:10-11 Several days later a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. He came over, took Paul’s belt, and bound his own feet and hands with it. Then he said, “The Holy Spirit declarers, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles.’”

It is interesting that I am reading these passages around the same time that my church morning devotions online have been going through the same passages. My church pastors interpreted this as the Holy Spirit compelling Paul to go to Jerusalem, which then brings up the problem that in the next chapter, the Holy Spirit sends several people to warn Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

My pastors follow the interpretation that the Holy Spirit may have informed those Christians that Paul would suffer if he goes to Jerusalem, but they jumped the gun and assumed that this was to tell Paul not to go.

However, I agree more with the interpretation that Paul was so burdened by the lostness of the majority of his fellow Jews that he felt compelled by his own spirit to go to Jerusalem, against the advice of the Holy Spirit. Especially since Acts 20:22 is Paul himself saying that he was bound by the spirit to go to Jerusalem, not that the Holy Spirit was actually binding him to go to Jerusalem, and Acts 21:4 says that the Holy Spirit was telling the Syrian Christians to tell Paul not to go to Jerusalem. (For a detailed explanation of this view, see http://www.jrtalks.com/acts/acts21v1to21.html)

God still permitted Paul to be pigheaded and go to Jerusalem, and indeed God still used what happened for the furtherance of the Gospel -- though, not as Paul had hoped, for the Jews of Judea, but for the Gentiles elsewhere, even as his prison epistles were written as a result.

Paul had a diffferent interpretation than Agabus, Luke, and the Syrian Christians. I have a different interpretation than my pastors. But both are still following the Lord, and still united in Christ.

So, regardless of either interpretation, God is in charge, and His plans are not thwarted by human misunderstanding or desires. So we can trust in Him for that.

Mundane faithfulness

2 Kings 5:13 But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, “Go and wash and be cured!”

For me, the application right now is the daily call to daily take up the cross and follow Jesus. The little “mundane” things we have to do every day to stay in His path. Nothing spectacular. But just to keep doing the next right thing.

When I’m weary, father, be my bridge over troubled water. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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I know this is not a Christian song, but most of the words seem to fit as if our Father in Heaven is saying this to us.

Wanting to receive something from God is not the same as repentance.

Scripture

The king cried out to the man of God, “Please ask Yahweh your God to restore my hand again!” So the man of God prayed to Yahweh, and the king’s hand was restored and he could move it again.

- 1 Kings 13:6

Observation

Jeroboam only partially repented, and it was momentary. He saw God’s power and feared for himself and his dynasty. But he didn’t really repent, for he didn’t turn back to Yahweh. He continued in his evil practices, and so God made sure to destroy his dynasty.

What a waste! God had promised him that He would give him 10 tribes, and would establish his dynasty if he continued following Yahweh. But he threw it all away, even after God sent a prophet from Judah to warn him and show him miraculous signs.

Wanting to receive something from God is not the same as repentance.

Prayer

I want Your blessings, but I gotta recognize that wanting to receive something from God is not the same as repentance. I need to truly repent, i.e. turn from my wicked ways to Your ways.

Through the storm

Scripture

Our God is in the heavens, and he does as he wishes

• Psalm 115:3

Wait

This would be really scary if we didn’t know God was good and loves us.

Observe

I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” Lamentations 3:24

Couple this with the verse from the psalm and we can rest in Him.

Request

Even as we go through this difficult time, You are in control, O Lord. So I trust You to bring us through like You have done so many times before.

Dedicate

I will trust in You.

God overlooks our honest mistakes

Scripture

Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.

• 1 Kings 3:3

Wait

God is merciful.

Observe

God saw Solomon’s heart, so although he worshiped at the high places, God still honoured what Solomon understood of following Yahweh and blessed him for asking for wisdom instead of wealth and power, and gave him wisdom, and wealth and power.

We all have an incomplete understanding of God and His principles, so we may have all sorts of side issues we’re wrong about. Sometimes we argue with other Christians about these differences -- pre-trib, post-trib, post-millennial, amillennial, baptising babies vs adults, the bread and wine being purely symbolic or being sacraments, etc. 

But in the end, God knows our hearts and will honour faith where He sees it.

Request

Father, thank You for Your great mercy, and that You overlook our faults. Thank You that You saved us. May I become more and more like Your Son. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dedicate

I commit to following God as best as I know how, and to be open to His correction.

Consider the Cost

Scripture

If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else – your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.

But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you.

• Luke 14:26-29

Wait

Consider the cost of building a tower.

Observe

Grace is free, but it is not cheap. Jesus paid a high price for our salvation, and as a result of our salvation, we should be disciples and not just believers. This means that there is a cost – to obey is better than sacrifice, faith without works is dead.

If not, then we’ll find ourselves headed down the wrong path anyway – “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”

So we need to give our all to Jesus. No compromise, when it comes to following God.

Request

Father, this is a tall order. I do not have the wherewithal to do this. However, I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. So give me your strength, especially when the flesh is weak.

Dedicate

I present myself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is my reasonable act of worship.

The love and mercy of God

Scripture

Though we are overwhelmed by our sins,

you forgive them all.

• Psalm 65:3

Wait

God loves us and is merciful.

Observe

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He saved us though we rebelled agaist Him.

Request

In response to Your great love for us, may I live for You. Remind me of Your great mercy and love, O Lord, when I am tempted.

Dedicate

Lord, I need You, oh I need You

Every hour, I need You

My one defense, my righteousness

Oh God, how I need You

Opportunities and Accolades

Scripture

Peter saw the opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness?”

• Acts 3:12

Wait

Taking the opportunity to share the Gospel. Healing by God’s power, not their own.

Observe

Peter took the opportunity to share the Gospel when it was presented to him. At the same time, he didn’t take credit for the miracle, crediting God for it. Too many times I let opportunities slip by. And we all have a tendency to take credit when God does something great through us. Many times, people have been used by God to do great things, and it goes to their head. 

Request

Father, help me to be alert to opportunities to share the Gospel, but also to not allow any accolades I get for things you do through me to get to my head, like leading worship, etc.

Dedicate

As John the Baptist said, You must increase, and I must decrease.

Really forgiving

Scripture

And perhaps YHWH will see that I am being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today.

• 2 Samuel 16:12

Wait

David didn’t allow Abishai to kill Shimei for cursing him, trusting instead for God to vindicate him. David is in the current predicament because of his own mistake for not judging Amnon’s rape of Tamar, which then embittered Absalom to him, so now he is fleeing Absalom’s coup. God indeed does deliver David and restore his throne in the end. David’s mercy is sort of partial as although when he returns as king to Jerusalem and Shimei meets him and asks for forgiveness, he spared his life (1 Samuel 19:18-23), he did tell Solomon to make sure to find some way to kill him (1 Kings 2:8-9) and so he did (2 Kings 2:36-46).

Request

Father, help me to forgive like You forgive, and not continue holding a grudge and looking for ways to do in people who hurt me.

Dedicate

May I continue to become more and more like Jesus.

God's way gives life

Scripture

Fear of YHWH is a life-giving fountain;

it offers escape from the snares of death.

• Proverbs 14:27

Wait

I need to keep God in the forefront of my thoughts. It will keep my way pure, and escape sin’s snare of death. So I need to replace the old thought pathways with new Godly pathways.

Request

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Search me, O Lord, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Dedicate

My heart is sinful and deceitful, but You can change me, O Lord.

Earnestly seeking God

Scripture

O God, you are my God;

  I earnestly search for you.

My soul thirsts for you;

  my whole body longs for you

in this parched and weary land

  where there is no water

    - Psalm 63:1

Wait

Do I really seek God like this? This is another aspiration that I have not yet lived up to. Yet “Lord, I believe! Help me in my unbelief!”

Request

Change my heart, O God. Make it ever true. Change my heart, O God. May I be like You.

You are the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me, this is what I pray.

Dedicate

I commit to continuing on in the journey of theosis.

YHWH's promises

Scripture

For you are God, O Sovereign YHWH. Your words are truth, and you have promised these good things to your servant.

• 2 Samuel 7:28

Wait

God’s word is truth, though not specifically the same words to me that He spoke to David, but He has indeed promised good things to me.

Request

When I am tempted, remind me of Your truth - No temptation has overtaken me except what is common to man. God is faithful and will not allow me to be tempted beyond my strength, but with the temptation will be a way of escape, that I may be able to flee from it.

Dedicate

I commit myself to You, O Lord. Let me throw these attacks back at evil when I am tempted.