resisting temptation

Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels ^[a] of silver."
 ⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."
 ⁷ Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs ^[b] that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man."
 ⁸ Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. ⁹ With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
 ¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied."
 ¹¹ He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man."
 ¹² So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.
 ¹³ Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied."
      He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric ¹⁴ and ^[c] tightened it with the pin.
      Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.
 ¹⁵ Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." ¹⁶ With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.
 ¹⁷ So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."
 ¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands.
Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. ^[d] And his strength left him.  ²⁰ Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!"
      He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
 ²¹ Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. ²² But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
in this story Delilah is like temptation in that even when we say no  it will return until a time when we are tired and we give in most of the time but it doesn't have to happen for by being spiritually vigilant we can resist because it is like when we are physically and mentally tired we make big mistakes and aren't as aware  it is the same spiritually and the  way to stay awake spiritually is to pray for praying is what refuels us spiritually. another thing we can do is described in the following verse (isaiah 53: 5-6)
 ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.
 ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.
so by focusing on the cross we can also resist the third way is to flee. those three things will help you resist all temptation no matter what it is. for the bible says in (james 1:12-16)
¹²Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.  ¹³When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. ¹⁵Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
 ¹⁶Don't be deceived, my dear brothers.
and in (john 8: 31-32))
Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
so do not say hey god most want me to do this if you feel pulled to do something you think might be wrong.

the cost of our life

something a lot of Christians don't think about is that every single one of us has a price tag. we have already been paid for. no one can change the price that was paid for us. that was paid before our grandparents were even born. it was paid over 2000 years ago by one man. that man was Jesus Christ. some people though have not been paid for yet. so spiritually they are dead and when they die here on earth that is it for them they will never rise again they may have said they were Christians but they were really Hippocrates but the good news for those who do not yet believe god has given us our whole life to decide and no matter what you did in your life as long as at the end you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you. only then can you have eternal life. only then has your price been paid but not in money but your price was paid in blood. our debt was paid by the life of the son of god. even though we turn from god during our life by sinning. god sent his son to give us eternal life something no one in this world deserves something no one who has ever walked this earth has deserved. One perfect man died for billions of people so that they could have eternal life. that is all i have for this week next week i will be talking of how to resist temptation. next week the verses i will be using will be judges 2:4-18   

prayer

sorry i have not put up many posts up lately it has been a hard few weeks. recently a guy from my youth group who from 08-november 09 has been fighting cancer found out he again has cancer but that this time it is incurable and now today my mom was admitted to the cardiac critical care unit with severe chest pain. so if you could please pray for them and my family and church as we go though this time. I will post updates as soon as i find out more

 sincerely, Matt

how he loves us

to really understand how much god loves us we have to understand that when god sent Jesus to earth he knew he was going to die and yet he loved us so much that he sent his only son to die for us. so that those that believe in him shall never die. that those that believe in him shall be forgiven no matter what it is. he sent Jesus and let him go though the pain of being beaten and having nails put though his hands and thorns on his hands and having a spear driven though him when he could have stopped it at any time but he didn't because he wanted to show us how much he loved us and he needed someone to take away our sins and for that he chose his son he didn't chose someone else child but his own and when Jesus was breathing his last breath he asked god to forgive the men that did this to him,and with that one death all the sins of the people that beleive in jesus were forgiven.

intro

in this blog my hope is to take readers though the bible step by step there might be parts where god leads me to post something else like my first post. I also hope that the people who are not Christians that look at this blog find how loving our god is and how no matter what we do if we believe in him we are forgiven and that they discover that no ones love can compare to his. that is the reason for this blog for the mission of this blog is to bring people to Christ. that is my hope and prayer for this blog

As Christians most of us have at one time or another struggled with our faith and spending time with god. A lot of us might be busy with school, sports, and jobs. that doesn't mean we can't spend time in his presence. there are many ways to spend time in his presence it can be by listening to christian music, praying, or reading your bible or other christian book. I have found that the longer you spend the harder it is for you to stray far from gods path.everyone always says you need thirty minutes of exercise a day to stay healthy. well thirty minutes with god can make you Spiritually healthy and it doesn't matter where you are when you spend time with him or what time it is. when you spend time with him you mature in you spiritual life because when you start out you are like a baby having to be told these things by your pastor and/or youth director. when you start to read your bible a little more you are like a toddler wanting to feed yourself and people younger than you and you continue to progress till you read your bible everyday and pray everyday and spend a lot of your time with god. by then you are old and mature in your faith and one that can lead others to Christ and though the different stages of their spiritual life and though them touching others and then they will help others in their walk with Christ, and that cycle could repeat thousands of times. so you never know what one good deed can do if it will just touch that one person, or will expand to touch many others