IS GOD GIVING US MORE THAN WE CAN HANDLE?

 As we look at the state of our nation things seem to be on fire. Our police are being gunned down; people are stabbed, shot, assaulted for no reason other than randomness. Criminals commit their crimes from shoplifting to looting, to murder and then roam our streets shortly thereafter to assault, burn, and kill again with impunity. Thousands and thousands and thousands (and more) walk across our borders without surcease then are flown under the cover of darkness to wherever they want to go at our expense. 

But then we read a text in the Bible like I Cor. 10:13 and we then say that God won't give us more than we can handle. But . . .

 There are three words that without fail, will lead us to misunderstand the Bible, perverting it to say what it's not saying. Those three words are, "Ignore the context." Every word, every sentence, and every paragraph in the Bible occur within a context. The context equals "the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage." The context greatly determines the meaning of the text.

I Corinthians 10:13 furnishes a case in point. The verse says, "No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." Once taken out of its context, people say, "God will give you no more than you can handle." But . . .

Is that true? What about the Nazi's "final solution," the Holocaust for those who didn't survive it and those who did. Six million  Jews, gone, executed with Nazi efficiency. What about WWI? We see film clips of the Allied soldiers out of their minds, hands and bodies shaking so badly they can't stop it. They're not in a battle nor going into one; they're in a hospital. No matter how hard they try, it goes on and on and on.

Let's look at it another way--if it's true that God gives us no more than we can handle, what do we need Him for? We can deal with everything that comes our way if that's the case. But if we can't handle it, then we learn what dependence, humility, and faith in Him and His Word are all about. 

When we put I Corinthians 10:13 back into its context, then we discover what Paul is saying. We ask the question, "What does 'temptation' mean in the context of I Corinthians 10?"  The answer is that Paul has been writing about the Exodus generation who "craved evil things" (vs. 6), idolatry (vs.7), immorality (vs. 8), and complaining (vs. 9). Those are the" temptations" about which Paul is writing, temptations to sin as the Israelites did.

He's saying that when we're tempted to sin those particular sins and all other sins, God has made a way of escape from succumbing to them. He has given us free will for one thing; it's not foreordained that we sin because God is not the author of sin. We can, as Nancy Reagan said, "Just say no." Or as in the case of Joseph, his way of escape was literally to escape and run out of the room. Or as the Psalmist wrote, "Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you." Those are some of our "escapes."

As the story goes, a little boy was in the pantry in which there were many delights to eat before dinner. His mother called for him and asked, "Where are you?". He answered truthfully, "I'm in the pantry." She asked, "What are you doing in there? He replied, "I'm resisting temptation." 

The way to escape the pantries in our lives is either don't go in the pantry or get out of the pantry if you're in it.  

A PROPHECY FOR AMERICA

 Many things that Abraham Lincoln said ring true. In what's known as "The Lyceum Speech" of 1838, given in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln said:

"We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings.

"We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them — they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; ’tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.

"How then shall we perform it? — At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? — Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! — All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

As a companion quote to the above, these words have been attributed to Lincoln: 

"The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next."

The philosophy in our classrooms is humanism and relativism run rampant. Our schoolhouses are training camps, training the youth to live as if they exist during the time of the Judges in Israel--trained to do what's right in their own eyes from K-college. 

Each schoolhouse is hermetically sealed to keep the Bible itself out and any principle or verse derived from or quoted from the Bible is a punishable offense. That is the philosophy infusing the school houses. If Lincoln's right in his assessment, that philosophy is now entering the government.

The long-neglected antidote consists of Deuteronomy 6:6-9;  Matthew 19:13-14; II Timothy 3:15. The principles in those texts produced the Josephs, Samuels, Davids, Hannahs, and Daniels of yesteryear. 

THE SUPERNATURAL INFECTION

There's an infection going around that we're hearing everywhere. It's an infection of the mind which causes our brains to think in an illogical manner. I ran into this infection several years ago in the deep south and then again, just recently way up north, 1500 miles away. 

We can see this lapse in logic by picturing the scenario of a birthday party in which I bring you a gift. During the festive party you unwrap all the gifts and then you come to mine. You unwrap it there you see the gift and hold up for all to see. 

At that point, you then turn to me and ask, "How much do I owe you? What do I have to do to earn this wonderful gift?" 

I'm a bit confused, so I reply, nothing; it's a gift from me to you." 

But you insist and ask again, saying, "I know it's a gift; you just said it was a gift, so tell me, what do I have to do to earn it?" 

This only confuses me farther, so I explain that the very word "gift" means you don't earn it; it's free to you, although I may have paid a great deal to purchase it, it's absolutely free to you. 

You might be thinking that this little scenario sounds absolutely crazy, that  nobody thinks that way, but you'd be wrong, very wrong. You'd be wrong because whether you live in Georgia or 1500 miles away in South Dakota that's the answer we get when we ask this question: "Is heaven a free gift or do you have to earn it?" The answer we often, often, often hear is, "It's a free gift, but you have to earn it."

Go figure. How can this be? How can logical, clear-thinking adults in a birthday situation never ask, "What do I have to do to earn this gift," but then turn around and answer the above question about a gift with "It's free, but you have to earn it?"

I believe the Bible gives us the answer: ". . .  the god of this]world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

And when we look at another text from the Bible, we read, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." What a scheme, "It's a free gift but you have to earn it!" They say  it almost robotic like not even thinking what a logical error their brain has articulated. No, I don't mean that they're demon possessed, but I do mean that they've come up with nonsense and they don't even realize it. They never think about it unless we make them think about what they've just said.