Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Will U "Baffle" the tempter?



What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19
"Sister A and her husband. The Lord convicted him of the truth. He was charmed with the harmony and spirit of the truth, and was blessed in confessing it. But Satan came to him with his temptations upon the point of appetite.
Brother A had long indulged his appetite for stimulants, which had had an influence to becloud the mind, weaken the intellect, and lessen the moral powers. Reason and judgment were brought into bondage to depraved, unnatural appetite, and his birthright, his God-given manhood, was sacrificed to intemperate habits. Had Brother A made the word of God his study and his guide, had he trusted in God and prayed for grace to overcome, he would have had strength in the name of Jesus to baffle the tempter.


Man came from the hand of God perfect in every faculty of mind and body; in perfect soundness, therefore in perfect health. It took more than two thousand years of indulgence of appetite and lustful passions to create such a state of things in the human organism as would lessen vital force. Through successive generations the tendency was more swiftly downward. Indulgence of appetite and passion combined led to excess and violence; debauchery and abominations of every kind weakened the energies and brought upon the race diseases of every type, until the vigor and glory of the first generations passed away,......

 The present weight of suffering and anguish which we see everywhere, the present deformity, decrepitude, disease, and imbecility now flooding the world, make it, in comparison to what it might be and what God designed it should be, a lazar house; and the present generation are feeble in mental, moral, and physical power. All this misery has accumulated from generation to generation because fallen man will break the law of God. Sins of the greatest magnitude are committed through the indulgence of perverted appetite.


Intemperance inflames the passions and gives loose rein to lust. And reason and conscience are blinded by the lower passions. It is not an easy matter to overcome an established taste for narcotics and stimulants. In the name of Christ alone can this great victory be gained. He overcame in behalf of man in the long fast of nearly six weeks in the wilderness of temptation. He sympathizes with the weakness of man. His love for fallen man was so great that He made an infinite sacrifice that He might reach him in his degradation and through His divine power finally elevate him to His throne. But it rests with man whether Christ shall accomplish for him that which He is fully able to do."
Testimonies For The Church vol.4 p.28-32 E.G.W.