1 Cor 10 : Testing 1, 2,

1 Corinthians 10: ¹ For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”^a]">[a] ⁸ We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹ We should not test Christ,^b]">[b] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰ And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹ These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. ¹² So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³ No temptation^c]">[c] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted^d]">[d] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,^e]">[e] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Growing up I always had a Bible. I had a nice pretty one with the's and thou's in it. The spine of the book was nice and in tact because the bible never got read. Oh, I'd look at it every now and then but it all seemed so foreign. The year Camden was born I got a read in a year Bible. What it does is give you an old testament, new testament, psalm, proverb section that you read every day and if you stay true.... you'll be done in a year. I started reading this bible to Camden to get him to sleep. This time when I read it the pages seemed to come alive. All the stories I knew as a child took a new meaning. One of those was of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt to the promised land. What struck me about the Israelites is they were so much like we are today. Look at verses 6-10 and tell me if this doesn't describe the things not only in the world today but things we're battling in the Church!

In this chapter the tempting means testing. Chapters 11-13 give us a brand new hope. It also puts to rest one of our lies we tell ourselves. The lie is that what we're going through is special and no one has ever had to endure or has ever conquered it. So here we read Paul telling us that everything we are facing is just common to the human race. Our temptations and tests are NORMAL! So how weak are we that we can't get victory over the normal tests of life? Not only that but God tells us that he will never give us more than we can have victory over! This is seriously the Mt. Everest story. How everyone said it couldn't be conquered but someone did and after Hillary conquered Everest it became a very common thing for people to climb. We just have to remember God's promise and gut it out. Tough? SURE! Painful? YOU BETCHA! Impossible? NEVER!

There is also a warning in this chapter. Verse 12. Like Pastor Benny always says... "Never say that you'd never do something". You can watch America's funniest Videos and tell that we're all just one small step away from $10K. So what seems so easy on one side may seem impossible on the other. So let's encourage each other. Let's stop the destructive sinning, humble ourselves, and ask for forgiveness. Even if you fail the test miserably and leave a crater of destruction afterward, there is time to heal it. Healing can only take place with three things. 1. Time, 2. Discipline and self control, 3. Putting Jesus Christ first and eagerly seeking him.

Just remember Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

This doesn't just mean things before the crater in the ground. The things here also mean repenting and restoring. Building back your life and family. We just have to remember to ask Christ for the strength. And while we're asking for strength we need to be disciplined and seriously restrain our sinful actions. Just remember that God is a God of victory not defeat. And if our God is a God of victory then by relation God's people should be victorious. How encouraging it is to me that we always have a path to winning. I've always liked the games where every game you play is winnable. Not to say that you'll win every game because there will be mistakes along the way, but at least you've got a chance. God gives us that chance. :-)