Lesson 10 for the 5th of June, 2010
JESUS KEPT HIS INTEGRITY AND DIDN’T GIVE IN
Satan will try to make us break our integrity and get away from Jesus.
Only through a constant and firm reliance on the power of God, and a
willingness to die to self, can we overcome.
“Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes that ruin
the vineyards”
Song of Solomon, 2: 15
If we keep our integrity
in little situations, we’ll
be ready to keep it in
more important ones.
Always choose integrity instead of interests, like
Joseph, David and Daniel did.
God makes us upright
through His Holy Spirit.
“For this reason I bow my knees
to the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ… I pray that out of his
glorious riches he may strengthen
you with power through his Spirit
in your inner being, so that
Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith. And I pray that
you, being rooted and established
in love, may have power,
together with all the saints, to
grasp how wide and long and high
and deep is the love of Christ,
and to know this love that
surpasses knowledge--that you
may be filled to the measure of
all the fullness of God”
Ephesians, 3: 14, 16-19
We must take care of our relation
with God, giving our whole life to
Him and letting Him to act in us.
“You are to give all,--your heart, your will, your
service,--give yourself to Him to obey all His
requirements; and you must take all,--Christ, the
fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be
your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting
helper,--to give you power to obey.
Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your
very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as
wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in
Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought
in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate
yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him,
to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate.
Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of
God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after
the life of Christ”
E.G.W. (Steps to Christ, cp. 8, page 70)
The Bible tells us to move away from
sins that put our sexual integrity at
risk and affect physically and
emotionally our body:
Homosexuality (Romans, 1: 26-27)
Prostitution (1 Corinthians, 6: 15-18)
Sexual immorality
–fornication, pornography …
(1 Thessalonians, 4: 3)
Vices (Jude, 7)
Adultery (Exodus, 20: 14)
We have physical integrity if
we take care of our body as we
have studied in earlier lessons.
Exercise.
Water.
Air.
Working and resting.
Solar light.
Diet.
Avoid harmful things.
…
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices,
holy and pleasing to God--this is your reasonable
act of worship” (Romans, 12: 1)
We have physical integrity if
we take care of our body as we
have studied in earlier lessons.
Exercise.
Water.
Air.
Working and resting.
Solar light.
Diet.
Avoid harmful things.
…
“The condition of mind and soul depends on the condition of the
body. Therefore it is essential that we preserve our physical
faculties with good health and vigour. Any harmful practice or
selfish pleasure that damages our physical strength makes our
mental and spiritual development difficult”
(SDA Bible Commentary, on Romans, 12: 1)
“There was in Him [Jesus] nothing that responded to Satan's sophistry. He
did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation.
So it may be with us. Christ's humanity was united with divinity; He was
fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to
make us partakers of the divine nature. So long as we are united to Him
by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. God reaches for the hand of
faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we
may attain to perfection of character.
And how this is accomplished, Christ has shown
us. By what means did He overcome in the
conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only
by the word could He resist temptation… When
assailed by temptation, look not to
circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to
the power of the word. All its strength is yours”
E.G.W. (The Desire of ages, cp. 12, page 123)