Friday, May 30, 2014

The Complete Realist

One hang up a lot of people have about Christ and His Atonement is the idea that he did not struggle with temptations because he never indulged himself in sin or even anything close to a sin. Then because of this he truely doesn't know how hard it is to deal with temptations. 
This is false. 
In the book "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister, he states, "He was as vulnerable to suggestions and impulses coming into his mind from his mortal nature, a nature inherited from his mortal mother, has any of us. He simply paid no attention to those suggestions, and he immediately put them out of his mind. The ability of the flesh to suggest, to entice, was the same for him as it is for us, but unlike the rest of us, he never responded to it. He didn't ponder, deliberate, or entertain the sinful options even as theoretical possibilities - he gave no heed to them."
Hebrews 2:18 states, "In that he himself had suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." And C.S. Lewis elabotates this statement. "No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to find it: and Christ, because he was the only one man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means the only complete realist." 
What an idea to ponder over! What an example to follow! What an amazing Savior we have! 

Love, 
jm

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Pep Talk

Need a Pep Talk? Check out this little man. He is my favorite...
http://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o

Love,
Jm

“What will you create that will make the world more awesome… nothing if you’re just sitting there” - The Kid President

“You were made to be awesome” - The Kid President