01 December 2019
Two-Minute Features | 08 December 2019

Choosing Not to Yield to Temptation (TMF:1275)

Friday, December 06, 2019
Peace to Live By: Choosing Not to Yield to Temptation (TMF:1275) - Daniel Litton
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       The next sentence in our Lord’s prayer reads, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Okay, so what does Jesus mean by “lead us not into temptation.” There are actually three avenues of temptation that I want us to think about today. First, turn over to James chapter 1. If we go to verse 13, we read the following: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:13-15, ESV). So, James, very poignantly, gives us some keen understanding here. We have discussed many times how we all, as humans, have the sin-nature within us. We are born with it, and we will have it until the day we die. Now, the unbeliever has no freedom to choose not to sin, while the believer, by God’s power and the fact he is a new creation, does have the freedom not to sin.

Choosing to Not Let Problems Dominate (TMF:1274)

Thursday, December 05, 2019
Peace to Live By: Choosing to Not Let Problems Dominate (TMF:1274) - Daniel Litton
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       Bottom line, it’s good for us to verbalize our forgiveness, as that makes it so that there is nothing hidden between us and God. The reality is, we let outside things, the problems in life, offenses from other people, etc, bother us only as much as we choose or want to. That is, just because bad things may be happening at a particular time in our lives, that doesn’t mean we have to let our minds be a slave to those things. The Apostle Peter told us more than once to be sober-minded. He said we should do this so we can pray. We need to have sober minds if we want to be close to God and focus on him. Having a mind that is saturated in a problem or problems can wreck our fellowship with God. We can’t even focus on him because we are too wrapped up in a problem we have. We need to learn to forgive others as soon as we possibly can so that offenses are not weighing down on our minds and causing us to be clouded and upset, not really able to focus on anything with one hundred percent effort. Learning to quickly forgive and not let the offense set into our minds can be of great advantage to us.

A Method to Overcoming A Big Offense (TMF:1273)

Wednesday, December 04, 2019
Peace to Live By: A Method to Overcoming A Big Offense (TMF:1273) - Daniel Litton
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       Now, I understand, as so does God, that there are certain things people can do to us that are on a more grander scale, and when that happens it may take a more concerted effort on our part to forgive the person whose has done your wrong. But we have to work at forgiving the individual. One thing I would recommend to you is that when you realize you haven’t forgiven a person of something, to just speak the forgiveness out loud when you are by yourself. Say, “I forgive this person of the offense against me. And I will no longer hold it against him.” When we speak this out loud, it makes it more real for us. And, if we have to, we can keep speaking it until it settles into our heart, until our minds gain realization of this truth and accept it. Bottom line, it’s good for us to verbalize our forgiveness, as that makes it so that there is nothing hidden between us and God. The reality is, we let outside things, the problems in life, offenses from other people, etc, bother us only as much as we choose or want to.

Has God Released You to the Tormentors? (TMF:1272)

Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Peace to Live By: Has God Released You to the Tormentors? (TMF:1272)
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       God has released you to the tormentors, as the the King James version puts it, and he is allowing a demonic spirit to torment your thoughts because of the unforgiveness in your heart. I know that’s a lot to take in, and an uncomfortable thing to think about, but that’s at the heart of the issue. You see, forgiveness is so close to the heart of God because Jesus came to the earth and died on the cross for all of our offenses against God. He paid the penalty for all of our sins. He has forgiven us of everything wrong we’ve ever done in our lives. When we, then, won’t forgive a fellow person a little, measly offense, it greatly offends God because he has forgiven us all of our offenses. So, we expect God to forgive us everything, all the wrong thoughts we think, incorrect actions we do, and terrible words we speak, and yet, we won’t forgive our fellow man a small offense. That’s pretty insulting to our Heavenly Father.

Becoming Less & Less Like Jesus (TMF:1271)

Monday, December 02, 2019
Peace to Live By: Becoming Less & Less Like Jesus (TMF:1271) - Daniel Litton
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       “Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart” (32-35, ESV). Ah, ha! Here lies the answer. Have you ever had a day when you just can’t seem to get over a troubling thought that keeps reoccurring in your mind, and it involves something someone has done against you? (or something you perceive someone has done against you?). Perhaps you’ve prayed to God about it throughout the day, but you can’t seem to overcome the thoughts in your head. You forget about it for a while, but then it seems to come back to you at no moments notice. When this happens, chances are you have unforgiveness in your heart toward the person who has offended you. God has released you to the tormentors, as the the King James version puts it.