RESIST

Resist the devil and he shall flee...
James 4:4,7,8

So we talked yesterday about how Eve was approached by the enemy in the body of the serpent.
We saw how she didn't resist his suggestions.

I want to talk to women today specifically wives about the way that this went down because there is nothing new under the sun where this method is concerned.

Years ago salesmen would go door to door and they would come at an hour where most men would be off to work.
The salesmen were working too so it made since that they would work in the day so that they could be home at night with their own families.

I am looking at the fact that the husbands/men of the house of the homes they solicited were not home.
I am by no means calling all salesmen snakes yet I can use some of them as an example.

I remember an episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy had been purchasing everything that she heard advertised on the radio or read about in the newspaper.

She had purchased an EBay sellers dream stock of household gadgets.
Lucy used them once and then they would go on to die and be buried in the graveyard cupboard of appliances.

Ricky had made it clear to her that she was not to purchase any more gadgets, because they basically had everything that they needed already.
Just as soon as Ricky went off to work along comes a salesman who introduces the new must have Vacuum Cleaner the SS model 300 to Lucy.

Of course Lucy already owned a sweeper in perfect working condition and a sweeper was all you needed in 1950, but Lucy always wanted something.
The sales guy is being a sales guy and he demonstrates all of the things this Vacuum can do.

His only goal is to get her to purchase this thing and he was determined to sell something even if it means being deceitful.
In his demonstration he's very misleading and not up front about some things.
He demonstrated the workings with all of the major attachments. They looked amazing and cool, state of the art.

He convinced Lucy that she needed it and to sign a sales contract for what she thought was the whole system for $9.99. After she signs on the dotted line he tells her that all of the major attachments that make the base look so attractive and do all of these great things are sold separately.
Her end cost wound up being around $85.00 which in 1950 was a weeks salary.

So you know for the rest of the episode Lucy's day consisted of hiding this Vacuum with all of these attachments and the bill from Ricky.

Her not recognizing that she didn't need a Vacuum to begin with or resisting the suggestion that she did brought stress to her day and trouble to her home.

I was approached early in my marriage by a sales guy and because I called Kevin, I learned a lesson.
I was approached by a salesman when Kevin was at work I was a new mother and between taking care of Kayla once dinner was cooked and the house cleaned all I had was TV.

So I sat and watched and looked at all the things that I thought were nice and pretty and I thought that I needed to have them to survive.

So on one of those days a guy rings our doorbell.
It's just me and my little sleeping baby and this dude showing me a system that we already own.
It wasn't something that we didn't already have it was just new and I wanted new!

I told the guy that I would have to call my husband at work.
I was all set to buy what the man was selling and so I was only calling Kevin to get the OK. RIGHT
When I called Kevin he asked, Is the guy still there?
I said, Yes.
Kevin said, Put the guy on the phone.
So I did and Kevin asked this man a thousand questions and the man tried to keep his face and his composure, then he finally handed the phone along with his card over to me saying, If you change your mind give me a call and he left.

I didn't even know that I had changed my mind.
I hadn't changed my mind but Kevin knew more about what this guy was selling than I did, all I could see was it was new.
Of course Kevin explained to me that the system that we already owned could do more than what this guy was selling.

Women if a guy is approaching you he should be approaching your husband.
If you are single and have a father, he should be approaching your father.
If your father is not around he should approach a brother, uncle, male cousin or a man that is established as solid in your life.
I know you grown and all of that but the enemy is crafty.

One can put 1,000 to flight and Two 10,000.
And a cord of three is not easily broken.
If Adam Eve and the serpent would have been together approached all at once...

That's why you don't leave the church and get out there by your self somewhere where the devil can slide up to you and nobody with the wisdom of God is around to hear what he saying to you.
He will have you paying his bills and selling your soul to do it with.

Ladies this is why you don't have married or single men crying on your shoulder about their wife, girlfriend and her issues.
All you who have these "male friends" keep it correct.

On your job, in your neighborhood, at the bowling alley, at church, at the school or anywhere else.
You shouldn't be all in your neighbors houses in their husbands faces, wave to them over the fence, you don't need to be all in their backyard Jacuzzi with them and bottles of wine.

I know the world thinks it's harmless but look at the statistics of broken marriages.
That stuff doesn't just happen.
It begins somewhere.
Ask around and see who will tell you the truth.
Ask somebody who will be truthful about how it all began.

It's folks not resisting what they know is wrong to fulfill a lust in their heart.

If we stop introducing it and when it's introduced to us don't sign for the package God makes us able.
David crept up on Bathsheba when Uriah wasn't around.
There is a pattern.

This is why I pray about Facebook.
One of my sisters In Christ from London wrote a blog a while back about staying in your own garden.
She was ministering about the importance of what is appropriate and what isn't.

And in a discussion we agreed that both David and Bathsheba played a part in the loss of life that followed behind their choices.

It was an excellent post from my sister in the UK because the Internet can be a useful tool and it can also be used for evil.

On Facebook a man can pull up a woman's profile or vice versa and look at her without turning away and no one can see him sitting and looking for too long.
How many use the holy turn when they are in their office?
You may not think it's so bad because it ain't porn but check your heart.

This is why I say you won't live holy and righteous a long time if it's just for fear of getting caught doing otherwise.

Because all the enemy will do is introduce to you a way to do it without being seen of men.

Remember what happens in Vegas doesn't stay there.

Everything done in the dark comes to the light.

Did that one cross your threshold yet?
Yeah.
They can sit and look at you for 20 minutes on Facebook and not get caught looking in the privacy of an office or bedroom and the enemy is filling that heart with all types of lust.

So my sisters In Christ be careful what type of pictures you post of your self.
Keep all that cleavage under wraps, don't be posting pictures of your self on beds and all that jazz.

Keep it In Christ.

Keep all that sexy reserved for your spouse.

You get in the Jacuzzi with your spouse and him alone.
The only people who get pissed when the appropriate way to do things is mentioned are the ones who are living inappropriately.

The goodness of God is this:
When He asked Eve after she had followed another opinion: What have you done?
He gave her the opportunity to acknowledge what she had done.

This is God's Grcae, He is sooooooo Gooood that He gives man the opportunity to acknowledge their wron doing.

He didn't just throw them out He Adam an opportunity to say I did not follow your command or protect my wife.
He gave Eve the opportunity to say, I beguiled my husband.
He gave both of them the opportunity to say, We followed another way than the way that you established for us and we have sinned against you.

Father forgive us.

We now know that God is faithful and just to forgive us of all that we acknowledge and turn from, cleansing us from all unrighteousness.

And they knew it too.

Unacknowledged sin is unrepented sin.
Unrepented sin is sin that is not washed away and therfore it will be judged by God.

God called Adam first (the head of the family) asking Adam where he was.
Now fear has entered into the heart of man because they knew that they had messed up.
but instead of going to God, they hid.

You know like doing 90mph when the limit is 55mph and you see that Michigan State Trooper, fear sets up in your belly because you know you wrong!

This is a lesson that I have taught my children so that they can never be blackmailed.
That no matter what they have done they can tell me and if any man ever tries to hold it against them the truth presses that accuser into the dust with their heel.

And they come to me even though they know I may be disappointed they tell me.
Adam didn't do that, He said Eve made me do it.

Eve suggested it and Adam ate.

King David acknowledged that he had sinned against God even though David suffered loss, he remained in God's graces for acknowledging and turning from that dark deed.

The first thing that Adam and Eve did was say what someone else had done, not what there role was.
Does that ring a bell in anyone elses life?

For example you are being corrected by your boss and instead of taking responsibility for what you have done you point out someone elses flaws.
You want to draw attention away from your self instead of taking responsibility.

Remember when God blesses us that means we have responsibility.
She said the serpent beguiled me and I did eat.

If you have the mind that you have done nothing wrong when you have, you will not repent and where there is no repentance( turning away from) the sin, there is no forgiveness.

James 1:13-16

Think on it!
Be Blessed this weekend.