SCRIP-BITS

1 Corinthians 10:13.   There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
 
Oh Friends, let me apologize for the Bit being so late, but the ole fella’s a mess this bright sunny, summer Tuesday morning. As the old folks would say, when it isn’t one thing, it’s another, and what ent meet you, ent pass you. The situation developed yesterday afternoon while standing at my bedside, preparing to lie down. For some unremembered reason though, I took a sideways step to my left, and the next thing I knew I was crying out in pain while my left knee buckled below me. Luckily, I was able to hold on to the bed and a nearby chair and did not hit the ground. I don’t remember stumbling. In fact there was nothing at my bedside to stumble over. It just seems as though my surgically repaired left knee simply gave out on me. But that was the beginning of a mini-hell, which continues as I write these words. The pain was wonderful… And can you see my big, cheery smile? Hn, hn! I can laugh a little now, but yesterday when the excruciating pain hit, and continued, despite the ice packs and pain killers, I certainly wasn’t laughing. It reduced me to lying in bed, or hobbling around with a cane, or holding on to stuff, occasionally crying out in pain when I made a bad step. And obviously the right knee, having to compensate for the left, has begun to act up more than normal. Ah Lord eh! You should have seen me putting out the garbage a short time ago. While hobbling down the driveway with the recycling box, I stumbled and cried out in pain. This fellow walking his dog on the other side of the road quickly spun around to see what was happening. Then check me out shortly thereafter, coming down the basement steps to my study, trusty cane in one hand, refreshing cup of coffee in the other, bracing myself against the walls, taking one step at a time. Hn! What a sorry sight! And to make matters worse, I sit down at my desk, and this reminder that I have stuck up there quietly greets me. ‘Our task is to take hold of God’s grace, to endure our afflictions with patience, without growing weary. In time He will perfect, establish, strengthen and settle us. We must wait on the Lord and be of good courage.’ Oh Friends, the ole fella’s trying, but yuh know sometimes the spirit’s willing, but the flesh is sort of weak…especially when there seems to be no good reason for the adversity. And I have to chuckle here, as I remember writing yesterday about withstanding tests of the Lord, about standing strong and steadfast through them, so we can eventually receive the victor’s crown. Then too, I remember that awesome scripture from Colossians: ‘Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.’ (Col.1:11) Yes my people, that’s how believers ought to handle their adversity. But please note the most important words in that sentence are the last two; ‘with joyfulness.’ That’s because you can’t truly handle patience and longsuffering any other way. It’s the joyfulness that allows you to handle it with some amount of peace and calm. So take a valuable lesson from my experience Friends; anything you write or talk about in the Lord’s name, sooner or later, He’s going to test you on it, to see if you can practice what you preach. I’m trying my best, asking the Lord for His help in handling the adversity. And believe me, He does help. He might not take away the pain or the problem, but He does make a way for me to bear it. And that’s all He’s promised, as our Bit so encouragingly states: ‘There hath no temptation taken (overtaken) you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear (endure) it.’ Yes my brethren, no temptations come against us that’s not common to all humans. We all experience the ‘wily wiles’ of the enemy in some form and fashion, but through the faithfulness of our God, we won’t be tempted above the intensity or level that we can bare. He knows our temptation tolerance level and won’t allow it to go above that level because then we’ll succumb to it, which He obviously doesn’t want us to do. But by the same token, He will not necessarily allow us to totally escape from it. He simply guarantees to bring us through it without more ‘sufferation’ than we can handle, or as the scholars say: ‘He will enable us to land intact on the other side.’ That’s a whole lot more than we deserve. Oh Friends, time and space are against us, so we’ll continue this topic tomorrow, God willing. Till then, let’s ponder the scriptures we’ve spoken of, apply them to our lives, and stand strong in the face of temptation, with God’s help. Much LOVE!…in this evil world temptations abound…but with God’s help…we can fight them off…every single one…