everybody faces temptations
and there are those temptations peculiar
      to age
      to longings
      to personality
      to frustrations

it is as though the temptations
find us in a wilderness
      where we feel no one is watching
      where no one else can know our thoughts
      where our values are tested

the right or wrong of the temptation
is not in whether we are being tested
      but in the response we make
            whether we seek spiritual shortcuts
                  or faithfulness on the journey
           whether we want moral exemptions
                 or loyalty to the truth
           whether we want technical excuses
                 or a life of integrity

overcoming temptation requires
strength greater than our own
      to confront
            what we feel
            what we plan
            what we decide
                  in the secret places of our hearts
                  in the secret places of our minds
                  in the secret places of our pain

      in the wilderness
      yet faithful

                                                             ---rus

                       BE HOLY, SEPARATE, DIFFERENT
              Salvation means we are joined to a holy God.
                                     Leviticus 17, 18 & 19

    13"Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers
who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird
that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with
dust. 14Its blood sustains its life.  Therefore I said, 'You shall not
eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood.'"
    2"I am the Lord your God.  3According to the doings of Egypt,
where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings
of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do;
nor shall you walk in their ordinances.  4You shall keep My
ordinances, to walk in them:  I am the Lord your God. 5You shall
therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man
does, he shall live by them:  I am the Lord.
    6"None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him,
to uncover his nakedness:  I am the Lord.  7You shall not uncover
the nakedness of your father or mother, 8of your father's wife, 9of
your sister, 10of your son's or daughter's daughter, 11of your
father's wife's daughter, 12of your father's or your mother's sister,
14of your father's brother, 15of your daughter-in-law, 17of a woman
and her daughter.  It is wickedness. 18Nor shall you take a woman
as a rival to her sister, while the other is alive.
    20"You shall not lie carnally with your neighbor's wife, to defile
yourself with her.  21You shall not let any of your descendants
pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name
of your God:  I am the Lord.  You shall not lie with a male as with
a woman.  23Nor shall you mate with any animal, to defile yourself
with it.  24Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for
by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before
you.  25For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment
of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.
    26"You shall keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not
commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation
or any stranger who dwells among you, 28 lest the land vomit you
out also when you defile it.  29For whoever commits any of these
abominations shall be cut off from among their people.
    30"You shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit
these abominable customs which were committed before you, and
that you do not defile yourselves by them:  I am the Lord your God."
    1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2"Speak to the congregation
of the children of Israel, and say to them: 'You shall be holy, for I the
Lord your God am holy.'" 
                 _{This Bible passage was condensed from the NKJV}

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