What I See I Am
“LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”
“LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION”
Question; Is GOD who is of absolute love capable of leading us into temptation? Some of the newer versions of the Bible have wrestled with this and changed the PRAYER.
1958 Phillips' Modern English Version "Keep us clear of temptation and save us from evil."
1961 New English Bible -
1966 Good News for Modern Man -
I have a problem believing God would or could lead into temptation. It flies in the face of an all loving God. I thought it should be "lead us away from evil."
The only temptation man may have is spiritual pride. We know God is the only source, with spiritual pride we give the source of power to things other than God, such as ourselves, food, money, tobacco, alcohol, sex, chocolate, the devil.
Christ, in the wilderness for 40 days, knew through God he had the power to turn a rock into bread, hurl himself off of a cliff and arise, but he kept in mind "Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God".
Christ = the messenger / God = the source / temptation = to do what only God can do and give the credit elsewhere. Addictions are the habits of temptation. (ie. we give the credit of God's power to something else. "Chocolate holds power over me.") We give power by saying "I am addicted to alcohol" giving alcohol power, when truly we should say "I am abusing alcohol" The source of the abuse begins with us.
Help keep us ever mindful that you, God, are the source of all power.
“BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.”
There is only one evil in this world and that is separateness from God.
The Bible is a study of Man's relationship to God and Man's understanding of self. There is very little in the Bible of even Man's relationship to Man.
A paraphrase could therefore be, "deliver us from separating ourselves from God.
It is our responsibility to constantly keep in mind that all things come from God. We are the manifestation of God's Power. We have capability and choice to use God's Power in any manner. When things, we choose, don't go the way we feel they should or we are over whelmed by our creations, then we say we are addicted or blame it on the devil.
God is the power and we are given the responsibility of God's power. We only use
the power. We do not create the power. We -
"I can't control myself" (as if we were supposed to without God)
"I'm too weak" (as if we are the power or lack of it)
"I'm not as good as" (as if God's Power were given unequally to his children)
"I should be better" (as if the state of being was created by us and there are levels of being.)
"I can't" (God's Power is equally in all of us, this is better said "I won't")
We limit, and in our limitation we separate from God because to God there are no limits. Even to limit is a sin. Limiting reduces life.
What I see I Am
Copyright Ronald O. Masters II, 2010 All Rights Reserved Copying is permitted if the author is credited.
