Gorging and getting drunk the day before Ash Wednesday probably wasn’t what the Lord meant when he said to “repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” -Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
Tagged: Ash Wednesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried
Regarding Satan’s quotation of Psalm 91 in the temptation account: The Devil was right, you know. Jesus refused to heed his offer not because the tempter was wrong but precisely because he was quoting an accurate Scripture. God indeed would rescue his anointed. But the anointed is the one who waits on God and who refuses to force his hand. We must suffer with Christ before we are glorified with him (Rom. 8:17). To seek a “security” apart from Christ, a vindication apart from Christ, is to taunt God by asking, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Russell D. Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ, pp. 125-126
Tagged: Psalm 91, Russell Moore, Temptation, Tempted and Tried
Reflecting on life near New Orleans and the “testimonies” in church of people describing in intimate detail their past sordid lives of sin, Russell Moore admits to desiring similar sensational experiences: As much as I thought I was superior to both the drunken partiers on the streets and the dour cranks condemning it, I had internalized the hidden hedonism of it all. I was under the lordship of Christ but, if only for that moment, wishing for the lordship of my own fallen appetite. –Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
Tagged: Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried
Russell Moore in Tempted and Tried on growing up in Biloxi, surrounded by Baptists and Papists. I could see the best sides of either and the dark sides of both. I saw Catholic casino night fund-raisers and Baptist business meetings, and neither seemed to look much like the book of Acts. That’s a recurring waking nightmare of mine: almost nothing of modern church life looks much like the book of Acts.
Tagged: Acts, Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried
Don’t mistake the stillness of your conscience for freedom from temptation. The Scripture says that temptation is “common to man” (1 Cor. 10:13). The issue isn’t whether you’re tempted, but whether you’re aware of it and striking back. You are on the verge of wrecking your life. We all are. –Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
Tagged: Russell Moore, Temptation, Tempted and Tried
Moore writes about what happens in our temptations, and their connection to the primal temptation of our first parents: It’s not that you are deficient in the cognitive ability to diagnose the situation. It’s instead that you slowly grow to believe that your situation is exceptional (“I am a god”), and then you find all kinds of reasons why this technically isn’t theft or envy or hatred or fornication or abuse of power or whatever (“I am able to discern good and evil”). Or you believe you are powerless before what you want (“I am an animal”) and can therefore escape accountability (“I will not surely die”). –Moore, Russell D, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ
Tagged: Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried
In his book Tempted and Tried, Russell Moore observes that while temptations are not new, we have greater access to indulge our sinful desires. While I was writing this book, I heard an elderly pastor reflect that over half of the confessions of sin he hears from people these days were physically impossible when he started his ministry.
Tagged: Russell Moore, sin, Temptation, Tempted and Tried
Matthew 4:1-11 “So there I was, standing in a hotel lobby with a strange woman, a throbbing heartbeat, and a guilty conscience.” That’s how theologian Russell Moore begins his book Tempted and Tried. The situation is not as bad as it sounds, he assures us – “But in lots of ways it was even worse.” He had been driving through a terrible rainstorm with his wife and four children. They hadn’t gotten nearly as far as he’d hoped, but it was time to stop for the night. They pulled into a chain hotel, and he went in alone to see if there were rooms available. Behind the desk was a young woman, dimples in her cheeks, and as she tossed her hair back as…