Moonlight Serenade

Note: Chapter 45 contains preaching about sins (Biblical representation).

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The night was cold and the moon was round in the sky. They are currently sitting around a bonfire just on the edge of the sea shore. There were almost ten of them sitting around the big bonfire, smiling and laughing. Someone even sang a song that was familiar to Gideon.

A smile tugged the corner of his lips. How many years did he last attended such occasion? The peace, the genuine smile and happiness, the honesty, the warm embrace... these were one of the things that he missed.

His head snapped on Analisa's direction, and saw the woman smiled and laughed as she stared at the bonfire. Arnel was next to her telling a story. Gideon's lips curved into a smile. He's happy that Analisa can smile despite their conversation earlier this morning.

"Do you think Analisa's pretty?" the man seating beside him asked.

Gideon looked sideways. "You like her?"

"She's not bad."

He looked at Analisa who was happily chatting with Arnel. They looked good together and Gideon sighed in relief. "Analisa is a good woman," he commented and averted his gaze.

A few minutes after the happy chattering the group fell silent. Zion Victor Desmantes, the speaker of the gathering cleared his throat.

"How's life?" the man asked and smiled.

The woman next to Gideon raised her hand. "The Lord blesses my life, Brother Zion."

"Thanks be to Him." Zion looked at each of them until his gaze stopped at him. "Gideon, you haven't attended in months. How's life?" he asked.

Gideon smiled. "Still under God's grace, Victor."

Zion nodded. "Indeed, we are justified by grace alone."

They first sang some praise hymns and then prayed. Gideon was silent as he listened to Zion's prayer. It was full of love, gratefulness, and hope. So much different from his own that's full of constant self-blame and selfishness. Then they all shouted together, "Amen!"

Gideon smiled softly. With the busy life in the city and restlessness in his soul, this is a good way to unwind. Far from everything that hinders his inner peace. It was almost ten years ago when he felt this kind of peace, it was the time when Angela first entered his life.

He fell in love with the woman because she introduced him to this life, but after she married Sean, all good things in his life shattered. He came back to his old life but because he knew the truth and was ashamed to let his brothers and sisters knew of his guilt of coming back to his old vices, he continued his vices in secret.

But upon seeing his wife reading those lustful books... Gideon was more ashamed of himself. He professed that he lives his life without any vices, but God knows his darkest secret.

He had been carrying this guilt all these years and Gideon want to end it all.

"What do you want us to talk under moonlight?" Zion asked.

"Temptation, Brother Zion. I want to know how a temptation leads to sin," said the woman who spoke earlier.

He looked up onto the night sky full of stars. That's also what he wanted their group to talk about. He's been in a constant battle with temptation. He also wants to know why many are addicted to sin even though people know that they are committing sin.

"According to Pastor David, temptation is not an event but it is a process."

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All eyes are fixed on Zion. He listened intently. And even though the sea waves crashed behind him loudly he focused his attention on what the group leader was saying.

"You were tempted before you've sinned. How come you did that sin on Friday night? It's because you didn't change channel last Monday. You didn't delete the picture last Tuesday. On Wednesday, you keep on reading the same contents you've seen last Monday. On Thursday, you didn't skip that advertisement ... And finally, you've sinned on Friday. As simple as it is... a process."

"Kuya Zion, it's like this. If you apply logic, then it just feeding your flesh. Small deeds that will lead to sin," a woman said in amazement.

Zion nodded. "According to 1 John 2:16, For all that is in the world --- the lust of flesh, the lust of eyes, and the pride of life --- is not of the Father but is of the world.

This means that all sin falls into these natures: lust of flesh, lust of eyes, pride of life. Whatever sin that is, it always falls into that three. "

"That's it, brother!" said a man. "That's what I read in the Bible. Only now do I understand."

"Praise God for His wisdom, brother."

"How can you relate it to the first temptation, Kuya Zion?"

"First temptation?" Zion smiled. "In Genesis 3: 1-6, we read there that the serpent tempted Eve. On verse 6, there it was written,

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her."

Zion continued. "Here we see the three roots of sin. Lust of eyes was in 'the tree is beautiful.' Lust of flesh was in 'the fruit looks delicious.' Pride of life was in 'the woman wanted the wisdom it would give her.'

You see, the devil knows how to lure people into a state of weakness. Even in the first temptation, the enemy targeted human desires for humans to fall into sin.

Don't be surprised that these three were used by the enemy to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. We can read that in Matthew chapter four.

First, Satan tempted Jesus, being hungry, to make the stone as bread, and that was the lust of flesh. Secondly, Jesus was tempted to throw himself down from a high place as Satan present Him the scripture saying that the angels of God will minister to Him, and that was the pride of life. Lastly, Satan showed all the nations to Jesus and promised to give it to Him if He will worship him, and that was the lust of eyes.

All those temptations were overcame by Jesus by rebuking the enemy using the Word of God. And it was written, Jesus was tempted yet without sin. This means that being tempted is not sinning but failing into temptation will lead into sin. As Jesus taught us to pray like this, 'lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil one.' and not 'help me when I get into the temptation.' So we must NOT put ourselves into the place of temptation, but we must run away from temptation.

But at present, we put ourselves into temptation. We ourselves are stepping closer to temptation hoping that God will help us when we get troubled by it."

Gideon smiled at what Zion said. Of course, he understood it so well that he was ashamed. He could not deny Zion's words because it's true. Some of their colleagues laughed.

"If you are an alcoholic, don't go to bars where there's a lot of liquors or attend parties when you know that there will be a lot of drinking there. Or if you are a porn addict, don't go to websites where there are a lot of lustful contents. Why would you cry out to God saying, 'God, the enemy is tempting me! Help me get out of it!', When in the first place it's you who put yourself right in the face of temptation?

You remember in 1 Corinthians 10:13,... No temptation has overtaken you that's not common to others. And God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Surely, there are temptations that will come into your way to test your faith. And the Lord is so good that He will not let you fall into temptation that you cannot overcome.

But a lot of times, we put ourselves in temptations that we cannot overcome, so many of us fall into sin.

And when you sinned, you will feel shame and guilt. Shame and guilt will become burdens to you... too heavy on your shoulders. You start to feel restlessness.

You feel frustrated by the fact that you promised God you will not do that sin again, but you still find yourself doing the same sin again and again. And you start to distance yourself from God, thinking of the shame and guilt. You will no longer do fellowship with other believers, feeling afraid of the light, because the light exposes sin."