This past weekend, Pastor Will Pavone spoke about how believers can resist temptation. He did a phenomenal job talking about the fall of Adam and Eve and what we as believers in Christ need to consider to resist falling into temptation ourselves. Feel free to listen at www.mbclive.org – but for now – one of his main points addressed what it meant to accumulate “fighter verses” for daily living. Basically his premise was this – When temptation comes (and it will) we need to be ready with appropriate scriptures to meditate on and appeal to as a defense. When Jesus was tempted in the Garden, the first thing He did was to appeal to Scripture as His defense. Three times He was tempted, and three times He responded using scripture – “it is written…!” (The temptation of Jesus is found in Matthew 6).

Will provided three really good examples: Ephesians 5:3 for purity – There must not even be a hint of sexual impurity in your life, 1 Peter 5:5 for pride – God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, and Matthew 6:20 for dealing with material possessions – “store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” I have a bunch of verses myself – committed to memory and some typed out and placed in strategic locations like my computer screen.

• I will set before my eyes no vile thing – Psalm 101:3
• Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind – Romans 12:2
• …we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ – 2 Corinthians 10:5
• Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths – Ephesians 4:29

And of course, we could go on and on. What are your “fighter verses?” If you don’t have any, you need to first identify the areas of greatest temptation for you. What are they? Gossip? Anger? Lack of Discipline? After you have identified your key temptations, you must then go on a search of the scriptures for the verses that speak to those temptations. Lastly, you need to commit these scriptures to memory so they are available to you at a moment’s notice for your protection. Then you can ‘resist the devil and he will flee’ – James 4:7. This is a critical discipline for every Christ follower to learn – and one that produces enormous fruitfulness in daily living. God bless.

A few different people have asked me over the past couple of weeks, “What happens to those who have never heard about Jesus?”

It’s a great question. There are lots of great questions out there!

One website has sought to tackle answers to many of these questions with bite-sized, well-researched, biblically-based answers. I go to it on many occasions. The website is www.GotQuestions.org. It is not an MBC site, so we don’t claim to endorse every answer on the site, but it is a valuable resource and tool. Theologians on our staff have suggested that we align with most of it, anywhere from 90%-98% of the answers listed.

If you have a tough question, always feel free to ask us on staff! But also feel to peruse www.GotQuestions.org. It is well organized and filled with valuable information to further your walk with the Lord. To date, they have answers to 197,205 Bible questions posted.

Interested in the answer to “What happens to those who have never heard about Jesus?” Visit http://www.gotquestions.org/never-heard.html.

1. Encourage your child to dress up as a character who represents a group whom they want to tell about Jesus. For example, dressing up as Hannah Montana could represent music stars.  Dressing up as a Redskins football player could represent those in the sports culture living without Jesus.  Dressing up as a ninja could represent the lost in Asia.

2. Learn about the group your child is representing. If your child is representing a country, Operation World is a great resource.

3. Pray with your child for that people group. Make a list of specific ways that your child can pray for that group. Each night for a week, before or after Halloween, pray with your child for their chosen country, people group or culture.

4. Celebrate with your child! When you get home on Halloween night and admire your abundance of candy, finish the night with a Scripture verse that promises sweet rewards for those who do God’s work on earth: Luke 12:43 and Romans 10:15.

Adapted from Redeeming Halloween by Kim Wier and Pam McCune

Just a quick note to say THANK YOU for your help with the move in at the Prince William campus… to all the Creative Arts Ministry Tech staff for months of preparation of equipment and site work, coordination of the move and loading the trucks… to the PW Staff for vision for PW, all the coordination with the volunteers, food, and hard work the day of the move…. and to the many other departments within Tysons, Loudoun, Frontline (IT, Kids Quest, Rock, Ministry Services, Finance, Facilities, etc….) AND to all the volunteers that came out to help…. We had a great time …. Great turn out… Great People who CARE.

We had a very successful day with the move in .. 6+ full truck loads of “stuff.” All the unloading was complete by 3PM, and a number of folks stayed till 5PM to help with the final clean up and auditorium house light project. My estimate is that we moved over 10 tons of A/V equipment, furnishing, rock and kid “stuff”… now we have to setup it all up and making it ready for use – over the next 5 weeks. I know I can count of you and others that the Lord will provide to make that happen….

The Lord truly blessed us with good weather, great support and workers who all have a heart for the work that the Lord is doing and will be doing through his church in Prince William, and all of the McLean campuses worldwide…

Thanks,
Craig Campesi, Lead Production Engineer (Prince William Campus)

Jim provides some interesting statisctics on how our culture has affected not only society but has permeated the Church.

He quotes Burger King’s campaign of “Have it Your Way.”

In what ways do you see this way of thinking playing out in the church?

Ready… Set… Respond!