Lesson 10 for the 5 th of June, 2010

Satan will try to make us break our integrity and get away from Jesus. Only through a constant and firm reliance on the power of God, and a willingness to die to self, can we overcome. JESUS KEPT HIS INTEGRITY AND DIDN’T GIVE IN

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards” If we keep our integrity in little situations, we’ll be ready to keep it in more important ones. Always choose integrity instead of interests, like Joseph, David and Daniel did. Song of Solomon, 2: 15

God makes us upright through His Holy Spirit. “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” Ephesians, 3: 14, 16-19

We must take care of our relation with God, giving our whole life to Him and letting Him to act in us.

“You are to give all,--your heart, your will, your service,--give yourself to Him to obey all His requirements; and you must take all,--Christ, the fullness of all blessing, to abide in your heart, to be your strength, your righteousness, your everlasting helper,--to give you power to obey. E.G.W. (Steps to Christ, cp. 8, page 70) Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee." This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ”

The Bible tells us to move away from sins that put our sexual integrity at risk and affect physically and emotionally our body:  Homosexuality (Romans, 1: 26-27)  Prostitution (1 Corinthians, 6: 15-18)  Sexual immorality –fornication, pornography … (1 Thessalonians, 4: 3)  Vices (Jude, 7)  Adultery (Exodus, 20: 14)

We have physical integrity if we take care of our body as we have studied in earlier lessons. Exercise. Water. Air. Working and resting. Solar light. Diet. Avoid harmful things. … “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your reasonable act of worship” (Romans, 12: 1)

“The condition of mind and soul depends on the condition of the body. Therefore it is essential that we preserve our physical faculties with good health and vigour. Any harmful practice or selfish pleasure that damages our physical strength makes our mental and spiritual development difficult” (SDA Bible Commentary, on Romans, 12: 1) We have physical integrity if we take care of our body as we have studied in earlier lessons. Exercise. Water. Air. Working and resting. Solar light. Diet. Avoid harmful things. …

“There was in Him [Jesus] nothing that responded to Satan's sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ's humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine nature. So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. God reaches for the hand of faith in us to direct it to lay fast hold upon the divinity of Christ, that we may attain to perfection of character. E.G.W. (The Desire of ages, cp. 12, page 123) And how this is accomplished, Christ has shown us. By what means did He overcome in the conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only by the word could He resist temptation… When assailed by temptation, look not to circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the word. All its strength is yours”