Tempt NOT the Lord thy God!

I have read this phrase time and time again but had always associated it with the Lord's being tempted and didn't apply it properly to myself.

"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" was given to the Devil by the Lord during his 40 days of fasting and journeying into the wilderness. Matt 4:7 ... if he did NOT do that, then so ought we NOT to do such, as well!

Oh how I wish I had obeyed that wise counsel and not tempted fate in my own life. Endowed member of the church and I spent time in places that I ought not to have been... and the devil laughed as it were and as if he should have also been saying, "You were so easy to sway..."

It is a long hard road back. I chose the ambulance down at the bottom of the cliff than to heed the fence at the top. I can only hope that with God's help, that I can make a full recovery, in my life... and that it is not everlastingly too late. I have been correcting all of my behavior and all of my wrongs. I feel the spirit coming back into my life in tiny spells of warmth but nothing like the constant companionship of the HG. My wife and I have talked many things through and I have wept bitter tears while in her arms asking her, "Would you recommend me to God?" after all that I have done. My sweet wife has and I think will forgive me eventually for the pain that I have caused her. My bishopric has asked me to serve her and to love her as I have never done so before. With this, I can only hope that my days may be long upon the land and that I too may be found worthy or found clean from the blood and sins of this generation.

We live in a sin sick world. I urge you to never never never never EVER tempt fate. Never flirt with disaster. Never see yourselves in unholy places. Never spend time in pubs or in gentlemen's clubs or adult themed toy stores or anything of the like... not even if another couple convinces you that it is okay, to go as a couple, or in ANY other undesirable locations. Never give the evil one ONE inch, or one wrap around the wrist with his flaxen chord... never ever EVER do it! Only pain and a difficult, bitter repentance awaits the one who crosses over that line. His whisperings will cause one to lie at work to keep his their job. Will cause them to commit sins that you would never want to confess in a million years... confessing them to a judge in Israel, that you don't know, is hard enough. Confessing with the help of a bishop you DO know is double hard. Behold, today during the noon day is the time to prepare to meet God and not consume our time upon our curiosities that turn into much much more. Beware your thoughts and your words and your deeds!!!

May you be wise, and do as Jacob says, by closing his recorded word, in the Book of Mormon.

This I testify to you, and that this record is true and I lie not, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.