Temptation should be called agony
It’s blade never dulls
It is sharpened with each cut

The searing pain
Working through your mind
Each time the knife strikes

Manipulating whispers with its whip
Lashing until gashes form
Then salted with stinging guilt

This prolific playwright
And its vainglory stories
Demands a stellar performance

It plays with your desires when resistance attacks
It side blinds you with instigation
From past hurts that were never healed

It beats you down
To where you don’t know yourself
And your weaknesses are exposed

I cannot fathom what Jesus felt
While in agony in the garden
As temptation played its game

The weight on His shoulders
Heavier than any of us could ever carry
Brought Him down to His knees

But He beat this disease
He showed us it was possible
Through Him we will find the cure

So the next time temptation demands a performance

Turn to the True Prolific Playwright
Where vainglory is transformed into sacrificial love
Whose life inspires
And His stories teaches truth

Because when you know the truth
Temptation has no choice but to sit back
And see our OWN stellar performance

The temptations of heaven & hell they vex my spirit yet...

It all lay in amber
Frozen in its golden heart
lingering lost in the garden -
Sentinel that had stood for all the good
And all the bad of knowing.
He hissed his holy hopes for her
As red and rosy and sweet to taste
As she remembered, sticky on her fingers
And as naked as the day that she was born
From breath.
Tempter and temptress looked one last time
Eyes in line, he among the deadened leaves
Of a deitys dream, she at the gates
Wondered at each others mistakes,
All encased in amber.

I was afraid
To let go
Of the solace of thorns
Let the
Temptation
Of soft flowers
Pierce me.