Monthly Archives: October 2020

Three Lessons From The Temptation of Jesus

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Jesus had just been introduced by John the Baptizer as the Christ, God on earth, and the savior of mankind. The one that John had been telling everyone was to come. People had been flocking to John to hear his message, that all must repent because the kingdom of God was near at hand. John was considered a profit of God, or to put it another way, a messenger of God.

After John had declared Jesus to be the coming Christ, the book of Mathew states in chapter 4 verse 1: Then Jesus was let by the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The temptation of Christ was then intentional, for our benefit. This temptation is not merely written of so that we can not only see the reactions that Jesus had to these temptations, but where our minds should be when we experience the same temptations.

We are told that Jesus after fasting for 40 days and nights experienced these temptations. We can assume then that He was in a state of great need, and great weakness, desperate even.

Our Immediate Need

Our physical needs are the needs that we are most aware of. The pain of hunger is true and present. When we have not eaten for a while, we know without doubt that we have a need. In fact that need becomes actual physical pain. A gnawing pain, a constant reminder of our immediate need. This need becomes desperate, and people will be driven to do all sorts of things to satisfy this need. Finally this need if not satisfied will lead to death, it’s quite final.

Jesus says that this need is real, but there is another real need that we face, but more important than the need for food. He said people will not, future, live only by filling his belly. Jesus looks beyond the immediate, beyond the importance of this life, to the eternal life. What good is it to fill your belly for the moment without the word of God? Food will fill the momentary need, but only God can fill the eternal need.

The lesson is that we need to look to God in order to truly live.

Faith in God

We are continually testing. Testing our relationships. Testing ourselves. Testing God. We all do it. Oh Lord if you get me out of this situation, I’ll do thus and such. There are those who test God by handling of poisonous snakes. Some test God by doing quests. Some of us test God by comparing ourselves with others. At times we say to God, if you’re real why is this happening?

The devil quoted scripture to Jesus, saying didn’t God say that He would always protect you? If God said He would protect you, jump off this high point and let’s watch Him do what He said He’d do.

Jesus’ response, quoting scripture, it is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Don’t test God. Believe what He has said. This very emphatic statement is really strong. We are not to try to force God to prove himself to us. We are the created, we need to simply believe what He says to be true.

The lesson: we need to have faith in God to truly live.

Worship God

The devil is looking to Jesus to worship him. He is trying to buy the worship of the Christ. Is this not what he does to us? Worship the devil and you will be rich, he will give you the world! We have all heard the phrase “to sell ones soul to the devil.” That is exactly what he is always doing, bribing us to forget God and to worship him instead.

Jesus makes two statements in one here. He said “you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” The use of the two words worship, and serve are no mistake. You see, to worship is to serve. In other words the work you do is your worship. If your work is to achieve riches, then the worship is of the riches. If your work is to please God, then it is worship of God.

The lesson: Worship God by what you do.

There’s Good and Evil, So What?

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What difference does it make to me if there is good and evil?

Well, we all stand on one side or the other. There are some who have earned the reputation of being evil, Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson… Society as a general rule regard these men as evil, because of what they have done. (their works)

Humanism has made the argument that “all people are basically good.” This argument has prevailed for the most part and is accepted as true. But is it true?

Jesus and the Law

A question was put to Jesus one day. “What is the greatest, or more important law?” It’s funny, this is the question that we all want answered. What is the least that I need to do to be considered good before God?

Jesus’ answer as usual was not as easy as we would like, in fact His answer was quite impossible because it encompassed the entirety of the law. The greatest law he said is to love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul, and the second is just like it, equal to it, to love your neighbor as yourself.

Well that put the kibosh on being good easy!

The first part of His answer is impossible. We can’t love God with all our hearts minds and souls because that is the way we love ourselves. We take the position of love and adoration in our own minds, the position of love and adoration that God wants, that He deserves. We are our own number one, and God wants to be, needs to be, our number one.

The second part of His answer, simply makes evident our position on the first part of the answer. It is impossible to love God with your everything if you don’t love all that He created as well. We can’t love God and hate our cousin Joe because he is an idiot. That would be a contradiction, a violation of the Law according to the teachings of Jesus. We can’t love God and ignore the suffering of children in need of food and clothing. We can’t love God and ignore the murder of babies. We can’t love God and ignore injustice in whatever form it takes.

The Human Evil

Despite the teachings of humanism, we as people are by default evil. We are born sinners, evil, and we look for excuses, and ways to dismiss what we know, that we are bad, rotten to the core. Late at night when all is quiet we know deep inside our failures, our wrongs, our evil actions. You need no convincing of that. The next morning, though we build a facade of righteousness, of all is well. We convince ourselves that we are good, and we go about our lives, putting on the lies.

All the noise and distractions of our modern society aid us in forgetting that we are inside, evil, bad, lost. So at times when we are forced to slow down all these realities can be harsh, we can be laid bare to ourselves, and we don’t like what we see. That is why there is so much despair in these days, we have been made to be more still than we are used to. We have been made to slow down. We have time to think.

There is hope! But hope is not in ourselves, it is in God. Seek Him. We are not whole without Him. We are in fact evil without Him. We all know this to be true!

The Battle of Good and Evil, for the Souls of Men

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Is there good and evil? Is there right and wrong? For years academia and the world of science has been telling us that there is no such thing as good and evil, no such thing as wright or wrong. They have been telling us that right and wrong is simply religious dogma designed to control us.

Now all of a sudden academia, and science are all a buzz talking of social justice, and the evils perpetrated on certain groups in our society. I find this really interesting since they have been trying for so long to convince us that there is no good or evil, no right or wrong. You see without right or wrong, there is no justice! Without good or evil, there is no Justice!

We all know deep within our being that there is right and wrong. We feel it whenever we do something good, that welling up of good unexplainable feeling in our chest. When we do wrong, just the opposite feeling occurs. Why is that? Gods word says that He has written His Law on our hearts. In other words, He has given us a conscience. An inner guide.

When we try to ignore this inner guide bad things begin to happen. For one thing there is a nagging thought always that we are not doing good, but in fact we are doing evil. You see, there is no middle ground. The bible teaches that if we do not do good, we in fact do evil.

This is why so many of our young people today are depressed and suicidal. They have been lied to, bamboozled! They have been taught to violate their own conscience. That conscience is always there to remind us of right and wrong. To remind us that we didn’t do good. This reminder comes especially strongly when we are quiet, when all the noise of the day has dissipated, and we lay down to sleep. There is no peace, the battle rages.

So what is this battle of good and evil?

God is battling for our souls, wanting us to do life His way. Satan is battling to keep us away from God and His way. Good vs. Evil.

Doing life God’s way leads to peace, joy, unity. These things come because when we follow God’s way because there are basically two laws that govern our being. 1. Love God above all. and 2. Love everyone else like you love yourself.

Evil says, you are different to me, so I will hate you. Evil starts by hating God, then hating others. We blame God for our troubles, then we blame others and lash out looking for revenge, but calling it justice.

God created all men equally. We are not different in His mind, no matter color, race, status, or location.

Do you want peace?

Peace begins by listening to the conscience, that law that God has put in our hearts. Most of us know what is right and wrong.

Real peace comes when we realize that God has already served justice on His own son, on our behalf. You see Jesus died a terrible death, in our place, so that our wrongs can be righted in God’s eyes.