Grains of Sand

Pixabay “ …led by the Spirit…to be tempted by the devil. ” (Matthew 4:1) Before His public ministry began, and just after His baptism by John, Jesus was sent into the desert. Most of us are familiar with the events that took place while the Lord was alone with Satan. We know that each time He was approached and made an offer, He answered back with Scripture. We understand how important it is, as the psalmist writes, to have “ …hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you ” (Psalm 119:11). We know that Hebrews tells us, describing Jesus as, “ …one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet without sin ” (4:15). But we don’t often linger at that first verse, and wonder at its message and its implications. We know temptation is inevitable. Paul was right when he penned: “ No temptation has seized you except what is common to man ” (1 Corinthians 10:13). But to be deliberately led by the Spirit of God toward an encounter with Satan and temptation? Why would...

Google Images While Jesus was in the desert being tempted by Satan, His cousin John was facing some temptations of his own. When Jesus appeared at the Jordan to ask to be baptized and John recognized Who He was, the Baptizer must have had an “aha” moment that he could only think about after Jesus had left him. He had finally met the One around Whom his birth, his life, his ministry revolved. There was no time to think about the significance of this meeting in the river except for John to say: “ I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? ” (Matthew 3:14). But after Jesus had left John must have spent a lot of time glorying in the fact that he had finally met the Messiah, the King of the kingdom about which he had preached, the One who would grant the repentance through His own death, to the people of whom John was demanding that repentance. We can only imagine just what was going through John’s mind. It was during that period that the authorities in Jerusalem, having heard...

3dfreewallpapers.com (Google Images) The wait is over. Jesus appears at the Jordan where John the Baptizer is at work. He comes, not to observe the work of His cousin, but to ask John to baptize Him. John is reluctant until the Lord says: “ It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness ” (Matthew 3:15). There are several explanations as to why Jesus, the sinless One, would submit to this rite. Perhaps the simplest one is that John’s ministry was of God so that what he, as God's voice, asked people to do must be obeyed. Both as fully God and fully Man, obedience to God’s command was absolutely essential for Jesus. But after the glory of the event at the Jordan, and with the seal of God’s approval through the descent of the Spirit and the voice of God, Jesus is led by that Spirit into the desert to be tempted by Satan. It seems like an inglorious way to start a ministry. The experience at the river would have made a wonderful backdrop to, say, a great gathering ...

Google Images I am not one to calculate the time of Lord’s return according to every natural disaster or news report. When the Lord said that no one knows the time (Matthew 24:36), I take that to mean that I won’t be likely to figure it out anymore than anyone else will. However that same chapter, Matthew 24, reminds us that we need to be ready simply because we don’t know when the Lord will return (24:42-51). There has been an endless debate about which parts of Matthew 24 speak of the destruction of Jerusalem, which some of Jesus’ followers would probably still be around to experience, and the return of the Lord when He comes to gather His followers and take them to glory, an event we are still waiting for. But the debates often shift our focus away from the message that Jesus is delivering here: Be Watchful and Be Ready. We are to watch out, not for the signs of the end, but for the dangers associated with the end: the false prophets and the coldness of our hearts toward the Lor...

Simon Dewey — Google Images One of the most amazing verses in the Bible is found in Matthew 4:1. “ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ” To fully identify with the people He had come to save, Jesus had to know, by personal experience, what it was like to be tempted. God the Father sent His Son into the wilderness and said to Satan, “Give it your best shot.” To add to the challenge for Jesus, He went forty days and forty nights alone and without food. He was physically at His weakest—the perfect moment for Satan to catch Him in some fault. That the devil even thought he had a chance to bring the Son of God down only reminds us how deluded our enemy actually is. Hebrews 4:15 tells us “ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ” God the Father knew that His Son would not fail. Jesus knew He would not fail. So why go th...

Another famine and another decision to make. When Abraham was faced with famine in Canaan he chose to go to Egypt. He got himself into trouble. His son, Isaac, faced with a similar situation is commanded by God not to go to Egypt. Instead he chose the second worst and went to live with the Philistines (Genesis 26:2). God allowed this (26:3-6) and even promised to bless Isaac while he was among the Philistines, but like his father before him, he got into trouble (26:7-11) and compromised his faith while he was there. It’s interesting to notice the progression. Isaac goes to Gerar and God blesses him, but with the passage of time, Isaac is driven farther and farther away from the Philistines until he ends up back in Beersheba (26:23). The issue was water. Every time Isaac dug a well the Philistines would come along and fill it up with sand. Isaac would then move farther out until finally, “ He moved out from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Re...

Consider the moth. He is attracted to the light and tries to get as close to it as he can. If he gets too close… In Genesis 13 we find Abram and his nephew, Lot, having some challenging times. They were both rich men, which meant lots of herds and flocks. Their herdsmen and shepherds were having problems sharing the grass and the water and fights were breaking out between them. Abram called Lot in for a meeting to resolve the issue and magnanimously, gave his nephew first choice of all the land that they could see. What Lot saw were the fertile plains along the Jordan. If he noticed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (13:13), he shrugged the implications of living near them aside. “ So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east…Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom ” (13:12, NIV). When we catch up to Lot a few chapters later, in Genesis 19, we discover Lot living in the city of Sodom. That was to have ...

“ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers ” —Psalm 1:1, NIV. Psalm 1 was the first chapter of the Bible that I memorized in Sunday School as a child. I can still picture, if my memory isn’t playing tricks on me, standing in the Primary classroom in the basement of the church, reciting the psalm in front of Mrs. Wood and my classmates. In those days memorizing Scripture was an important part of what we did in Sunday School, and I still remember Psalm 1 as clearly as if I had learned it just yesterday. This particular verse had its greatest impact on me when someone explained the progression in it. The psalmist says that a person enjoys happiness, contentment, peace, with God when he doesn’t: 1. Walk , or get too close on a regular basis, with those who would encourage him to do what doesn’t please God, 2. Stand , or hang around, with those who are not doing what would please God,   3. Sit...

Over the years I've had the opportunity to talk to singles about their emotional needs. In my counseling I take Hebrews 2:18 quite literally. The writer states: " Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. " It's hard for us to imagine that the Son of God felt the same emotional needs as every single who has, and will live on the planet—and I mean ALL of the emotional, physical, mental, spiritual needs that we experience. To truly be able to identify with us Jesus had to experience every need and face every temptation presented to Him to meet those needs inappropriately. I confess that it boggles the mind to travel down that road in my imagination and to try to picture Jesus looking at a woman and being tempted. It almost feels like blasphemy. But in order for Him to know how we feel, the temptations we face, and to be able to help us face them as He did, He had to have encountered them personally. And He never sin...

I always have choices. My problem is that I don't always make good ones. Though it is of some consolation to know that I'm not alone in my my struggle, I also benefit from knowing that, by God's grace, I can do better at decision-making. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul writes about beating his body into submission. His great "fear" was not finishing his service for Christ well. He reminds his readers that even those most blessed by God can fail to make wise choices that glorify God. As 1 Corinthians 10 opens, the apostle uses Israel as an example. They had everything going for them and blew it. The consequences were huge: " …their bodies were scattered over the desert…some of them…were killed by the destroying angel " (10:5, 10) Then comes the admonition: " These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us" (10:11) For most of us, the blessings of God on our lives are abundantly evident. In spite of all those wonde...