Wednesday: Temptations 2

PRAISE GOD, PRAISE GOD, PRAISE GOD ... My dear brothers and sisters, we have so much to be thankful for this morning. First we should be praising our Lord Jesus for a safe day yesterday in Washington DC. With all those folks in town there could have been a lot of trouble ... Thank God, all glory to Him for keeping it safe ... My personal praise this morning. I had my blood tests done yesterday for cancer ... You who follow the line know that I had prostate cancer two years ago ... I did not have surgery, I did take radiation treatments. However God healed me, and my number yesterday on the test was 0.01 and that my dear brothers and sisters is NO CANCER ... I also had some heart tests done and so far they are coming out just fine ... they are not done yet ... Prayers would be appreciated, as a test in the doctors office on Monday shows my heart is not pushing out the way it should. The tests I have had since are doing ok ... one more to go next week ... Maybe my heart was taking a nap on that one test. God is good folks, so there are no worries coming from me about this. None, Zip ...

Prayers today for Vicki, her son Josh, and also her dad Donald ... Folks Vicki has a real plate full, and has for a long time ... She has asked for a card shower for her father. Donald Luneke, Room 110, 5040 Philadelphia Drive, Dayton Ohio, 45415.

Today is Wednesday and the day we pray for those who are unsaved, and for God to use us to help bring the unsaved to His feet ... In your salvation prayers today please pray for our new president and his family. I am not judging if he is saved or not, however prayers will not hurt if he is.

Some good old Southern Gospel Music will be at the At Glenvale Church of God, 1970 New Valley Rd., Marysville PA, this Friday evening, January 23 at 7:00 PM ... The Jacobs Brothers from Dillsburg Pa, will be singing ... These men of music are rock solid in the Lord ... Come out and relax, enjoy and be blessed ...

Temptations 2. Yes folks we are still on that big bus trip (you thought I forgot) and we are looking at Luke 4 today, the Temptation of Jesus ... Luke 4: 1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert 2 where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. 3 The devil said to Him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." 4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'" (NIV)

I say man does not live on bread alone ... why we need steaks, chops, fish, lobster, potatoes, veggies of all colors and size and oh yes, burgers, and burgers and pizza, and ICE CREAM and cake and pie and cake and ice cream and ice cream and cake and ice cream and pie and CHOCOLATE (or at least Dolores does) and the food list goes on and on and on and on ... Why, some of biggest temptations today are food. Think of it, Jesus went to pray and fast and spent 40 days without eating, and we get upset if we have a doctors appointment and can't have anything after midnight ... I know it is hard, I have had more than one meal in my life at 11:30 PM to beat that midnight thing ...

Are we not glad today that man does not live on bread alone? Are we not happy that we have all those other foods? I know that most all of us at one time or another have been on a diet and I am the samea... I can remember how I would go to weight watchers meetings and after the meeting go and have three of those Burger King Whoppers ... Gosh it was such a temptation with the Burger King being about a block from Weight Watchers ... I am sure all of us have had temptations more than just ones like that ... How could anyone keep on a diet today with all those food commercials on TV and in the paper ... But it is not just food temptations that we get ...

Let me ask you this one. How many of you, and be truthful here, are tempted to push that gas pedal down to the floor and go fast on the roads? I am talking over the speed limit fast ... Oh yes, breaking man's laws sounds simple but it is a sin, and a sin, is a sin, is a sin ...

Jesus was tempted by the devil day after day after day and He did not waver ... for us, when we are tempted sometimes we don't last 5 minutes ... I mean while I was writing this I was enjoying a very large cup of hot chocolate. While I am not on a diet now, I really don't think I needed all that sugar. (I am sweet enough.) Ok, I am joking some, but you see where I am coming from ... Folks, we in America are so blessed when it comes to food. But let me get off food for a tad, for food is just a start when it comes to temptations and so is speeding.

Let me give you some homework today. Not much, I just want you to ask yourself, what are some of your temptations? Some folks are tempted to drink booze and I am not talking here a beer once in a while, I am talking about spending half a paycheck on it ... Or gambling. Tell me it is not tempting to purchase a ticket to that big drawing and dream of winning. I have watched people who cannot afford food, spend their money on tickets for the drawings ... I have seen them lay out a 20 dollar bill for tickets ... and folks that would buy 40 boxes of Macaroni and Cheese ... (back to food)

Go and address yourself, what tempts you ... and folks I do believe that NOT all those temptations come from the devil ... I think sometimes we give him all to much credit ... It seems sometimes we just do not want to take any blame for things we do, we will take the credit if it is good, but if bad, if it was some sort of temptation we fell to, then blame it on someone else or blame it on the devil.

Folks, the example here today is that Jesus could stand firm against the devil, but we cannot UNLESS we take on Jesus and we stand with Him in all we do ... If we are tempted, we need to call on the name of Jesus to block it for us ...

Dear Father in Heaven, please block those temptations that are not good for us, or are sinful ... Lord, clean us this day and help us to stand with You each day in all we do. We are not strong enough to defeat Satan on our own, so we call on You, the only one who has power over him ... We know that if we call on You, we also have that power to pull from and we know we can fight off his wishes for us ... We just need to stand firm with You. Help us with that Lord ... Be with those on our prayer lists ... and Lord, bless this line. In the name of Jesus, I ask to be used in the fields to help bring in the lost ... I love You, Lord .. and pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Go forth and share those blessings and walk away from those temptations ... Do not try and stand up against them without help, help from Jesus, help from fellow Christians ... love ya, dan.