Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted
by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The
tempter came to Him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to
become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man does not live on bread
alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, and Happy Martin
Luther King Jr. Day. Dr. King would have been 83 years old had his life not
been cut short by one that hated him. Please pray this day for the extended
family of Dr. King, as I am sure the hurt never goes away, yet I am sure they
are thrilled that his work did not stop. No one bullet, no one knife can stop
the work of those who are truly working for our Lord. A good example is that
even Jesus was killed, but that did not stop Him or His work. Please pray
today for our country's leaders, pray for President Obama and his family and
pray that they will come nearer and nearer to God. Pray for state and local
leaders and also our military leaders and all of our military and also our
police and firefighters. Also Vicki still needs our prayers and I ask that
you keep her in your daily prayers. Please also keep the Dan Stoner family in
your prayers as they fly into the back woods to take in the word of the Lord.
In the very near future I will be taking a few days off for hand surgery, I am
going to try and get a few guests to write for me, and one I want is the story
about Dan Stoner and his family and just what they do for the Lord.
The Temptation of Jesus. Matthew 4:1 - Then Jesus was led by
the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty
days and forty nights, He was hungry. 3 The tempter came to Him and said, "If
you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." 4 Jesus answered,
"It is written, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes
from the mouth of God.'" (NIV)
Let's break the scripture down a bit today. Jesus was led by
the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Jesus was led by the
Spirit to be tempted, maybe as to set an example for us, for if we would depend
on our own self when we are tempted by things that Satan puts in front of us, we
would fail for sure, but when we call on Jesus through the power of the Holy
Spirit to help us through the temptations, then and only then can we defeat the
master of evil. Once again we are looking at Jesus setting examples for us to
live by. The Spirit was with Jesus when He was being tempted by the devil, and
we need the Spirit with us, and we need Jesus with us and we need it daily for
there is not a day goes by that the devil is not going to try and get to you.
And there are times when we just fail on our own, we do not need the devil to
come after us, we can do it all on our own. In fact I think there are times we
give the devil too much credit for what he does... Seems to me we might
sometimes try and use him for an out, so to speak.
Now Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and when those days
were over, He was hungry. I would be hungry after 4 hours, folks. So we see in the scripture that the devil is trying to talk
Jesus into turning stone into bread. (Wow, stone ground wheat bread.) But Jesus
said man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the
mouth of God. So, what is the example here, for in these lessons that we are
looking at as we head toward Easter and the death and resurrection of Jesus, I
really want to look at the examples of living that Jesus is trying to teach us
today. Let's say today that we could have surf and turf each day of the week
whenever we wanted it, we could have chicken and turkey and fish and all those
good veggies, and even top it off with Hershey's Ice Cream, what would we really
have? Nothing, if we do not have the Word of God and follow His examples of
living. It seems here in America even those who do not have much to eat have
more than some have in other countries, even the poorest of the poor in America
have more than the rich people have in some countries, but what we should be
hungering for and thirsting for here is more about Jesus, more on the word.
Even when we sit down to eat, how many people take time to
talk to Jesus and give thanks for that food? But do we listen to what God tells
us when He speaks to us? I would wager a surf and turf dinner that some folks
never listen to what God tells us.
Let me tell you this story and you folks know me by now, I
speak my heart and mind and I get the word from the Bible. One morning a lot
of years back, Dolores and I had gone to church at one of the biggest churches
here on the West Shore area of Harrisburg. I will not mention the name of the
Church for it did not have a thing to do with this. After church like so many
folks we headed out to have our noon meal at a local all you can eat restaurant
that gets very busy as the churches leave out. We were standing in this long
line when we noticed about a dozen people come in and cut to the head of the
line where one person was holding a place for them. I remembered seeing these
folks in church and one of them cut out a little early, headed to the eating
place and saved the places in line. When the whole crowd had cut in line ahead
of a lot of people, I walked up to them and very nicely said, Did you learn
that move in church this morning, for I had seen them in church. I said, would
it not have been more like Jesus if the ones who got here early went to the back
of the line? That did not mean a thing to them, they thought it was ok. Others do, it they said. I brought this up for they did not follow the lead,
the examples of Jesus or they would have put the others first. Jesus did not go
to the desert to be tempted by the devil because He needed something to do, He
went to show us how to handle things when we get tempted. You know, years and
years ago there were these letters and you saw them all over the place - WWJD - They stood for What Would Jesus Do! I think we need to get this back into our
thinking, our daily thinking, in all we do. Regardless of what it is we are
going to do, we need to ask our self... Self, what would Jesus do? And more so
we should ask Jesus this. Jesus what would You do? And then we need to listen, for folks, He will tell you what He would do... Trust Him, and trust the
examples that are set for in His Holy Word, for folks, we cannot live on bread
alone, or surf and turf or turkey and steak, or fish, we need the Holy Word of
God each day and we need to feast on that. Then we need to trust in Him and we
will have those daily needs which will include that food you love so much. BUT
DO NOT CUT INTO LINE TO GET IT.
My daddy and mamma were school teachers, and when my daddy
would go to the school cafeteria to eat, he would never cut in front of his
students to get into line, even though the teachers were permitted to do so.
Folks, walk daily with Jesus and you just cannot go wrong.
Dear Father in Heaven, teach us each day to follow Your
lead, Your examples of daily living found in our Bibles, and help us to put it
to practice, and Lord, as I write the messages help me to find those examples and
bring them to light, Your light. Please, Lord, answer our prayers according to
Your will. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Now go forth, following the examples of Jesus and sharing also
your blessing and remembering that all blessings come from God.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
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