Sunday, March 10, 2019


Lenten Reflections on Scripture Day 5: Getting the most out of Scripture

Today we will look at the passage from this morning’s Gospel reading, Luke 4:1-13.  We talked a bit about it yesterday, so today we will mostly focus on how to get the most out of this -or any other- passage of scripture.
Let’s face it Just reading scripture for its own sake can become habitual, and we end up taking it for granted rather than digging in for the gold that lies therein , and all too often we don’t get the full message the writer is trying to convey because a) we don’t look at it in context, not just in terms of what the writer is trying to tell us, but in a context of time as well.  Often we don’t even look for different layers of meaning and symbolism  in it, and much of the seed, as it were, falls by the wayside among thorns and rocks, instead of fertile soil, where if watered by the Holy Spirit it can produce fruit in abundance. To wit, you can gather something new from a passage each time you read it. THAT is why we say it is life changing.
So let’s dissect this passage.  My comments are in red, and they look at what has just happened  in light of the old testament, and from meditating on what is said, instead of skimming over it.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the desert,  Note that this takes place shortly if not immediately after his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist When The Holy Spirit descended on Him. Which is the first time the Third Person of the Trinity the Holy Ghost/Spirit is mentioned and at this point, as it would be until Pentecost, Jesus is the only one indwelt.
For the space of forty days; and was tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.  To really get the most out of this passage, we need to try on Jesus’ Sandals for a while, as it were to really get a grasp on what is going on here. First, let’s remember that Even though Jesus is both fully God and fully man He voluntarily laid  aside His powers as God in order that he could properly live out the life of a man facing all the temptations , suffering and pain all humanity must.
Those of us in modern western countries have trouble grasping where Jesus must have been at mentally and physically at this point.  He went to the desert for 40 days with no food and probably only enough water to survive (He too was bound by natural law) We in the west generally don’t know such deprivation. Imagine how you feel after one DAY of fasting... We know how we feel after a full day especially when dinner is being served late. Now try putting yourself in that kind of hunger in Jesus place in your mind’s eye. Now imagine a really hot, dry, summer’s day spent with no shade, when you are weak from fasting. Now imagine Jesus 40 days down the road.
Satan perceived that it was the time to strike and see if there was any way to derail the Cross, and disqualifying Jesus as Saviour.

And the devil said to him: If thou be the Son of God, say to this stone that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him: It is written, that Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God. Jesus , in the midst of his suffering with the devil dangling the middle eastern equivalent of a  Cheeseburger and fries and a bottle of water in front of Him immediately reverted to scripture to fortify Himself against this temptation. He reached into the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy and silenced the devil.  He also showed us how important it is to read and know scripture and use that as the guidepost against which  you make your decisions.
And the devil led him into a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time;
And he said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them.
If thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answering said to him: It is written: Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
A good hermeneutical principle to follow when reading scripture is that if something is repeated, especially soon after , that it is a point that God (who inspired the writer, in this case Luke) wants to hit home with and underline the importance of the principle. So once again, when Jesus is tempted , this time with temporal political power , He falls back on scripture to help Him resist.
Again there is a reference to the Old Testament here. Doesn’t this remind you of Genesis where Esau had such little regard for his birthright as the firstborn of Isaac’s sons that in his hunger (only after a few hours out hunting) how easily he sold his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of red pottage? Jesus was having none of that from Satan. The difference is that Jesus, unlike Esau, strengthened through prayer, and reverence for the Word of God was thus able to keep in perspective what really had value.
 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself from hence.
10 For it is written, that He hath given his angels charge over thee, that they keep thee.
11 And that in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering, said to him: It is said: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
The next move in his bag of tricks was to ask Jesus  to step back from total faith and trust in God the Father, by putting Him to the test as to whether He would indeed protect him from harm.  Jesus once again falls back on Scripture from the Old Testament, and let Satan know that Hunger , thirst, fatigue and discomfort notwithstanding, He knew the Word was built upon solid rock. Jesus said this knowing full well what was coming at the end of his brief sojourn on earth, and knew that if He didn’t have total trust in His father now, He might succumb later at the Cross, and call upon legions of angels to tke Him down, and the mission will have failed.
So we too, have our mission here on earth, and the enemy would like nothing better that to derail it, so Jesus is telling us, “Trust in the Father and His will, and that his plan and your small part in it will be fulfilled. You don’t need to test Him, and in fact testing, not trusting will break His heart”

13 And all the temptation being ended, the devil departed from him for a time.
And if we , inspired by Jesus, fall back on the word, and the Holy Spirit which now indwells every believer, Satan will depart from us too..... Until a more opportune time... Like “The Terminator” , unfortunately, “He’ll be back” .
He will wait for our next time in the desert, whether we have wandered off there to fast and meditate, or more likely, got careless and wandered back in inadvertently, but Scripture provides us a way out in God’s will.




Saturday, March 9, 2019

Lenten Reflections on Scripture, Day 4: Spiritual Warfare



For the next few days we are going to look at the topic of Spiritual warfare, , as it is something everyone who walks with Jesus is facing or is going to face. No exceptions. It’s as certain as death and taxes.
This Sunday’s gospel reading is about When Satan tempts Jesus while he is out in the wilderness fasting for 40 days, so there is no better time to broach this subject, so as to provide a solid foundation to help us walk through Lent, with open eyes and a receptive heart.
So our scripture today lays the groundwork.  We will look at  Matthew 10-16 “
“See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
I will also make mention of what Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians 6:12  “
For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”
So we need to be aware that the enemy is out there, and that the enemy is not really our fellow man, but the forces of darkness, namely Satan and his motley army of demons and imps who are always looking for a weakness to exploit.
He hits hardest those who are walking closest to Christ, and he makes his move when we have reached a point of physical, mental or spiritual weakness, whether brought on by hunger and thirst (as with Jesus in the wilderness) ,  illness
, setback or anything else. He will tempt us with “an easy way out”, or some empty promise about how things will be better if only ......, or with raw power, whatever he can.
His goal is always to kill and destroy and draw people away from Christ and His gospel. But remember what he is selling you is an empty promise...All sizzle and no steak. The goal is always to convince us to accept a cheap trinket, and leave the Pearl of great price. Whether that is the Lord, or our spouses, families, principles.
This is what he did in Luke 4:1-13 when the Devil tempted him to turn stones into bread to alleviate his hunger from the fast, then to take a flying leap off the top of the temple, after all, God promised that no harm would come to Him until the due time, and then to give Him all the kingdoms of the world, if He would only lay aside His divinity and Worship Satan.
When we remember that Jesus was not only fully God, but fully man as well, we realize that these temptations were real and not a simple matter to simply brush off, so we need to look at how he handled it. First, he never lost sight of who was tempting Him. He knew this because He knew the word of God, and He responded with references from scripture which He knew to be the Word of God and thus provides us with the fundamentals of what we need in order to discern the true source of temptations we face. He is also instructing us that we need to KNOW scripture if we are to properly discern what is going on, and reflect on what it means. He is also telling us that what God offers us though it may not glitter and shine as much is worth for more than the fleeting pleasures we would get by accepting the wooden nickel that Satan offers.
So we face temptations all the time while we live out our lives in the world on a daily basis, however, we must always keep in mind that this is all going on in the background as war is raging in the spiritual realm and is merely manifesting itself in temporal life as well.
Prayer, fasting and scripture will help us discern and fight back against these powerful temptations. So we need to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
It is the imitation of Christ, which we can only successfully do if we know him personally and seek Him daily in prayer and in His word. And in the imitation of Christ we show Him to others.
The Good news is, even though the battle does rage on, and it is very real, Scripture also serves  as a Spoiler Alert: God wins. Join the winning team, and bring as many others as possible along the way!

Friday, March 8, 2019

Lenten Reflections on Scripture Day 3

Lenten reflections on scripture Day 3 : In keeping with this week’s theme of “repent and believe the Gospel”, today’s scripture is II Chronicles 7:14
" if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
It is a verse about revival, and preceding any revival is repentance, both as individuals and as a body of believers. One is never too far gone to receive forgiveness, for any sin, no matter how great, as long as one has breath in one’s body. What is repentance? It is feeling genuine remorse for one’s sin, for what it has done to yourself, to others, and mostly how it grieves God.
Think about Jesus at Gethsemane, and how he perspired blood in his anguish, grief and even anger. Here was a perfectly sinless man, the only such person who has ever lived, about to die for the sins of the world. No doubt he as shown every single sin of the world past, present and future. Your sin. MY sin (which is worse than yours ðŸ˜Š) and every other sin from the 60 million plus babies killed in abortion, the Holocaust, The Killing fields of Cambodia, the Rwandan Civil War, everything.... And no doubt Satan found this to be the more opportune time to return and taunt and tempt him to give up his mission.
Imagine Satan whispering “Do you really want to die for THAT person? For the Nazis? For Stalin, For Pol Pot?”
Imagine how He was grieved, He who made us. How we have disappointed Him in our disobedience! How our words and actions have hurt others... and ourselves...
yet He chose to pay the cost for all these sins at the price of severe torture such as we cannot imagine, and death by crucifixion, which was considered the most shameful and painful forms of execution. Imagine the pin caused by the fact that he knew that many would choose not to accept His redemptive sacrifice, freely given.
So take this opportunity today to reflect on your own sin, and the sins of the world, let remorse overtake you, and resolve to change, with the help of the Holy Spirit who will come and indwell you when you accept Jesus as lord and Saviour. You will not be perfect, but you will be His, and He will work with you until he is finished! And through Him you will bear fruit which will change the world and draw many more to Him, so that as few souls as possible will be lost as His desire is that none shall perish.

Lenten reflections on Scripture Day 2

Lenten reflections on scripture Day 2 : Another phrase used during the distribution of the ashes is Genesis 3: 19 “You are Dust , to dust you shall return” (NRSV) the words that God spoke to Adam after the fall when the death sentence to the progeny of Adam was handed down.
Ash Wednesday and Lent remind us of the Fall, that we are all sinners. But the Lenten path is one which Jesus leads us down, where he takes us all the way to His passion, Death and resurrection, where he shows us that He is the way out of the death Sentence, and can restore us to eternal life!
meditating on this today I was reminded of the funeral ceremony of the Hapsburg Emperors of Austria to which I thought I would link for the occasion. I will post a song to go with the verse as first comment.
Again you are all invited to share and join in as we show the world who we are and whose we are.

Lenten Reflections on Scripture: Day 1. Ash Wednesday

It is Ash Wednesday , which marks the beginning of what I consider "The most wonderful time of the year", Lent.
There is always the question "What are you going to "give up" for Lent?Coffee? Chocolate? Facebook? 
For me I will not "give up" anything, but rather give back to the world some of what Christ and His Church have given me. 


For the 40 days of Lent I challenge all of you to post a verse or passage from scripture for others to think about, along with a song to back it up. Our mission as Christians is the Great Commission, which is to Bring the Gospel to the world. 
The words i heard when they applied the ashes to my forehead today were "Repent and believe in the Gospel" . 
Sadly, Christians are more known for what we are against rather than WHO we are for, and WHOSE we are. So by posting the verses from scripture, my goal is to show people WHO we are following and what it is all about, for on that final day, we will not be asked about Kenosis, whether we are "pre-trib" , "post trib" or anything like that, nor will be be asked wht denomination we were. We will simply face Jesus, and He will either know us , or He will not. He will know us by whether we had a personal relationship with Him, through prayer, and getting to know Him through scriptural revelation, through what the Church teaches us about Him and he will know us by our fruits: ie works done IN HIM, THROUGH HIM, and FOR HIM. 
So let's introduce HIM to the world, the reason for our hope. It' not about us anyway. 
So without any further ado, today's Scripture comes from today's Psalm (#51 :10-12) is "Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and sustain in me a willing spirit.." 
I'm tagging some of you in this, people who I think would want to participate in this challenge, but even if you are not tagged, feel free to join in. And let me know.