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Matthew 4

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

¹ Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness 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 shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

After 30 years of growing quietly in God, being obedient, being patient, being prepared for ministry; Jesus is baptised and receives public affirmation by God. “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.” He must be ready for signs, wonders, public ministry and the whole shebang now.

Then the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil.  Did I read that right? The Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert.. to have a special time of hearing from God surely? Or to pray for God’s people? Or to get extra power and anointing? But no. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Could it be that testing is a necessary part of Jesus’s final preparation for ministry?

After 40 days of fasting Jesus is tempted by the devil to use his God given gifts to feed himself, he is hungry. Later he will use his gifts to feed 5,000 others. It’s not wrong to be hungry. It’s not wrong to desire bread. The devil says “If you are the Son of God” “If”???? Now if that was me, I’d be “I’ll show you who’s the Son of God, get quaking in your little devil boots!”

Where is the temptation and potential for Jesus to sin? Apart from showing the devil who is really in charge. He is hungry. He is God. He made all food. Doesn’t he have the “right” to turn stones into bread and eat? He’s done his 40 days fasting. Been obedient. Surely he deserves to eat now. Oh the subtlety of feeling we are “owed”. That we deserve more. That God is holding back something good from us. Temptation.

Jesus is hungry but full of God’s word, promises, truth. He’s been reading Deuteronomy! Jesus is really tempted to eat. This is not a breeze because of who he is. He is properly, thoroughly, strongly tempted. He can almost smell freshly baked warm bread. His saliva glands are getting ready to receive! His stomach is growling. But he chooses instead, “every word that comes from the mouth of God”

Deuteronomy 8

Do Not Forget the LORD

¹ Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. ²Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Jesus knows that it was God who led him into the desert.

He has been there for 40 days not 40 years.

This will test what is in his heart. (What’s in my heart?)

He knows what God has promised him – will he enter to possess the land? His choice, free will, I get to choose too.

Will he remember that God’s goodness, God’s faithfulness and God’s provision can be trusted? Do I remember?

Obedience and trust is in the heart of Jesus. Not even the smallest scrap of doubt over God’s goodness. He will eat when God gives him food and not before. He will trust God to satisfy his hunger; in God’s time and in God’s way. He will not make it happen himself! Jesus chooses to trust his Father and depend wholly on Him. Will I? Will you?

The devil offers a means of satisfying hunger that seems innocent enough but that comes with hidden chains, slavery, failure, sin and ultimately death.

Thank God for Jesus! We can say with him, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” John 4:34

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“Dear God,
I am so afraid to open my clenched fists!
Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to?
Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands?
Please help me to gradually open my hands
and to discover that I am not what I own,
but what you want to give me.
And what you want to give me is love,
unconditional, everlasting love.
Amen.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen (The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life)

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You have a ticket to heaven no thief can take,
an eternal home no divorce can break.

Every sin of your life has been cast to the sea.
Every mistake you’ve made is nailed to the tree.

You’re blood-bought and heaven-made.
A child of God—forever saved.

So be grateful, joyful—for isn’t it true?
What you don’t have is much less than what you do

From
A Love Worth Giving:
Living in the Overflow of God’s Love
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2002) Max Lucado

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He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Annie J. Flint

Copyright: Public Domain <!– He Giveth More Grace Annie J. Flint –>

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Main subject: Grace

Scripture: James 4:6

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Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried; quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied. I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate . . . And the Master so gently said,”Wait.”

“Wait? You say wait?” my indignant reply.” Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!” Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard? By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I relate, Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to Wait?” I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a go-ahead sign. Or even a ‘no,’ to which I’ll resign.

You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe, we need but to ask, and we shall receive. Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry: I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate, as my Master replied again, “Wait.” So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, and grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting . . . for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine . . . And He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign. I could shake the heavens and darken the sun. I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

I could give all you seek and pleased you would be. You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me. You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint. You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair; You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there. You’d not know the joy of resting in Me, When darkness and silence are all you can see.

You’d never experience the fullness of love, When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove. You would know that I give, and I save, for a start, But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night, The faith that I give when you walk without sight. The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask, From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

You’d never know should your pain quickly flee, What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee. Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true, But oh, the loss if I lost what I’m doing in you.

So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see, That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me. And though oft My answers seem terribly late, My most precious answer of all is still “WAIT”.

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I just got home with Tim, we went to KFC and on our way Tim spotted a guy unconscious on the pavement, he had three or four drinkers/rough sleepers around him and they were trying to rouse him.  Tim was concerned for the guy and I told him that if his friends couldn’t rouse him they’d call him an ambulance and he’d be fine, so off we went to eat.

Over thirty minutes later we are walking home and the same guy is lying on the pavement but no sign of his friends.

We went over to him and I asked,

“Hello mate are you ok?” in a loud voice, while shaking his shoulder. No response.

“Excuse me mate are you all right?” No response. His breathing seemed ok and he would probably just sleep off the drink and be fine but I decided to call an ambulance, which meant that while I was waiting for it to come, the lady on the other end of the phone got me moving the guy onto his back, kneeling next to him and trying to get his mouth open in case there was food or vomit inside. Definitely a “oh I wish I carried surgical gloves” sort of moment.

Anyway he seemed fine.. even going so far as to grunt and roll himself up on his side in the foetal position. Thankfully an ambulance arrived fairly quickly, at which point there suddenly appeared a bunch of spectators all keen to offer their opinion.  The loudest voice, a man, who said a number of times “You should leave him, he’s just a drunk.”

Honestly I wanted to ask him.. what then are you? Just a liar? Just a thief? Just a fornicator? Just a naff son or a rubbish father?  Just a nosy self-righteous prig?  Yes, I know I know.. all of those questions are seriously lacking in grace, and I am glad I didn’t ask them, but oh how my blood was boiling! “Just a drunk” as tho he were any better. As tho I am any better. As tho the different ways we cope with rejection, with pain, with fear, with loneliness are any better than using beer.  As tho we are somehow superior because we are not passed out on the street in full view of passers by. Maybe our addictions are hidden, secret, maybe we are gripped by all kinds of sins and fears and doubts and every day we wear a mask to work, to church.  As tho every one of us is not steeped in sin and stench but for the redeeming loving awesome blood of Jesus Christ. 

As I calm down I remember that the man with the loud opinion doesn’t know how needy he is, in many ways his need is worse than the guy unconscious, who in all probability is more honest with himself about his faults and his struggles and his pain.  They are both men in need of a Saviour, they both need to know how deeply they are loved by their Maker, they are both eternally lost without Him.

Father God, reveal Jesus to both men we pray, redeem, save, heal, restore, bind up the broken-hearted, let freedom be proclaimed for the captives, let Your kingdom come in power and in glory and in awesome wonder and let Your name be praised!  Amen.

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Champion, Defender

 When I am beset, Your right arm protects me

You stand before and behind

My shield, my refuge

Taking on all comers

Fierce in my defence

Who can stand against You?

Abba, Daddy God

When I hurt, barely able to lift my head

Eyes swimming in tears, heart so broken

Gently You lift me in Your arms

Rest my head on Your chest

Sing sweet lullabies of love and peace to my heart

Rock me gently, save my tears

In bottles, precious to You

When You go to war

Riding strong and mighty ‘gainst Your enemy

You invite me to fight with You

Sword of Your word in my hand

Victory sure

For You have triumphed over evil

Let mercy and grace sweep into the enemy camp

Claiming many sons for You

When in joy I dance into Your presence

Lord Jesus Christ

How You laugh with me

Dance with me

How full of life You are

The Source of all life

The Reason for life

More joy than I have ever known in Your smile

Chosen. Loved.

Forgiven. Restored.

A daughter of the King.

Who could want for more?

Than to know You, be known by You.

This is life. This is riches.

This is joy!

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HOMELESS FEET

I’ve walked through trash and dirt and sorrow

Wandered through nowhere towards tomorrow

My feet are hurting, cracked and sore

My home is the street, the pavement my floor

I don’t recall how homeless began

I don’t remember from what I ran

But I do recall the constant pain of cold and hunger, rejection and rain

I remember my mother tickling my toes

singing me songs and wiping my nose

smiling at me in her warm embrace

and cheering me on in the first-grade race

Those same feet now slowly shuffle along

from days of endurance through nights that are long

to mornings of hope glimmering through

as I wander again in old worn-out shoes

My socks get embedded into my feet

from weeks of walking on hard city streets

encouraged by warmth of soup kitchen meals

unable to talk of the pain that I feel

I remember the smile on my mother’s face

in the time I was loved in my childhood place

when I was secure in the arms of love

my feet gently washed and lovingly rubbed

Today, how I long simply for socks

to give me some comfort walking long blocks

Today I pray that my feet will not bleed

as I struggle to cross the wide busy streets

I pray for some water, kind words to be said

for compassion and care for my feet that have bled

A cup of hot coffee to warm my chapped hands

that once held tightly …bright coloring crayons

I remember happiness in my heart

in the childhood home of my first-step start

Where I was anointed by love so complete

Before I began my life on the streets

I haven’t lost hope; I still live in prayer

I believe in God’s presence everywhere

I believe in Jesus, and I know we will meet

In recognition of homeless feet

Patricia C. Montesano March 24, 2005

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It may indeed be phantasy, when I

Essay to draw from all created things

Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings;

And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie

Lessons of love and earnest piety.

So let it be; and if the wide world rings

In mock of this belief, it brings

Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.

So will I build my altar in the fields,

And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,

And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields

Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,

Thee only God! and thou shalt not despise

Even me, the pries of this poor sacrifice.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

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I am so lost Lord Jesus

So confused by circumstance

So damaged by life

So filthy in my sin

Broken and hurting

I have looked for comfort

In dark places

Places that promise love

But destroyed my soul

Stripped my heart bare

Ravaged my mind

Why o why does it take me so long to lift my tear stained face to you o Lord

And cry “rescue me!”

“Lord have mercy..save me!”

And oh.. How quickly You come

Like a flood Your presence enfolds

Washing my wounds…

Taking my dirt

Covering me, enveloping me in righteousness

Head to toe, swathed in Your light

Tears collected in Your bottle

Heart tenderly comforted by One who knows

The depth of my grief

The vastness of my loss

The stench of my shame..

And has answered it all

In His own body

Made flesh for me

Beaten for me

Mocked for me

Scourged for me

Abandoned for me

Shamed for me

Spat on, despised, hated

By me

For me

And my reward?

Is You Jesus

Grace, mercy, comfort, love, peace, wisdom..

You

All of You

Only You

My precious Jesus

How do I begin to try to express

The depth of my gratitude

The vastness of your grace

The fragrance of your love

The riches of my joy

My irresistible Lord Jesus Christ

©  Rachel Anne Flowerday and BrightShinyJoy.wordpress.com 2010