“Those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things...” Acts 2:18-21
I have attached pictures to illustrate the Lord’s perspective of what is wicked and what is good. A heart that cares for the downtrodden and the fatherless is from the Lord. We cannot change ourselves from being sinners to being saints, but the Lord can as we repent of our sin and ask the Lord Jesus to change us... to convert us... so that we walk in harmony with His will.
The Lord’s return is imminent. He could return at any time. May He give us grace to conform to His ways before He returns.
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” [1]
Jesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for over a month.
Jesus Christ is the Prophet that Moses foretold. The One who would be like him. Moses fasted forty days while receiving the Word of God.
The ministry of God’s Word is a serious matter. Not to be taken lightly! The Word is also great sustenance.
The devil wanted Jesus to compromise His fast to feed His physical hunger. Jesus stuck with God’s Word. Unlike the first Adam, He did not exchange what is eternal for that which is temporary. He knew His ministry of the Word was about to bring salvation and healing to many people.
Jesus was content with being godly.
“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” [2]
Godliness or God-likeness is being filled with God’s love that pours out self for the sake of glorifying God and blessing people with God’s love for them.
Such love is a lifestyle and a spiritual discipline. It is a constant dependence on God’s Spirit and His Word for the sake of being a witness for Christ.
“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.” [3]
How do we know what love is?
“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” [4]
While talking about stewardship before His disciples and before the Pharisees, Jesus told the tale of two men.
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.” [5]
The story ends with the rich man in torment and the beggar with Father Abraham. The rich man had not regarded God or His Word, but the beggar obviously had a relationship with God that continued on into eternity. Though people despised him, God did not.
“Look carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” [6]
Esau was a self-willed and a self-serving man. He was Isaac’s firstborn son. His birth position meant that he would inherit the bulk of his father’s wealth. But one day, due to a momentary hunger pain, he vowed away his firstborn inheritance to his younger brother Jacob in exchange for a bowl of red stew. [7]
Food is good and needful. We are to receive it with thanksgiving to God. [8] But we should ask God to satisfy our soul’s hunger. Believing in Christ and sharing His testimony with others satisfies that hunger.
It has been said that anything done for 30 days repetitively will become a habit. Why not replace sumptuous food items, those foods loaded with transfats and sugar (the ones that are not good for you) with reading about Jesus Christ in the Bible.
God’s Word transforms those who receive and act on it.
The Protestant Reformation started in 1517 with a man named Martin Luther who placed adherence to God’s Word above all else. The Lord blessed his sowing. Many lost souls heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, received Christ and were transformed by Christ to become proclaimers of the Gospel.
Here’s what Jesus once said to people whose lives revolved around eating food, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” [9]
[1] Matthew 4:1-4
[2] 1 Timothy 6:6
[3] Proverbs 15:17
[4] 1 John 3:16-17
[5] Luke 16:19-21
[6] Hebrews 12:15-17
[7] Genesis 25:29-34
[8] 1 Timothy 4:3-4
[9] John 6:27
My prayer on the second day of the New Year is for Lord to keep us from temptation and deliver us from the evil one. [1]
The devil is busy duping so many people out of their eternal inheritance. I am relying on the Lord to help both me and those He leads me to pray for and serve with His Word.
The devil said to the first mother of humanity, Eve, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” [2] The simple answer was, “Yes.” And the best of response would have been to flee from the serpent at that moment. Don’t let him keep you on the line!
Jesus said, “Let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no;’ anything beyond these is of the evil one.” [3]
One’s of the devil’s sales tactics is to make the one who says “No!” to him to seem as a fool.
“The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die!’” [4]
“The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise so she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” [5]
Eve did not want to be a fool so she ignored what God said and listened to the devil. The result was disastrous! She and her husband were now afraid to face God. They felt shame.
God made for the first couple garments out of animal skins to hide their nakedness. Here, the human need for God to atone (cover) our sin with a blood sacrifice of an “innocent” other is introduced. “Then the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.” [6]
This truth is reiterated when God accepts the animal sacrifice of Abel but rejects the garden sacrifices of Cain. Sin is a serious matter. “…Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” [7]
God sent Cain into exile for murdering his brother Abel. Sin creates distance between people and God. Christ came to atone for our sin so that whosoever believes in Him could have his or her sins forgiven and enjoy a restored relationship with God. [8]
Eve lost two sons in one day. One to death, and the other to exile, but the Lord provided her a third son. God had told her previously that her seed would crush the serpent’s head.
“Then Adam knew his wife again; and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, for she said, ‘God has set for me another seed in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.’ And to Seth, to him also, a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the Name of the Lord.” [9] The Lord kept the bloodline of Messiah alive via Seth.
These stories were preserved by God to help us understand our need to listen to His voice lest we be enticed away.
King David wrote, “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” [10]
Those who scoff at submitting to faith in the God of the Bible will perish. [11]
King Solomon wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.” [12]
The fear of God is deterrent from compromise with sin.
“My son, if sinners entice you, do not be willing.” [13]
“They lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives. So are the paths of everyone who is greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.” [14]
How do we escape the devil’s poison-filled enticements? The answer is to… “Turn at My (God’s) reproof, behold, I will pour out My Spirit on you; I will make My Words known to you.” [15] We need the Spirit of God to fill us and make us a new creation. The Holy Spirit replaces one’s appetite for sin with an appetite to know, serve, and love the Lord. We avoid falling in with bad apples, by walking with the Lord.
“Salvation belongs to the Lord; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.” [16]
[1] Matthew 6:13
[2] Genesis 3:1
[3] Matthew 5:37
[4] Genesis 3:4
[5] Genesis 3:6
[6] Genesis 3:21
[7] Genesis 4:1-8; Hebrews 9:22
[8] Genesis 4:10-14; Isaiah 59:2; Ephesians 2:12-19
[9] Genesis 4:25-26
[10] Psalm 1:1-3
[11] Psalm 1:4-6
[12] Proverbs 1:7
[13] Proverbs 1:12
[14] Proverbs 1:18-19
[15] Proverbs 1:23
[16] Psalm 3:8
