The parable of temptation

It is almost a parable that Jesus was tempted ... and used that temptation to do His work. I believe he was tempted in direct proportion to how much He walked with God ... and since He sinned never, He thus prayed without ceasing, and was tempted perpetually. As we all are, in point of fact. Please allow me to draw your attention to the twentieth chapter of Luke, where Jesus was tempted twice to answer people who tried to trick him by his words with something other than grace and wisdom.

The first were the chief priests and scribes, asking him from where he got His authority. This was a big thing, because Jesus taught and spake as one with authority, something they didn't have, and so His presence in the temple, as well as his speaking, were evidence of their hypocrisy. Few people enjoy having their faces rubbed in their own hypocrisy - how much more the spiritual leaders of a people? These were people who had studied scripture, knew the words and thoughts of God that had been recorded, and were abusing that privileged knowledge for their own material gain, social influence, and worldly authority. And so Jesus, in addition to being all these things to these tainted leaders, was also a reminder that they were likely also lying to themselves, something that few people enjoy having their attention drawn toward. But Jesus' task was certainly not to appease people but to draw them closer to God. The people at this time were worshiping the laws of God and not the spirit.

The second happened soon after, when the same people who had approached Him before essayed him by way of spy, sending forth someone who appeared as a layman, for the purpose of again distorting His message and intending to catch Jesus by the words of His mouth. Again, I am quite certain Jesus was tempted to abuse the position of authority He had been given - instead he offered the same thing he did to priests and scribes before - a metaphor. This second metaphor was telling because it, even more than the first, led His listeners to His point - He wasn't there to pick on the priests and scribes any more than He was there to take their power away. Yes, both of these things were likely to come to pass, but His motive was simply to clean up the path that the children of Israel had muddied so badly, and to give hope to a people who had been faithfully believing would come.

The reality is that Jesus' approach could so often be justice - wherein

• Those of us who are abusing the stations we have been given
• Those of us who state we love the Lord but don't live it 100%
• Those of us who don't trust Him in the slightest and actually hate Him

SHOULD BE STONED or CRUCIFIED

For that is what justice demands and requires.

Jesus, instead, often doles out mercy like it were candy, aware that some will truly appreciate the temporary nature of its gifting and fundamentally seek after His heart anew when we realize how precious that candy truly is. He said as much when he mentioned seeds falling on fallow soil, rocks, or briars.

Jesus granted mercy to the priests and scribes when He did not bring forth justice when they questioned His authority. He granted mercy to the spies too when he only made mention of the coin, instead of again using the opportunity He held to judge both the spies and the priests.

And Jesus, daily, offers us mercy, not for us to take for granted, but to give us one more opportunity, one more inch of rope, one more life-line, one more second-chance, one more swing at the ball, and I used to think these second chances were there to give us one more day to clean it all up, to newly hearken.

I was wrong.

These are things that need to done - this is true.

The second chances are there for us to realize that, no matter how many times we get up, we can fall every single time. To stop trusting ourselves, our own sufficiency, and to give up trying again to do it all right, and

GIVE THE DRIVER'S SEAT TO GOD

So my call to action today is:

• Take a decision you need to make today and give it to God. It doesn't matter how important it is to you, as this is a beginning decision; the only requirement is that the result must matter to you.


• Take this decision and give it to God to decide, and pray about it. Every free moment, every time you’re in the bathroom, or walking around, or doing something that doesn't need your full attention, thank Him for guiding you, and wait upon the Lord to provide the answer.


• After you've given the decision to Him, any time an indecisive thought about it comes up, give it to God too.

In God's timing, the answer will arise. The method might be personal assurance that a specific direction is the way to go, or it might be a license plate, or it could also be a random telephone call - the Lord works in a myriad of mysterious ways, and whatever way is open to Him will be the way He chooses - often one that you personally will appreciate.

The point here is simple - most of us don't seek God's counsel sufficiently ... and most of us have aspects to our lives that are on the perpetual brink of collapse. Let God's wisdom eliminate those brinks and bring us more in line with His will for our lives!

By the way - The real challenge isn't to do this just today, but every day - trusting Him will lead to increased faith, which will bear more fruit.

Jesus the butler

1. At the end of Luke 10, we find Martha, "cumbered about much serving" and thus is "knocking at the door", asking Jesus for aid. Jesus does not answer as Martha was clearly expecting - instead Jesus replies that Mary, who Martha was asking for help from, was about some other business.


2. In the middle of John 14 (v 13-14), we find Jesus stating that whatsoever we ask, in the name of Jesus, we can expect God to act on


3. At the beginning of the revelation of John (2:4), we have Jesus speaking about how the church of Ephesus forgot their first love.

One of the things I have been struggling with in my walk is that simple truth revealed in John 14, how we can expect, if we but claim in the name of Jesus Christ, we should to realize ANYTHING we claim. I have read about it, prayed about it, and I felt fully this was true. Yet, on those occasions where I have acted on this fact, I have not always realized the prayer. You could argue that the lack of arrival is a lack of faith - there is a phrase that describes this "Faith that Fizzles at the Finish had a Flaw in it From the First". Which is all well and good, but what about the practical application? How can we, as believers, put into practice the very real and literal applications resident in scripture?

Or to put it another way, could someone, who truly loves Jesus, but was angry at a country, pray for that country to be so decimated that no living being could live there, and expect that prayer to come to pass? Could they truly pray, in the name of Jesus, for "Invisible radioactive glow-worms to eat every man, woman, and child, from the intestines, outward, so that everyone in that country could be given a quicker glimpse of heaven and we wouldn't have to deal with their presence on earth"?

I don't think so.

So what tools does that leave a believer if they are truly, and literally, claiming God's words as practicable?

Let us look to scripture for what I believe is the answer, specifically Luke 10. Here we have Martha, clearly someone who believed in Jesus as having authority, and respecting that authority, implored Him for some help. And Jesus didn't grant it. Instead, he cautioned Martha that Mary was doing something more important than helping Martha. It is implying, to my mind, that there was a need Martha should have been more aware of - and that Jesus was taking care of the real need instead of the one Martha thought was the important one.

So my call to action today is simple:

• What needs SHOULD you be focusing on? Discovering what Jesus thinks you should be focusing on, and praying for the resolution of those dilemmas, will likely bear a great more fruit than praying for whatever needs pop into your head.


• And everything else you think is a need? Pray that Jesus will take care of them, will provide the necessary resources to resolve them, and then give them so completely to God that you aren't worrisome about them.

The Death of Aaron

From Numbers 33:38 we have a signal event - Aaron dies. It is very easy to miss. The children of Israel are wandering from hut to hut, desert to desert, mountain to mountain, and after the listing, like a kind of geographic genealogy, with the children of Israel visiting various places from their past (and I'd really like to map them out to see how the travails of the children of Israel correspond to the events of their shared history prior) and in the midst of the genealogy, Aaron dies. It isn't overly hard to understand why, as in the natural people do die ... but we are told he dies at an age of 123. But he's the first. And for however many years, the children had been walking, clothes not wearing out, manna ever populating, being led by pillar and cloud ... and Aaron dies.

It must have been a shock. As much as Moses was the people's connection with God, Aaron was the less spoken of brother, probably loved as much as Moses was respected, and to see Aaron die - it must have truly put into perspective what God meant by not letting them see the promised land. For, if Moses was a kind of living metaphor for the relationship with God, then Aaron was a metaphor for how holy the children of Israel were.
So, their icon of spiritual sobriety, who certainly wasn't perfect, and was likely far more approachable than Moses, dies, and it sets the tone for the rest of their meandering. Because, if Aaron can die, their high priest, then every single one of them can die.

Something else - they must have seen it coming. In our society, it would be rare to see someone over 120 years of age walking anywhere, let alone with his whole family. So, they would have seen the degradation of his garb, the growing shakiness of his legs, the weakening of his eyesight ... it would have given relevance, validity, and poignancy to what Moses had said ... kind of put it into perspective. And this is something we all should guard against - not trusting God at face value, but looking after some confirmation in the natural. It is extremely tempting to assume that one's perspective is accurate, but the Bible clearly states that there is safety and wisdom in the multitude of counselors, and one aspect of that is trusting God. And because the children of Israel did not trust God, and actively reported that the promised land was something they couldn't claim, it implied God was lying, something else we should always guard against!

So my challenge to you is this:
If you've heard God speak treat it like it is God speaking it!
If you're unsure, ask Him to confirm it! And then, expect that confirmation, and if winds up not being God, don't act on it!
Regardless - We're each called to intercessory prayer, and that includes on behalf of ourselves! So be a part of your own multitude of counselors, and pray on your own behalf for God's wisdom and guidance!