Humbling our tongues.

Jas 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
Jas 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

In humbling ourselves I believe one of the hardest things to do is to watch what we say. In our day and age what we think is what we speak. The words flow out of our mouths with very little thought. Our pride rears up so brightly in our words. We want to be heard! We want our opinions voiced and not only voiced but appreciated! We don't desire criticism when we speak, we want … yes… appreciation. And barring that, we just want our opinion known even if it's very harsh, and sometimes outright offensive. We have the right to speak and we want to be heard even if it is only the family dog listening, seriously, we will speak even to ourselves if need be.  We swear, we are outright vulgar in our speech and this day and age it's so acceptable on many levels- not all- but many. The little inoffensive swear words are common speech. The movies we watch, the television shows we enjoy have a lot of what was once considered unacceptable language.  We might wince when we hear the Lord's name taken in vain, we might cringe a tiny bit inside over that baddie f-word, but we tuck it away and keep on watching, becoming more and more hardened to what was once considered bad- until eventually it will be considered good.

Words.

Speaking.

Our wicked tongues can defile us.

We have a GOD who will help us in spite of our very NON-humble tongues. We have to draw NIGH to GOD so HE can draw NIGH to us! We have to CLEANSE our hands, purify our hearts, and STOP being double minded. Stop, just stop being of two minds. We can't be proud we have to be HUMBLE!  God will resist those who are proud, too proud do admit their need, their total dependence upon God.

God save us! Humble us! Teach us to do all You would have us do, all through YOU.

Please, Father, save us from ourselves!

Help us, Lord, help us we need you more now than ever before! This world is turning inside out, and so much that was once considered evil is now considered good. Please, Lord, please help us.

All through Jesus Christ our LORD now and forever!  AMEN.

Humbled Daily.

Discussing our humbling, or lack thereof.

Jesus said--

Mat_18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

We are told--

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Humble… yourself in the SIGHT of the LORD.

Less of ourselves. How? We are, what we are and to change ourselves seems almost impossible. Our only focus can be self in all situations even in the most selfless of situations we can only be the person we are.  Have you ever been so caught up in something you forgot about your own needs?  I think most of us can say we have. But more often than not we are NOT caught up in a lot of 'something else' to the inclusion of our self needs. While we work endlessly our thoughts stray to that time clock. If we are working in something we love (which not many get to do) we are wishing for that time clock to slow down. Our thoughts are for the future- our future and it's a constant thought.  'I have to do this when I'm done with that. Tomorrow I have this to do. What's my schedule look like for the next week. Oh dear, holidays are nearing I have to make some plans. In the morning I have to do this, then that, and go here and do this. When I'm done I have to stop here, get that, do this and then after that I have to do some more. What will I watch on tv? What will I eat? Do I really want that to drink? I have to choose what to wear. I have so much to do I'm not sure I'll have enough time to do it all. My schedule is full. Even when I plan my down time and I'm relaxing that is what I want to do and I do not want to be interrupted- I'm busy doing what I want even if it's absolutely nothing. 

Do any of the above sound familiar to you?  How do we get away from all that? I'm not sure we do. However, we can CHOOSE to humble ourselves first before we do any and all of those things, can't we? Is it within our power to humble ourselves before we take over ourselves- so to speak- making plans?  

We do not get a daily, hourly, minutely itinerary from God. He doesn't email us or text our phones to tell us what's on the schedule.

We do have some instructions about our schedule from God though, and it's a weekly instruction. Once a week on the seventh day of the week we are to worship the Lord our God, setting aside ourselves as much as we possibly can- especially if we can't seem to do it throughout the rest of the week.  A true humbling if we truly honor the Sabbath- and it's not sitting in a room secluded from everyone. Honoring the Sabbath is doing God's will as fully and purposefully as we possibly can.  Honoring the Sabbath is HUMBLING ourselves in a very special way. We put ourselves as LAST as we possibly can on the Sabbath, purposefully! We seek out God and helping others in whatever we choose to do. We pray, we study, we gather together, we HUMBLE ourselves to God's will!

The rest of the week we aren't supposed to seek NOT to be humble. Humbling ourselves is an ongoing full time experience, a choice.  We need to ask ourselves if we are being selfish, if we are being arrogant, if we are being prideful and we need to do this in all we do.

Too often we think of others interfering in our plans as something awful, a hardship on us, an imposition. We have to check our schedules, we have to see if we can fit it in, we have to weigh all the facts- do we really need that nap more than helping out a friend? Does our body ache a bit too much to help?

If you are one of those people who drop everything in a moment's notice and hurry to aid another no matter the reason, GOD BLESS YOU!  Or maybe you drop everything but at the same time you're a tiny bit resentful of having to do so. Or maybe you love the self-back-patting you can give yourself for being a good person. Hopefully you are doing it very sincerely, and God's guiding you, His Spirit working with you and your spirit, this is our desire- isn't it?!  Praise God if YOU' VE attained this!

Self is us, and truly we NEED to HUMBLE OURSELVES!

We need to keep all our scheduled plans, but before EACH and every plan I think we need to pray.

We need to pray - God, may YOUR will be done before I start my day, before I go to work, while I'm at work, when I go to the store, when I pick up the kids from school, when I go see a friend, as I'm eating. Not our will God!  While we may be doing things that we choose to do, uncertain if we are following Your plans, let Your will be done. Guide us, help us, teach us, show us, and forgive us! Please forgive us! Humble us Lord, teach us to humble ourselves as You desire we do! We need You, Lord! We believe, help our unbelief!!! 

We can't read this, listen to this and then go away and forget it all. We can't think this is okay advice and then turn around and NOT seek humbling! We can't, we just…can't! Please. We would be humbled.

May God help us, please, please us always. 

More tomorrow by the grace and WILL of God!

In HIS LOVE ALWAYS!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our LORD!

Now.

And forever!

Don't put on your own armor, it won't work.

Remember, we were discussing being humble, why? 

Because we are very far from being a humble people. Okay, I can't speak for you or anybody else really, but I don't believe I am anywhere near as humble as I could be, as I should be.

Mat_18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 

Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up

Submit…  to GOD.

Resist…  the DEVIL.

Draw nigh… to GOD.

Cleanse… your hands.

Purify… your hearts.

Be… afflicted.

Mourn.

Weep.

Humble… yourself in the SIGHT of the LORD.

HE- the LORD- will lift us up!

We were talking about resisting the devil and how Jesus had to resist the devil. If Jesus had to resist the devil and his tempting why do we imagine we wouldn't have to?

Resisting the devil - this is a topic that could go much further. I do want to talk just a little more on this and then we'll go on …

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

This mentions the wiles of the devil and he has A LOT of wiles to use against us.  To STAND AGAINST the wiles of the devil is in fact- RESISTING the devil. And we can do this- we are told we can do this. We have to put on the WHOLE ARMOR of God.

We are NOT ever to put on our own armor! Yet we try. We try so hard to manufacture our own armor and then wear it way too proudly believing it works effectively.  We like the fit of our own helmets, a bit more comfortable to wear, not too tight under the chin.  We want our own breastplate- it's a lot lighter and a bit more fancy to look at. And hey, how about the boots we are wearing, stylish yet mostly effective.  Not to forget our protective skirt and best of all, look at the incredible sword we are wielding!  Our armor, our plans on how we need to resist the devil. We carefully lay out our plan of action and a lot of time, a WHOLE lot of time, the devil lets us believe that our plan is working that our armor is amazingly effective against him. He wants us DECEIVED and so many of us desire to be deceived because it means we can continue on in our sinful, selfish, self-serving ways. We don't have to look too hard at our own lives so we don't have to witness the sin we are clothed heavily with, our deceptive armor hides a lot of that sin clothing we love to wear. 

We need to RESIST the devil, NOT SIDE with him, not take up his banner and root for him.  Resist the devil! Put on the whole armor of God so we can WITHSTAND the devil's evil, all his wiles need to be stood against!  There is SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS surrounding us! 

We need the WHOLE armor of God! ALL OF THAT ARMOR!!!!

We need every bit of it if we hope to resist. And we get that armor FROM GOD and no other! Read this again…

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

TRUTH. RIGHTEOUSNESS. GOSPEL OF PEACE. FAITH. SALVATION. WORD OF GOD. PRAYING ALWAYS.

We need all of these pieces of armor and we will stand against the devil!

Please, Savior, please give us the armor, YOUR armor!  Help us! Save us!

More tomorrow ALL by the LOVE of our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST our LORD NOW and FOREVER!!!!!!!

Do we truly worship and serve God?

Excerpt from yesterday-- 

Mat 4:8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Jesus told the devil to go away and then He used the power of the written word of God-

Thou shalt WORSHIP the LORD THY GOD, and HIM ONLY SHALT THOUGH SERVE.

Jesus would NOT bow down and worship the devil - not for the entire world!  

How many of us give up worshipping the Lord- for so much less?

Tempted with the kingdoms of the world-  but NOT the world itself. The devil did NOT tell Jesus he'd give him the world, or everything in the world. He tempted Him by telling Him, he would give him the kingdoms and the glory of those kingdoms and yes, that was a lot of to offer, but to our Savior it was nothing. Jesus didn't want the kingdoms and their glory, Jesus wanted the lost, the sinners, the love of those He created.

The devil wanted Jesus' worship. The devil wanted to be like the god -of the God who created Him.

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Isa 14:13  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High

The devil wanted to be like the most high, and if he could get Jesus to worship Him, he would accomplish that goal.

Jesus wanted nothing to do with the devil, He knew him for what he was, the evil He was through and through.

The words Jesus used to answer the devil's third temptation- 'Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written'

He told the devil to go away!

He told the devil -  "IT IS WRITTEN"

And He told Him something very, very important, something we ALL need to remember constantly. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

This is TRUTH! We need to WORSHIP the Lord our God!

We need to only SERVE God!

We need to comprehend what this means, truly comprehend it, not just read it and nod as if we understand without truly letting it sink in.

Worshiping the Lord our God- ONLY.   We need to think about what it means to WORSHIP and then- worship as God desires of us.

We need to serve ONLY GOD and like worshiping, we need to comprehend what it means to serve God.

By HIS GRACE may we study this so we know, truly know what it means to worship and serve God.

We do NOT want Jesus to tell us to get away from Him and He will… He really will…

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

More tomorrow all by the GRACE and MERCY, the overwhelming, unfathomable LOVE of our GOD!

Forever and ever!

AMEN.

Temptation can lead to lust conceived.

The Devil tempted Jesus… make no mistake… the temptation was REAL to our Savior.  We may think that because our Savior came back with what seemed like quick retorts to the Devil's temptations that He was impervious to any temptation.  Jesus COULDN'T have been immune (if you will) to temptation. No, Jesus did NOT sin.

Read this…

Jas 1:13  Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

Jas 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Jas 1:16  Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

A lust is a desire for self-gratification. When we lust for anything we are wanting that thing and even if our lust is for a good thing it can be wrong.  We are tempted with things we desire. And when we are tempted we get drawn away into our lust- wanting that thing right or wrong, wanting that thing before we want the things of God. Putting our desires first before God, making our desires our god. Once that lust is conceived- it is a done deal, no longer a temptation, no longer a drawing away, but conceived, accepted and then it brings forth the sin.

Jesus, our Savior was TEMPTED by the DEVIL. Jesus was very hungry- He desired to eat- but He DID not let that tempting turn into a conceived lust!  Jesus could easily have jumped off the pinnacle of the temple and had the angels catch Him just to shut the Devil up, but even if the thought was there it was NOT a conceived lust! 

Let's read the next temptation the Devil brought to our suffering Savior.

Mat 4:8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Mat 4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

The top of the temple was not high enough a perch, the devil took Jesus next to a EXCEEDING high mountain and show him ALL the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Think about that, on that high mountain the devil used visions to reveal ALL the kingdoms of the world. I say he used visions because even on the highest mountain you wouldn't see everything without a special vision adjustment. Allowed to visualize all the kingdoms of the world and the GLORY of them, Jesus was shown marvelous things, wondrous things of the kingdoms and then the devil OFFERED those kingdoms to Him.  The devil owns the kingdoms of the world, because when mankind sin under his temptation they gave over their claim to the world God made for them. The devil offered Jesus all the world and isn't that what Jesus wanted? Think about it, Jesus came to save the world and the devil was offering Him a very quick fix.

Again, the LUST WAS NOT CONCEIVED!

Jesus told the devil to go away and then He used the power of the written word of God- Thou shalt WORSHIP the LORD THY GOD, and HIM ONLY SHALT THOUGH SERVE.

Jesus would NOT bow down and worship the devil - not for the entire world!  

How many of us give up worshipping the Lord for so much less?

Mat 4:11  Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

More tomorrow all by the grace, the love, the mercy of our Lord and Savior- Jesus Christ!!!

Sabbath Thought.

Sabbath thought-

Each day of creation brought something into being-

1. Earth, space, time, light and water.
2. Atmosphere.
3. Dry land and plants.
4. Sun, Moon, Stars.
5. Sea & Flying creatures.
6. Land animals & man.
7. Sabbath Rest.

Has ANY of those created things as a WHOLE- disappeared?

We still exist upon an earth, water exists, space exists, time and light exist.

We still have an atmosphere.

We still have dry land and plants.

We still have a sun, moon and stars.

We still have sea and flying creatures.

We still have land animals and mankind.

So why wouldn't we still have a day of rest?

There was NO real reason whatsoever for God to CREATE a seventh day if it weren't important.

The weekly cycle was enacted at creation and still exists today.  Man has changed a lot of things and even tried to change the weekly cycle to a different one- but it never caught on.

Six days of labor- of work.

One day of rest.

This is God's plan even before the fall into sin which made work something hard and unpleasant.

Six days of living tending the garden, tending the animals all as desired- none of that tending was a hardship at all. Six days to focus upon things around you in your world, and one day to turn that focus on a central figure- God.

Let me put an idea out there for a moment- one that could be totally wrong, but maybe not.

Remember this verse--

Gen 3:8  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

God was NOT always in the presence of the created pair.

However, I believe on the day of rest they were together the entire day. I even believe they could go the entire six days without seeing God and talking to Him- never forgetting Him of course, just as we don't forget people we love just because we don't interact with them. However, I truly do believe that they were together on that seventh day- every seventh day Sabbath. 

Jesus, when He walked the earth before His death and resurrection, kept the Sabbath day. He could be found in temples teaching as was the custom, He could be found conversing with His disciples, He could be found healing and helping others on the Sabbath. Jesus was accused of violating the dictates of the Sabbath- no work- and the Pharisees considered Jesus' healing of others to be work, but Jesus showed them their hypocrisy concerning that.  Jesus was accused of working by allowing His disciples to get a bit of corn off a cob in a field as they walked. Jesus also put that hypocrisy to rest as well. Jesus was NEVER accused of not recognizing the Sabbath day for what it was. He kept the Sabbath! If He simple did NOT keep the Sabbath at all and treated it as all other days we would have heard a lot more from the Pharisees and rulers of that day who were out to get rid of Jesus. Jesus' accusers would have jumped upon the chance to add charges against Him. Remember violating the Sabbath meant being stoned to death.  Do you recall the passage where Jesus intervened with people getting ready to stone an adulteress to death?  The mob getting ready to do the stoning believed in keeping the moral laws as they saw them and their sacrificial system of ruling then called for the punishment of stoning- not forgiveness.  They could have picked up their stones and murdered Jesus for breaking the Sabbath, but they didn't because He kept the Sabbath.  As already mentioned the few times they accused Jesus of Sabbath breaking they were proven false.  Jesus did NOT come to condemn people, but to save them. The murderers were those who even thought about murdering someone, the adulterers were those who even thought about lusting after another.  The heart of the moral law was being REVEALED by Jesus.  Keeping the Sabbath in the heart of the moral law meant keeping it in the way God intended, not in the way of rigidity before the Son of God came to save sinners.  Doing away with ANY of the ten moral laws was NEVER something Jesus would do- He created the moral law! 

The Sabbath was instituted at Creation there is no doubt about that- on the Seventh day God rested from all He'd made and He blessed and sanctified the seventh day.

Gen 2:1  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

Gen 2:3  And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Why would God bless the seventh day if it were simply to be forgotten?

Why would God make the seventh day holy through sanctifying it if it meant nothing for the future?

Seriously we need to consider this because people today simply don't believe in keeping the Sabbath day holy.  They tend to keep an hour here or there, maybe a bit more- if they keep it and generally they keep the wrong day altogether- not caring that God went out of His way to assure us which day was the proper day.  We KNOW which day is the Seventh day. The Jewish people still in existence today still keep the same Sabbath day they were given to keep in the moral laws- and while they don't keep it in accordance to Jesus- the heart of the law, they are still keeping that day.  We KNOW which day is God's Sabbath and Biblically it was NEVER changed. People will say but Jesus rose the first day so that changed it.  But Jesus didn't authorize that change and you can be sure He would have made it perfectly clear.  Others say they gathered together on the first day of the week- the apostles and such.  It also says they gathered together daily and they gathered money on the first day of the week something they wouldn't do on the Sabbath. If their Sabbath day had changed to another day it would have been such a HUGE deal, it would tremendously more important than if we changed the day we celebrate yearly holidays. Yet can you imagine someone telling you that we know longer celebrate Ground Hog's day on February 2nd but from now on it'll be on the 3rd of February.  I'm just throwing that out there but think about it, we'd go nuts over a celebration day change yet we don't hear anything about a law kept for thousands of years being changed? 

How was it changed by people? Very subtly, very slowly.  The pagan and Christians began to merge and several holiday and such were altered to fit the Christian idea, not the pagan. For a long time the seventh and the first day were both kept, and then gradually the corrupted Christian church authorized the change and their bogus reasoning was taken for truth because by then they told people only they could truly interpret God's word.  There is a lot of proof but the Devil has done an amazing job of stamping down God's truth. 

Remember- that broad path is where the majority believe- the narrow path is what few believe.

Please, Father God in heaven, please help us to keep the day YOU set aside Holy. Jesus was there with you at the creation of our world and we know He was part of creating the Sabbath day, that He wants us to keep this day holy unto YOU! Teach us how to worship You, to keep Your day holy!  Guide us, Lord.

All through the love of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior now and forever!!!!!!!

Amen.

Don't Tempt God. Jesus did not tempt God.

Jesus resisted the Devil.

Resist…  the DEVIL. 

Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

After 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, the Devil confronted Jesus - supposing He was at a very weak point in His human life. A very good assumption on the Devil's behalf because the Devil knew perfectly how to tempt people at their lowest points in life. It was a tried and true method for the Devil and so he decided to use it on the Son of God.  Jesus had taken on a human body and no one was more aware of this very amazing fact than the Devil.  The Devil KNEW that in human form Jesus could sin. No longer was He God with God in Heaven, no longer was He God the co-Creator of all things as yet undeclared as God's Son.

Psa_2:7  I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

Act 13:33  God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

Heb 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

Heb 1:6  And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.

Heb 1:7  And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Heb 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Declared to be the Son of God, emptying himself to become HUMAN like us! Able to be TEMPTED LIKE US!

Php 2:5  Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Php 2:6  who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,

Php 2:7  but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;

Php 2:8  and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.  (ASV)

God declared to be the Son of God, the decree had been made and He took on the form of a slave, emptying Himself- made in the likeness of men.

He COULD sin in that form, that very vulnerable flesh prone to sin.  He COULD be tempted in ALL ways! If He had some special flesh that could not feel the pull of temptation, He could not feel the things we feel, He could NOT be tempted like we are tempted!

Heb_2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

Heb_4:15  For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

ONLY ONE who could feel temptation's insidiousness could save us!

The devil KNEW in His human form, having taken on human flesh, that he could tempt the Son of God and so he set about tempting Him.

Mat 4:5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

Mat 4:6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Mat 4:7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The devil TOOK Jesus into the holy city-  JERUSALEM.

The devil SET Jesus on a pinnacle of the temple.

Imagine it if you will.  The devil using powers of his own - powers of an angel- to physically take the weakened Son of God from the wilderness and place Him on a high point of the holy temple.  Jesus wasn't held up there safely by His own power- He didn't USE His own power- not ever. Jesus was vulnerable to falling from that high perch. If God had willed, He would have fallen and yes, an angel would have kept Him from dying, but that wasn't what God willed.  Jesus stood there upon the holy temple in a place probably no other had stood and He could look down the long way to the ground, He could comprehend the graveness of His situation.

The devil decided to use God's word to tempt Jesus. In the first temptation only moments before, Jesus had refuted the devil's temptation by using the word of God and now the devil was using that same word of God.  It wasn't a lie, it is written…

Psa 91:11  For he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways.

Psa 91:12  They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

The devil knew Jesus would know that it was written, so he wasn't lying to Him.

Jesus saw through the attempt to get Him to sin and He immediately replied…

"It is written again- Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

Deu 6:16  'Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God…'

Jesus WAS resisting the devil's tempting!

How easy it would have been to show off and just jump from the pinnacle, knowing He'd be kept safe. That would shut the devil up, right? That would get the devil off His back, yes? No.

Jesus KNEW giving the devil any place at all to dictate a single thing He did, would be opening a door to further temptation. He would NOT give the devil a foothold.

You don't tempt God to prove Himself at all in any way. You don't say, God, if this is true then You'll react this way. You just do NOT do that! Why? Because God has given mankind all they need to believe in Him. He will NOT be toyed with and that's what it would be. People would constantly be tempting Him- expecting Him to perform for them to prove Himself. It would be unending!  And it would NOT be a walk in FAITH, not at all!

We know that we don't like to be tempted, do we? I mean, in this way-  we do not like someone asking us to prove ourselves to them over and over again. We expect someone who claims to be our loved one to believe we love them without constantly having to go out of our way to prove it. It hurts us when we are asked to prove our love, as if it isn't believed already.  Love does not tempt. Love is by faith.  Sure, a lot of times our human love is flawed and we are hurt terribly by someone who is supposed to love us, but that doesn't change what love is supposed to be.

The devil wanted Jesus to ask God to prove His love for Him, using his guile filled ways, as if Jesus didn't have FAITH in His Father's love.  If Jesus had given in to that goading, it would have shown a lack of faith, a lack of love and there was NO way Jesus would ever do that, no way!

Jesus RESISTED the devil's tempting! Jesus had faith in His Father! Jesus use the written word of God. 

May we RESIST the devil!

More tomorrow by the grace and mercy of our LOVING Savior, Jesus Christ our LORD now and FOREVER!

Amen!