Tag: Reflection

Lenten Reflections 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 19

Published by V John on March 14, 2012

Day 19, Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Through the second temptation, the devil asked Jesus to take a leap of faith (Matthew 4: 5-7) to prove that He indeed was the Messiah. In reality, devil’s agenda was to kill Jesus before His perfect time so that he could thwart God’s mission in and through Jesus Christ. In refusing to comply with Satan’s deception, Jesus showed us that He would not put the Father to test by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple, but He would rather obey the Father by going to the cross.

Jesus knew that He had come to die for the salvation of humanity. He was also fully aware that the way of the cross was not an easy one. But He also trusted His Father completely in that He would not keep Him in the grave forever, but He would deliver Him through death, by raising Him from the dead. Here, Jesus was presented an opportunity to choose an easy way out, to get away from the impending life of misery, insult, rejection, capture by His own people, being led as a worst kind of criminal on the way to Golgotha, and finally to be brutally crucified by the Romans. In this temptation, once again, Satan wished Jesus to act independently of God’s will for Him, which was the way of the cross. Thank God for Jesus who chose that path of suffering and death so that you and I could be free from sin today. However, we need to remember that perhaps God’s desire for us may also be that we go through pain and suffering in our lives during our wilderness experience. Satan will certainly show us other options and easy way out of God’s will. There are many false prosperity-gospel preachers that will confidently teach that God’s will for you is to only prosper in every possible way. There are many who believe that Christianity is the easiest religion of just grace and forgiveness. But when faced with such temptations, we need to recall how Jesus acted and chose the way of the cross. And after He came out victoriously from His temptations, He warned us: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7: 13-14 NIV). May we choose to the narrow way—the Jesus’ way—and find eternal life. Amen.

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Lenten Reflections 2012: Retreating into the wildernss with Jesus, Day 18

Published by V John on March 13, 2012

Day 18, Tuesday, March 13, 2012

For the second temptation of Jesus see Matthew 4:5-6 and Luke 4: 9-12. When the devil could not get Jesus to do that was not in God’s will, he took him to the city of Jerusalem. Now the order of these temptations differs in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, but it’s of no particular significance. Each gospel writer has arranged the same material in a slightly different order to suite his purpose and audience. In what the devil thought was a better idea than the previous one; he took Jesus to the highest point of the magnificent temple of Jerusalem, and asked him to throw himself down. Interestingly, the devil himself cites the scriptures this time from Psalm 91:11-12: “For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Satan proposed that if the angels really came down to protect him from being striking against stones, he, along with many Israelites will be convinced of His divinity and start following Him. Sounds really like a neat plan until we understand what is actually in the devil’s heart.

You see, the devil also knows the Word of God and he’s the master of deception and disguise. He uses, twists, and misinterprets the Word of God using it out of context, according to his evil purposes, and in opposition to the will of God. Since Jesus knew the scriptures better along with their original context and intent, he fought back with the same but powerful “it is written” statement in front of which Satan could not stand (see Deuteronomy 6:16). However, Satan has not relented in using this trick on Jesus’ disciples, as even today he leads many astray by misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Word of God. If the devil comes in the form of a person who seems to know the scriptures well come along and prompts us to do something ridiculous, we all need to go back to the Bible and examine it carefully in its proper context. A lot of errors in churches today could be avoided if believers were diligent in studying and obeying God’s Word. One of such errors in the church today is going after the physical healings and miracles sans spirituality. In fact, a few preachers teach people to ask for the miraculous thus leading them to test God. Yes, miracles do happen to the believing and yes Jesus is still alive to do them. But only a faith that is weak seeks a sign and/or the miraculous intervention to believe in God and in His almighty power. Jesus told Satan, however, that His faith in God’s power is unwavering and He doesn’t need to seek or show any extraordinary miracle to prove God’s power and presence with Him. May we continue to fight the natural urge to go after signs and miracles; rather let us learn to trust in Him even when God appears to be invisible and silent. Amen.

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Lenten Reflections 2012: Retreating into the wildernss with Jesus, Day 18

Published by V John on March 13, 2012

Day 18, Tuesday, March 13, 2012

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 17.

Published by V John on March 12, 2012

Day 17, Monday, March 12, 2012

Matthew 4:1-4 tells us that Jesus was hungry and Satan made it a point of temptation by asking Him to make bread out of stones. Satan fully knew that Jesus was the Son of God and yet he wanted Jesus to doubt His identity in the face of hunger. For the Son of God, there was nothing wrong in being hungry and even with turning the stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. However, Jesus refused to obey Satan because He was on a mission. Jesus knew that He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and that it was the will of His father for Him to go hungry at this time. Jesus was fasting and praying for a spiritual work that was according to the will of His heavenly Father and Jesus had learned to do nothing outside the will of His Father. The very discipline of fasting is for the purpose of taking one’s eyes and dependency off the material necessities and to focus on God, His purpose of sending Jesus on earth, and how that would be fulfilled in the coming days as Jesus obeyed Him. Thus, any acceptance of Satan’s suggestion would have taken Jesus’ eyes off God and if He had done what Satan wanted Him to do, Jesus would have done the will of the devil instead of continuing in the perfect will of His Father.

Jesus also didn’t fall for the temptation to prove his divinity because by His refusal to obey him, He wanted to tell the devil and thereby to all of us that to remain hungry is better than to be fed by the bread outside the will of God for our lives. The essence of being divine or, for that matter, the essence of anyone being a follower of Christ is our obedience to the Father by doing His will and not to prove who we are. Our identity is found in doing the will of God rather than in seeking or performing miracles.

You and I may be in a place of hunger today, which means a place of need and lacking the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter and clothing for our family. It’s in such points of need that Satan’s temptations become severe in our lives. We may even feel justified by fulfilling those pressing needs by any means for the sake of our family. The temptation may come in any form and at times may not even seem like a temptation at all. However, in such a situation, we need to remind ourselves that perhaps we’re in the wilderness and in privation under the will of God who has led us into this situation. He may have a better purpose for leading us through all this. Like Jesus, may we continue to seek to be in the will of God and choose to go hungry rather than feed upon the goodies that are independent of the will of God? Amen!

The Temptations of Jesus (brakeman1.wordpress.com)

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 17.

Published by V John on March 12, 2012

Day 17, Monday, March 12, 2012

The Temptations of Jesus (brakeman1.wordpress.com)

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Lenten Reflections 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 16

Published by V John on March 10, 2012

Slices of French Bread — Image via Wikipedia

Day 16, Saturday, March 10, 2012

In the first temptation when the devil wanted Jesus to make bread out of stones because He was hungry, Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4: 4, Luke 4:4). Interestingly, Jesus cited Deuteronomy 8:2-3 from memory. If you recall, we saw how Jesus’ experience is very similar to the wilderness experience of the Israelites. Deut. 8:2-3 (NIV) reads,

“Remember 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. 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 must have been reading the Word of God and contemplating on Israelites’ experience in the wilderness of Sinai. That’s why, in the face of hunger and temptation, he could tell Satan that there is more to our earthly life than just our physical needs. If we go deeper in the Word of God and do in our life what it says, we, too, will soon realize that the Word is life-giving. Compared to the worldly things surrounding us, the Bible says:

“‘But the word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Pet 1:25-2:2 NewKJV).

The Word of God can satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst and thus we should grow spiritually. There are millions of people today that call themselves Christian, but aren’t growing at all. God has blessed them physically, financially, and in every other way, as He did the people of Israel. But as far as the Word of God and their spiritual life is concerned, they are at the same stage today at which they were 25 years ago or so. They haven’t grown. As a result, they have grown in their dependency on the material stuff that has been accumulated around them. Therefore, in the face of testing of their faith, they will not have the spiritual resources to draw from and cannot win over the tempter. Today, let us look within and in the past. What is the source of your life? Is it the Word of God? What’s exactly the place of the Word of God in your life? Is it only to be kept under the pillow, on the bookshelf, or in the suitcase when you travel? Or, has it just become a habit that you read the Word and then forget about it? How much have you grown in the Word since you became a follower of Christ? God bless! Amen.

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Lenten Reflections: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 15.

Published by V John on March 9, 2012

Day 15, Friday, March 9, 2012

In the third temptation of Jesus, we see devil’s heart’s desire displayed unmistakably—he wants to be God. Essentially, this is what made him what he is today. Please read Isaiah 14:12-15 and Revelation 12:9, as they describe Satan’s nature and origin. Lucifer, as he’s called in Isaiah 14:12 in several older translations, used to be in the presence of God. But he could not stomach that only God was worshiped in heaven. He was proud as illustrated in Isaiah 14: 12-15 where his “I will” statements appear five times in just two sentences. “I will” often stems from a heart full of boasting. Therefore, due to his pride the devil rebelled against God, and was thrown out of His presence to become the source of all evil.

In the first two temptations when Satan failed to trick Jesus into obedience to what he wanted Him to do, Satan showed his true colors, and wished that Jesus would bow down to him. He desperately wanted to be acknowledged and worshiped as God. For this purpose, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth. The Roman Empire at Jesus’ time was the greatest in history. Its geographical reach and cultural splendor remained unparalleled for a long time until it fell and what we see today is only its ruins. Jesus must have been surely impressed by the glory and splendor of the kingdoms and nations of the world and what humanity has achieved through its God-given creativity. However, Jesus also knew the depravity of human beings and the temporal nature of all that our hands have produced. His eyes were fixed on the eternal Kingdom of God which he had come to proclaim both to the kings and to the commoner. He, therefore, didn’t want to do anything with the kingdoms of this earth. He knew, as he later stated, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). That’s why Jesus responded: “Go away Satan! The Scriptures say: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:10). And the devil left him. In the similar temptations of our lives today where so many things are vying for our attention, adoration and adulation, let us focus our eyes on the eternal Kingdom of God. And Satan will not be able to lead us astray. Amen.

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 14.

Published by V John on March 8, 2012

Day 14, Thursday, March 8, 2012

Matthew 4 states, “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1 RSV, also see Mark 1:13, Luke 4:1-2). Exploring the temptations of Jesus Christ in the wilderness is very rewarding. The three most trusted tools with which Jesus confronted the temptations were fasting, prayer, and the Word of God. The Lenten season helps us grow in all three of these disciplines. But the nature of Jesus’ temptations also teaches us strategies to resist the temptations in our wilderness experience.

In the first two temptations (see Matthew 4: 3, 5-6; Luke 4:3, 6-7), the devil provoked Jesus to prove to him and to the world that He indeed was the “Son of God.” In the first temptation, the challenge was: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread,” and in the second one: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…” If Jesus was the Son of God then He didn’t need bread to survive and if He threw Himself down, He will not be physically injured. The gospels remind us Jesus’ full humanity by stating that He indeed was very hungry. But the devil asked Him to prove His divinity. Jesus didn’t fall for this trick but instead reminded the devil of His humanity. Just before Jesus was led into the wilderness, He had heard the affirming words of His Father about His divinity. He has been growing in intimacy with His Father during His solitary time of prayer and fasting. Thus, Jesus was sure of His divine identity when the devil tempted Him to doubt it. He tried to bring thoughts of distrust at one of the most vulnerable times in Jesus’ life. When the devil tried to bring doubts about the voice of God, Jesus simply replied by the certainty of the Word of God: “It is written.” It meant that whatever you may say, devil, I am sure of the finality of the Word of God and of the assurance of my Father.

As followers of Christ, we too, are many times led into similar situations where the devil creeps in with doubts at our vulnerable moments. He tries to raise doubts about the authenticity of God’s Word and His promises. He may tempt us to prove something to him and/or to the world around us. In such situations, we too need to respond with “It is written.” However, we can do so only when we have read, learned, and tested the Word of God to be true in our own lives. Remember, the devil also knows the Word of God, and he knows it better than most Christians! We cannot fool him, but we certainly can defeat him by saying and doing things that show our trust in God, His Word, and in His promises made for us. Amen.

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 14.

Published by V John on March 8, 2012

Day 14, Thursday, March 8, 2012

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Lenten Reflection 2012: Retreating into the wilderness with Jesus, Day 13.

Published by V John on March 7, 2012

Day 13, Wednesday, March 7, 2012

We saw yesterday that Christ’s followers’ fasting is different from other fasting. It’s different in one more way: Lenten fasting requires not just giving up of food and stuff, but offering ourselves completely to the Lord. Repentance is a prerequisite when we fast from food. However, what is even more important during fasting is that we learn to offer ourselves, our sins, imperfections, shortcomings and all to God the Father. It is for the purpose of Him accepting us as we are and then working on us as a Master Craftsman according to His perfect will and use us for His glory. So, God desires that we present to Him our whole beings. However broken our lives may be, God can and will still work on it, as the Psalmist David wrote out of his experience: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

When we are ready to give up ourselves completely at the feet of our Master, we will acknowledge our powerlessness. We will also give up our illusions that we are the masters of our own destiny and our world. This will help us give up control that we so strongly want to have over not just ourselves but also over others. Surrendering ourselves will bring us to the acknowledgement that we are not really the masters of this universe; rather, it is God, the Creator, who is the Lord of the universe. Such a realization is truly humbling because we resent so much being told that we are powerless and not in control. But when we are brought to this point, we too can say along with the Psalmist: “In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame” (Psalm 71:1). Another Psalmist promises that, “No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame” (Psalm 25:3). May God help us during this Lent to bring ourselves at His altar and give up our self, control, and possessiveness and to start believing that Jesus became powerless for our sake. And that it was through the surrender, weakness, and vulnerability of Jesus Christ that God worked out the salvation of humanity! He can fulfill His purposes when we give up ourselves at His feet. Amen.

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