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Jan 19
Weekly Update
By Pastor Jeff
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Good morning NCL family,
Why would God want Jesus to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness? One reason was to prepare Him for the ministry that God had sent Him to accomplish.
Satan tempted Jesus after He was in the wilderness for forty days. He was all alone, He was tired, and He was hungry when Satan tempted Him with the idea that He could get what He wanted in a way that would not involve the suffering of the cross. Satan took Him to a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said, “You can have it all if you fall down and worship me,” (Matthew 4:9). Jesus met every temptation in the same way that we can meet them, by simply trusting in what has been written in the Word: “It is written...” Three times He said it. One of the three things Jesus was, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). In the mental, the physical, and the spiritual areas of life, Jesus was not overcome because he found nourishment in the Word of God, “It is written!”
God tests us all! How do you react in your testings? Like Jesus, God tests us in order to toughen us and prepare us for the work of the ministry He has called us to accomplish. I found this poem that paints a perfect picture for us:
“When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man, and skill a man; When God wants to mold a man to create so great and bold a man that all the world shall be amazed, watch his methods, watch his ways how he ruthlessly perfects whom he royally elects. How he hammers him and hurts him, and with mighty blows, converts him into trial shapes of clay which only God understands, while his tortured heart is crying, and he lifts his beseeching hands. How he bends but never breaks when his good he undertakes. How he uses whom he chooses, and with every purpose, fuses him, by every act, induces him to try his splendor out. God know what he’s about!” (Author unknown)
Today, make it your aim to trust in the Word of God. If you do, you are certain to be nourished in the mental, physical, and spiritual areas Satan tries to tempt you with!
This coming Sunday morning we are going to see that Jesus did not go into the desert unprepared! The first act of preparation was His baptism where He received “The Blessing of the Father” (Mark 1:9-15).
