I’m sitting here listening to a pod cast by Andy Stanley. Get them online for free you will not regret it.
The talking is about character and he briefly referenced the temptations of Christ by Satan. If you are familiar with this particular part of scripture, you may get awestruck as to how Jesus went forty days without food and still managed to reject it which is totally amazing in it of itself. But the thing that jumps out to me most in this line of scripture is this verse:
The devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: (this is the part that gets me)
‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’.”
It hit me here. Satan knows the Scripture better than I ever will. Which is scary to me. because he will try to manipulate verses, just like we see him doing to get Jesus to give in to temptation, to get me to do something and worse, to justify doing it with scripture. The reason it is such a big deal to me that I feel I have to write about it is simply this; be ready. I do not try to divulge my brain into the deepest darkest fights of our time, but if you believe in Christ you have to know that there is a battle going on that is dangerous. It is so dangerous because the enemies already know the endgame. They already know the final plan.
How many times do we as Christians fall into this trap. We say things like “oh, it is no big deal, I can just pray and everything is good to go.” Or we can get worse, “Well, I have already sinned, might as well sin big.” These things I have even said in my immaturity. I used this “God will forgive me” cushion to chase after these things that I tried to justify. There is no justification for sin except sacrifice. Luckily for us Jesus through a sucker punch to the jaw of Mr. Satan. I cannot wait for the day that Jesus beats him down literally. Even in my chair I get excited. But before that day comes, I will have to atone for what I have done. Satan will try to rack that bill up as much as he can.
Satan fights dirty. Simply put. Be ready.
Kudos to Jesus for withstanding such a devastating temptation. I will write more about this in a later post I am sure.
leadershape 