Matthew 4:4

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


Yesterday, I preached from the Gospel of Luke, but the words match these words written by Matthew. I will requote from my sermon:  “We live in a world where we must know the Christian story to resist the false stories that take us captive. Satan offers us through Jesus a storyline of self-indulgence, self-glorification, and self-service. Both Satan and Jesus use scripture and they both quote it. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy, Satan from Psalms. What this tells us is that it is not enough to know scripture; it must be read rightly whilst considering God’s nature, and it must be applied. God’s story is a story of deliverance and faithful obedience to God rather than our own self-reliance. If we are to fight the foe which leads us astray with temptations, we must read the Bible everyday! If we are thinking the wrong things because we do not know His word then we are believing the wrong things and will be easily misled. There needs to be a revival in reading God’s word, there needs to be a revival in knowing how to fight the temptations which surround us in the 21st century. Jesus is our example. He fought Satan’s temptations and misuse of the scriptures by knowing God’s word and remaining faithful to it. If we proclaim the name of Christ, but fail to read our Bible, we are hypocrites. We cannot fight our temptations on unfounded information. We are an example to the world…we are the light of the world! Let your light shine with Gospel truth. It is written! Jesus said so!

Pastor Julia

image by pixabay

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments

Popular posts from this blog

Proverbs 18:2

Image
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in sharing their own opinions ~ Proverbs 18:2 If we are going to understand something, we must fully digest it so that when we speak, we speak with wisdom. When we have only half truths in our mind, our words become empty and senseless. We then puff out air rather than understanding when we speak. A wise person will want to improve their mind through learning in various ways from the world around them. A person who delights in spiritual understanding will find peace and enjoyment in reading the Word of God on a daily basis, and in participating with God’s people in a learning and praising environment – the church! We come together in corporate worship with the understanding that not one of us knows all things, but we bend our mind and heart to learn what God has to show and say to us. A foolish person makes a show of what they “know” to please their friends or to save face in front of them. More often a wise person will hold t
Read more

Romans 8:26

Image
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans ~ Romans 8:26 Many days, many times, I have the words for prayer. It comes forth and flows fairly naturally as I converse with my Lord God. I hope in the God I worship to hear me, and to receive my words, as I pray in the name of Jesus and believe in Him, my intercessor. He is my Living Saviour, my High Priest, standing at the right hand of God the Father. But there are times when my pain has been so deep that my words will not come. There are times when my agony is so piercing that what words I may speak would not be enough. And so, in my deep, black moments, I come before my God and let my darkest emotions erupt in sounds that only He can understand. The Holy Spirit within me cries out in my stead, and He becomes my second intercessor. It is not that He is not there with me in all my prayers, but there are times wh
Read more

Isaiah 43:19

Image
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ~ Isaiah 43:19 When we meet a challenge, we are often found discouraged, lost, even hopeless. Nothing is working, everything seems to be against us. We do not know how to move forward, so we remain curled up in a ball. Then, a glimmer of light shines through! Hope is regained and movement is stirred within. Don’t we become excited when we begin to feel it? God moves like that. We cannot see our way around it, but He can and does. And He makes a way for us out of the calamity of our fears. It is the feeling of springtime after a long winter, or the smell of fresh cut grass. Life stirs within and we move and we see what God saw all the time – the answer to our dilemma. Our desert place becomes an oasis, and we can do what we are called to do. Something totally unexpected happens, something unheard of, but it begins in our life, and we feel the
Read more