Into the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-2

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan an was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil."

As I said, this story helped me get to know Jesus more than any other. This may be a small part, but it opens up so many questions for me. But lets start with what we "know".

By this time, we have read the Christmas story, gotten to know Zachariah, his wife Elizabeth, and his son, John the Baptist, had a scene from Jesus' boyhood where he 'almost' got in trouble for not checking in with his parents, and seen Jesus baptized by His cousin (good ol' John B.), and learned of his heritage. Man, Jesus was definitely in a holy family: liniage going through King David, father Abraham, Noah, Adam...God. And let's not forget that John B. was his cousin, too.

Now, Jesus has been filled with the Holy Spirit and led into the wilderness. He didn't start doing miracles fresh out of the Jordan, He followed the Spirit into a wild, dangerous, unforgiving place. Sounds like the place you'd find the devil, huh?

A few thoughts went through my mind when reading these lines. What did it feel like to be filled with the Spirit? I know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us as well, but Jesus is the first human to house the Holy Spirit. Could so much power have been overwhelming to His mortal side? Being filled with a Spirit that knows all and can do all, I imagine that the physical and limited body would feel restricting and constricting. Many of the great leaders of the Bible have needed to first spend some alone time with God before they can fulfill their missions. It didn't start and didn't end with Jesus. Look at Abraham: he had to move away from his home entirely. Moses, ran into a living bush on fire but also had to repeatedly get alone with God. Paul, spent years out alone with God learning the message. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by what you must do? Jesus knew full well what ahead of Him, so He ran to God.

He also ran straight into trouble. I find it interesting that so far, the places God is aren't where He is expected, which is the Temple in Jerusalam. Now, yes, God can be in more than one place at one time, but right now, the places that matter are out in the wilderness. Jesus is having to go outside of where He is comfortable. He doesn't have any of the civilization or community that He has grown up with around Him. Whatever happens, it is truly between Him and God.

Sometimes, getting away from it all seems really nice, but we always intend to return from our vacation. When I am surrounded by familular people and places, it is so easy for me to rely on myself and others to get through a trial. Imagining going through what Jesus went through isn't pleasant. What I am getting from this part is that the Holy Spirit will lead me out of my comfort zone, and I will have to rely on God (not my strength) to get back home. I definitely have room for improvement on that point.

Enter the antagonist...Why did the devil tempt Jesus? At this point, the Holy Spirit dwelling in Jesus has been referenced twice in one sentence; Jesus is fully in the power of God. What did the devil hope to achieve?

I will stop here today. Believe me, the story is just getting started. Please feel free to share your revelations as well, and I will be back next Wednesday (hopefully not at such a late hour).

God bless!

Weakness

This seems to happen a lot, huh? I write one post and then it is three plus months until the next. Sorry about that.

Last time, I tried to do a series on Hebrews 11:1, my favorite verse, and we got through maybe half of it! God truly is amazing to be able to put so much meaning into a sentence that we can study it repeatedly and still get so much out of it. Well, I think we are going to hold the Faith series to continue at another time; I have a new series!

This summer has really been a sad one for my spiritual life. The reason I haven't written in so long is because I have been so spiritually starved that it should be considered anorexic. Until today, I haven't been to church since EASTER! Why? Transitional malcontent. I've been moving quite a bit, and it hasn't made sense to me to get comfortable in a church. To be honest, I have somehow developed a bad taste in my mouth for some churches. There is something missing, but I don't know what. It doesn't help that I work two Sundays a month, makes being regular a little difficult. So, my independent nature started to take over, thinking that I could lead my own Christian life for the time being...See anything wrong with that statement?

Now that I am settled in my new home, I've started to re-evaluated where I have and haven't been with God. I began praying and making a list of what I am really seeking in a church and what kind of a church God would like for me to be in. Let's just say that I really think that He answered those prayers today.

I have also been more interactive in my quiet time. At the beginning of the month, I was drawn to the story of Jesus' temptation. There has been only one sermon that I have heard on this text, and after studying it, I wonder why. Why do we seem to passively read the temptation of our Lord? The reason I did was because of it apparent obviousness: Jesus is perfect, and we should always go to scripture when we are tempted. Pretty basic stuff, right?

Well, of course I am going to disagree with the initial glance. It has taken me about two weeks to get through just 13 verses, and I learned more about Jesus as a person than I ever have through any other story by this point. We love to talk about His wisdom and miraculous acts, but this is a story depicting Him as a human just about to face the cruel world with the Gosple. It is a story about His weaknesses...

I am going to stop here, so you can take some time and read the story yourself. The version I use was Luke 4:1-13. I promise, I will continue on Wednesday. May God reveal as much to you as He did to me.