Mystery of God

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted[a] by the devil.  (Luke 4:1-2)"

I find it interesting that after Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil. To our self pleasing minds this just doesn't seem right.  The Holy Spirit is suppose to produce in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, kindness,...(Galatians 5:22-23); not take us to the devil! Yet if we look at the details one of the fruits of the Spirit is self control.  Was God using this wilderness experience to grow Jesus fruit of self control?  Or was this a test to see if He was ready for the next project God had for Him?

What I do know is after the Alpha Holy Spirit weekend many courses show the video on Spiritual warfare because it seems to be a pattern; an amazing Holy Spirit time and then the wrestling of satan.

Remember we fight against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world (Ephesians 6:12) so "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people."

5-16-30

http://www.5-16-30.com/

The wolf will live with the lamb ...the lion...and a little child shall lead them Isaiah 11:6

As I observe the Waterloo region police logo I'm reminded of Isaiah 11:6 and then I think isn't it just like God to do the unexpected; to send His son, Jesus, to this world as a baby of a "nobody".  When I think of all the power of God; what a perfect way for us to learn how to trust Him. 

Then I think of how He modeled peace.  When Peter was ready to fight Jesus healed as He told Peter "if you live by the sword you die by the sword" Matthew 26:52.  I can imagine Peter's hurt when Jesus rejected his loving solution yet their reconciliation was amazing.  Jesus told him the way to love Him was to tend and feed His sheep (His people) John 21:15-17 .

The question is are we fighting for Jesus or are we tending and feeding His sheep?

The book of Mark challenge

Read one chapter from the book of Mark each day and ask God what He's showing you.  It's powerful!

Philippians

What an incredible inspiration!  I've just been reading it in the Message version.  Philippians 2 really highlights how amazing Jesus of Nazareth is!

Light from darkness -- lightmagazine@gideons.ca

When people think about the Bible, they often think of it as a spiritual instruction guide or a book of things that Christians are supposed to do.  However, Christ Himself tells us that the Scriptures are not about Christians at all; they are about Him and what He came to do -- an epic story with Christ as the central theme from beginning to end (Luke 24:25,27,44-47)

The Bible is made up of 66 books written by about forty different authors over a period of approximately 1500 years.  The Spirit of God superintended the writing of all 66 books, which is why they are all telling the same story:

Christ, the light of the world came into our darkness.  He came into our suffering and sin to give us His life.  Today we have over 34,000 historic manuscripts of the Old Testament and New Testament that all align to bring unbelievably good news:

Christ Jesus, the light of the world, can overcome the darkness of our sin.

The human problem is not outside us (our environment), nor are the answers within us (sin); our answer is outside us (a Saviour).

Because all humanity was condemned when Adam sinned at the beginning of creation, sin is not simply an act, but the condition we are all born into.  We don't need to look far to see the effects of sin in our world.  Nobody is perfect, yet perfection is precisely what a perfect God requires from us.

Therefore, God lovingly planned to send His light -- Christ -- into our darkness to pay the price for our sin, accomplishing it by His perfect life, sacrificial death and divine resurrecution.  Placing our faith in Christ takes us from darkness and brings us into light, freeing us from the death penalty of our sin.

Nobody lives forever on earth, but we who hope in Christ have assurance that our end is not darkness and death -- it is light and eternal life.  This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Character development

Two good books to study in this area are:

"Experiencing the Spirit" by Henry and Melvin Blackaby
and
"Growing Kingdom character" by Tom Yeakley

http://www.familyreunionmusic.com/article/128/music/del-friends/i-heard-about