Do the ends justify the means?

Just before Jesus ministry began, he was in the wilderness, and Satan came to tempt Him (Luke 4). Satan suggested that Jesus make stones into bread bkz Jesus was hungry. On the surface, nothing seems wrong with this request, but Satan was asking Him to prove He was the Son of God by making stones into bread. Jesus, in His pride or arrogance, could have done so to say, "See what I can do? See Who I am?" But He had nothing to prove to Satan, so He responded with "Man shall not live on bread alone" (vs. 4).

So then Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would just bow down and worship him. Jesus could avoid all of the pain and suffering that He would experience in about 3 years if He just bowed down to worship Satan. It seems a whole lot easier, bkz then the kingdoms of the world would belong to Jesus and His death would be unnecessary. But He submitted to God's will, and didn't allow Satan to get any glory. Only God deserves glory. He responded, "You shall worship the Lord Your God and serve Him only" (vs. 8).

The third time Satan takes Him up on the pinnacle of the temple, and says basically, "Go ahead and show off . . . if You throw yourself off of this pinnacle, You can command angels to come save You. That would be cool to show off Your power." Satan even quotes Scripture to try to convince Jesus. But Jesus responds, "You shall not put the Lord Your God to the test" (vs. 12).

Jesus was more concerned about God's agenda . . . and not just the end result of God's agenda, but the process as well. He followed God's will, and He didn't break any of God's laws in the process.

The Catholic church has a law that exempts lying in self-defense of life, person, & property, but God is clear that lying is sin. If we have to sin to carry out what we think it God's will, then the means probably isn't God's will. Don't you think that God would take care of us if we chose to do what He commands us to do?

Pondering Joseph & Mary's Journey

I'm always intrigued by the songs that people have written about Mary & Joseph. They pose intriguing questions and thoughts of what might have been going through their heads. Like "when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God?" (Mary Did You Know). "How could it be this baby in my arms, sleeping now, so peacefully, the Son of God, how could it be?" (Joseph's song).

I started reading Luke the other day, since I had finished Judges, and was looking for somewhere to go. The Christmas story seemed appropriate. God has shown me more this year than ever before about the story. I've been able to put myself in their shoes a little more. Yesterday, when I was reading about Zacharias & Elizabeth, I thought it was interesting that Zacharias referred to Jesus as "the Sunrise from on High." I liked that as you probably gathered from a recent blog.

This morning as I'm reading about the shepherds, an angel of the Lord appears to them, and they are afraid. I'm sure they were more than startled when it says "suddenly" (2:13) a multitude of heavenly host appeared. They go running to find this child, and then tell everyone what the angel told them "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (2:11 & 17). The Savior that they had been waiting for and they had heard nothing about for 400 years was here!

Vs. 19 says, "but Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." How cool to hear & observe these shepherds that she didn't know from Adam come running in to see the Savior. I'm sure Mary & Joseph didn't tell too many people for fear of people thinking they are nuts or for even talking about her being pregnant without being married. They probably laid low during her pregnancy as much as possible. It was like God continued to confirm for her that He was doing this, and she could trust Him, even though she had already committed to Him (1:38).

I love how when we obey Him willingly, He blesses us so much for our obedience. I think this is what Mary was treasuring in her heart. Do we obey willingly even if it will "look bad" to the world around us?

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

My new favorite Christmas carol is Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. I've been learning over the last few years more and more about Christmas. God's people had been waiting for the Messiah. After Malachi, there was 400 years of hearing nothing from God. Talk about trusting God! Those people waited a long time for God's promise to be fulfilled. Read the words to this song with those thoughts in mind.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in Thee

Israel's strength and consolation

Hope of all the earth Thou art

Dear desire of every nation

Joy of ev'ry longing heart

Born Thy people to deliver

Born a child, and yet a King

Born to reign in us forever

Now Thy gracious Kingdom bring

By Thine own eternal Spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone

By Thine all sufficient merit

Raise us to Thy glorious throne

Israel's strength and consolation

Hope of all the earth Thou art

Dear desire of every nation

Joy of ev'ry longing heart

Come Jesus Come

So now, as we celebrate the fact that He did come even after 400 years of silence from God. He came, He lived, He died, & He rose again. AND He will also come again. We wait in expectation of His return. I get very tired of the fallenness of this world, and so let's reflect on Him . . . He is coming again to restore His kingdom. So I'm longing for the expected Jesus! Merry Christmas!

Sunrises

Wow . . . it has been awhile since I posted. The Lord has been taking me through a very dry time, but He has still been faithful.

This morning, I walked out of my bedroom to the sunrise shining through the window. I love sunrises. God & I have this agreement that whenever I see a good sunrise or sunset, that I will stop & reflect on His love & faithfulness. So this morning, I stood in my living room, eating my yogurt, and pondering God's love & faithfulness to me.

As I watched the sun rise, a layer of dark cloudiness hovered above. Within a couple of minutes, the sun rise was limited by that cloudiness, and eventually I couldn't see the sunrise anymore. All I could see was clouds. I said to the Lord, "Is this foretelling of my day today? Are you saying, 'Remember I love you, bkz it is going to get difficult?'" He said, "All I'm saying is that sometimes, you can easily see My love & faithfulness, and other times, you need to just trust Me that it is there."

So as I came to work and things went nuts for the first 3 hours, I looked back and said, "Yes, He loves me. He chose me. He is still faithful . . . even when everything else is trying to distract me from that truth."

Will You Still Love Him?

I had to contain myself. I had almost the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 8 posted here, and then realized that you all probably aren't as excited about it as I am. I encourage you to read the whole chapter if you are interested, especially verses 11-18. So a small bite . . . here are some of my favorite verses from my reading this morning in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 "You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD."

The Lord is constantly trying to humble us. We think we do things, but we don't. We can't do anything without Him. These verses grabbed my attention when I got to He "let you be hungry . . . that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD." The Lord allowed the Israelites to be hungry so that they would know it isn't about physical food. He wanted to refine their character and make them more like Him.

So yes . . . it is all for our good . . . even going hungry. Will we trust that He is teaching us even when we don't have everything that we think we need? Will you still love & serve Him even if He lets you be hungry?

(In verses 11-18, He goes on and addresses this situation more including money.)

Learning about Humility

I've been learning alot about my pride in case you haven't noticed from my previous postings. I spot pride quickly in people, bkz I hate my sin of pride, and I hate seeing it in other people as well. But it again becomes about me & my pride. "I see your pride . . . you better deal with it!" My attitude has been judgmental, tense, & divisive, not always outwardly but to myself. However, if unattended to, it will become outward.

People's pride comes out in controlling personalities, extreme insecurity, extremely opinionated, cockiness, etc. After spending some time processing how difficult it is to love people who are like this, the Lord reminded me of my struggle with pride, and how humility is the antithesis to pride. I've been praying for the Lord to teach me humility withouth humiliating me, and He has been so graciously doing so. (I'm so grateful!) As I sat in my car processing how I could deal with these people, and then being reminded of humility, I remembered back through my most recent interactions with difficult people, and the Lord showed me how I can be humble in those situations. He showed me that I need to speak less & listen more. When I visualized what it would look like with me not feeling the need to voice my opinion, disapproval, etc, I thought, that reminds me of how Jamie Work is. He is gentle, kind, peaceable. He doesn't always speak, when he certainly could . . . this is godly wisdom (James 3:17). This is very different from my judgmental & tense attitude. Then I looked up and saw the beginning of chapter 3, and realized it is all about controlling the tongue. When you control the tongue, you control the whole body! James 3:2 says, " . . .we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well."

I've been learning alot, so I know that this blog may not make as much sense to you as it does to me, but I wanted to share it. Our tongue gets us into alot of trouble, and if we can be humble & control our tongue, I can see why James calls him a "perfect man."

Its About Him

I've been reading Colossians this week, and each morning, I'm brought back to how everything is about Christ. He is the head of the body. He is preeminent. Everything we do should be for Him. We should constantly look at things like He would look at things.

I struggle hard to do this somedays. Some days I win, some days I lose. Most days involve me winning some & losing some. As I struggle today , I realize it is bkz my eyes are on what I want, not what He wants. He wants my eyes on Him. I want my eyes on Him . . . but I want what I want too.

Lord help me to be willing to give up my desires in order to achieve what You have for me to do. Help me to be completely satisfied in You.