Matthew 4

Jesus is someone who while as a fully man AND fully God, never had much alone time- alone with his Father time... Jesus was called by the spirit to go on a retreat/fast of sorts, *insert dramatic music* Satan took this moment to try to tempt Jesus into submitting to him, instead of God. The most common way in which Satan throws the gauntlet into Jesus' way is by saying 'do this' (part 1) and then backing it up with Bible verses! I won't call it clever, but it is a reminder that even Satan knows what the Bible says, in the same way, people can speak about the Bible on end, but only possess head knowledge instead of heart knowledge... It is quite the process of shifting the head to the heart.

Jesus also throws back Bible verses in Satan's face... I imagine Satan sneering and wondering Why didn't I think of that one? When all is said and done, Jesus is aided by angels... This is the event that occured before he started his ministry.

Jesus goes out to make disciples, He doesn't go for the popular, He doesn't go for the rich, He settles for the ordinary; smelly fisherman... In all cases, God calls the ordinary to do the extraordinary.
With the disciples, Jesus makes his way around the people; Teaching them, preaching the good news and healing... He didn't come to them to teach/preach the 'do's and don't's' of being a follower... He came in and reached them at ground level.

In the same way, we should make our lifestyle our ministry and our ministry our lifestyle... So people may never pick up a Bible and read it and understand it, but for those people, we should be a "living Bible". That is, Live out what we know as followers of Christ, and let that be the Bible that they read and understand.


Going on by God's strength alone,