Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: Psalms

  • Deceived

    Deceived

    L. It is her. I know it is her. She is to be God’s blessing to me. But what of this mystery (a sadder eyes)? How could it not be her; what can it mean? 

    Psalm 116

    10 I believed, even when I spoke:
    “I am greatly afflicted”;
    11 I said in my alarm,
    “All mankind are liars.”

    12 What shall I render to the Lord
    for all his benefits to me?
    13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
    and call on the name of the Lord,
    14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people.

    Genesis 28:20-22 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

    First, a riddle, then a Psalm; then, a vow of Jacob at Bethel. What does this have to do with marriage?

    See the relationship of truth to vows and covenant and worship and yes, the importance of truth in marriage: a lesson Jacob had to learn as consequence of sin and consequence of deceit. Let’s begin with his blessing by his father, prior to his marriage:

    Genesis 27:22  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” …

    29b Be lord over your brothers,
    and may your mother’s sons bow down to you.
    Cursed be everyone who curses you,
    and blessed be everyone who blesses you!”

    Rebekah deceived her husband; Jacob deceived his father Isaac.

    42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban my brother in Haran…

     Jacob flees to live under the protection of Laban, his mother’s brother, rather than risk his life in the lands of his father. Isaac confirms it. 

    Genesis 29

    10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s kinsman, and that he was Rebekah’s son, and she ran and told her father.

    13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.

    This relationship ‘Surely you are my bone and my flesh’ should sound familiar (even familial): a closeness of husband and wife, a closeness of sister and brother, a closeness of relatives – different, each; but all important relationships.

    Now deceit enters once more into the picture:

    15 Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?” 16 Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

    17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.

    18 Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

    A bargain for love (not arranged by the fathers). A romantic picture… then they should ‘live happily ever after;’ that is, except for sin and lies and deceit.

    Imagine this romantic picture. Jacob has worked for his soon-to-be father-in-law for seven years and not had sexual relations with Rachel, whom he loved. A wedding feast; and then…

    21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.” 22 So Laban gathered together all the people of the place and made a feast. 23 But in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her.

    Deceit! Betrayal! As Jacob had lied and betrayed his own father’s trust to receive his blessing.

    Now what? Laban scrambles to make amends and keep the peace. He provides for both daughters and his new son-in-law, married to Leah; and, oh, by the way… if you will work for me another seven years, I will give you Rachel.

    Agreed. Now Jacob has two wives! But just like his Grandfather Abraham, he will reap the double blessings and increased difficulties of marriage even more-so. (We won’t go into that here.)

    First, God will bring Jacob back to truth, before confirming with him covenant.

    Genesis 31:  Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” 2 And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. 3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

    Jacob flees Laban with his wives, children, herds and possessions. Laban pursues and catches up. They make a truce.

    48 Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore he named it Galeed, 49 and Mizpah, for he said, “The Lord watch between you and me, when we are out of one another’s sight. 50 If you oppress my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no one is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.”

    They become two families at peace, though separated by distance and a border. The wife given by the father to her husband… both wives to their one husband, Jacob; and the servant wives as well (another story) and all the grandchildren.

    Jacob has become a sojourner once more (as was his grandfather, Abraham).

    Genesis 32 Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. 2 And when Jacob saw them he said, “This is God’s camp!” So he called the name of that place Mahanaim…

     Finally, after all these years… after all these lies and consequences of lies: humility, obedience and a confession of repentance of sin before God:

    9 And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan…

    22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.

    24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day…

    27 And he said to him, “What is your name?”

    Jacob had clung to Esau’s heal at birth. Jacob had bought Esau’s blessing and fought to keep it by his lie to his father; for when Isaac asked his name, Jacob had replied with a lie: “Esau.” He now wrestles with the Lord.

    But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

    And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 

    Do you believe that you can prevail against God, unless it is God’s will?

    We must be humble to become god-like. We must confess truth to reap truth. We must honor our word.

    Israel: God prevails.

    God IS part of a godly marriage and a covenant of promise.

    Relationship requires truth. God knows truth.

    • Is your relationship with God honest?
    • Is your relationship with the husband (wife) of your vows honest?
    • Is your relationship with Christ Jesus honest?

    Is our witness of Christian marriage truthful when Christ asks:

    What is your name? 

     

    Next: A confession

  • Sojourners

    Sojourners

    Psalm 39:12 KJV

    Hear my prayer, O LORD,

    and give ear unto my cry;

    hold not thy peace at my tears:

    for I am a stranger with thee,

    and a sojourner,

    as all my fathers were.

    I have just moved, again: this time just across town near to my church family still, near to my wife and son, nearer to my temporary workplace and, I pray as in the words of the old hymn, Nearer My God to Thee.

    As we have been traveling with Jesus in the early days of His three-year earthly ministry as witnessed through the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has already taught the multitudes, enraged many local religious authorities and worked many miracles as evidence of His authority from God our Father in Heaven. Jesus has reported to John the Baptist evidence and confirmed to the multitudes and disciples that John is the greatest of all Prophets; for he has announced the earthly Presence of God the Son, Christ Jesus, Son of Man.

    We have also noted that Jesus of Nazareth left home under inauspicious circumstances, moved to Capernaum and continued to teach in many towns in many places and also on many deserted hillsides and seashores.

    For the three years of His earthly ministry Jesus truly had no home on earth. The Son of Man was a sojourner.

    Today we leave our consideration of Jesus’ early travels and the Gospel of Luke for a time.  Tomorrow, 5 May in the year of our Lord 2014, we will commemorate Ash Wednesday, the traditional beginning of Lent and 40 days of preparation for Easter. As we pause our look at Jesus’ thousand days before His final earthly trip to Jerusalem and the Cross, consider our connection to Christ’s place with no hometown here: as sojourners.

    I had asked yesterday, “How much do we owe God?” Perhaps you will recognize some of the following Old Testament scripture from a blessing of the offering at church; but note the sojourner here.

    1 Chronicles 29: 14 “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly?

    For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 15 For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.

    These are the words of David in presenting an offering to the Lord at the public installation of Solomon as King at the Temple of the Lord.

    David lived much of his life (even as the anointed King) as a sojourner, fleeing Saul, fleeing Philistines and other enemies, even in a sense fleeing his own son, Absalom. Yet David knew he could never flee from God. When he sinned, he would always repent an seek God’s own heart.

    psalm 121

    David’s home was not his palace. David’s heart longed to dwell in the pastures of our God and the House of our Great Shepherd.

    Jesus, Son of David, was also a sojourner. He knew every minute and every day of His incarnate life that the Cross of Sacrifice awaited Him on an appointed day in Jerusalem.  Sojourners Jesus and David also knew our true home – a heavenly home of our loving God and Father -is being prepared for our return from this earthly pilgrimage.

    You may recall that Israel was God’s new name for Jacob. Jacob was also a sojourner.

    Genesis 27:41 Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are approaching; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 But the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. 43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee…

    Jacob’s Dream

    10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac.”

    “The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

    16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

    18 So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of that place Bethel, [House of God] but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

    20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear,21 so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, 22 and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house.

    And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you.”

    Again, the sojourner Jacob makes an offering to God.

    The House of El Shaddai, God Almighty, is not in a place on this earth, but a place that is in Heaven.

    An even earlier mention of the sojourner:

    genesis_cave_of_machpelahGenesis 23:3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, 4 “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

    Commentary: Abraham stood up, &c.–Eastern people are always provided with family burying-places; but Abraham’s life of faith–his pilgrim state–had prevented him acquiring even so small a possession ( Act 7:5 ).

    (Much more could be said of this place (Machpelah) and of Jacob and Esau, dreams of Israel and dreams and of prophets.  Though the time draws near, this is not yet the time for God’s revelation of the false prophet.)

    Jesus was much more than just a Prophet. Jesus was much more than just a miracle worker. Jesus was much more than a great Teacher.

    If Jesus is NOT a liar, as is Satan and are false prophets, we must hear what our Lord, this sojourner on this earth has said – all of it, including: “Before Abraham was, I AM.”

    Jesus was worshiped by Abraham and David. Jesus was worshiped by prostitutes and tax collectors.

    Jesus IS and Jesus is worshiped by disciples and followers – sojourners and pilgrims in this temporal place, residing in failing flesh seeking the miracle of His breath of cleansing Life.

    A pilgrim in the world; a sojourner in the land

    Stranger and Sojourner (In the Old Testament):

    stranj’-er:

    Four different Hebrew words must be considered separately:

    (1) ger, the American Standard Revised Version “sojourner” or “stranger”;

    (2) toshabh, the American Standard Revised Version “sojourner”;

    (3) nokhri, ben nekhar, the American Standard Revised Version “foreigner”;

    (4) zar, the American Standard Revised Version “stranger.”

    I. THE GER

    This word with its kindred verb is applied with slightly varying meanings to anyone who resides in a country or a town of which he is not a full native land-owning citizen; e.g., the word is used of the patriarchs in Palestine, the Israelites in Egypt, the Levites dwelling among the Israelites (De 18:6; Jud 17:7, etc.), the Ephraimite in Gibeah (Jud 19:16). It is also particularly used of free aliens residing among the Israelites, and it is with the position of such that this article deals. This position is absolutely unparalleled in early legal systems (A. H. Post, Grundriss der ethnologischen Jurisprudenz, I, 448, note 3), which are usually far from favorable to strangers.

    It is the following ‘legal’ principle to which we refer as ‘the golden rule’ and to which Jesus pointed out to the Pharisee Simon, in whose home He dined while the sinful woman anointed His feet with oil: 

    1. Legal Provisions:

    (1) Principles.

    The dominant principles of the legislation are most succinctly given in two passages:

    He “loveth the ger in giving him food and raiment” (De 10:18); “And if a ger sojourn with thee (variant “you”) in your land, ye shall not do him wrong.

    The ger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were gerim in the land of Egypt” (Le 19:33 f).

    This treatment of the stranger is based partly on historic recollection, partly on the duty of the Israelite to his God. Because the ger would be at a natural disadvantage through his alienage, he becomes one of the favorites of a legislation that gives special protection to the weak and helpless.

    Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

    9 And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.

    4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimonyagainst them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

    The Cost of Following Jesus

    57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

    58 And Jesus said to him,“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

    59 To another he said,“Follow me.”

    But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

    61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

    “Follow me,” says the Lord, Christ Jesus. He IS a sojourner, yet more, He IS with you.

    Our Heavenly Dwelling

    5 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

    6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

    10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

    The Ministry of Reconciliation

    11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…

    14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

    20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

  • Redemption

    Redemption

    I want to tell you a story of an old woman and one of a young woman; a story of relationship and temptation.

    2 Samuel 5:7 Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.

    Scene I is in Jerusalem, about a thousand years or ten centuries after this record of Samuel from scripture.

    Luke 2: 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

    The woman was married as a young virgin to a man named Phanuel (which means: the face of God). After seven years her husband dies and she has lived several decades as a widow. She was known to be a prophetess. She would not have been allowed at the Temple in the City of David as a Jewish widow had her prophecies not been shown to have been from God. As a Priest might speak at the bidding of God and as a male Prophet might obediently convey God’s words to God’s people, Anna spoke prophesy.

    The Lord had spoken through the Prophets of old during the time of the 1000 years (these 10 centuries before Christ), but God had kept silent while a captured people (conquered this time by the Romans) awaited God’s long-sought redemption once more.

    Jesus is brought to the Temple and Anna also confirms the identity of the Redeemer of God.

    Scene II is in Jerusalem at the same Temple not centuries later, but just three decades, only 30 years.

    Luke 4:  And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil…

    9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,

    “‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    to guard you,’

    11 and

    “‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

    pinnacle of TempleAgain, this is thirty years after the Prophetess Anna had thanked God for this same Son of Man, Jesus.

    Satan took Jesus, a man, human like you or me; born to Mary, descendant of David, to the pinnacle of the Temple and said (in effect), “Jump. God will protect you.”

    Jesus is hungry and has already refused to turn stones into bread as Satan tempted him to do as the Son of God, not just a righteous son of man.  Satan had already asked this Son of Man to bow down to him and promised Jesus power over the Kingdoms of the world IF only he, Jesus, the Son of Man would worship the fallen angel of God. Again, Jesus did not seek the power of this world, as many of us do.

    We will return to Jesus’ answer to Satan (which you may know); but first we fast forward beyond the Cross of the Hill of Calvary and the grave and the Resurrection and the Ascension back to the glory of God the Father and the early days of the church and His several appearances to many sons of men to the present.

    Scene III takes place in Mount Zion National Park, USA, twenty centuries later, 8 February, in the year of our Lord 2014.

    The young woman tempted at the pinnacle is just two years younger that the Son of Man of our earlier scene. Her relationship to her new husband is not one of a virgin to a man of God’s leading, but rather a relationship of sharing in his sport of tempting God for the temporal experiences of living life to its fullest.

    She jumped from the pinnacle of Mount Zion. Her parachute did not open. Angels did not catch her. Her body and life were broken on the cold stone below. Her husband witnessed her choice to tempt God, as he so dearly loved to do; and now he is a widower.

    On this very day (10 Feb. 1999) fifteen years ago, I, too, became a widower; yet not by my choice or by intentional choice of my godly wife. As God tears many a wife from her husband and many a husband from his wife, I became a widower when the Lord took my wife after a many month struggle against cancer to hold onto this precious life.

    Though God has joined many a man to his beloved help-mate, his wife; in almost every instance one will die before the other. A wife will become a widow, as had Anna; or a husband will become a widower, as has the poor husband who just witnessed the death of his wife.

     What does it mean that this man who did not jump would later willingly allow Himself to be lifted up on the Cross to die for you and for me?

    Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of the scripture (by which He would answer Satan, Pharisees and those who would manipulate God’s word to their own ends) became our redemption. What does that mean to you personally? What does it mean when Satan has lead you to the pinnacle of the choice of your action of life or your action of death?

    It is a question of slavery.

    God chose Abraham. God chose Isaac (and not Ishmael). God chose Jacob, who He named Israel.

    Jacob had twelve sons, sons (tribes or families) of inheritance of the land of the promise to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. However they betrayed their own brother, Joseph, and sold him into slavery for a price.

    Joseph was bought and sold into Egypt, where the Lord saved him and lifted him into the office of Prime Minister only under Pharaoh. Yet Joseph remained faithful to God. He asked his father Jacob’s blessing on his two Egyptian-born sons for his share of the promise of Abraham in a land now ruled by Pharaoh.

    Joseph’s land, given to the Israelites in Egypt, was not paid for or an inheritance. In fact, the price of redemption for Joseph had never been paid and by the generation of Moses, sons of Abraham; and the sons of Joseph (descendants of God’s promise) were once again slaves in the land of Egypt with no man to pay the price of their freedom.

    God saved them and forced Pharaoh to let His people go. Moses did not save them, but spoke for God, obeyed God, and gave God’s own people God’s own Law to obey; as they had once had to obey every law of Pharaoh. Still, even in the time of David and Solomon centuries later, God’s Chosen People had not had the price of their slavery paid. God’s Chosen were not yet redeemed in any way.

    Psalm 49 speaks of the sons of Korah (of the rebellion against God and Moses) stating:

    5 Why should I fear in the days of evil,
    When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?
    6 Those who trust in their wealth
    And boast in the multitude of their riches,
    7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
    Nor give to God a ransom for him—
    8 For the redemption of their souls is costly,
    And it shall cease forever—
    9 That he should continue to live eternally,
    And not see the Pit.

    To rescue a sinner

    You must pay the price.

    Who can redeem the sinner?  (And we are all sinners, you and me and all sons of men of every time and place.)

    If you stand at the pinnacle of choice between life and death, what is the answer?

    Scene IV Returning to the Pinnacle of the Temple and the answer of the Son of Man two hundred centuries before this year of our Lord, 2014.

    Luke 4:12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

    And Christ Jesus began His three-year mission on earth as the Son of Man, calling men and women to repentance and grace, living and breathing the love of God our Father for His chosen family of the promise and of His chosen Bride, the church.

    Luke 4: 

    17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

    18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
    He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and recovering of sight to the blind,
    to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
    19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

    20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

     “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

    And of His fulfillment of scripture, this is what Jesus said: I AM the price paid for your sin and for the sins of all who are joined to Jesus as our Lord, our Savior, and our Redeemer.

    Satan will tempt you before God until the day your flesh will die.

    Who will you bow down and worship?  What is your answer:

    I will gladly follow your worldly temptation, lord satan…

    OR Jesus IS LORD?

    Do NOT put the Lord your God to the test. Trust ONLY JESUS CHRIST, who paid the price of redemption for your sin and for mine. He IS the one who taught us to pray (Luke 11:2-4):

    Our Father

    Who IS in Heaven,

    HOLY IS your Name.

    Your Kingdom will come.

    May Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

    Give us day by day our daily bread

    And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

    And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.