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Christmas Countdown 2019….Day 4

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My goodness…whose idea was it for me to touch base with you on a chapter a day of Luke in the month of December….so much in each chapter, right?

But we all know I am not a theologian and this little Christmas Countdown is NOT a Bible study. 

This here is where I read in my devotional time and I jot down some thoughts to share and throughout all of it I keep wondering what YOU picked up when you read it. 

So here is the gleaning from this morning of Luke 4.

Right off the bat I had to stop on verses 1 and 2 and take it in again. 

I do this every time I read those two short and sobering passages. 

I have heard wonderful sermons preached on it. 

Because Jesus walked out of the waters of baptism, which He had entered out of obedience to doing things the way that would set our example…even though we know, He knew and John even pointed out…

He didn’t need to repent of sin because…

Basic Christianity 101…

He. Never. Sinned.

Yet, He showed us by example that for Him to die in our place, He had to live in our place and so He was baptized and heaven opened and a dove descended as the voice of God proclaimed Him to be His Son…and after this….fresh out of the Jordan….

Fresh out of a place of complete obedience and, we are told, filled FULL of the Holy Spirit…

He is LED by the Spirit…

into the desert….

for the express purpose of facing 40 days and nights of temptation.

And after facing this by fasting and prayer…in the midst of being tempted day and night…in a weakened condition…mind you…

the Devil does not relent….

but instead ups the ante by suggesting ways He can use His power to satisfy legitimate needs, circumvent and quicken the point of His coming and just take over all the authority of earth….and oh yes, one more….

prove once and for all and rather quickly in a dynamic way that He is who He says He is. 

Whew. 

So I sit there with my Bible open and while there are so many more things I could say, I have to remind myself that God fought a mighty battle of overcoming temptation by leading Jesus into the thick of it. 

Not that Jesus put Himself into situations where He could be tempted…but in being obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit, He did have to face some pretty rigorous testing. 

And He faced it by denying His flesh and His best efforts and His reasoning and He relied on the power of God’s Word in Him and the Spirit that He had been filled with. 

He basically overcame by faith. 

Which is what God tells us to do. 

Second thought this morning is regarding the rest of the Chapter. 

If you were tempted to skim quickly over the list of miraculous things He did, may I suggest going back and just reading them slowly.

One by one. 

And think about filling in the blanks around each account. 

Remember back to Luke 1 where the author says he has taken it upon himself to use the accounts of actual eye witnesses to tell this story of the life of Jesus. 

Actual people saw and were there when He did each one of these miracles. And there were more that just didn’t have ink nor time to be written down. 

But look at even ONE. 

Can you imagine? 

Can you imagine your mom is sick with a bad fever and you tell Jesus and He walks in where she is miserable and too ill to get up and He speaks to the fever like you would tell your dog to get off the sofa.

He speaks the command to go away. 

And it does. 

She gets up and heads to the kitchen and starts making dinner. 

Now that’s the power that is available for you and me who have received His gift of salvation by  grace. 

Tell me you can read that and just say okay and move along to the next thing on your to do list. 

I will be pondering this all day…and wondering what in the world is holding me back from believing the power of God is alive in me. 

How about you? 

What jumped off the pages and into your spirit and mind today?

Meditate on whatever that was….pray and ask God to give you greater understanding. Ask Him to help you ask the questions that will grow you into a place where His Spirit can you teach more. 

And come back tomorrow…please and thank you <3

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6 Comments

  1. Amen! Some great thoughts. Thanks for sharing in thr “Laura-way” that you so beautifully do. 🙂

    Amen! The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us! I wonder if some of the tears that will be wiped away on “that day” will be tears of realizing all we could’ve done in His power and missed out on. And to think of all the “sick mother-laws” (and graver illnesses) who would’ve been healed had we REALLY believed and stepped out.

    Makes me wake up to be more aware of the every day ministry opportunities.

    1. I agree. I often think I overcomplicate things and pray for a simpler, believing faith that takes Him at His word. I think it is part of our culture to over-think. I see this when we have traveled to different countries where they have so much less material things and education but such great faith. “God said it, so we believe it…” I want to be more like that!

      1. Yes yes YES! Good point of over-thinking it. May we be more childlike in this area. Simple. Jesus’ prayers were simple, come to think of it. One of my prayers for you and for me and for the readers on this journey will now be to have the gift of faith with which we will pray bolder prayers. !!! I’m getting excited.

        1. I do think one thing this current culture is doing is making us more bold because we want people to know the Way, the Truth and the Life…we have less and less to lose by sharing and this is good!

  2. One thing that jumped off the page today ( and not being Negative Nancy) was after satan tried his best to get Jesus to sin it said he left him FOR NOW. How like satan to give us a brief respite, a bit of peace and then to be always lurking in the background waiting for our weaknesses ( tiredness, busyness, illness, doubt, etc., etc) to allow him in again to take us down. We must be on guard and ready for battle.

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