The Importance of Lent and the Temptations of Jesus in a Christian’s Life! Pt. 1.

18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Matthew 4:4.        But he (Jesus) answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Oh friends, it’s Wednesday, our second wind day…and unfortunately we on a late bus! But many of us shouldn’t need to catch a second wind, since this is only our second day of work this week, unless we’re still tired rom the Family Day celebrations this past weekend. (smile) However, we will certainly need some help to deal with the serious freezing rain that’s happening in our area. The above freezing temps of the last few days have suddenly disappeared and the computer is calling for snow later. So let’s get prepared for another round of snow and cold temperatures, for that’s what happens in winter. (smile)

Now, today is also a special day in the life of the Christian Church; Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent. Lent represents the forty days that Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and being tempted by Satan, without wavering in His faith. During these forty days before Easter the believer is expected to carry out a serious discipline of fasting, repentance, prayer and self-examination. However within those confines there are certain parameters of do’s and don’ts. And we’ll begin with this interesting scripture from Joel, who after warning about the Dark Day of the Lord, (Joel 2:1-11) then announces the Lord’s Call to Repentance.

And is there ever a great need for repentance in today’s very sinful world! Not only from the unbelievers, but also from we supposed believers. So, listen up, as Joel writes: ‘Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And rend (tear) your heart, and not your garments, and turn (return) unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness (LOVING-KINDNESS), and repenteth him of the evil (relents from doing harm).

Who knoweth if he will return and repent (turn and relent), and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering (meal or grain) unto the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet (ram’s horn) in Zion, sanctify (consecrate) a fast, call a solemn (sacred) assembly.’ (Joel 2:12-15) Now friends, that’s possibly what we need to do; call a big, sacred fast, and turn back to the Lord our God, from whom many have turned away in the search for physical pleasure and material wealth.

But before we move on, hear this crucial explanation from the scholars . As per ‘rend your heart and not your garment,’ they say: ‘The customary way a Jew showed his grief was to tear his outer garment. This external sign could be meaningless. The tearing of the outer garment is useless unless the heart is also broken in repentance and contrition.’ And sadly, that’s what many of us do nowadays; have outward shows of fasting, repentance and all the other sacrificial stuff when in reality our hearts are not truly involved.

That’s why Jesus warned us thus about fasting. ‘Moreover when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites (pretenders), of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.’ (Matt. 6:16-18) Ah mih people, this society has become such a place of show and falsehood, of outward deceitful doings to please man, and raise our societal stature that you don’t know what or whom to believe. But as true disciples of Jesus, we should not be doing anything just to be seen and uplifted by mankind.

And we could not talk about Ash Wednesday and not consider the temptations that Jesus suffered after being baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, with the Spirit of God descending like a dove, alighting on Him, and the voice from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ (Matt. 3:16-17)  After that, the Bible tells us: ‘Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered (hungry) And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he (Jesus) answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ (Matt. 4:1-4)

And according to the scholars, the victory in each aspect of the temptation is related to Jesus’ use of Scripture. It is written: First He quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, about man not living by bread alone, but by the Word of God. The source of bread is more important than the bread itself. Later, during the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus would say to the disciples, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” (John 4:32) Jesus’ source of strength was obedience to the Father’s will and He would not even work a miracle to avoid personal suffering when such suffering was a part of God’s purpose for Him.’

Wow! Not many of us would have the resilience and obedience to suffer for suffering sake. And imagine the contradiction in Jesus’ earlier situation nuh, where, after being highly praised by the Father, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to suffer and be tempted. But that’s often how it is in the Will of God, and we just have to learn to live with it, by looking at the rewards at the end. Now there are two other temptations that Jesus experienced in the wilderness, but because there is so much information contained in them, it would make the Bit much too long if we included them today. So, if God spares life tomorrow, then we will continue with those other temptations.

Now let’s go home declaring our Wednesday Wail, letting the whole world know of our wonderful position in Christ Jesus. As one strong and sincere voice: ‘Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: I’m so glad to be alive on this Wednesday! Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday: Thank God the breath of life is still flowing through me on this Wednesday! I am halfway home. My hands are fixed securely on the plough, and I’m not turning back. I’m not looking back at the past, not focusing on what has gone before. But my eyes are fixed straight ahead; straight ahead to a glorious future with Jesus. Glory Hallelujah!’ 

And for those who endure to the end with Jesus, there’s an even more glorious future to enjoy. So, hope to see you there! Much LOVE!

…the Bible…the Word of God…contains ALL we need to live this earthly life…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   13 June 2022   2 Corinthians 13:14.

13 Jun 2022 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Corinthians 13:14.      The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the LOVE of God and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.​

Oh friends, Monday, as it has a nasty habit of doing, (smile) has shown its intimidating face once again. But yuh know what? As always, we will not be intimidated by it because we have been refilled, been regenerated by the Holy Spirit yesterday as we celebrated Trinity Sunday in honour of our Three in One Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, there is no God like our God Jehovah… three separate persons, three different identities, but ONE GOD! 

And some people, even believers, find that difficult to fathom. But it’s really quite simple: Although they are all equally God in their own right, we can possibly say that the Father runs the show, makes the big decisions, while the Son acts as His right-hand man, and the Holy Spirit does the hard work, or puts the decisions in to action. I guess we could give the example that the Father LOVED us, His sinful and rebellious creation so much that He didn’t want to lose even a single one to the satanic forces, so He concocted a marvellous, but heartbreaking plan to give us an opportunity to change from our evil ways and be reconciled to Him. 

That’s because, with the disobedience of our forefathers, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, our sinful nature had become anathema, meaning repugnant and odious to Him, and consequently we had been consigned to eternal damnation. Now, that outstanding plan we just spoke of, involved sending His Son, Jesus Christ to earth in human form, to die a substitutionary sacrificial death in our place, giving us the option of receiving forgiveness for our sins, salvation and eternal life with the Father, when we believe in Christ as our Lord and Saviour. 

But then, after Jesus did His mighty work here on earth, He had to return to heaven. However, our God is so caring and compassionate that the Holy Spirit was dispatched to earth on that fateful Pentecost Sunday, which we celebrated last weekend, to indwell all believers, as our Helper, Comforter, Guide and heaven-sent Companion. And that’s the beauty of our Triune God: they are three distinct, equal though separate entities, but operate as One well-oiled and magnificently functioning machine! Please give our wonderful God some much deserved thanks and praise! 

And although the Bible does not mention the word ‘Trinity,’ the idea is scattered throughout it. Let’s look at a few of them to give us some idea of how they work together, are amazingly intertwined three in one. And the first scripture comes from Matthew 3:13-17, which features the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. The Good Book describes it thus: ‘And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ (Matt. 3:16-17) 

Right there you have the Son baptized, the Holy Spirit coming down to sit on Him like a dove, and the Father’s voice saying that He’s proud of the Son. And later on in Matthew, Jesus talks to the disciples about Christian Baptism thus: ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ (Matt. 28:19) There we have baptism in one name, but of three persons. 

Then, if we turn to 1 Peter 1:2, we see him writing to the elect, those chosen by God for salvation. ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’ (1 Pet. 1:2) 

The scholars describe ‘Elect’ as ‘God’s determination in eternity past to bring certain people into a special relationship with Himself. The Spirit sets apart (sanctifies) for salvation from destruction those whom God has foreknown. Sprinkling is an allusion to Exodus 24:1-11 in which the blood was sprinkled on the altar as a symbol of the people’s obedience and also on the people as a symbol of Jehovah’s acceptance.’ So there, in salvation, we have people chosen by the Father, set apart or sanctified by the Holy Spirit and sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. Another example of how our Triune God works so wonderfully well together as One. 

Meanwhile in 2 Corinthians Bruh Paul offers this benediction to his readers. ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the LOVE of God and the communion (fellowship) of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.’  (2 Cor. 13:14) And the scholars explain it thus. ‘13:14. In his concluding benediction, Paul provides one of the clearest expressions in the New Testament on the doctrine of the Trinity. The deity of the Son, of the Father, and of the Holy Spirit are affirmed by virtue of their relation to one another. The distinctive personalities of each are implied by the independent activity denoted in the threefold operation of grace (from Jesus), LOVE (of the Father) and communion or fellowship (of the Holy Spirit.).’ 

Now doesn’t that make it all a little clearer, as well as tantalizing and interesting! (smile) And we’ll just summarize this last passage of scripture where Bruh Paul prays for inner growth for the Ephesians in Chapter 2:14-21. He prayed that they might be ‘strengthened with might by his (Christ’s) Spirit in the inner man… to know the LOVE of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.’ (Eph. 2:16, 19) So there we have more scripture that’s representative of the Triune God we serve, and there’s still more in the Good Book that we don’t have time nor space to consider today. 

And as one commentator says of those scriptures: ‘ It simply shows how easily the writers of Scripture passed from one Person of the Trinity to another, doing so in a way that assumes their equality of nature while preserving their distinct personhood. If the doctrine of the Trinity is not true, it would seem to be blasphemy to speak so freely of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in one and the same breath.’ 

And I do hope that with the above scriptures and explanations we’ve made the doctrine of the ‘Trinity’ somewhat easier to understand and accept. Now, let’s go to our Triune God, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, asking for His help in our earthly problems. Altogether now. ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. We desperately need Your divine help, for You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. 

Heavenly Father, we admit that we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but we know that You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face. That’s why we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading with You to give us wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems.  

And Father, we pray that you will ease the pain of the many who are suffering from negative situations. Please show them Your awesome grace and mercy, and keep Your promise that You’ll hear our prayer, forgive us, and heal our land if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again, we say: Amen!’ 

It’s up to us now my people, to keep our promises if we want God to keep His. Much LOVE!

…the Holy Trinity works in marvellous tandem…just like the universe they created…  

P.S. Please excuse the lateness of the Bit, but the ole fella was somewhat under the weather this morning and didn’t get started until later than usual. And I know it’s long, but good. (smile) And as they say, better late than never. Much LOVE! 

Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZJ8​