Be merciful
Today’s Bike Ride
Nice ride out to Eulah Creek Road after a few days of very ordinary weather. A delightful morning. #cycling #narrabri #Biketooter
Together
Quote for the Day
The Word of God teaches that faith is a gift. And Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith. One of the chief difficulties is the failure to see that faith can be received only as it is imparted to our hearts by God himself. Kathryn Kuhlman
Believing is seeing
Love One Another
Quote for the Day
The best medicine in the world is hard work. They’ve got pills for everything today. We’re almost pilled to death. But no one has come up with a capsule which makes people want to work. Kathryn Kuhlman
Quote for the Day
Reflection on Matthew 4:1–2
Scripture
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Observation
The Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for a confrontation with the devil.
Jesus fast for 40 days and nights and becomes very hungry.
Application
This verse is very confronting for us if we let it be!
We don’t think of the Holy Spirit as placing us in a state of weakness and trial. After forty days of fasting, Jesus would have been very weak in the flesh, but forced to become more dependent on the Father. Hence He was weak in the flesh but strong in the spirit.
It is at this place that satan comes to tempt Jesus. We must marvel at the sheer cheek of satan to test the Son of God.
If Jesus was tempted so thoroughly by satan, we must not ignore the reality of temptation in the lives of his followers. This is a constant reality of the Christian life. If satan tempted our Lord, he will surely tempt His followers.
Satan’s temptations come to us the form of the three G’s – gold (that is, love of money and possessions), glory (pride), and girls/guys (ie sexual or romantic sin). These are the wounds in human psychology that become chinks in our spiritual armour. Every Christian will find that they have one or more of these three. We must be vigilant of satan’s probing all the days of our life on earth.
I believe that the Holy Spirit leads us all into some form of wilderness to be tempted. We think of temptation as a negative, but in fact it is a positive. As we learn to rely on our Heavenly Father for courage and the ability to stand firm, He builds up our spiritual muscles to make us more holy.
Prayer
Father, when the day of testing comes may I be strong in you. Grant me grace to stand firm in you. Amen.
1 Million Muslims in Iran Turning To Jesus
1 Million Muslims Embrace Christianity, Leading to Mosque Closures – Charisma Magazine Online
CBN News — Read time: 1 minute
Amid talk of a broader war in the Middle East, there is also news that a Jesus revolution may be underway.
An unprecedented number of Muslims are choosing to follow Christ, especially in Iran as people search for a better life.
Iranians are growing tired of the ayatollahs and a nation led by the empty promises of their Islamic theocracy. An anonymous internal poll found that 80% now prefer a democratic government, and many are leaving Islam.
“You have a country with one of the highest drug addiction rates in the world. You have a country where corruption runs rampant. You have a country where more than half the people live below the poverty line,” explained Todd Nettleton of The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM).
“And the people of Iran are looking at this and they are saying, ‘Wait a minute. If this is what Islam has brought us in the last 45 years, we’re not interested. We want to know what the other options are.’”
According to Nettleton, Vice President of Messaging at VOM, the faith option many are choosing is Jesus with at least a million Muslims reportedly leaving Islam for Christianity.
So, how is the regime reacting to this with a reported 50,000 of 75,000 mosques now closed?
“This is not something that is making the regime happy. And, really, in many ways, they are seeking to solidify their power and to crush any kind of dissent,” Nettleton said. “We have heard multiple stories this year of Bible study, a home church being raided. Everyone there is photographed, everyone there is questioned. But then the leader of the meeting is held on to. They are arrested. They are detained, they’re put in prison.”
To read the full story, visit our content partners at CBN News.
New Life Narrabri 