{"id":191,"date":"2009-06-16T07:18:50","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T20:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blesspress.com\/journal\/?p=191"},"modified":"2009-06-16T07:18:50","modified_gmt":"2009-06-15T20:18:50","slug":"jesus-is-tempted-in-the-desert-matthew-1-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blesspress.com\/journal\/jesus-is-tempted-in-the-desert-matthew-1-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus is tempted in the desert&#8230; Matthew 1-4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I have become worn down by the fierce nature of the Old Testament, I have decided to alternate my reading of it with my beloved New Testament, so that I can stay in touch with Jesus, my Lord, the saviour I grew up with, rather than just being left to wallow in the anger and pointless sinning and violence of the OT.<\/p>\n<p>So tonight I read the first four chapters of Matthew, the very down to earth disciple. He gives the lineage of Jesus (and for those who wonder why Joseph is listed when God himself was Jesus&#8217; father, it is because Joseph and Mary were in the same clan, according to the pastor I recently asked)<\/p>\n<p>Matthew also lists some of the prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus&#8217; birth, and tells the story of how Herod kills of all the baby boys in Nazareth to try to kill the King of the Jews. <\/p>\n<p>I loved reading about Jesus&#8217; temptation in the desert. I feel like I have been in a desert, a desert of the soul from all the reading about the lost Israelites and a God who is so angry I barely recognise Him from the one I grew up with.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, Jesus beats off the devil in a bible verse battle. My darling Good News bible, falling apart, doesn&#8217;t do it justice though: the culmination of the battle is, in its words: Jesus answered, &#8220;Go away Satan&#8230;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Still, that is when Satan is showing him the world, and offering to give it to him, if he will bow down and worship him. Jesus replies, &#8220;The scripture says &#8216;Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!&#8221; This is after forty days of no food. He still holds on. And God sends angels to minister to him.<\/p>\n<p>Father, please forgive me my slowing faith. Please breathe on it, quicken it and make it grow and turn into a little crop of faith and the fruits of the Spirit, a place where people and animals can shelter and find rest. I believe, help me believe more. In Jesus&#8217; name, Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I have become worn down by the fierce nature of the Old Testament, I have decided to alternate my reading of it with my beloved New Testament, so that I can stay in touch with Jesus, my Lord, the saviour I grew up with, rather than just being left to wallow in the anger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-bible-in-365-days"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jesus is tempted in the desert... 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