Bible Reflections on 1/15/10

January 15, 2010 | Posted by Chris

Hello all,

As you may or may not know, I am currently trying to deepen my faith and to grow as a man in God’s eyes. I’m currently reading Be a Man! by Father Larry Richards. I’ve just gotten through chapter 2 and the activities associated with this chapter have to do with getting to know God by knowing the Word, which is Jesus, but, also the Word of the Bible. So, the goal is to pick a passage from the Bible two times a day and reflect on those passages.

Last night, I read a passage from 2 Maccabees. In the passage, it talked about Judas conquering a city and that the people of that city were “confident in the walls they had built”. However, through the power of God, Judas defeated the city.

Today, I read the Gospel passage about the temptation of Jesus after the 40 days and nights in the desert. In this passage there was another wall. Except this time, it was the wall of the temple and Satan was tempting Jesus to jump stating, “Scripture says that His angels will catch you, lest you dash your foot against a stone”.

Christ replies, “Scripture also says not to put the Lord your God to the test”.

Now, what do these passages have in common? Well, on the physical level it appears that there are walls involved in both passages. One is in reference to the walls of a city, meant to keep people out, and the other, the wall of the temple in Jerusalem, in some ways, meant to house God’s presence.

However, the thing I find in both these passages is a reference to our relationship with the Lord. For example, the people in the passage from 2 Maccabees were “confident” in the walls they had built for themselves.

Aren’t we all like this sometimes? We are always confident in the ways we are choosing to do things. I know that I personally get pretty stubborn and set in my ways about a lot of things. However, we really need to be relying on God for everything. If we put faith in the things that we build, if we put faith in our own ways of doing things, which are clouded by concupiscence, then we will fall. However, if we put our faith in God, even if the odds are stacked against us, we will conquer, because His ways are stronger than the ways of men.

Now, the second reading in the Gospel warns us not to take this too far. Satan encourages Jesus to test God in His ways by throwing Himself off the wall of the temple. However, Christ says that we should not put the Lord our God to the test.

Again, how often do we do this? We pray “lead us not into temptation” in the Our Father prayer. However, how often do we find that we put ourselves in harm’s way? I know that as a man, I struggle with chastity, mostly in regards to my past. However, how often am I drawn to an article online that has immodest pictures? How often do I put myself onto sites where I know there is a good possibility I will run into trouble? How often do I know that there is something that bothers Tanya but, I do it anyway.

We want God to protect us from evil and to be our strength. However, we need to make sure that we aren’t presuming on His mercy. If you jump out of a plane without a parachute with faith that God will save you, there is a chance that you’ll survive…however, it isn’t very likely.

The point is, we need to trust in God but, also work with Him in order to stay on the right path. We can do all things with God, but, we must make sure that we are doing His will.

I basically got two messages out of the readings. Don’t depend on yourself, but on God and don’t presume on God, you have to meet Him half way.

The Bible Reflections on 1/15/10 by Life on Fire, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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