It’s 40 days of wilderness wandering and temptation. This is no easy 40 days that Jesus is led into by the spirit. Write about that plan today and try to sell books with it! In the Bible it’s 40 days of struggle, 40 days of blood sweat and tears, 40 days of hunger, 40 years of homelessness and wandering. We love 40 days of good things these days – 40 days of purpose, 40 days of life, 40 days of breakthrough, 40 days of dating, 40 days of generosity, 40 days of giving, miracles in 40 days, learn a language in 40 days, fireproof your marriage with 40 days of love – we love 40 days and good things.īut the Bible doesn’t do this kind of thing. He (Jesus) fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.Ĥ0 is a number that is often the time period of struggle, of change, of testing, of journey…in the story of God. We follow because we have an experience of a leader who delivers us from the tough stuff.
We do not follow Christ in order to avoid the tough stuff of life. There may be a lot more we could explore here, but what I want us to see more than anything is that the wilderness is a part of our faith journey. It propels us to care about things that we might not normally notice. So the wilderness becomes this launching pad for ministry. Ever noticed how families who have been through something difficult end up being champions for others in that same difficult situation? For example, those who have experienced Alzheimer’s become advocates for those with the condition. Through the wilderness we see and sense a call from God to be a blessing to the world. It is the experience of our own struggle which calls us to be compassionate to others in the midst of their struggle. The challenges and difficult, dark, lonely, struggles of life teach us what we need for ministry. It forms us and shapes us for God’s call. That may be a lesson we all need to hear. Maybe there is something about the wilderness of life that the ministry of life requires. This happens right after his baptism but before his ministry really begins. That the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness is significant. And this is why we pray to be led not into it, but to be deliver from the evil that beckons us to walk into it on our own. Once we walk into temptation, God is right there is lead us through the temptation. God leads us up to the place where tempting happens, but it is our humanity that walks into it. Into temptation is, I believe, our own doing. The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness where temptation exists, but not into temptation.
Maybe I am making too much of something simple but there is a difference in what the Greek says in these two different passages. In the wilderness temptation story, scripture says that the spirit led Jesus up to temptation. In the Lord’s Prayer, the Greek encourages us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” Up to versus in to. But what are we to make of the prayer to lead us not into temptation? If we are to follow Christ, then it would seem that wilderness is part of the journey. And yet temptation is exactly where the spirit leads Jesus. We pray every week – some of us every day – “lead us not into temptation.” Jesus taught us to pray so. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The resort is reopening with limited occupancy on June 1, said general manager Joe Ogdie, who isn't seeing a "major push of demand" yet, although he’s fielding inquiries about bookings.Speaker: Pastor Jason Category: Wilderness March 3, 2020 To attract more guests driving from San Francisco and Los Angeles - 11 and 10 hours away, respectively - the Lodge at Blue Sky in Wanship, Utah, may work with another outfitter to set up luxury camps in wilderness settings midway between the resort and those cities. "In a smaller boutique hotel or Airbnb you can trust that it's a better-contained staff and a manager could be confident that 12 rooms could be cleaned very well, rather than 600 rooms," said Kristin Peterson Edwards, an art consultant in Connecticut. To enhance social distancing, the resort is limiting occupancy of its already-low room count of 34 suites. The Amangiri has bookings through July and beyond, according to a resort spokesperson, with clients coming from nearby California, Arizona, Nevada and Colorado at a time when flights remain limited. properties like the Amangiri, a 600-acre, $3,000 per night resort in southern Utah, which reopened May 21 with employees who have been trained to perform spa treatments while wearing masks and gloves. The country's wealthiest travelers are beginning to book U.S. Cities are less popular options and small, elite properties in remote destinations are in, according to industry experts.
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