The Temptation Of Jesus

I was almost tempted to title this entry "How Can A Young Man Keep His Way Pure? -Part 2"
BUT! Since Jesus' application of what I talked about last time is the focus - namely his triumph over temptation in the wilderness after his water baptism - we will just roll with that!

King David had some practical words for us which we looked at already...

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
(Psalm 119:9 ESV)

I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
(Psalm 119:11 ESV)

...So what does that actually look like in practice? We can turn to Jesus - our ultimate example in the faith, and in living a life empowered by the Spirit and pleasing to the Father! The gospel writers record for us Jesus' temptation in order for us to see the reality that "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."(Hebrews 4:15 ESV)

And in walks Jesus. He gets baptized. God the Father is pleased with him, though Jesus had done no miracles yet, not an ounce of ministry. The Holy Spirit rests upon him. And he is commissioned for ministry and led into the wilderness to be tempted.

Satan himself is now tempting Jesus, and how does our Lord respond? You know it! With the Word of God. Jesus demonstrates to us: 1- His understanding and application of the above verses from Psalms, and 2- The importance of scripture in spiritual warfare and in triumphing over sin.

We CAN have victory over sin and walk in obedience to our God. Jesus did it. So can we! But knowing scriptures is KEY. It is sad that we can memorize song lyrics, score boards and a profusion of stats but then complain about how difficult the scriptures are to remember. In my next blog entry I will share some of my favorite Bible memorization methods that have worked for me, as well as my favorite scriptures that I think we should all know by heart. Thanks for reading, I hope you have spent more time in the Word today than on my blog. If not then go do it now while you're online here :)

January Update

Hello friends and family!

It is official - I have successfully finished my first semester of seminary at Gordon-Conwell! Thanks for all your prayers and support. You have all been great during my time here so far. I'm very thankful to have all of you in my life as I go through seminary.

I hope you are all enjoying the New Year! I was happy to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with a lot of you this year as part of the Arabic Baptist Church family. My break was very short as I had to be back on campus for the January term. I did enjoy some time with my family and brother though before he left for Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for him and were able to come to his going away party. I dropped him off at the airport a few weeks ago and immediately began my January term class: Systematic Theology II, which I just finished today! I am also doing well grade-wise and I’m in good academic standing for my scholarship.This Monday will be the start of the Spring Semester, and I’m very excited for it! God has also blessed me with a different room on campus in the same house as my friends.

I will continue praying for you all in this New Year. Thanks for your prayers during this past semester. Please continue to lift me up for this upcoming semester as well.

Fady

Worship The King - A Christmas Meditation

*The following is the Christmas Mediation that I shared at The Arabic Baptist Church of Newton last Friday night. Verbatim. So if you were there, please proceed expecting heavy repetition. Merry Christmas =)

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The story of Christ's birth reminds us of a very important truth, it is this: Every great story and king has a humble beginning. Even as we have seen in our last election, both Obama and Romney were trying their hardest to convince the voters that each of them had a humble, lowly start. That each of them had struggled like many of us and had overcome many trials and challenges. Being humble is being relatable. It is so with our King. Jesus, the king of kings, had a humble start. He was born in a manger - that is where you feed your  animals. He humbled himself, taking on the form of a servant, in order for us to relate to him.


Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

(Matthew 2:1-2 ESV)

We observe here a few things:

• Jesus was born 'King of the Jews'
• The wise men sought Jesus
• The wise men came to worship Jesus

At the time of Jesus' birth not much was different from our day. People were still very busy, as it is with us this time of the year. Joseph and Mary had a lot going on, just as most of us do today. Mary was pregnant and had no where to give birth. The nation had a census which caused a lot of traveling just as we have seen during our elections last month. They also had a national crisis involving the murder of about 20 little children under the Hands of King Herod as we have also just experienced with the Connecticut middle school shootings. There were stars in the sky, wise men traveling, babies being filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb, barren women becoming pregnant, a virgin pregnancy, angels appearing, priests becoming mute, shepherds seeing angels and a lot of craziness.

And we see in the middle of all that - Emmanuel - God with us. Right when it is most busy, most crazy, most chaotic, most problematic, that is when Jesus comes. Jesus initiates with us. He want us as his people, he seeks after us like a shepherd is after a lost sheep. He is saying 'slow down' this holiday season and come worship me as the wise men did. 

If Jesus the baby could talk at the time, what would he have asked for? Would he have asked for gold, frankincense and myrrh? I think he would have been perfectly satisfied with the wise men's worship. If Jesus could ask for anything this Christmas he would ask for your worship. That is what he desires. "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him". (John 4:23 ESV) Jesus here tells us that this is the heart of God, it is after true worshipers. That is what he desires, seeks, and wants - it is that true worshipers would worship the father in spirit and truth. 

There is a beautiful promise in James 4:8 that says "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you". How true is it that Christ has already taken the first step and he is calling all men and women to him. Especially this season as some of us are rejoicing and others grieving, as some are care-free and others burdened, as some are feeling fantastic and others overwhelmed. Christ is calling all to come and worship him. Christ is calling us all to come and spend time with him and give him our worship as a gift this Christmas. And his word promises that when we draw near to him, He will draw near to us.

How Can A Young Man Keep His Way Pure?

Last night at Youth Group we did Bible trivia. It was a lot of fun. At the end of the night there were 5 happy ones who had each won a $5 gift card to Starbucks. We played Swords Up and then another game which I made up - where I say the Bible verse and whoever gives me the reference wins (Book name is 1 point, Chapter number a 2nd point and Verse number a 3rd point). The big idea was to encourage them, and myself, to memorize more scripture.

There are many benefits to memorizing scripture, but I will only highlight one, using two verses from Psalm 119. Holiness.

How can a young man keep his way pure?
        By guarding it according to your word.
(Psalm 119:9 ESV)

I have stored up your word in my heart,
        that I might not sin against you.
(Psalm 119:11 ESV)

The writer here says something very interesting, namely that he 'stored up' God's word in his heart so that he 'might not sin'. This is a very frank and to-the-point word about our sanctification. In our struggle against sin, as we strive for holiness, the psalmist offers a very practical approach. How do I stop sinning? By guarding my heart according to God's word. How do I do that? By storing it - hiding it, memorizing it - in our hearts!

I will leave you with this short video by John Piper, and I hope you are encouraged to memorize more scripture, not just for getting better at Bible trivia, but to keep our way pure.