Agape House Fellowship 愛家

8:00pm Wed night. I just checked in AH on-line room for our weekly foundation bible study.

ZR, checking in from Dartmouth, New Hampshire, was already waiting.

SG quickly checked in from PA.

Then, a kitty showed up. This time was from Philip again.

“What is going on?” I laughed and asked.

And I made sure this time we had a live kitty, not a computer animated one.

“This is our cat at home”, Philip answered.

A real kitty now joined our on-line bible study. It is official that we do have a kitty joining our on-line bible study.

Topics were in the area of, no surprise, jobs.

It has been a tough time in the job market. And we all felt its impact in our lives, daily.

• “The average waiting time for a job now in US is close to 12 months or more”, I heard myself quoting this number, trying to encourage those who are waiting, some for months.
• “It is hard to see the bank account shrinking without a fear in my heart: how can I feed the family?” said one.
• “It is not easy to have faith giving what is going out there.” Said another.

Suddenly, a scripture came to live to me.

Jesus had the glorious experience by the side of Jordan river, honored by His Father from above in a loud voice

“This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased”.

Jesus did his part: humbled himself to be baptized by John, his cousin, the Baptist in a river.

To me, the bible should have quickly led to the glorious ministry and work in the very next step after this very touching, wonderful moment.

However, He was led to the desert to be tempted by the devil. Bible says.

Just like us, we did our part: work hard, feed family, bring up kids, serve in the church….

We even had encountered glorious experience in receiving prophecy, words of encouragement about how God loves us.

And yet, we are suddenly found ourselves in the desert, tempted by the enemy.

• Enemy would try to shake us by fear: basic fear of going hungry. Just like what the enemy did to Jesus to tempt him to turn stones into bread after 40 days of fasting.
• Enemy would try to put thoughts into our minds of jumping out of the cliff to “test” if God still loves us. Same old trick he tried on Jesus to ask him to jump out of the edge of the temple.
• Enemy would try to lure us by showing the worldly glory we would have . Yea, he did the same to Jesus by showing him all the kingdoms of the world to lure him away from his love to Father.
  

Again I looked at the bible, Matthew 4:1, “Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to the desert….”

Take a deep breath: it is from the Holy Spirit, not the enemy, to lead us going through the desert experience.

It is Him. Now I feel safe. It must be a purpose for this desert experience. Must be.

• “It is written, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”, Jesus’ answer to the fear of lack of basic things in life.
• “It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test”, Jesus answered the “does God love me” test. Jesus loves us so he himself was going through similar experience to show us he cares.
• “Away from me, Satan, For it is written: worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”, Jesus answered to final tough one, worship other gods but the Only one worthy of our praise.

And the story in the bible concluded,” Then devil left, and angels came to attended him”

I prayed these words bring encouragement to your hearts, in the desert.