Today's home study: The temptation of Christ

[MustardSeed 322]

I was unable to attend church today, so I want extra oomph for my family's study.

I got great nuggets in Sunday school last week that I shared, and my child was really into the things I was able to share at home.

I'm hoping for more thoughts today from my surrogate Sunday school LOL - 

Today my takeaway from today's study are these things:  Christ could have easily turned the rock to bread.  I cannot imagine the temptation of food, after fasting 1 day much less 40.   But it would have required divine power to change the rock to bread, and Christ never acted outside the will of the Father.  It would have been self serving to change the rock to bread.  The saviors mission was outlined in Luke 4.  

I'm also reminded that praying and fasting fervently are useful not just when facing trials, but preceding trials.  Christ was prepared before he was tempted.  

Anything else that anyone can add?  I know there's much more, but I'm interested in what interests you.

Thank you

 

[Avatar4321 3,580]

I focused more on the account in Luke 5 of the crippled man whose friends lowered him to Jesus to be healed. Verse twenty really stood out to me. He was forgiven because of the faith of his friends. Not sure what to take from it but it's been on my mind

[Bernard Gui 6,024]

This from C.S. Lewis provokes some thought...

Quote

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of [an] army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.

 

Edited February 12 by Bernard Gui