Through the Bible in a year – Day 265
I have been reading through the Bible as part of my morning breakfast routine for many years. The reading plan that I use has three parts for each day – the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Psalms & Proverbs – taking me chronologically through the Old and New Testaments in a year and Psalms & Proverbs several time in twelve months. I have found that my days, weeks, months, and years all go much better when I consistently read The Word.
In today’s NT reading I found myself in Luke chapter 4 (sharing verses 1-8):
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
This reminded me of my old friend and Biblical mentor, Jim Swan, who had a joke for just about any situation. Here is one of his favorites about temptation:
A women got home from shopping at the mall and showed her husband the dress she bought. Seeing the price tag and knowing this to be a bit out of their budget the husband said – “we talked about rebuking Satan and telling him to get behind you when he tempts you” to which the wife said – “I did that and he told me that it looked good in the back so I bought it”.
I met Jim Swan through the introduction of a dear childhood friend back in 1986 after being discharged from the Air Force. Jim was an ordained Baptist Minister who mentored me for years. He died in 2022. I dedicated my latest book to Jim because of the huge positive impact he was on my life. The updated version of Lancaster County Signs of Faith can be found under Books above. I will be sharing more about Jim in future posts.
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