Hmmmmmm

Sorry for the huge delay in posts. I have been a lot busier than I had anticipated. Have had to cover for three different managers on vacation the past three weeks so blogging time has had to take a backseat to work. Dangit I hate being a responsible adult.

Anyway, back to something in my previous blog. I apologize for the vagueness in this summary, but in talking about the "good" of Christianity, one of the more outspoken aethisits, who's name totally slips my mind, said in an interview in "Aethists Today" (there's a magazine??) that "....obviously there are things to consider in Christianity. There has to be some inate goodness that is instilled in Christians in church. After Hurricane Katrina, the first ones on the scene and the last ones to leave were all associated with churches of some sort. You definitely didn't see any organized groups of Aethiests lining up to help those in need. That says a lot and it makes me ponder many things about the beliefs and lifestyles of Aethists out there."

Wow...what more CAN you say? He may have said more positive about Christianity in that one statement than most any Christian has said in the last hundred years or so. That quote, even if I did have to ab-lib it somewhat, is profound. I mean, Christ's main duty while here on Earth was to serve. And serve He did. Through His example, we know what we need to do and how we need to do it for those who are less fortunate than us.

I have been doing a lot of reading in Luke here lately. Especially a lot on Satan's temptation of Christ. Of course I am no Biblical scholar, but there are things in there that I have questions over. We have in that chapter three examples of Satan tempting Christ. The examples we have are taken when Christ is probably at His physically weakest and most vulnerable point. After forty days in the desert without food. What I wonder is this: if you go by the language used, it seems that Satan tempted Christ probably on a daily basis. My only guess is that these examples are used as encouragement to us. Satan is after us every day. He definitely seems to be breathing down our necks the hardest when we are at our weakest points, either physically or spiritually. Christ was able to fend him off simply by quoting scripture and truth to him. We can do the same because we know the truth.

One question I have though...when Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and told Him to jump off and let the angels save Him..was this literal? By that I mean, did he literally take Jesus to the top of the temple and tell Him to jump? I ask because surely someone would have noticed them up there. Was it literal or some sort of devine (bad choice of verbiage but I can't think of another way to say it) 'vision'? And then, if it was literal, you have to wonder why Christ didn't just do it to show Satan that nothing is too much to ask of God. My only guess is one of these two options: First, Jesus was trying to PROVE that you simply do not test God, or two: by doing so, it would in a way be a mis-use of His powers because He was here to serve and not really 'prove a point' to Satan who already knew His powers anyway.

Interesting tidbit: Someone told me this morning in Bible class that in its original Greek text, the root word for Satan's name actually means advesary. I cannot back this up factually, if any of you can, please leave a comment, but it does make sense.

Until next time, I hope and pray that you keep God centered in your lives!

~Greg~