WELCOME TO THE CHAPLAIN'S CORNER
Shalom and welcome to the Chaplain’s Corner. I am Jerry Ballard USNRet and I will be starting a Bi-Weekly edition of the Chaplain’s Corner. One during the week and also one on Sunday.
It is my desire to develop weekly topics that will be a blessing and an encouragement to all of you.
A little bit about my background, I am retired Navy and served 20 years from 1974-1998. I attended College at Liberty University where I majored in Biblical Studies. And my home Church is in Tulare, CA and a Jewish Christian
I would like to make myself available to anyone who has a need or Prayer request. So E-mail me or call me ( 559) 331-7780 Cell
If any of you have Prayer request, feel free to e-mail me so I can pray with you. I hope that you are all having a Great week and that God is blessing you and your family.
Today I wanted to do a discussion in the Book of Luke and we will be looking at the 4th Chapter and verses 1-44. I am posting the scripture text for you so you can read it from here or your own Bible.
But let's open in prayer and go to the Lord first:
Heavenly Father, How good it is know you and that you are a God who not only knows everything about each of us, but loves us and cares about our needs. We know that when we are stressed, feeling down and the pressures of life are closing in, you are there to hold us up and guide us.
We can't begin to list all of the many blessings you give us each and every day and and we know also that as we look at the events around us in the World and specially in the Middle East, we know that you are about to break the eastern skies and so Lord we continue to wait and look up. Now Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts as we study Chapter 4 of Luke and show us from your word what you want us to know.
Guide us and direct us this day and in your name we pray, Aman
Here is the link to reading the Bible on-line www.biblegateway.com at the bottom you can click on the button and listen to the audio reading
Luke 4 (King James Version)
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2 Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
3 And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.
4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
6 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.
7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.
8 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.
9 And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:
10 For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:
11 And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
12 And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
13 And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
31 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
32 And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
33 And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,
34 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.
35 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.
36 And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.
37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.
38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.
39 And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them.
40 Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
41 And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.
43 And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent.
44 And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
We notice in verse 1 that Jesus was FULL of the Holy Spirit and that he was led by the Spirit in the Wilderness. to be tempted by Satan throughout these verses I want you to see five points.
1. Jesus was not enticed by the Devil
2. Jesus was never enticed by Society
3. Jesus was not influenced by Demons
4. Jesus was not entrapped by success
5. Jesus was empowered by God's purpose
WE KEEP GOD'S PURPOSE CLEAR IN OUR MINDS AS JESUS DID
1. By Being Captivated by God's Spirit (Verse 1)
2. By Being Motivated by God's Spirit (verse 1)
3. By Being Activated by God's Spirit (Verse 14)
At the bottom, you will find a Commentary of our reading today.
You know the energizer Bunny... The batteries never run down. It keeps going and going and going, well so too the Holy Spirit in our lives if we allow to holy Spirit to control us and work in us.
Jesus was filled Full of the Holy Spirit and and Jesus came to Earth with one mission, and that was to go to the cross to take the sins of the whole human race upon himself. Past, Present, and future sins. Do we fully understand what I just said?
Jesus Christ the son of the living God, born of a Virgin, Creator and God from everlasting to everlasting. Before the foundations of this universe was created God was. And God fully knew you and I and all of our failures in life and all of our sins and yet, Jesus Christ was still willing to go to the cross and die each of us and would have done it if you were the only one.
One of the greatest chapters in the new Testament in John 3 and we see how a sinner can come to know Christ and be born again. And when God saves you, He seals you and gives you a New heart. We read in II Cor 5:17 that
"if any man be in Christ, He is a New Creation Old things are past away and all things are become new"
I remember my life before I came to Jesus Christ, and I can assure you I was a bad dude, full of sin, mocking God as an Atheist and thinking Christians were idiots and wondering how anyone could believe in God.
I stand here before you saved and know that I am going to Heaven and that my name is in the book of life. And i did nothing to earn that and never will. I do not deserve God's forgiveness and why he saved me is be on me.
But this I do know, Before i was born God knew me, and he knew you also, and you might be saying, I sinned too much or this or that sin, I did God will never forgive me, will I have Good news for you if you don't know Jesus as Lord.
HE WILL FORGIVE YOU OF EVERY SIN YOU COMMITTED, NO MATTER HOW BAD YOU THINK YOU ARE, NO MATTER WHAT SIN YOU COMMITTED, OR HOW MANY TIMES YOU DID IT.
If you come to Jesus Christ and you acknowledge that you have sinned, and that you repent of those sins and turn to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master, He will forgive you.
John 3:16 tells us:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
ROMANS 10:9-19
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 5:8-11
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
If you were to die today.... Do you know for sure you would go to heaven? You can!
Hope you enjoyed this edition and will return for the Sunday Edition of the Chaplain's Corner
Until then, God Bless
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