SATURDAY, JULY 14
Scripture: Matthew 4:5-7

In Matthew 4:5-7 we are told, “Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God throw Yourself down. For it is written: He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, “You shall not tempt the Lord you God.”’” Now isn’t it interesting that the devil took Jesus to church? I was on a flight coming back from Charleston, South Carolina and the Lord spoke to me to go to Matthew 4:5-6 and He retranslated this passage for me. He said, ‘I want you to notice that the devil took Jesus to church, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, that’s the church in Jerusalem, and then preached Him a message with chapter and verse.’ The temptations of Christ prove the same tactics of the enemy in the Old Covenant passed on to the New Covenant interaction between God and man. The Ten Commandments represent righteousness lived out between God and man relationally. The holiness Jesus bought and paid for is maintained as we love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength. Jesus did not come to do away with the law but to fulfill it. Under the Old Covenant, righteousness was maintained by the actions people took, but in the New righteousness is the fruit of who we are in Christ. The shift is from doing to being and it is difficult for many. The one thing that remains consistent is holiness. Keeping the purity of our relationship with Christ makes God fully available to us!