Hi, everyone.  It's been a long time since I've written on this blog.  I hope all of you have been well in the meantime.  I'm still slowly working my way through the Gospel of Luke and am now in chapter four.  The Lord Jesus has been baptized and at this juncture is tempted by Satan during(?) or after an extended fast in the desert.  From what I understand, the traditional site of this is the top of a barren mountain overlooking the city of Jericho, with the Jordan River in the distance.  Jerusalem is several miles west and much higher in elevation.  On the side of the traditional Mount of Temptation is a Greek Orthodox Monastery,  which has been there for many centuries.  Here are some thoughts from my Bible study notes: 

Luke 4:4 (NKJV)

⁴But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”  A quote from Deuteronomy 8.

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV)
³  So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

Question:  Do I hunger after God more than I hunger for my daily food?  Do I realize the extent of my dependency upon the Lord?  The dependency of the children of Israel out in the wilderness was obvious to them.  They had never seen manna.  A large group should not be able to survive in someplace as inhospitable as the Sinai Peninsula.  The lesson in Deuteronomy 8 is that once they have established homes, and farms, and a means of living and they have a life, they can fool themselves into believing that they are no longer dependent.  It was a lie.  It still is a lie.  I am just as dependent upon the Lord sitting comfortably on the back deck of my house, with air conditioning, a full refrigerator and two cars in the driveway with plenty of gas as they were out in that miserable desert.  I'm just more comfortable.  I must not forget that we are just a dependent upon the Lord now as they were then.