There is no doubt that Man vs. Wild is my favorite show on TV. It stars Bear Grylls, an expert climber, survivalist, and all around good guy, who must go toe to toe with the wilderness and find his way out as if he's a lost hiker. Discovery Channel puts him into all kinds of hairy situations. He braves the heat, the cold, the heights and the valleys.
Bear goes into the wild for just a few days at a time and he eat some pretty disgusting things. Luke 4 says that Jesus was in the wild for 40 days! And he didn't eat or drink anything!
While Jesus was in the wilderness, he was tempted by Satan. That's something that happens to me seemingly every hour of every day. And anything that the wild can throw at Bear, Satan and the spiritual wild can top it. Reading about warfare in the spiritual realm always blows my mind. I can hardly get a handle on Earth, let alone Michael and the angels battling it out with Satan in heaven (for a good dose of that, check out Revelation...and really sink your teeth into it).
But in Luke 4:6, it seems pretty clear that Satan has a pretty good grip on the Earth and a lot of what goes on here. The temptations are all around and its' impossible to avoid them. So I must overcome them. I've figured the best way to do that is to avoid putting myself in situations where I will be bombarded, whether that's in a large group of people or by myself. Over time, I've found out what my weaknesses are and that makes it easier for me to stay out of trouble.
The show Man vs. Wild is a television survival guide, letting you know how to escape danger and work through trials while facing mother nature. My survival guide to the spiritual wild is the Bible. Jesus shows me in Luke 4 how to avoid giving in to Satan's temptations.
I really couldn't think of a better survivor than Jesus. After all, He not only lived a perfect life, but overcame death. Now that's survival.
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I thought I would post this here since leaving comments is now enabled on your blog, and since I appreciate and look forward to all of your encouraging, insightful posts.
Man vs. Wild is great, but I haven't seen many episodes. You mentioned Bear being an expert climber in the first sentence or so of your last post. I'm sure it takes at least a bit of courage to do those sort of things, especially climbing in an unknown area.
If you think about it, there's some examples of climbers in the Bible too. There was Abraham back in Genesis when he was to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain in Moriah. It probably would have taken a lot of courage along with fear to make that climb and the events afterwards, even though he didn't have to go through with the sacrifice.
There was Moses being challenged in Exodus to climb a particular mountain more than once. That seems like a definition of persistence to me, among other things.
I kept thinking of these examples from the time you mentioned climbing at the start of that entry and relating them to what you mentioned throughout regarding overcoming temptation. Although not climbing a literal mountain, it seems I'm constantly faced by spiritual mountains to overcome. Looking at it a different way though, focusing on the mountain of God does take courage and definitely persistence in things I encounter daily. Nothing can be more rewarding than continuing to climb the mountain of God though. I know I slip at times and need some help, but thankfully we have God's word available to us as a lifeline to help us through those times and continue to grow in our Christian climb. It's exactly like you wrote, the bible is our spiritual survival guide.
I often think of how fortunate we are to have God's written word so readily available in our society, especially seeing first hand how tough it can be to find even a single copy of the Bible in places like remote areas of Costa Rica. Think about how readily God's word is available to our society though. It often tops the best sellers list, can be found in just about any hotel room, and is even easily found online. This helps keep me motivated to regularly open those pages and make a true effort to study when I have the opportunity to do so. I can take advantage of this lifeline and hopefully reach others who may be stranded on the mountainside and help them to attach or reattach their own lifeline to begin or continue their journey.
Anyway, you just had me thinking when reading down through your post from yesterday. Keep up the great work, I enjoy the insightful messages your blog writings give as well as the motivation they inspire.
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