Forty Days

Mark 1:13 - . . . and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Forty days is a long time! Forty days in the desert! Moses fasted 40 days. Goliath opposed Israel for 40 days! For 40 days our Lord established himself and prepared himself for his messianic mission!

This was not unexpected. This was a test, a trial, a confrontation, to establish who was in charge. Jesus was tempted, he had a choice, and He chose God and defeated Satan.

What does it take to win the spiritual battle? Although he was God, Jesus made every effort to win the spiritual battle! How much more do we need to be focused!

Pray for Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the lovely capital city of Slovenia, located in the middle of the country. Slovenia is one of the six republics that used to make up Yugoslavia. The city has 280,000 inhabitants inside a country of 2 million. Throughout its history, it has been influenced by its geographic position at the crossroads of Germanic, Latin and Slavic cultures.

At the 2002 census, 39% of Ljubljana residents were Roman Catholic; 30% were believers who did not belong to a religion, unknown or did not reply; 19% were atheist; 6% were Eastern Orthodox; 5% were Muslim; and the remaining 1% were Protestant or belonged to other religions.

The mentality of the city and the country is capitalistic, meaning that people live for their careers and material wealth, wanting it to fulfill their need for meaning and purpose in life.

The church in Ljubljana was planted in 1998 by disciples from around the globe. In 2003, the church lost its leader (Kevin Mahoney), and started to lose disciples because of uncertainty of what to believe, how to lead and who to trust. The Zagreb Church tried to help but because of its own difficulties could not do much.

Now in Ljubljana there is one joyful sister named Silvija, keeping her faith and praying to God to make it possible for a mission team to come and start preaching the gospel again.

Prayer is needed for faithful disciples to come to Ljubljana and plant the church, preach to this nation that is craving for a relationship with God, and of course for Silvija to stay strong and faithful to God in this period.

See you tomorrow . . .