I appreciate your prayers as I underwent knee surgery with complete knee replacement on Friday. This written prior to surgery.

The desert is a stern place and as Lent begins, we go there with Jesus.

If he is tested, cannot we expect the same? 

Our Lenten journey is from ashes towards living water.

That is always the quest for those who trek through the desert either symbolicaly, or in reality.

Today Jesus is tempted in the desert by Satan.

Cannot we expect the same?"

It would seem this Lent our whole nation is being tested:

...Shall we be a nation cowering in dark fear, or radiant in the light of hope?

...Shall we be a nation with open arms  for suffering refugees, or shall we greet them  with closed fists?

...Shall we be a nation that values the truth, or one that relies on "alternative facts?

Satan, "The Father of Lies, and the Prince of Darkness is testing US, for WE ARE THE Nation!

And so we pray:

Deliver us from evil,

and lead us not into temptation.

For Thine is the Kingdom,

and the power,

and the glory.

now and forever.

Amen