Christian Social Witness has increasingly become about SOCIAL MEDIA platforms & sharing live preaching & local Bible studies virtually. Stories in this category address 21st c. Christian issues of communication. Here’s where I need your help:
Would you email Roger@talkofJesus.com and tell us how, when & especially where you TALK to others online? Thanks for your COMMENTS & ideas. – Roger
Don’t miss any of the 4 pages of this episode [original layout of shorted sections ALL included in the link above] about LOT’S WIFE. Comment on these Scriptures please and let me know your reactions.
We began from a dream of beloved relationship in a sinless paradise. But then our security met with unexpected interruption when our eyes opened to a scene east of Eden.
There we discovered dependence on prayer and seeking the Lord’s direction.
What if there is no escape from this misdirected chaotic place, even from a prison of isolation not of our making?
Our own prayer as one after God’s own heart longingly pleas:
Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.
Psalm 25:16
Prayer, and then.. ?
Jesus illustrates how prayer’s persistent knocking will guarantee relationship with our loving Heavenly Father.
I illustrated what it must have been like for our beloved friend David who awake to the knock of a friend.
Luke does not tell us anything from Jesus’ parable about the man who journeyed many miles to meet his friend late in the day. But you know him.
Most know Luke’s second scroll from which today I will take our illustration of a pilgrim with frequent traveler credentials.
Acts of Good News
He had an encounter with with the Risen Christ Jesus, then journeyed the rest of his mortal life from place to place teaching the Gospel to beloved friends in distant lands.
Saul of Tarsus – Breaking through Social Boundaries
How can we be in relationship with our beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord when we will not break the virtual bonds of artificial relations?
Saul of Tarsus was a socially connected leader of traditional religion and traditional values imprisoned by his zeal for righteousness of others; that is, until the Lord Jesus called him along a road to Damascus as an Apostle.
Paul preached the Gospel from prisons to public squares.
Saul (Hebrew name) or Paul (Greek name) encountered more social distancing by way of imprisonment and avoidance of former friends determined to kill him than any of us ever will. The instances are too numerous to mention here.
[They] instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. – 13:50
.. the crowds .. stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. –14:19
[leading businessmen of the town] .. seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities… But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.. – 16:19b,25
||| — A.D. 2021 — | | | – Now what?
Prayer to the Father.
the Lord Jesus taught us that
Read God’s Word and open your heart to the Holy Spirit.
Reach out to fellow believers in faith, as so often the Apostle did by letter from prison.
and finally,
when you are released from your prison,
like Paul:
GO to those brothers and sisters,
who with you are members of Christ’s body the Church, beloved friends on a journey who love you and embrace the Good News.
Paul calls himself ‘a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.’ + Romans 1:1
He confesses that he is ‘called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.’ 1 Corinthians 1:1
Are you willing to be a slave of Christ rather than a leader of the worldly?
Like Saul of Tarsus can you admit that your own zealous works are nothing without confirmation of the will of God?
The Apostle writes a second time to the Church at Corinth:
Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!
I’d like to continue from what I told you last time. You need to know what happened after a rude awakening from my dream of when my wife and I were in Eden walking with God as if HE Who Created All was my friend!
You know of course that I awoke to this day and not a time before Abraham and you may have heard or read my story, but I wanted to tell you how I felt at the time.
A Knock at the Door
We lay intertwined embraced in warmth flowing from fingertips to toe. Our paradise shattered as I awoke to a loud knock on the door…
“David! . . . Lend me three loaves!”
Who is this at this late hour, I thought? Then as I recognized my neighbor’s outcry at our door,
“Shaul, is that you?” I inquired.
“Of course it’s me. Who else would it be at this hour?” my neighbor responded as he continued,
“A friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.”
We had just fallen asleep and I retorted,
“Do not bother me. As you can plainly see the door has already been shut and we are all in bed.”
“Come on, David, I have nothing to eat for my friends who have just arrived,” he replied.
“I cannot get up and give you anything,” I again said even though my wife and I were awake by now.
Shaul again began shamelessly knocking at our door as my wife looked toward me with that look.
“Alright, my friend,” I shouted over his knocks as I headed to the door.
“I will give you your bread.”
A Parable of Separation
You know this story.
Perhaps the characters are purely fictional as in most parables; but like many of Jesus’ parables, He probably retold it in many places to different crowds in various ways.
Can you identify with the family behind locked doors in the darkness, separated from friends and seeking peace?
Or perhaps you can imagine that you are the friend of Shaul, who has traveled a day’s journey and arrived unexpectedly late.
Your good friend didn’t even know that you were coming to him in person. And all of you were overjoyed for this personal reunion!
Friends — no longer separated by distance.
AND your friend is even willing to go to his friend and neighbor for something to eat while rejoined in communion with each other.
Picture Paradise when Heaven’s Door | of Separation | is Opened
I have just illustrated Jesus’ parable with names of appropriate symbolism as the Lord occasionally does. [i.e. Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham]
Jesus, of course, is talking about prayer – petitions of a sinful man to a Father God | separated from man | by holiness.
Here is a man alone secure in his home praying – spirit to Spirit.
Perhaps he does dream of Paradise | personal relationship with the Lord God | as it was in the beginning.
Jesus invites His followers to a place | separated and distanced from others in this world.
The call to prayer is to the Father of His beloved children.
a friend at the door | to a Friend inside
I’ve told you this parable from a perspective of the FRIEND INSIDE.
The Lord Jesus speaks to each SINNER as a friend knocking | adam knocking repeatedly on the DOOR | of Heaven through prayer.
Jesus says of the FRIEND inside who I have just described in this parable:
8 I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
You and I are Shaul, the borrower of bread.
Our Heavenly Father is David | our beloved friend with the bread of Heaven, which He now has given to us after having answered a knock at His door.
It is His story I have just told!
Our beloved Heavenly Father and Friend invites you to share the Bread that came down from Heaven – the Bread of Life, Christ Jesus Who IS the Son and | Door to eternal life.
Jesus answers disciples asking about prayer with a parable of the Father | who once again desires the Personal Face-to-face fellowship of Eden.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.
The Good News of Luke 11:9-10 NASB | Jesus on prayer to the Father
NEXT: A look at Social Distancing of the Church in a 1st century world of violent upheaval.
To be continued...
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