Talk of JESUS . com

Category: Roger Harned – Writing

This category includes some of Roger’s non-expositional writing including biographical, fiction and other posts.

Roger looks forward to your reactions to his writing when you comment (privately, until moderated) on each of his posts.

talkofJesus.com is a place to SHARE & COMMENT in a community of Christian Social Witness.

Roger’s witness includes brief & extended expositions of scripture. Posts include links to sources for further authoritative research on the Bible.

Roger Harned is an author, writer, and blogger who happens to host this site.

  • About Roger, a 21st c. Christian Author

    I first wrote for myself

    Roger Harned, born in Ohio in the USA. I grew up in a small village listening to many stories of family and others every day. I grew up listening to good preaching as well.

    I’m a storyteller, some may say an author. I read and write out of my love for understanding the hearts of others, more specifically the Lord. My writing career had been a private pastime which included lyrics, poems and scribbled ramblings on the youthful musings or love.

    Did I mention my first love was music? As a teacher listening to music entering the hearts of others, I arranged what I hoped would be heard. Yet mostly, it was not. A conductor dreams of becoming a maestro and leader of the genius of others. A woman once called me ‘maestro’ after hearing me conduct the Cortland Community Band in a 30th anniversary concert. One fan, for whom I am thankful. Even so I did compose many songs which never had an audience. Great music, silent for all time.

    Now I orchestrate words for others lead by the Creator of all readers. I pray that the Lord brings hearers of the word to my exposition of scripture.

    We listen to a lyrical love of a Savior who loves us sacrificially. Once born again in the Spirit of the Living God, my writing flowed from the Word, Christ Jesus.

    Since that time twenty some years ago, the Bible speaks volumes to a silenced soul with prophetic conviction I sometimes tremble to share.

    The written of the LORD humbles my flesh and refines my soul.

    A Perfect Author draws new readers to His Love

    Any preacher could tell you (in private) that expository preaching is nothing less than revealing an unfolding story of a Perfect Author. No man in the pulpit or arena is up to it. The Author of Scripture IS the LORD, who reveals to mortals by the Spirit what must be written and proclaimed.

    Only One Son of Man, God Incarnate, taught perfect Law and unerring prophesy to the elect and adopted of the LORD.

    John 1:1-4

    I’m not the Author, only a messenger

    Readers here will not be particularly interested in what I have to say, but what the Lord has to say. I try not to say too much, as is the reaction of Prophets before Almighty God. Isaiah 6:5 

    Links provided here from my personal research direct the reader to scripture or trusted scriptural authority from more studied teachers of the faith. Again, any faithful writer about God will direct you to the Lord’s story and not our own imperfect application. I pray that the Lord draws you to explore further the great richness of scripture behind these links.

    Let the Spirit speak to the depths of your soul from scripture.

    “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

    2Timothy 3:16-17

    My author blog

    Roger Harned - Author blogThe Lord led me to this place because a publisher convinced me that authors need followers. To that end I also promote my posts on other social media such as FaceBook, Pinterest and Twitter. Therefore your follows are most appreciated.

    In addition to excerpts from my book and writings, may posts explore scripture in brief posts directed to our 21st c. attention spans. Therefore many posts from my series will conclude with the well-known cliff-hanger: “To be continued…”

    I’ve never relished the challenge of painting a fancy resume. Let the Lord and others witness my contributions in exposition, prophesy and witness.  And may Christ Jesus speak through me and my writing always glorify the Lord.

    I love scripture, first and each time I study a passage of the Bible the Lord reveals more of His story. I credit many favorite authors and some dedicated instructors of writing and theology for my love of words and writing skills. Anything you may glean from the more than five hundred posts on talkofJesus.com is a gift from the Lord. Yet many more-gifted authors before me greatly influence my appetite for context and application.

    I rely on the Lord and the Holy Spirit for direction of my ‘talk’ of Christ Jesus in this place. I pray you will share the Lord, that by your social witness talkofJesus.com will impact the heart of another in some way.

    Roger’s Personal Post Script

    P.S. On a personal note, I was married for more than twenty-two years to a beautiful soul who was raised Catholic. She suffered cancer and died in her fiftieth year. As a result, our only daughter and I grew into a deeper faith in Christ.

    I was raised in the Methodist church and have been active in lay ministry and teaching in several denominations. The Holy Spirit brought me to my knees before the cross, a story told also on my searchable website.

    I’m a sinner, redeemed in Christ, an unwelcome ambassador in this decaying world. Therefore I live here as one longing for God’s love in an eternal world of light and joy. Here I have also suffered divorce, survived cancer and found a place and purpose in my work and in the heart of my wife.

    The goal of Christian Social Witness is to SHARE the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    And as for my book and my work, I leave you only with today’s hope for tomorrow’s joy. Please remember me in your prayers and pray that the Lord will continue that good work of this 21st c. Christian.

    I pray, if it is the Lord’s will, your eternal soul and mine, through the love and grace of Christ Jesus are:

    To be continued…

     

     

  • That Unwelcome Quiet Time

    That Unwelcome Quiet Time

    STRESS!! It consumes, divides and doubles. You would think that a little quiet time would be welcome, but that’s not always the case. In fact, for many of us quiet time may invite the most intimidating minutes of our day.

    A quiet awakening

    I should have welcomed opportunity for more sleep, for my night had been nearly sleepless. Yet after awakening to near silence before dawn I turned off the alarm and remained awake.

    What was on my mind? Everything. And I must confess that my first thought was not,

    This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

    Psalm 118:24

    We arose as usual, beginning the necessary routines of each day. The dog stretched and hurried toward the door. Routine, but required, we set out on today’s event full journey. Charlie followed his nose along previously blazed paths oblivious to my attempt of a hurried pace along a cold continuous sidewalk.

    Running from work

    A jogger ran by, buds in her ears and pulse-monitoring watch on her wrist. She tracks more than time and steps. On warmer days I sensed her daily pace, caught in her mini-marathon between school drop-off and her gym or coffee shop. A man drove by in his loud pizza-logoed car, bobbing his head to a beat of some music inside.

    Charlie walked further, but I was no different from these running to and from work. I could have been busy in some song or sense of life’s sprint, but this day all was quiet except multiplying messages of a mind caught up in my ‘what to do next’ and ‘why did I do that.”

    Once I had driven miles between accounts with my mind also cruising well above the speed limit of a time-constrained goal list. I once listened to anything louder than my passing thoughts; nostalgic classics or current upbeat songs by young musicians full of life. Yet work always approached with the day’s music fleeting to where carefree sounds, singing and smiles fade into hope of a different journey.

    As I thought ahead to work I considered a place filled with well-meaning souls, busy building barns most will never see. Eight or so hours without running to places where we have time to count the costs before the laying of foundations of futility.

    An unexpected glimpse at quiet sleep

    Unexplored paths led by tugs of long leash from long-wandered straight paths of purpose, we returned to a road taken by only a few headed to their cul-de-sac of journey’s end.

    A sight behind an open blind of dawn-lit window imprints image of both past and future. The man lay sleeping peacefully in a hospital bed, between his room’s window and rising metal tree with clear bags of liquid extending long lines dripping life into failing flesh and relief into the delay of decay.

    Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

    Psalm 144:4 KJV

    A mere breath, vapour, a fleeting shadow are the lives of mankind. Souls caught in the image of God trapped in failing flesh. What question of man precedes such astute observation though the looking-glass of life?

    יְֽהוָה מָה־אָדָם וַתֵּדָעֵהוּ בֶּן־אֱנֹושׁ וַֽתְּחַשְּׁבֵֽהוּ׃

    O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?

    PS 144:3

    A second to last death bed

    Psalm 41:

    Blessed is the one who considers the poor!

    In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
    2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
    he is called blessed in the land;
    you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.

    3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
    in his illness you restore him to full health.

    Charlie had inadvertently led me to a path where in the near silence of our morning walk I had to remember our path toward a final rest. So many have passed this way before us, yet today in an unwelcome misstep I glanced briefly into my own future as well as a sudden step back into a memory of a deathbed before.

    By the sweat of your face
    You shall eat bread,
    Till you return to the ground,
    Because from it you were taken;
    For you are dust,
    And to dust you shall return.”

    Genesis 3:19 NASB

    It had been brought into my own living room. She had been sick for months and they couldn’t figure it out. Doctors were busy and work went on while family and life rushed about. A trip to the ER told more of the disruption of life to come.

    After giving up on work and her parents moving in, trips from doctor to hospital and home again… to a bed not our own…

    Once I sat by her inadvertently on her oxygen tube. It was that kind of sudden realization that the breath of life we take so granted becomes perilously cumbersome to draw in for just one more moment. She would live fully just two score and ten, one more month and one more night to say ‘Good-bye, I love you.’

    Psalm 90: 9-12 KJV

    For all our days are passed away in thy wrath:

    we spend our years as a tale that is told.

    The days of our years are threescore years and ten;

    and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,

    yet is their strength labour and sorrow;

    for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

    Who knoweth the power of thine anger?

    even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

    So teach us to number our days,

    that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

    Charlie and I turned off into home, just a short way along our temporary path of these days. I remained lost in contemplative prayer and unexpectedly fond memory, for I knew just how temporary was this life for her and for me.

    “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live…

    “..and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

    John 11:25-26

  • Yesterday I Could Sing

    As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. – 2 Timothy 4:6-7

    A Song from our memories

    Three beautiful young women, gifted beyond measure, shared in ministry to others. Audiences applauded their talent and their enthusiasm emptied in every performance for those who delighted by their singing.

    Now, many years later, the melody resonates only in our memory and their captivating smiles live only in our hearts. But once they were young and beautiful, dancing and singing with vibrancy and grace.

    —

    Death is bitter-sweet, really. It always comes as a shock.. sometimes unexpectedly, yet often slowly.

    She was radiant as a young woman and as vivacious as any young woman beaming to the applause of audiences and generous accolades of friends. How we all remember her, that beautiful woman with the uplifting voice. A melody of her joy still resonates in my heart.

    But that was many years ago. Now the expected silence draws nearer with the drawing of each breath. Her long-trapped soul lies restless in a shell no longer like the glory of her true countenance. And worst of all the melody of hope no longer fills the room or even whispers a pianissimo motif to into the plaintive silence of loved ones all about her.

    I see us from memories of a now-distant past. As they close their eyes together all see her present memory of the glory of youth. They hear her joy of the carefree song – the melodies of love, the outpouring of her gifts. This audience immersed behind closed eyes and long-forgotten memories hear her sing – they hear her sing!

    These divas of days past, no different now. For each the moment does finally come when only their soul cries out, as dry lips do fail: “Yesterday, I could sing… yesterday, I could sing…”