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Tag: Christ

  • Reflections: Jerusalem – a city of Kings

    Reflections: Jerusalem – a city of Kings

    talkofJesus.com

    [ Lament over Jerusalem ]

    “O Jerusalem,Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! – words of Christ Jesus – Mathew 23:37

    mosque and temple21 Chronicles 2:

    A Genealogy of David

    These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, 2 Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

    3 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan and Shelah; these three Bath-shua the Canaanite bore to him.

    Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death.

    4 His daughter-in-law Tamar also bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.

    1 Chronicles 3 

    Descendants of David

    These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, 2 the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; 3 the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; 4 six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months.

    And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

    5 These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel;

    6 then Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, 7 Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,8 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine. 9 All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.

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    Jews and Christians take joy in speaking of Abraham, faithful sojourner and father of nations. Jews and Christians speak well of Jacob, who God renamed Israel, and his favored wife Rachel. Jews and Christians proclaim the might and right of the heart of young David as he slew Goliath the Philistine [*Palestinian] by faith, while Saul was indecisive after he disobeyed the LORD.

    Jews and Christians and the nations proclaim the wisdom and wealth of young Solomon, who asked the LORD for wisdom and received abundant blessing throughout His reign over a United Kingdom of Israel, feared and respected by the enemies of the LORD.

    Yet Jews and Christians fail to warn the generations of the failures of compromise, failures of a price paid by David for alliances with kings and wives of other faiths.

    Even more so, Solomon failed in wisdom as his years progressed: wives and concubines believing in everything but God! Sons and daughters believing in anything but God!

    Generations of Kings and compromise for plans not from God and a future of generations who knew nothing of the God of Israel or the Law of the Promise.

    WE THE PEOPLE depose the LORD our God.

    Will we not reap the harvest of lawyers, Judges, Priests and Kings of unrighteousness?

    Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

    How history fails to recall the failures of sin so evident from century to century; civilization to loss of civility; a time of promise to a time of judgment.

    Jerusalem is a city captured, conquered, destroyed, deserted, re-inhabited, rebuilt, destroyed again, conquered again, rebuilt once more  time and time again throughout the ages.

    Jerusalem is the city of the Temple: built (by Solomon), destroyed, rebuilt (by Ezra and Nehemiah), destroyed again, rebuilt by its captors (Rome) on the ruins by the King who did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. (Herod, if you fail to understand the politics of Jesus’ Jerusalem of the first century.)

    Kings of the United Kingdom (c 1025-925 BC)
    King Relationship to
    Previous King    		 God’s
    Judgment
    Saul none did evil
    Ishbosheth* son (unknown)
    David none did right
    Solomon
    (AKA Jedidiah)    		 son did right in youth,
    evil in old age
    * The kingdom was divided during Ishbosheth’s reign;
    David was king over the tribe of Judah.

    Israel first became divided.

    Two countries: only Judah with Jerusalem as the place for its King.

    As Prophets warned: Israel fell first. (The area north of Judah was later was known as Samaria.)

    Yet true Prophets of the LORD also warned Judah of her faithlessness and whoredom. Judah and Jerusalem fell under the rule of Kings who did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD.

    Kings of Judah (c 925-586 BC) Kings of Israel (c 925-721 BC)
    King Relationship to
    Previous King    		 God’s
    Judgment    		 King Relationship to
    Previous King    		 God’s
    Judgment
    Rehoboam son did evil Jeroboam servant did evil
    Abijam
    (AKA Abijah)    		 son did evil
    Asa son did right
    Nadab son did evil
    Baasha none did evil
    Elah son did evil
    Zimri captain did evil
    Omri captain did evil
    Ahab son did evil
    Jehoshaphat son did right
    Ahaziah son did evil
    Jehoram
    (AKA Joram)    		 son of Ahab did evil
    Jehoram
    (AKA Joram)    		 son did evil
    Ahaziah
    (AKA Azariah
    or Jehoahaz)    		 son did evil
    Athaliah mother did evil Jehu captain mixed
    Joash
    (AKA Jehoash)    		 son of Ahaziah did right in youth,
    evil in old age
    Jehoahaz son did evil
    Joash
    (AKA Jehoash)    		 son did evil
    Amaziah son did right in youth,
    evil in old age
    Jeroboam II son did evil
    Uzziah
    (AKA Azariah)    		 son did right
    Zachariah son did evil
    Shallum none did evil
    (surmised)
    Menahem none did evil
    Pekahiah son did evil
    Pekah captain did evil
    Jotham son did right
    Ahaz son did evil
    Hoshea none did evil
    Hezekiah son did right
    Assyrian captivity
    Manasseh son did evil
    Amon son did evil
    Josiah son did right
    Jehoahaz
    (AKA Shallum)    		 son did evil
    Jehoiakim
    (AKA Eliakim)    		 son of Josiah did evil
    Jehoiachin
    (AKA Coniah
    or Jeconiah)    		 son did evil
    Zedekiah
    (AKA Mattaniah)    		 son of Josiah did evil
    Babylonian captivity

    Source: http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/Kings-of-Israel/kings.html

    To be continued…

  • Reflections: Before adam, I AM

    Reflections: Before adam, I AM

    creation-of-adamReflect though the window of time on the Person of God.

    touch of mirror

    For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face.

    Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. – 1 Corinthians 13:12 

     John 1 English Standard Version (ESV)

    The Word Became Flesh

    1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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    Without here debating the nature and essence of the One true God; without here dissecting God’s purpose and relationships of each Person of the Trinity of the One God: let us examine the Person to person relationship of the LORD to a few historic real souls, men and women of flesh and blood in a relationship with the Living GOD.

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     14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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    Prior to the incarnation of God in the birth, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, God met man in many times, in many places and in several ways. Yet man sins; in every time, in all places and in many ways.

    Mankind sins again and again and yet again throughout the generations. Evil draws us further from the glory God has given to us; glory to worship the LORD in whose Image we are made.

    Any reflection of the mind of man cannot conceive even a mirror Image of the LORD GOD, HOLY AND ALMIGHTY, a loving Father to all He created.

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    Genesis 1:

     26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image…

    To be continued…

  • Reflections in Windows of Time

    Reflections in Windows of Time

    Looking back, running away from God is nothing new. We who would be so critical of Peter denying Jesus three times have now looked back to others faithful to God with moments of doubt.

    Note: Our Lenten reflection continues from where ‘Running from God‘ left off – an introduction to examining a history of relationships between God and believers.

    Moses, God’s chosen Prince, Prophet, Law Giver, Chief Justice, Administrator of the day-to-day lives of the rescued Hebrew nation: even Moses had had it!! – with these rebellious chosen people. Moses was ready to give up on the whole exodus thing more than once during their forty years stranded in the wilderness.

    Elijah, God’s great Prophet who stood against the evil King, with his foreign Queen – Elijah, a true Prophet of God who mocked the false prophets, who mocked the false idols – Elijah, God’s Prophet who both predicted and demonstrated the immeasurable Power of the One Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth!! as the LORD Jehovah came into the place of his witness – Elijah turned from the victory of God and ran in fear for his own life.

    Christ Jesus never shrunk back from the fearful inevitable providential call of the Lamb of God to become the Living Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

    Not only Peter turned away from what seemed like defeat for God – defeat for righteousness – defeat for the witnesses of God’s true word and God’s true will.

    You and I turn from God as well, in our everyday lives.

    Look through the many windows of time. What do you see?

    Are the reflections of our unrighteousness not evident in every millennium, in every century, in every generation?

    Look though the reflection of time: at Jerusalem; at Israel and Judah; look at the Hebrew people before they had a King, before they conquered a land; look before Judges and Generals, reflect before Moses and Abraham: what do we see through the reflections of the windows of time?

    We see God’s patience, God’s mercy and God’s love.

    IF YOU were God or if I was God, WE would have done it differently, wouldn’t we?

    None of this rebellion stuff! None of this disobedience allowed! And the SIN… why.. we would wipe it right out EVERY time, just like in the days of Noah and just like when God destroyed the evil men and the evil women in Sodom and in Gomorrah.

    I do not think you or I could be a merciful God (not even in our best moments).

    No work of any good man or any good woman is sufficient to the Holiness of God.

    The Bible only gives us glimpses into the windows of time at just part of the lives of a few righteous imperfect examples of God. Yet these good men and these good women had their moments of failing – every one of them.

    Jews and Christians and Muslims, who all believe in the ONE GOD, all tend to hold up story lines of convenience, while failing to acknowledge the sins and failings of our fathers of the faith.

    ALL men and ALL women of faith fail in the light of the example and teachings of Jesus Christ!

    The zealous and learned Jew and Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, who we know as Paul, addresses God’s righteousness in Romans 3:

    “None is righteous, no, not one;
    11     no one understands;
        no one seeks for God.

    David, in a moment of weakness appeals to God:

    Psalm 143

    Hear my prayer, O LORD;
    give ear to my pleas for mercy!
    In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!

    Enter not into judgment with your servant,
    for no one living is righteous before you.

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    We are too harsh! God is merciful.

    King David was not only God’s anointed King who united the Hebrew tribes into a United Israel; David, recall, was an adulterer and murderer.

    According to the Law of Moses, should not David have been executed for his sins?

    We see even through the broadcast windows of these evil days, merciless zealots of a false prophet executing judgment without mercy!

    God is patient; God is merciful. Our loving God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will save yet more enemies of the One True God. Was Saul of Tarsus not one of these?

    God seeks repentance in the hearts of all men and all women of every faith; that these will come to the love and grace of His mercy through Jesus Christ, Son of Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

    Look through the windows of time with eyes to see and ears to hear. God has given us the Holy Bible. NO other book is Holy!

    History reveals the hearts of men and women are only continually evil. Why should we worship any man or woman who is NOT God? Why would we kneel or bow down at their idols or lift up their ancestry or follow their teachings from man-made books?

    None is righteous, no not one. Yet God in His mercy reveals both His love for us and our own failings in the lives of the best of us.

    To be continued…