Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Christian

  • “Follow Me

    “Follow Me

    “Follow Me” – Jesus

    “If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

    The words of the Messiah Jesus from the Good News of John 12:26 CSB
    talkofJesus.com Then he said to another "Follow me."

    I mentioned previously in “Jesus said,” that God’s love for the world to which the Lord came in the Person of the Messiah is conditional.

    The same Disciple John who witnessed John 3:16 continues by urging us to also love Jesus. In other words, you must follow Him.

    John 3:36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.

    God is NOT for everyone. Some will continue to choose sin until their death of the flesh and accounting of their soul.

    Our choice, not a command

    Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

    The words of the Messiah Jesus from the Good News of John 12:26 NIV

    But since you do not believe what he [מֹשֶׁה] wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” – John 5:47

    Not so good news for any who do not believe Jesus IS the Messiah, Christ, the only Son of the Father God.

    We have a choice from the LORD.

    Will we believe the Good News (Gospel) that Jesus came to the world to save sinners like you and me?

    Though we may choose to wander in the darkness in our mortal days, like in Eden, we cannot hide our sin in the guise of good acts. For excuses cannot clothe our malice toward the LORD God and the Person of His only Son, Christ Jesus.

    He sacrificed His body and blood for our sins.

    The LORD God Eternal will judge the dust of our flesh and harvest our souls in the Court of the Supreme Judge of Heaven!

    Roger Harned on John 3:18

    Vision of the Angel with the Gospel

    And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice,

    “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.”

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 4:7b NASB

    ἀποκάλυψις – apokalypsis

    Do we understand that the meaning of Revelation is akin to the same revealing of the sin of man to the Person of God in earthly Eden?

    Revelation or ‘apocalypsis‘ is literally:

    1. laying bare, making naked
    2. a disclosure of truth, instruction
      1. concerning things before unknown
      2. used of events by which things or states or persons hitherto withdrawn from view are made visible to all
    3. manifestation, appearance

    “Follow me,” Jesus asks of us (for this ever-so-brief mortal life). Yet the judgement reminds our souls the consequence of refusing God’s grace. Jesus cautions us:

    “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

    John 12:31-32 NASB

    (Need a context for His conditional argument?) READ John 3:14-15

    So what must I do?

    One question the Person of Jesus answers is posed by a man who approached this teacher of the Jews and gentiles alike asking:

    “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? ”

    Jesus answers Personally and individually. Now the Person of the Holy Spirit speaks to each soul of those called to eternal life.

    Your response must be more than “I believe in Jesus.” We must heed the calling of the Lord to “follow Me.”

    The Lord Jesus speaks to Andrew and John, both disciples of John the Baptist who heard him say of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

    When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

    John 1:38 CSB

    The Call to Follow Jesus

    Again and again we hear the same answer (though our sinful self may not have had ears to hear the Lord before).

    The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”

    John 1:43 NKJV

    Philip became an Apostle & disciple of Jesus not by believing in the Lord and living his mortal life as he always had done. Rather he followed Jesus and would later die as his ‘Christian Social Witness’ to the world.

    “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

    “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

    The words of the Messiah Jesus – John 10:27; 12:26 NKJV

    Yet Jesus, Shepherd of the sheep and Sacrifice for their sins calls out to many.

    “Follow me,” this gentle Lamb of God beckons to the humble of a first generation of followers and also the 21st century, in the year of our Lord 2020.

    The Apostles following the Lord

    Before His Sacrifice on the Cross for our sin, Jesus speaks to Peter about the difference between following Him by faith and also after the proof of His glorious resurrection from the grave.

    Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?”

    Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.” – John 13:37 NKJV

    John first witnesses Jesus teaching of His own death and resurrection, a message of death, which like us, the Apostles received with great difficulty.

    Later John witnesses one of Peter’s encounters with the Lord after His resurrection. And what does Jesus ask of Peter once more?

    John 21:

    Jesus said, “… Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old…

    Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

    Jesus’ words to Peter after His resurrection – John 21:19b NIV

    The risen Lord asks Peter (in effect), “Follow Me to the Cross.”

    Are you willing to witness Jesus even to the death, knowing the certainty of resurrection in Him?

    Following Jesus in A.D. 2020

    What is your CHRISTIAN SOCIAL WITNESS for Christ Jesus?

    Do your social ‘friends’ online hear Jesus in your social posts and see Jesus in the witness of online pictures of your daily mortal life?

    Let’s Talk.

    Please SUBSCRIBE to our social witness conversation about Jesus.

    COMMENT on what you read here (even if you just have an opinion or question you don’t want the world to see). Just begin it, “private.” )

    SHARE the Gospel and talkofJesus.com in your social circles as you chat online about the ordinary stuff of our everyday mortal life.

    EMAIL me [roger@talkofJesus.com] and tell me where in social media you invest your limited mortal time each day. (I may need to share to other sites I monitor.)

    THANKS.

    May the Lord shine His Light into your days ahead in the year of our Lord, Christ Jesus, 2020.
Roger
  • Our Lament and Weeping -2- Judgment

    Our Lament and Weeping -2- Judgment

    Previously, we asked of Jeremiah’s lament for Jerusalem, “For what hope have any who have turned against the Lord?” He has just said, “For my groans are many, and I am sick at heart. – Lamentations 1:22b And now his elegy will address a just judgment on Jerusalem by the Lord.

    Judgment on Jerusalem

    Lamentations 2

    אֵיכָה֩ יָעִ֨יב בְּאַפּ֤וֹ׀ אֲדֹנָי֙ אֶת־בַּת־צִיּ֔וֹן הִשְׁלִ֤יךְ מִשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ אֶ֔רֶץ תִּפְאֶ֖רֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְלֹא־זָכַ֥ר הֲדֹם־רַגְלָ֖יו בְּי֥וֹם אַפּֽוֹ׃ ס

    איכה 2 The Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

    The Lord [אֲדֹנָי ‘Adonay] has overshadowed Daughter Zion with his anger!

    How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion
    with a cloud in his anger,
    and cast down from heaven unto the earth
    the beauty of Israel,
    and remembered not his footstool
    in the day of his anger!

    Lamentations 2:3 AKJV

    His daughter is Zion, Jerusalem, ‘the parched place.’ She receives the cloud of His anger over her beauty, as if she had never dwelled in the Light of His heavenly Throne as His beloved footstool. She no longer worships Him!

    2 … In his wrath he has demolished the fortified cities of Daughter Judah…

    Judgment on all of Judah

    And now another beloved daughter. So the Lord punishes not only Jerusalem but all of Judah. He cut off ‘all the horn of Israel,’ its strength and its rays of light on the high places.

    ה He
    5 The Lord is like an enemy;
    he has swallowed up Israel.
    He swallowed up all its palaces
    and destroyed its fortified cities.
    He has multiplied mourning and lamentation
    within Daughter Judah.

    ו Waw
    6 He has wrecked his temple
    as if it were merely a shack in a field,
    destroying his place of meeting.
    The Lord has abolished
    appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion.
    He has despised king and priest
    in his fierce anger.

    ז Zayin
    7 The Lord has rejected his altar,
    repudiated his sanctuary;
    he has handed the walls of her palaces
    over to the enemy.

    Can you imagine this happening to our nation, our religious and political leaders and to the security of our homes and families today?

    Jeremiah describes the dismay of their leaders.

    י Yod
    10 The elders of Daughter Zion
    sit on the ground in silence.
    They have thrown dust on their heads
    and put on sackcloth….

    Then Jeremiah points back to their former sin of hearing false prophets who predict with deceptive visions and do not mention our iniquities. Yet he laments, “Who can heal you?” So this is his intercession on their behalf.

    Hope through God’s Mercy

    I am the man who has seen affliction
    under the rod of God’s wrath.
    He has driven me away and forced me to walk
    in darkness instead of light.

    Lamentations 3:1-2

    Jeremiah recalls his own suffering when leaders of Jerusalem and all of Judah and Israel refused to listen to the Lord’s warnings spoken by him. And he asks for God’s mercy.

    19 Remember my affliction and my homelessness,
    the wormwood and the poison.

    Then he prays: “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.” He then encourages others to hope in the Lord, even in their distress.

    Waiting for Judgment

    ט Teth
    25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the person who seeks him.
    26 It is good to wait quietly
    for salvation from the Lord.

    Can you wait for the Lord in your suffering?

    Sin so often destroys us – the sin of others and our own sin. Do you listen to the rebukes of the Lord before your fall?

    Listen to some of Jeremiah’s encouragement, even in this lament.

    28 Let him sit alone and be silent, for God has disciplined him. 30 … let him be filled with disgrace.

    How we take an attitude against the Lord and against any who suggest that who ought to endure deserved scorn and reproach.

    We refuse to be shamed for punishment we rightfully deserve. Yet He will judge – He will judge if we protest our rebuke and He will judge even when we sit silently hoping in our Redeemer. May the Lord have mercy on us.

    Unless the Lord has ordained it

    מ Mem
    37 Who is there who speaks and it happens,
    unless the Lord has ordained it?
    38 Do not both adversity and good
    come from the mouth of the Most High?
    39 Why should any living person complain,
    any man, because of the punishment for his sins?

    Jeremiah’s question to fallen Israel could well apply to one fallen in our own sin today.

    So sit alone, be silent and consider the Lord’s discipline.

    Even we do not willingly allow our deserved shame and disgrace. Neither will we sorrowfully thank Christ for carrying our reproach to the Cross.

    I called on your name, Lord,
    from the depths of the pit.
    You heard my plea:
    Do not ignore my cry for relief.

    Lamentations 3:55-56 CSB

    59 Lord, you saw the wrong done to me; judge my case.

    Can you ask judgment (without Christ’s grace), as Jeremiah plead?

    66 You will pursue them in anger and destroy them under your heavens.

    Will the Lord also pursue you in your sins and iniquity, overshadowing all hope of deliverance from death?

    O, contemporary christian, how like those who would not listen to Jeremiah are we, when turning from the Lord.

    To be continued...
  • Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95

    Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95


    His faithful love endures forever.

    Psalm 136

    I don’t know about you, but once again Thanksgiving seems to be upon us as a prerequisite observance preceding the rush of the Christmas holidays. Some would observe in political correctness, ‘the holiday season,’ which promoted for lights in darkness and gifts seemingly endures forever.

    menorah Knesset

    I have previously mentioned this hustle and bustle of black Friday having overtaken the archaic imagery of worshiping pilgrims. Yet each year’s commercial focus on a relatively minor Jewish holiday and formerly insignificant Christian observance grows more and more into a worship of our prosperity (for which we give thanks).


    Puritans forbade Christmas, considering it too pagan. Governor Bradford actually threatened New Englanders with work, jail or fines if they were caught observing Christmas.

    Christianity.com

    Perhaps our 17th century Puritan forefathers, who celebrated on this uniquely American Thanksgiving holiday, weren’t so far from the truth of this holiday season. For these brief days provide little rest and even less thanks.

    Thanks giving in two Psalms

    Set aside your devices and distractions for a moment as you gather together with family and you will see much bounty, a recurring theme for America and also Israel of the Psalms and Scripture.

    Who will you thank?

    Your host and hostess? Sure. Or maybe family who have made this gathering possible? Perhaps. Yet the thanks giving of those faithful to the Lord is always to God.

    No book better expresses our worship, our praises, and singing with joy to the LORD than Psalms, which is the hymnal of Jewish and Christian worship.

    One simple form of praising God for the worshipers is to simply repeat a single phrase, when the worship leader praises the LORD. One example of several with thanksgiving of the worshipers for God is Psalm 136.

    You could give thanksgiving to God right now simply by repeating your response out loud after reading every praise of the Psalm [linked below].

    Psalm 136

    Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. [136:1 הֹודוּ לַיהוָה כִּי־טֹוב כִּי לְעֹולָם חַסְדֹּֽו׃]

    His faithful love endures forever. OR 

    For His mercy endures forever. OR

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

    Different translations all reinforce God’s love in our response of worship to the LORD. The Psalmist praises God in many ways:

    v.4 He alone does great wonders.

    v.7 He made the great lights

    v.23 He remembered us in our humiliation

    25 Who giveth food to all flesh:

    for his mercy endureth for ever.

    26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven:

    for his mercy endureth for ever.


    King James Version (KJV)

    This is giving thanks as the Pilgrims of America’s founding would have given to God – not only on this holiday, but also in other worship.

    Thanks is often a theme of worship, therefore thanking God is the first fruits of harvest for believers of all faiths who landed in this new world.

    Yet we have forgotten the lessons of the Lord — He who has preserved us for bounty and blessings of a new land.

    Are we so unlike those who worshiped the Lord before, yet then neglected to thank their Provider?

    Psalm 95

    Worship 

    1 Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord,
    shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!

    2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us shout triumphantly to him in song.

    Psalm 95 CSB

    3 For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.

    If the LORD is God, then as worshipers giving God thanks, what must we do?

    Hear this caution from the Psalm, that we might not give our thanks lightly, forgetting the worship of Almighty God our Creator.

    6 Come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
    7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the sheep under his care.

    The Psalmist then reminds worshipers of those who had previously turned from the Lord.

    Warning

    Today, if you hear his voice:
    8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
    as on that day at Massah in the wilderness
    9 where your fathers tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.

    Psalm 95, referring to exodus 17:17

    Wilderness of the Negev 

    Meribah מְרִיבָה means testing and is the place where the Hebrews escaping Egypt tested the Lord, rather than giving thanks to the Lord. And Massah מַסָּה means quarreling, the politics of an ungrateful saved people in the wilderness.

    The Lord saved many who had fled to the New World from persecution and death in the seventeenth century. The Pilgrims and others gave God thanks for this. Yet the Psalmist reminds worshipers to not harden our hearts.

    Those escaping to a new land had far to go and much to learn of community, about authority and of thankfulness. Because of their testing and quarreling, the promise of the Lord would not be fulfilled in their generation.

    Therefore let us heed these cautions of the Psalmist in our attitude of thanks to the Lord. Even today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

    10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation;
    I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray;
    they do not know my ways.”
    11 So I swore in my anger,
    “They will not enter my rest.”

     Would you enter the eternal rest of the Lord? Do you thank the Lord this day?

    We will have more to say of this rest in our Lord after this holiday of Thanks giving.