Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: christmas

  • Conquest of Love; Sin Slain at the Gate

    Conquest of Love; Sin Slain at the Gate

    Philippians 2:

    overlooking jerusalem  And being found in human form,
    8     he humbled himself
        and became obedient to the point of death—
        even death on a cross.

    9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
        and gave him the name
        that is above every name,

    10 so that at the name of Jesus
        every knee should bend,
        in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    11 and every tongue should confess
        that Jesus Christ is Lord,
        to the glory of God the Father.

    It was neither the conquest nor the King Jerusalem expected. The Messiah would surely take back the Temple and the City centered on the worship of God. He must by His miraculous power from Almighty God reclaim the promise and the land.

    Herod had rebuilt the Temple, just as Nehemiah had prevailed in the land conquered by gentile invaders, evil unbelievers who destroyed the House of worship and enslaved the people once more.

    Centuries had passed with silence from the Lord – not one Prophet until just this time when John had proclaimed the coming of the Messiah.

    Yet Rome would have nothing of trouble-makers like John, though he hid in the desert. And Herod could not remain King with another King of the Jews at the gate.

    A Conqueror greater than David was poised to ride into Jerusalem. He had been there before, a faithful Rabbi who taught with authority. His miracles were well documented and witnessed by many. Now the crowds followed.

    And the gates could not be closed for the most profitable festival of the entire Jewish year. Many would come to the Temple and buy their kosher food for the Seder, overpriced animals required for the sacrifice and souvenirs of the Temple to take back home throughout Judea, Samaria, Asia and even Rome itself.

    Another zealot insurrection could not be tolerated by Centurions guarding the gate and controlling the crowds.

    And Jesus of Nazareth rides a colt down the hillside to the very gate of Jerusalem with thousands shouting: HOSANNA! HOSANNA! SON OF DAVID!

    Five centuries earlier Zechariah had prophesied:

    Zechariah 9

    9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
        Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
    Lo, your king comes to you;
        triumphant and victorious is he,
    humble and riding on a donkey,
        on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10 He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
        and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
        and he shall command peace to the nations;
    his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
        and from the River to the ends of the earth.

    11 As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
        I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
    12 Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
        today I declare that I will restore to you double.
    13 For I have bent Judah as my bow;
        I have made Ephraim its arrow.
    I will arouse your sons, O Zion,
        against your sons, O Greece,
        and wield you like a warrior’s sword.

    The stage of all history is set, the battle prepared, the King has come to Jerusalem.

    To be continued…

  • Ashes of Ash Wednesday + a Preparation of Repentance

    Ashes of Ash Wednesday + a Preparation of Repentance

    Ash Wednesday

    We pause momentarily today [AD 2022] from consideration of God’s love to prepare for the season of Christ’s Blood of Sacrifice.

    Consider your own unrighteousness to receive any grace.

    Bow down in the dust of your crumbling bones; cover with ashes your sin-consumed flesh.

    Will the LORD not have mercy on me, a sinner?

    Who will pay any ransom for your many sins? Who has redeemed the faithful who fall short of righteousness? Who only can cleanse the soul of sin and the heart of continual iniquity?

    Jeremiah 6:26

    O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
    and roll in ashes;
    make mourning as for an only son,
    most bitter lamentation,
    for suddenly the destroyer
    will come upon us.

    Mark 1

    14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:3

    Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.

     2 Peter 2:

    But false prophets also arose among the people… And many will follow their sensuality… And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

    For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell… if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly… then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment…

    Repentance Of Sinners: v.12

    But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed… They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you…

    Peter is warning the church here of those CLAIM to be christians, but actually are wed to Satan the master of their sin.

    Is this not a timely loud caution for our contemporary church?

    14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray…

    20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

    21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

    Remember in ashes and dust, the turning of Judas from Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior.

    The ashes of Ash Wednesday traditionally come from the burnt palms of the prior Palm Sunday, a day with the crowds shout, HOSANNA! The KING, our LORD Jesus approaches the gate.

    Yet how quickly we turn on HIM, when we see the CROSS we must also bear to follow Jesus.

    In this season of preparation for Easter, less than 40 days until the dark celebration of our own sin for which our Lord suffered and died on Good Friday, let us repent in dust and ashes before the Lord our God. Let us bow down to Christ Jesus, who suffered all for our sins that we might be redeemed by His grace to the Light of Eternal Life.

    Hebrews 3

    7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

    “Today, if you hear his voice,
    8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion…

    12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

    “Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

    Are you prepared to meet the LORD your GOD Face to face?

    Are you prepared to face Jesus should today bring your last breath of life before eternal Life or prior to Christ’s triumphant return and Judgment?

    Like Job, do you repent in dust and ashes before God?

    Like Peter, do you come before Jesus Christ confessing, I am a sinful man?

    Christians hanged in Egypt 2015

    Do you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord in these troubling times?

    Mark 8: 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

    35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?

    38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

    edgar-cayce-time

    Yes, false Prophets will come, but the time is not yet.

    isis-beheading-21-coptic-christians-in-libya-resized

    No man knows the day or the hour. Some claim tolerance with darkness and Jesus.

    Churchill Islam quote

    He is NOT Christ to them. They twist truth into lies with self-serving sinful false prophesy!

    Some proclaim loudly choruses of peace, while they proclaim God’s lands for the destruction of evil.

    Our United leaders of this world excel as the Chamberlains of peace, rather than admit evil’s destruction of the truth and the truth of evil’s destruction.

    Some sing loudly a Hallelujah Chorus to Jesus, while they lead astray softly in the sin of their hidden ways.

    Are you a secretive christian, tolerant of those who hate Christ and the Cross?

    REPENT in dust and ashes! For in these last days the signs are many and the Day and hour you do not know.

    Prepare and wash your soul in the Blood of Christ Jesus, in preparation for the Good Friday of the Cross and our only hope and joy, the Resurrection and Victory of the love of God celebrated in 40 days (God willing) on Easter.

    Revelation 7

    A Great Multitude from Every Nation

    9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

    13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

    And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

    16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
        the sun shall not strike them,
        nor any scorching heat.
    17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
        and he will guide them to springs of living water,
    and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

    Revelation 11

    The Seventh Trumpet

    15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

    “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

    HALLELUJAH! CHRIST OUR LORD IS! JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN. HE WILL RETURN ON THE CLOUDS IN VICTORY OVER ALL SIN. HE WILL PUNISH ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.

    Repent, therefore, and worship Christ Jesus our Lord. Bow down only to Christ in the dust of your flesh and the ashes of your sinfulness. Christ Jesus IS and will judge you and me and all.

    Remember you are dust and into dust you will return.

  • Light of Life

    Light of Life

    My wick was dry and lifeless

    Until I beheld Thy Light.

    Witness the touch of Christmas, the distant focused look at the burning bush of Christ Jesus through eyes drawn from darkness to the love of the Lord, which He has planted in our distant cold hearts.

    Come unto me and I will give you rest… God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…

    The world knows of the love of Jesus Christ. The world knows of the love of God our Heavenly Father. Even marginal christians know the price of the blood of sacrifice this ‘baby Jesus’ would make on the Cross. Yet many who have been called and many who would  claim in vain the Name of Christ Jesus do witness against the blood of the Cross by their adultery against the Bridegroom of the church, Christ Jesus.

    Our unfortunate corporate witness as christians shines no more than the darkness and apostasy of God’s chosen families in the days of Isaiah. We gaze upon the love of the babe in the manger and witness in our lives: no, I will love as I please, because I will not take up His Cross.

    How easily we fail in the Gospel message that GRACE comes only after REPENTANCE! A christian who continues to abide in the darkness is NO witness for Jesus Christ or inheritor of eternal life.

    Have we preached the Gospel from John that love of God and love of one another only comes after we turn from the darkness of our continual sin and touch the Light of Life in Christ Jesus?

    John 3:19

    And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

    Are your works evil, dear sister (brother) in the Lord?

    I met someone, you say. I have someone better, you say. Is this your witness for Jesus Christ?

    Adulterer! Adulteress & whore! The Church is Betrothed of Christ, even from the days before the manger.

    Which of the Prophets has not warned of the whoredom of Jezebel? Which of the Prophets has not seen godless men promising the love, lies and riches of the world?

    Say nothing of virgins and babes in a manger. Speak nothing of Christ Jesus. Say nothing of Christmas. You cannot love God and money. Repent!

    Rather love the Lord your God with all your heart. Return humbly to the house of the Lord and heart of Christ Jesus.

    Confess your sins before Almighty God and return to the husband of your vows; the One who loves you. Though you are unfaithful, remember the Blood of the full-measure of His suffering for you.

    Let the desire of your heart be for faithfulness. Remember your vows to the Lord and to your husband. Recall their unfailing love and persistent prayers for you.

    Are lying, licentiousness, adultery, premarital sex, divorce, drunkenness, desires for riches, living together in sin, abortions, cursing the Name of Jesus Christ and all these worldly things you claimed to repent of – are these wild vines of sin your witness for Jesus Christ this Christmas?

    God forbid!

    Many christians cling to those of the world and the sins they proclaim. Many christians claim the sins of darkness alongside their ‘witness’ for Jesus Christ. These neither love God with ALL their hearts or other Christians with the love of Christ!

    John 3:20

    For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

    This, of course, includes those who call themselves ‘christian,’ celebrate Christmas and boldly witness by their sin against Christ Jesus and the Blood of His Sacrifice.

    If you know the truth, yet refuse to turn back to the Light of Truth, you love the darkness of your sins.

    Let your Christmas gift be repentance.

    John 3:21

    But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

    Yes, even ‘christians’ have a choice. You will know them by their love. You will know them by their light. You will know them by their generosity.

    (Have YOU donated anything to any of the charities I have mentioned or other noble works for Christ this Christmas? {It’s not too late for that..}

    You will know them by their faithfulness, their truthfulness. You will know if a Christian is light at Christmas (and 365 days/year).

    John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

    May I say again Jesus’ words before we move with the scriptures of the Prophet Isaiah, who so accurately foresaw the coming of the Christ:

    Jesus said: ” Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12b

    Jesus was and IS that Light in a time of great darkness of the world. Christians joined to the Bridegroom of Life must abide in the Light of Christ Jesus… or surely the darkness will remain. Will the One you have called ‘Lord’ from whom you turn toward the darkness of your sins not say, “I never knew you?”

    If the Light of Christ Jesus once shown on you, why do you now turn your face from the fire of His holiness?

    Will you, unrepentant christian, now turn your dry wick into the arid darkness?

    Will your feet of flesh not crumble under the weight of your stone-cold heart, which was once touched by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ?

    Why does Isaiah speak of Light?

    When you see the lights of Christmas, remembering the birth pangs of a virgin pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God, remember a Son born of the flesh would die for our sins. Remember the 700 years of darkness from the days of Isaiah to this birth in a Manger. Consider the prophetic warnings for days of great darkness, even before the coming of the end of the age.

    Do you, dear virgins, have oil for your lamps? Does your witness prepare a light for the way of our returning Lord?

    Isaiah 5

    Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

    2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

    20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

    21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

    22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

    23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

    30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

     Isaiah 7

    10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

    11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

    12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

    13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

    14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

    15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

    16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

     Isaiah 9:

    Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation… and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

    2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

    3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy:

    they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

    Do you; beloved brother in Christ, dear sister in Christ; have the JOY in the harvest of the love of CHRIST Jesus, this Christmas?

    JOY to the world. The LORD IS come. Emmanuel, God With Us. Christ, born son of man, son of Mary, son of God.

    6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

    7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

    Christmas – witness for Christ Jesus – is a choice of love… OR a choice of refusal of love (because of your love for the darkness of the world).

    Isaiah 9:13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.

    14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day…

    17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

    18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

    19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

    Jesus speaks as Prophet of what is to come for true followers who know and abide in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior:

    Matthew 10:22 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

    26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.

    Isaiah 53

    Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
    2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
    he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
    3 He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
    and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
    4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
    yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
    5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
    6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

    12c yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

     Isaiah 55

    6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
    7 let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
    let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
    8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
    9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    Isaiah 56:1 Thus says the Lord:
    “Keep justice, and do righteousness,
    for soon my salvation will come,
    and my righteousness be revealed.

    Isaiah 57:

    11 Whom did you dread and fear,
    so that you lied,
    and did not remember me,
    did not lay it to heart?
    Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,
    and you do not fear me?
    12 I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,
    but they will not profit you.

    Isaiah 59

    Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
    2 but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
    and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.
    3 For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
    your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.

    20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
    21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord:

    “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

    These are just some of the prophesies of Isaiah some 700 years before Christ.

    Christians dully listen to a few verses from Isaiah in a typical Christmas Eve service. (So few ‘christians’ read the Bible. So few ‘christians’ have even seen or heard these additional prophetic words of Isaiah or numerous references by other Prophets and in the Psalms.)

    Seven centuries (like looking back now to the 1300’s A.D.) from Isaiah’s prophesies until the Redeemer IS born in a manger in Bethlehem. Hear Isaiah’s description of the light of our manger scene:

    Isaiah 60

     Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

    2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
    but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.

    3 And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising.
    4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
    they all gather together, they come to you;
    your sons shall come from afar,
    and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.

    5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
    your heart shall thrill and exult,
    because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

    They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.

    14 The sons of those who afflicted you
    shall come bending low to you,
    and all who despised you
    shall bow down at your feet;
    they shall call you the City of the Lord,
    the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

    19 The sun shall be no more
    your light by day,
    nor for brightness shall the moon
    give you light;
    but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.

    20 Your sun shall no more go down,
    nor your moon withdraw itself;
    for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of mourning shall be ended.

    21 Your people shall all be righteous;
    they shall possess the land forever,
    the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
    that I might be glorified.
    22 The least one shall become a clan,
    and the smallest one a mighty nation;

    I am the Lord;
    in its time I will hasten it.

    This is the Gospel of Christmas:

    A manger, God With Us;

    The Cross, Christ sacrificed for us and our obedience to the crucifixion of our sinful flesh to follow Jesus;

    Christ risen, the Light and Life of grace for all who repent and worship Jesus Christ as Lord.

    Christ Jesus IS Life and Light eternal for fallen sinners to abide in the Holy Spirit and dwell in the House of the Lord, forever.

    Please pray for my wife in the Lord, Lissette Harned, and our grown children.

    Pray also for me. For I covet your prayers and love, beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord – our Christ of Christmas.

    May the joy of Christmas be your witness to the love of the Father and Power of the Holy Spirit to draw repentant sinners home to the Light of the King of all Creation and life. Jesus IS Lord.

    Amen.