Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: christmas

  • Emmanuel

    Emmanuel

    YOU need to stop thinking of Jesus as if He were historical, like a dinosaur or a Caesar.  Jesus IS.

    Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. – Matthew 1:23 KJV
    Let us turn back a page to a time of anticipation of the Messiah, prior to a time of the silence of God. The last book of the Old Testament – a Prophet looking forward: Malachi.
    Please expand your imagination just a bit to think of us as contemporaries of the Prophet, expecting the Messiah; yet now we know that Jesus was, and IS, and will be: God with us.
    Suppose that I would admonish us, as did the Prophets: what might the Lord have to say to us?
    Why do YOU want to think gently of Jesus as a baby in a manger? Why do YOU want to think briefly of Jesus as YOUR Savior on the Cross? Why do YOU not see the resurrection beyond the manger?

    The church once worshiped the bones of the Apostles as relics of history, but YOU will not find Jesus’ bones in a grave. The bones of the Apostles will dance alongside ours before Ezekiel and the Prophets at the Day of Christ’s coming again!

    In the year of our Lord 2013 we would do well to remember the birth of Christ Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem of Judea with sight of His Name Emmanuel – God with us. Jesus IS. Jesus IS God with us now; yet in these last days we would do well to look for our Redeemer to call us unto Him in the place where He IS.

    In the days before John the Baptizer called for the world to prepare the way of the LORD, God’s manifest silence was evident – no Prophet had spoken for centuries. Recalling the close of the Old Testament let us now look to the Book of Malachi, remembering that the Risen Christ Jesus IS and is to come again: God with us.

    Malachi 1

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.

    2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”

    Does Christ our Savior and God our Father not love us? Is the Lord not with us, as He was promised and did promise, and does promise by His Word?

    6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name.

    And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? [KJV]

    … O pastors and ministers and reverends and priests who despise and neglect the Name of Christ Jesus: God with us! O you who broadcast YOUR world, recommend YOUR book and ask for the offering that is the Lord’s!

    10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.

    Christ IS with us. Surly He looks upon us with great displeasure. He IS King of kings and Lord of lords!

    14b For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

     

    Malachi 2

    If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.

     

    7 For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 8 But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts, 9 and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”

    10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 

    Is the church which bears His Name true witness of His love poured out for us on the Cross? Why do you call yourself ‘christian’ and not love one another as Christ Jesus, who IS God with us?

    13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

    14 But you say, “Why does he not?”

    Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union?

    And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.

    16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

    And dear liberated wife of this 21st century, is the Lord God with us? Is He not witness between you and the husband of your covenant of marriage?

    Are your Godly offspring to be found in the house of the Lord?

    Are you not only one in spirit the husband of your vows, but by your vows also one in spirit with Christ Jesus (whom you claim as your lord)?

    The man or woman who claims Christ and divorces is witness against your covenant with the Lord. You profane the Name of Christ (now calling yourself a single one). I AM Emmanuel: God with you!

    The Messenger of the Lord

    17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking,“Where is the God of justice?”

    (Now we come to the more familiar reference to John the Baptizer; yet remember Emmanuel and His coming on the clouds.)

    Malachi 3

    English Standard Version (ESV)

     “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.

     Yes, the Lord IS come. He will return suddenly and seal His new covenant.

    But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

     

    5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

    6 “For I the Lord do not change…

    7b Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

    The Book of Remembrance

    16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

    Malachi 4

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    The Great Day of the Lord

    “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings…

    5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

    Thus ends the Old Testament and the books of the Prophets.

    Christ incarnate was born in a manger.

    Christ died. Christ IS risen. Christ will come again.

    Christ Jesus, Emmanuel: God with us.

    Even so, come Lord Jesus.

    Amen.

    EMMANUEL

     

  • Christmas: past, present, future

    Christmas: past, present, future

    BAH! humbug!

    You know the story; but the man is converted in the end by what has been, what is, and what will be.

    What about you? Do you have a Christmas story to warm our hearts?

    Please share it, by way of a COMMENT. Your witness is important to me and to others.

    Here are just a few from my past:

    • I was told frequently that my parents had to walk to the grocery store for food and milk after the big snow storm of 1950. I was just four months old at Christmas. (Sorry, no pictures – but my sister probably has them.)

    Do your Christmas pictures tell a story? *like the family pictures we used to see on Christmas cards? – Go ahead an send me one at roger.harned@yahoo.com if you would like us to post it.

    • From a long ago as I remember, we all had personal stockings with our own name on it. Roger, Jenny & Eddie *in that order. And then much later, Kenny. Yes, they were hung by the chimney of our real fireplace with care. And on Christmas morning we always had to open all the gifts in the stocking before the big presents. We always had an apple and and orange in it.
    • When Rachel was born, Christmas got much bigger in our home (although we always went to church Christmas eve, went caroling, went to Christmas parties and more). Her stocking was hung by the chimney with care. Yes, it was a real fireplace with real wood fires. Rachel’s stocking *even at Grandma’s was mysteriously bigger than everyone else’s.

    I have a picture of me and Rachel when she was about 5. I’ll see if I’m allowed to post it. (I will not get to spend Christmas with my children this year. Songs about home for the holidays and mistletoe and other warm and artificially nostalgic memories sometimes make me sad instead of able to show ‘joy to the world.’ Even in Christian households, Christ must be more a part of Christmas and the love of God to send His only Son to a manger for a perfect act of love ought to be our memory to break though the silent nights.

    Enough nostalgia. Please share your Christmas stories.

    *Look for my Christmas messages to continue from Advent messages posted this week on Beatitudes for the Multitudes beginning Monday, December 23, 2013.

    Don’t be a Scrooge and keep your Christian Social Witness to yourself.

    Please share it with us.

    Roger

  • The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 3

    The Beatitudes and the Multitudes – Part 3

    MERRY CHRISTMAS.

    Merry Christmas.

    Such a joyful greeting from a Christian to another.

    Returning our thoughts to the multitudes hearing Jesus’ teaching:

    Matthew 5

    King James Version (KJV)

    Verse 13

    • You are the salt of the earth.

    Salt is plentiful and worthless, except that it makes our food to last and seasons its flavor to make our food more palatable.

    • But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?  It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under the foot of men.

    I am trodden under the foot of man. But of what worth am I to this man (who calls himself the Son of Man)? What does he mean that I am the salt of the earth?

    • Ye are the light of the world.
    • A city set on an hill cannot be hid.
    • Neither do men light a candle, and but it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light to all that are in the house.

    What can all this mean? What does it mean to meet God on a hill overlooking the city?

    Dearly beloved believer and seeker of the Lord God,

    I leave this to your own conviction of the Spirit. Yet I challenge the context of your hearing the blessings or beatitudes of Jesus once more in considering His calling. Jesus speaks to the multitudes. The believing church sits in the crowd as a light on a hill or a candle lifted on a candlestick to light the whole house.

    Many will hear the Word and wander off back into the darkness and destruction and death. Many will not see the Lord on the hill again until the call of the trumpet to Judgment, of which Jesus further warns the multitudes (immediately after these verses) of the fulfillment of the Law and Scripture in Him.

    To the multitudes, our Lord further speaks of repentance for the sin we have done. He calls us to righteousness exceeding the appearance of the most respected representatives of God’s Law.

    He tells us how to exceed the righteousness of rules by the intention of our heart and the thoughtfulness of our actions. Jesus forbids divorce. Jesus forbids anger without cause. He commands reconciliation between brothers (now he speaks to the church), before thinking that our offering to God is acceptable.

    Jesus tells the crowd and the church how by our actions Christians are to demonstrate God’s light to the house and to the world. He proceeds to tell us how we, as God’s house and God’s city, and God’s people must do more than the Law, to go the second mile.

    Further, He concludes:

    Matthew 5:44

    • Love your enemy.

    • Bless them that curse you.

    • Do good to them that hate you.

    • Pray for them that despitefully use you.

    • And (pray for them that) persecute you.

    Is this the church you signed up for?  Is this the light on the hill you are among men?

    It’s difficult, if not impossible, isn’t it?

    Jesus then says (in verse 45) that we have to do it to be children of the Father.

    Then he says essentially (in verse 46): If you love only those who love you, even the politicians do that. Ouch!

    Then our Lord calls on us to do something that we cannot do:

    Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

    How?

    Repent! Be obedient children of adoption by our Father in Heaven, who did send Christ Jesus to the Cross as perfect redemption for our sins.

    ‘Go; and sin no more,’ as our Lord has called upon us to do. (John 5:14; John 8:11)

    Jesus’ teachings of ‘Blessed are you…” or ‘Happy are you…’ give us, perhaps, a little different than usual perspective on the reason for God to send His only Son to a manger in Bethlehem.

    Have you ever thought of the Nativity of Bethlehem with the baby in a manger to be the beginning of His destination of His place for you on the Cross?

    Do you think of the Cross when you wish someone (perhaps an unbeliever), “Merry Christmas?”

    Do others see Christ’s Light in the salt of your joyful greeting?

    To be continued…