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Tag: Church

Loneliness in the Solitary Confinement || Distanced from Friends
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Story of a man awakened

I’d like to continue from what I told you last time. You need to know what happened after a rude awakening from my dream of when my wife and I were in Eden walking with God as if HE Who Created All was my friend!

You know of course that I awoke to this day and not a time before Abraham and you may have heard or read my story, but I wanted to tell you how I felt at the time.

A Knock at the Door

We lay intertwined embraced in warmth flowing from fingertips to toe. Our paradise shattered as I awoke to a loud knock on the door…

“David! . . . Lend me three loaves!”

Who is this at this late hour, I thought? Then as I recognized my neighbor’s outcry at our door,

“Shaul, is that you?” I inquired.

“Of course it’s me. Who else would it be at this hour?” my neighbor responded as he continued,

“A friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.”

We had just fallen asleep and I retorted,

“Do not bother me. As you can plainly see the door has already been shut and we are all in bed.”

“Come on, David, I have nothing to eat for my friends who have just arrived,” he replied.

“I cannot get up and give you anything,” I again said even though my wife and I were awake by now.

Shaul again began shamelessly knocking at our door as my wife looked toward me with that look.

“Alright, my friend,” I shouted over his knocks as I headed to the door.

“I will give you your bread.”

A Parable of Separation

You know this story.

Perhaps the characters are purely fictional as in most parables; but like many of Jesus’ parables, He probably retold it in many places to different crowds in various ways.
- Can you identify with the family behind locked doors in the darkness, separated from friends and seeking peace?
- Or perhaps you can imagine that you are the friend of Shaul, who has traveled a day’s journey and arrived unexpectedly late.
Your good friend didn’t even know that you were coming to him in person. And all of you were overjoyed for this personal reunion!

Friends — no longer separated by distance.

AND your friend is even willing to go to his friend and neighbor for something to eat while rejoined in communion with each other.

Picture Paradise when Heaven’s Door | of Separation | is Opened

I have just illustrated Jesus’ parable with names of appropriate symbolism as the Lord occasionally does. [i.e. Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham]

שאול
Shaul

Shaul means, “borrowed.” http://blb.sc/000vVY

“Lend me three loaves,” he begs his beloved friend.

דָּוִד

David

David means, “friend” or “beloved.” http://blb.sc/001ccS

“This is my beloved and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.” – Song 5:26b NASB

and behold, a voice out of the heavens said,
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
says the LORD, the God of Israel – Gospel of Matthew 3:17

The Gospel of Luke 11:

It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…

We know it as:

The Lord’s Prayer

Jesus’ Disciples were already isolated ‘in a certain place.’

No show here for church friends

or ritualized rote of memorized obligation.

Father, hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins…
Gospel of Luke 11:2b-4a NASB

Christ’s application in an isolated place

Jesus, of course, is talking about prayer – petitions of a sinful man to a Father God | separated from man | by holiness.

Here is a man alone secure in his home praying – spirit to Spirit.

Perhaps he does dream of Paradise | personal relationship with the Lord God | as it was in the beginning.

Jesus invites His followers to a place | separated and distanced from others in this world.

The call to prayer is to the Father of His beloved children.

a friend at the door | to a Friend inside

I’ve told you this parable from a perspective of the FRIEND INSIDE.

The Lord Jesus speaks to each SINNER as a friend knocking | adam knocking repeatedly on the DOOR | of Heaven through prayer.

Jesus says of the FRIEND inside who I have just described in this parable:

8 I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him anything just because he is his friend, yet because of his shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
- You and I are Shaul, the borrower of bread.
- Our Heavenly Father is David | our beloved friend with the bread of Heaven, which He now has given to us after having answered a knock at His door.
It is His story I have just told!

Our beloved Heavenly Father and Friend invites you to share the Bread that came down from Heaven – the Bread of Life, Christ Jesus Who IS the Son and | Door to eternal life.

Jesus answers disciples asking about prayer with a parable of the Father | who once again desires the Personal Face-to-face fellowship of Eden.

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
and the one who seeks finds,
and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.
The Good News of Luke 11:9-10 NASB | Jesus on prayer to the Father

NEXT: A look at Social Distancing of the Church in a 1st century world of violent upheaval.
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To be continued...
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January 13, 2021
Persevering the Social Distancing of Virtual Relationship
Letters to a Distanced Church

A quick glance at the map reveals many first century churches near the Aegean Sea, a long voyage from Jerusalem.

Believers of The Way had to depend on distant leaders to sow and nurture virtual relationships:
- to each other,
- to other churches (many in local or nearby homes)
- and to distant Shepherds of Christ like Peter and Paul.
The Apostles embraced these saints of so many distant churches with Christ’s love. They loved their flocks through letters and by occasional visits of their founding fathers (Apostles and other disciples of Jesus). Each of these mission churches had its own shepherd, sometimes a father of the household where they met.

Like the Gospels, Church Letters (Epistles) arrived by messenger or with its own pastor (Shepherd or father) returning from Jerusalem, Rome or other place where the Apostles could encourage them in Christ.

A voyage to Thessalonica from Rome or Jerusalem is about the same distance.

Pastoral letters (from the Shepherds or Church Fathers) would be read in as many of the churches along its route as practically possible.

Do you suppose that the saints of the Church in Thessaloniki suffered social distancing from their local friends, neighbors and businesses?

YES. In fact many early Christians were socially distanced from their own communities and neighbors due to threat of persecution or even death.

2 Thessalonians

from the Church Fathers of the First Century

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is only fitting, because your faith is increasing abundantly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another grows ever greater…

Hear Paul’s heart for them and note how these socially distanced Christians coped with a new reality much different than before.

4 As a result, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God:
- for your perseverance and faith
- in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.
This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you indeed are suffering.

Commentary on a too-familiar setting
- Does this also encourage you in your social isolation from the brothers and sisters of Christ’s Church?
Picture this background from commentary of John MacArthur:

..pressure and persecution had also increased. The seeds of false doctrine concerning the Lord had been sown, and the people were behaving disorderly.

So Paul wrote to his beloved flock who were: 1) discouraged by persecution and needed incentive to persevere; 2) deceived by false teachers who confused them about the Lord’s return; and 3) disobedient to divine commands, particularly by refusing to work.

Who witnesses Christ’s love in you?

Our own 21st century community also watches us, even as the Lord Jesus assures His distant lambs held near in every era,

“In the world you have tribulation, G2347 but take courage; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33 NASB

There’s that PRESSURE AGAIN.

COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 2

Pressure from Affliction – ours and our loved ones.

Paul assures the Church of Relief & Retribution

For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict G2346 you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted G2346 and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 NASB

Sinners AFFLICTED — Sinners without hope as once we were.

SEPARATED by our sin, DISTANCED from the Lord God never seeking Christ Jesus, the Savior who cleanses our soul.

Afflicted by others, but also sinners spared from Judgment by the mercy of the Lord Jesus.
- COVID – Social Distancing for a time known to the Lord.
- Judgment – Just punishment separating sinners from God forever.
- COVID will end, replaced by other pandemics of the world’s sin.
- Judgment will come to the unrepentant after our mortal time expires.
These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power..
2 Thessalonians 1:9 NASB

Yet in Christ, our Lord and Savior, with the Presence of the Holy Spirit; even now — in these days of affliction — we draw near to the love and light which shines through the darkness of this world.

Amen.
January 8, 2021
Page TWO – Christ Jesus, Lord for a 21st c. Church
NEW – Page TWO

This NEW approach for talkofJesus.com posts replicates an interactive technique used for centuries: introduce the story and characters, then interrupt the storyline briefly to provoke thought about the story. The author’s design is for you to respond to the storyteller.
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As author of most posts here I ask you:
Do you talk of Jesus?
After you read Scripture, do you comment or respond to the writer with a question?
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Page TWO:

Thanks to Paul Harvey for this engaging media concept of communication developed for radio in the 20th century.

Story telling goes back beyond the ancient oral traditions of the Bible. Scripture; however much like contemporary BREAKING NEWS, it often reveals only page one of a continuing story.

Sometimes as Christians we need to turn the page from a first century impact of Christ Jesus as revealed in Scripture — to questions we should ask if we could talk of Jesus Christ in this 21st century. We need to think about the story of the Lord and project our conversation into contemporary application.

The BIBLE still applies to a contemporary church of struggling saints of these last days.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

So as struggles of these last days unfold I ask you, my fellow followers of Christ Jesus, to turn to Page TWO.

On ‘Page TWO’ I’ll ask you questions and earnestly desire your answers or your questions.

Let’s talk of Jesus as if the Lord’s life after His death for our sins and glory of Christ’s resurrection applies to us – His saints of His Church.

Will you apply Scripture to what the Lord would have us do now, in this year of our Lord Jesus Christ twenty-one centuries into these last days?
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Page TWO - Please click Page 2 below for the questions.
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October 2, 2020