Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Church

  • Covenant and Truth – 4

    Covenant and Truth – 4

    And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. – 2 Peter 2:2

    1 John 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 

    8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

    [Links open separate windows to different Hebrew & Greek roots or scripture.]

    Amos 5:8  They hate him who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

    Malachi 2:6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

    The Prophets speak of truth, the Apostles speak of truth, God speaks of truth time and time again. Truth must be important.

    No Gospel mentions truth more than the Gospel of John. (You would do well to consider the Truth of every verse of this Good News.)

    John 1:14 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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)

    The Gospel is a testimony of Truth in the Court of God with witness before all mankind.

    17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

    John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

    John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

    God values Truth so much that He sent His only Son to the Cross as witness of His love for us.

    Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

    Let those of us with ears to hear, hear the words of Jesus about our spoken words and our promises (not even addressing the more serious violations of breaking the covenants of our written words).

    Matthew 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Oaths

    33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

    34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

    36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

    37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

     Do we realize the context of this teaching from Jesus?

    It is from the Sermon on the Mount: after the Beatitudes (or blessings), after His call to us to become salt and light to the world, after His warning that He has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, after His warning against anger and call to reconciliation, after his warning again lust; and after His prohibition of divorce.

    bride signs certificate

    Christians and Christian marriages are being watched. We are witness to Christ Jesus and the permanence of His relationship with His faithful Bride the church – a topic which we will pursue after our next focus on hypocrisy.

    To be continued…

  • By the sweat of your face

    By the sweat of your face

    “By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
    till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
    for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.” –     Genesis 3:19

    worker thirstHad a rough day at work? Or maybe you have had a tough time finding work. Do you find as many women and teens in the workplace sweating to win the bread of this world?

    It is the result of sin. Punishment. We are not just a caretaker in the pleasant garden anymore, but God has cursed the ground where we must make our living and sustain our wives and children.

    grill girlgrill cookYes, even the wife with the jobs of the household and mother of the children complains of her sweat of the job where two incomes will not even provide the bread that once only the husband would sacrifice his sweat for his loved ones.

    Even now some women will choose this curse over obedience to a husband and obedience to God.  Teens with cars and cell phones and money for entertainment compete with Godly and ungodly family men in the marketplace of jobs, while they boast that they are “in a relationship” with another teen (an evil sexual relationship outside of marriage and responsibility of a God-led family).

    We have wandered far from Paradise. Many have run far from obedience to God’s will.

    Where did the journey of sin begin after original sin?

    Genesis gives us an insight as we observe a conversation between God the Trinity. (We will not dwell on the Trinity, the plurality of the One God at this point; yet hear God’s motive to expel mankind from Paradise.)

    Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

    Adam and Eve have become like Jehovah Elohim: like God the Father; like Jesus when He would later walk the earth as the second adam; like the Holy Spirit, the Life of the soul. yada`yada`yada` – Knowing, knowing, knowing good and evil.

    Gen. 3:22b Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

    God IS.

    This is representation of eternal life with no beginning and no end.

    God created.

    This is representation of life with a beginning (man or animal, plant or mineral).

    Does the life of an animal have an end?

    Did God intend for man, created in His Image, to have a life that would end?

    The soul and life of Man is connected to God through God’s Fatherly act of creation.

    Hear God’s words to the Prophet Jeremiah [1:5]:

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    and before you were born I consecrated you;
    I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

    We are sons and daughters of God! We have a beginning in Him. God intended for us to remain as faithful children of His heavenly family. For His children He created Paradise on Earth. Adam, before sin, could have remained in Eden.

    What is the concern of God at this point?

    It is that evil could live on. Evil could have life eternal.

    In the beginning, God created… and it was good.

    Evil must NOT have eternal life!

    How often does the Bible warn of a mortal man: “… and he did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

    Evil souls and evil men must be banished from the good of God!

    “Behold, the man has become like one of  Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

    Did the Lord God not caution: “or you will surely die?”

    So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. – Genesis 3:24 KJV

    salinastodayTwentieth Century author, John Steinbeck, focuses on this in his (1952) novel about a family and their attitudes toward work in “East of Eden.” We have choices, knowing good and evil.

    Therefore God has guarded the gates of righteousness against the entry of evil men.

    The Cherubim, also creatures of God’s creation (but not for this earth), serve God. Angels (yet not all angels, for some rebelled to follow Satan) serve God.

    Mankind, but not all men and women, serves God (as best we can in this sinful mortal flesh).

    God had a relationship with man. Man had a relationship with God.

    God restored the relationship of righteousness, that we might once more have eternal life in relationship in the family of God our Father. He restored life to our souls by the Living Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ Jesus, Son of God, on the Cross.

    We have been banned in the nakedness of our many sins to a land east of Eden, dust beneath the feet of our descendants, and struggle of the sweat of our brow to remain in relationship with God and each other.

    The challenge of the grace of Christ is that it requires the harvest of our faith. Faith requires obedience.

    Jesus IS Lord.

    Do you believe this?

     

     

     

  • Are You the One? – 2

    Are You the One? – 2

    Jesus to the multitudes

    Speaking of John the Baptist…

    Luke 7

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written,

    “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way before you.’

    28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

    31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

    “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
    we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

    See the contrast of walking into two very different churches and hearing the complaints of the ‘worshipers.’

    33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’

    We will have only grape juice (and only on occasion).

    34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

    We will have wine (and every time).

    35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

    One preacher is loud; one is soft. One place of worship is grand; another quaint. One has an organ and a choir; another only one with a guitar. One place they kneel; in another they jump up and down and fall to the floor.

    And what do the multitudes say?

    Jesus is not John… and John was not Jesus.

    Perhaps they were pious before John, while they were joyful around Jesus. Yet they complained of John’s piety and Jesus’ lack of it. Two brothers of the faith; two sons of God — yet both were more than that.

    God has a family of his own children. The speech and ways of one child of God will win the heart of another, while a very different way of  witness will not win this soul.  Our brother or sister of the family of God may win a soul that we cannot.

    John and Jesus (even cousins) were so different in so many ways. And you are so different from me.

    Wisdom is justified by all of her children (and God has many children). The words and ways and witness of the children are important, each for different times, different purposes and different souls for the family of God; but it is the Father and the wisdom of the Father to which all must yield.

    Worship is not for the multitudes; worship is of the Father.

    Wisdom is justified by all of her children.

    John was one child of God (none greater, according to Jesus). Jesus was One child of God. They taught different. They had different purposes for our Father God.

    Some children were chosen for the family of God long before their birth. (Jews.) Some children were chosen by adoption into the family of God before we were conceived in the womb. (Gentiles.)

    I thank the Lord for my inclusion in the family of our Heavenly Father by His redemption for my sin. I thank God for all of my brothers and sisters in the Lord – the multifaceted family of believers who have eternal life in Christ Jesus.

    And the merciful and Almighty God is justified by ALL His children.

    God is NOT justified by those who refuse to worship Him and honor the Lord our God humbly as a child of God. Jesus, John, Peter, Paul, the Prophets have always pointed out that these are children of their father the devil.

    Consider for just a moment the individual living souls of two witnesses:

    Jesus was NOT John and John was NOT Jesus, yet both are children of the Father.

    I am NOT my brother Ed nor my brother Ken nor my sister Jenny. I am NOT my wife Lissette. I am NOT my father Bill nor my mother Marie.  I am NOT my daughter Rachel nor my step-daughter Ashley nor my step-son David. I am not even the same as any Christian brother or sister in the Lord.

    Jesus asks John’s messengers (and the multitudes) to stop comparing one child of God to another and to take no offense.

    Luke 7:23 KJV And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

    It is good advice for ANY brother or sister, whether in the Lord at this time or not.

    Do not be skandalizō by the teachings and miracles of your ‘brother’ Jesus or the right teachings of any child of God our Father.

    The religious ones and outwardly righteous ones in the crowds (as recorded in Luke 7:30) were scandalized by the teachings of Jesus.  The common sinners, tax collectors, drunkards and others (v. 29) repented when they heard John and changed their ways to continue to follow Jesus as their brother and our Lord.

    My dear brother; my dear sister; my beloved wife and beloved children:

    What is my message for you?

    Do NOT be offended by the teachings of Christ Jesus.

    What is the fruit of your witness?