Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Church

  • Christian Social Witness

    Christian Social Witness

    Christian Readers  Bloggers & Authors TALK of Jesus Christ our Lord:

    A new Christian #social community officially launching as a group of followers of Christ Jesus to SHARE with one another and witness to others.

    http://talkofJesus.com + Christian Social Witness

    Join us: (officially) Monday, 2 September, 2013

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    For your first post:

    Simply copy what you would like to post and paste it into a comment in any appropriate category.

    • One way is to follow this LINK to http://talkofJesus.com/about
    • If you plan to join us regularly, just ask for an appropriate log-in for additional posts.  CLICK REGISTER at the bottom of our site.

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    Here are a few general guidelines, but we want to keep it simple (fellow redeemed sinners) [KISS] and you have much grace with Jesus.

    To choose a category: Scroll over the category list on the right sidebar to see descriptions.CHOOSE THE BEST CATEGORY (only one) 

    • Try to keep your TITLE short & include the KEYWORD that best summarizes your post.
    • Insert an Eye-catching cover photo that visually attracts readers to your post.

     by YOUR Name 

     IN ALL CATAGORIES AND POSTS: It is best if you can have a HEADLINE near the TOP.  It could be separate from the text of your post OR part of it.  (LATER, I intend to make these #Tweetable.)

    HEADLINE examples:

    Your HEADLINE in a Bible Quote of the Day OR for a longer (short to medium) Category post could be the actual Bible verse.  Many have great impact.

    And don’t overlook a picture headline, with or without a Bible verse from another site

    Pinterest and other eye-catching sites, even your blog or an author/reader / publisher book site), may have the visual headline to make your KEY point for you.

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    Christian Social Witness must be brief.  Here are a couple of examples I like:

    PLEASE CONSIDER that anyone wanting to SHARE YOUR POST as Christian witness with their friends, followers, and social circles is looking for ‘a quick fix,’ NOT a sermon.  Be BRIEF.

    • ONE or TWO brief statements on your topic are probably sufficient in MOST cases.

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    IF you have friends from church or work, encourage them to share a comment on your post to http://talkofJesus.com – Christian Social Witness

    Please SHARE this post OR our home page on your ‘OTHER’ online Social pages.

    [jamiesocial]

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    • If your personal witness is important to your choice of a scripture or book, tell us why?
    • “READERS want to know about Authors of blogs or books .

    “Social surfers want to know WHY you chose to write or blog about a Bible verse or topic that resonates in their heart.  SHARE your Christian Social Witness THROUGH your personal story.

    • As an author, writer or regular blogger you may want to include a very BRIEF bio BEFORE what you write.

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    PLEASE include Scripture verse links to your favorite version. (I can help you with this if you do not know how to insert links, but not every time.)  Check the box to have ALL links open in a new window.  You may add links to other helpful and related sites as well; after all, part of our witness is to SHARE Christ-centered real-life help to our family and friends.

    “If you have a powerful closing thought, quote it.

    The conclusion of your post is the best place to promote your own website or blog.  Just give it a mention about your content or bio and provide a link.

    Ex. Please visit [REVIEWER FIRST NAME]’s website about [your main ministry]. [Hyperlinked]

    • PLEASE post as many Scriptural Posts and book reviews as you would like.
    • The mission of our Christian Social Witness is involvement of MANY to read about JESUS CHRIST and the BIBLE and to
    • SHARE through our posts on Scripture (brief or medium length).
    • Christian readers also want more trusted non-author reviews of Christian books by other READERS like them.

    (Most of us read Christian fiction or non-fiction.) IF you are willing to review a book, your shared witness may inspire some of your friends to read what you like. (If you do not have those guidelines, I will be more than happy to email them.)

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    ANY Christian of ANY faith is WELCOME as our brother or sister in Christ Jesus & should want to SHARE their unique personal Christian Social Witness.

    Our Christian community is an online church in the same sense of the house churches of the first century. We MUST be an example of the love of Jesus for each other as witness to those who have NO social or actual community of any who truly care for their souls and struggles.

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    A gentle caution: I will moderate your posts of Christian Social Witness.  Do witness the truth in love. – Ephesians 4:15 

    I oppose any opposed to Jesus Christ. I do NOT agree with much false teaching. Let Christ judge.  NO posts specifically pointed against ANY denomination, church or preacher.  (Yes, I have boldly commented against public statements of prominent ‘christians’ who claim witness in public arenas and media {or refuse to witness Jesus Christ as representatives of their faith or church}).  Take your agendas and controversies elsewhere. Do not misrepresent us or Jesus.

    We will not allow our Social Witness for Jesus Christ to be diminished in the watching eyes of the social circles of the world.  Do not be the ‘mis-guided preacher’ or wayward ‘christian’ church-goer with much bad fruit to witness against Christ Jesus as our Lord.

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    “Jesus IS either our Lord or He is NOT. Our Christian Social Witness must SHARE: Jesus IS Lord. 

    http://talkofJesus.com + Christian Social Witness is an additional ministry for me, in addition to working on my book manuscript for a 2014 release.  I’m trying to make it easy and quick for YOU to post & keep everything about our site simple (KISS).

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    I would prefer (for now), until http://talkofJesus.com + Christian Social Witness has more posts in all categories:

    • To post only one book per author (exception, books of deceased Christian authors)
    • Post only brief headline-type of teasers, with a link to the reviewer website like Goodreads with the full review.

    Thank you.

    May our Lord Christ Jesus bless you.  Please do not hesitate to email me any questions or drafts about which you have questions.

    Roger Harned http://talkofJesus.com + Christian Social Witness

    [Last revised: 20130830]

    © 2013 Roger Harned – All rights reserved by the authors of this site.
    Christian Social Witness – Share without cost for Jesus Christ, our Lord.

  • Intimacy of a Christian Friend

    Intimacy of a Christian Friend

    “Now you are my friends.”

    If there is anything I would commend to you, it is your value as my Christian friend.

    I have embraced the love of many throughout my life: family, my wife, our children, co-workers, neighbors, school-mates, team members,  club members, teachers, students, mentors, apprentices, bosses, employees, and many more.  I have included friends into parts of my life from each of these roles and relationships at various times, but none is so valuable as a Christian friend. But you, my beloved Christian friend, contribute more blessing than those who do not know Jesus Christ.

    “What is the difference between a true Christian friend and any other?  It is the intimacy of the love of Jesus Christ.

    Intimacy is valued only as a commodity by the worldly.  Intimacy is maligned to mean sexuality in a way that is not intimate at all.

    Where is the closeness of the relationships of family and friends of the world?  It is sadly lacking (for the most part), because we have so few friends we can trust who embrace the righteousness of Christ.

    Among the worldly, integrity of relationship is displaced by the hypocrisy of shallowness.

    (My indictment includes many shallow christians and all-too-often, my own timid relationship to Jesus Christ.)

    Who do you trust?  What friend will you lay your life down for?  What  time-tested faithfulness of your intimate friend  has such value in your life that you cannot live or die without this love?

    Intimate friends such as these… such as some of you… I have found ONLY within the intimacy of the church.

    My former wife (before the Lord took her) was part of these intimate relationships with our friends.  Our daughter has been part of the relationships with these intimate friends.  I have loved and do love many of you who were first part of a ministry, or small group, or Bible study, or the regular gathering of two or three in the Name of the Lord.

    I thank God for the intimacy of my friends who have seen to my needs in the most trying of times — you, my friends in Christ Jesus.

    Matthew 10: 16 “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves… 21 “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. 22 And all nations will hate you because you are my followers…

    35 ‘I have come to set a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
    and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
    36     Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

    Jesus asked His twelve Apostles to go out and tell the world “the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” {v.6}

    His Twelve friends did what He asked.  

    Eleven would NOT betray Him.

    We need the intimacy of friends we can trust.  (Have you betrayed a beloved friend? Repent. Apologize. Return to our Lord.)

    True Christian friends have an intimacy of love for each other which resembles the love of Jesus Christ.  Your parents may not have it.  Your siblings and your cousins may not have it. Your spouse may not have it. Your children may have forgotten it. Those you work with and associate with may go about their obligatory relationships to you without ever sharing one word of compassionate empathy. And even your near friend, when self-interest steps in, may betray you to death.

    Christian friends obey Jesus as our Lord.

    John 15:

    12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

    13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves.

    Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

    16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

    The World’s Hatred

    18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world.

     

    Yes, dear friend, it is the intimate friend who knows the heart of his friend… the friend who shares in the same Spirit of the love of our Lord and Savior, Who laid down His Life for all of us.  It is our Christian friend who has done what our Lord commands:

    “Love each other.

    Any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine, beloved.

  • Given by God to those who obey Him

    Do YOU know what is “given by God to those who obey Him?”

    Consider the difference between a living church and a dead church… or if you prefer, look to your left and to your right and in the mirror of your heart; then consider the difference between a LIVING CHRISTIAN  and a dead christian.

    Have you ever considered these differences in a 21st c. church?

    What makes one group of worshipers (we call a church) different from another group gathered in a stone-cold building?

    What makes one Christian different from another christian?

    We often seem as sorry as the Apostles.  We appear as great failures in the Presence of Jesus.

    “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” – Luke 5:8 NKJV

    How all of us seem like sinful and ineffective men by comparison to our Righteous Savior.  Yet Peter at his calling to follow our Lord was just another guy, a lowly fisherman who thought he knew about fishing; then Jesus made him a fisher of men.

    In fact, even at the campfire in the courtyard of the trials of Jesus, Peter could not obey Christ… then the cock crowed.

    The Apostle Peter of the Acts of the Apostles, however, is quite a different man. He is a restored Peter.  Peter has repented of his sin. Peter has finally become obedient.  (Some of us are slow to obedience.  Take me, for example. )

    What changed Peter?  Certainly witness of his friend and mentor, Jesus, had much to do with it; but the new boldness of Peter and the Apostles in Acts can be attributed to a gift of God much more Powerful.

    Recall some of the source of Jesus’ Power in His three-year ministry and teaching prior to the Cross:

     Luke 3: 21 One day when the crowds were being baptized, Jesus himself was baptized. As he was praying, the heavens opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”

    Jesus, as you may recall, remained in constant close contact with the Third Person of the Trinity, The Holy Spirit.

    Our Savior prayed to God the Father and the Holy Spirit of God guided the walk and Word of the Son of God on earth.  After Jesus’ resurrection, this same Holy Spirit, as promised, was given to all of the Apostles.

    Peter and the boys were now bold men of the Cross of Jesus: men on fire with the Holy Spirit of God. The Peter of Acts 5 is a man born again.

    Acts 5:3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.

    15 As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by.

    18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out.

    29 But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God… {31b} He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven.

    “Acts 5:32 “We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.

    • Are you different from some of the dead christians?
    • Are you one of the dead in a stone-cold church?

    IF (like me) you are slow to come to obedience to Jesus as your Lord, NOW is the time to give up your past life of sin.

    “REPENT and be changed permanently by the Holy Spirit of God.

    False christians will come up against you, as they opposed Peter and the Apostles, Jesus Christ, and the Prophets.  IF we are bold in the Spirit for Christ Jesus, we will be on fire for the Lord.  Hear the caution of Gamaliel, Pharisee mentor of Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul:

    Acts 5:38 “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.

    39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”

    Are you fighting against God?

    Do you claim Jesus Christ, while remaining disobedient to His leading?

    Do you grieve the Holy Spirit?

    “You cannot follow Christ YOUR way.

    You must follow Christ HIS way.

    Obey our Lord. Repent and receive the Holy Spirit, given by God to those who obey him.