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Tag: death

  • Yesterday I Could Sing

    As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. – 2 Timothy 4:6-7

    A Song from our memories

    Three beautiful young women, gifted beyond measure, shared in ministry to others. Audiences applauded their talent and their enthusiasm emptied in every performance for those who delighted by their singing.

    Now, many years later, the melody resonates only in our memory and their captivating smiles live only in our hearts. But once they were young and beautiful, dancing and singing with vibrancy and grace.

    —

    Death is bitter-sweet, really. It always comes as a shock.. sometimes unexpectedly, yet often slowly.

    She was radiant as a young woman and as vivacious as any young woman beaming to the applause of audiences and generous accolades of friends. How we all remember her, that beautiful woman with the uplifting voice. A melody of her joy still resonates in my heart.

    But that was many years ago. Now the expected silence draws nearer with the drawing of each breath. Her long-trapped soul lies restless in a shell no longer like the glory of her true countenance. And worst of all the melody of hope no longer fills the room or even whispers a pianissimo motif to into the plaintive silence of loved ones all about her.

    I see us from memories of a now-distant past. As they close their eyes together all see her present memory of the glory of youth. They hear her joy of the carefree song – the melodies of love, the outpouring of her gifts. This audience immersed behind closed eyes and long-forgotten memories hear her sing – they hear her sing!

    These divas of days past, no different now. For each the moment does finally come when only their soul cries out, as dry lips do fail: “Yesterday, I could sing… yesterday, I could sing…”

  • Swords & Sickles

    Swords & Sickles

    Proclaim this among the nations:
    Consecrate for war;
        stir up the mighty men.
    Let all the men of war draw near;
        let them come up.

    Beat your plowshares into swords,blacksmith-hammer
        and your pruning hooks into spears;
        let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

    Joel 3:9-10

    Consecrate them, says the LORD! Yes. It is a holy war – war between the Lord God and those who hold to their sins, following idols, false prophets, foolish sages and lying leaders.

    What has been will be and what has never before been seen will blind the eyes of the nations.

    Joel 3:sickle

    13 Put in the sickle,  
        for the harvest is ripe.

    Go in, tread,
        for the winepress is full.
    The vats overflow,
        for their evil is great.

    14 Multitudes, multitudes,
        in the valley of decision!
    For the day of the Lord is near
        in the valley of decision.

    syria-kurdish-fighter-destroyed-city

    Borders and Nations Destroyed

    By what proxy have the nations divided Tyre and Sidon to the spoils of nations beyond the valley of destruction?

    Have the people not fled for their lives by land and by sea to places where they remain an enemy?

    Though you rebuild fallen towers and repair the breach of five-walled fortresses, refugees will yet invade your borderless regions. Their helpless will expose the evil of princes; their plight unveils the nakedness of greed.

    Has anything changed? Are these last times so different than the demise of the godless in the days of Joel?

    Six centuries later Peter would preach the words of Joel’s prophesy fulfilled by the Holy Spirit speaking through a few Apostles heard by the crowd in many languages. [Acts 2:16-21] The last days have begun, Peter preaches, with the incarnation of Christ Jesus and the Lord’s crucifixion for our sins and His resurrection and ascension to the Throne of the LORD!

    It is the Lamb of God who will judge. He was not a sword-wielding conquering King, general or prophet. God’s own compassion for the nations sacrificed the promised king of the jews as full payment for our sins, even the sins of His own enemies.

    The Rumblings of Peace

    One of the Apostles of Jesus lived to see Jerusalem fall once more under the domination of Rome. John wrote letters of love to the churches of Asia (modern day Turkey). Then as the last living Disciple prophesy came to John.

    Rome has since fallen. A false prophet emerged from a cave to conquer the continents. Wars to end all wars. Emperors and dictators and despots have risen with sword and perished in humiliation. Even Israel is replanted after shameful killings of the remnant.

    Only the message of the Lamb remains viable – a call to repentance and redemption in the blood of love, rather than the blood of war. Like in times before the falls of the mighty some claim peace, but it is war they invite. It is the Lord who will judge. Hear the Truth of these last days:

    Revelation 6:1-8 excerpt

    1. And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
    2. And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
    3. And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.
    4. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
    4-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse
    And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

    Death Tolls of War

    • Current estimate of the population of the earth: 7,404,976,783
      • a fourth of the earth killed = 1,851,244,195
      • 9/11 Death toll           = 2,996
      • 2016 Migrant deaths = 4,310 of 243,000+ war refugees
      • Syrian war deaths      = c.300,000-400,000
      • Abortion deaths         = 40,000,000 – 50,000,000
      • WWII deaths              = 50,000,000 – 80,000,000
    • The current combined populations of China, Russia and the US = 1,831,278,025

    I am not suggesting that these three empires will be those destroyed in the end. The number of souls tormented and killed on the earth will exceed the total number of people living in these three earthly super-powers!

    Our sin is rampant! The judgment of evil is inevitable.

    The Lamb of God IS and will be, forever, Lord and Savior!

    He did not come to the world with a sword of power or a sickle to reap the riches of other lands. No, Christ Jesus came into the world as a Lamb of sacrifice for our sins. He will return on the clouds as John as prophesied.

    Revelation 6:

    9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice,

    “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

    11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

  • Resurrection: So What?

    Resurrection: So What?

    Do you believe in Jesus’ Resurrection?

    Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

    It was her own brother who had just died..

    Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.

    Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

    John 11:24-26

    Do you believe this?

    Do you believe that Easter is a celebration of life like no other?

    Lots of talk about resurrection; some even call it ‘Resurrection Day.’

    ‘So What’ skeptics of Christ’s Resurrection

    As a kids we easily turned a phrase for things of which we were skeptical. My quick answer to a parent or someone in authority: “So what?”

    What answer quickly rolls off my tongue? What reactive thought tumbles around in my head about things I choose not to think about?

    “So what?”

    As one finally bowed down before Almighty God who calls Christ Jesus my Lord, I contrinued to be a little surprised by the ‘so what’ look of so many wandering souls I encounter in my everyday mortal life.

    Their non-consideration of Easter and frequent rebellion at even a mention of the name of Jesus affirms their ‘so what,’ as common era reaction to faint hope that the resurrection of Jesus is real.

    These with hearts hardened to God will always turn against any hope that Christ’s cross and the resurrection are most real and relevant answers to sin. Judgment for sin and punishment of a second death are the furthest thoughts removed from the flesh of self-worshiping humanists.

    Jesus was rejected and crucified by a religious establishment that made up their own rules about God. Jesus came to a world that did not seek God. Jesus came to save sinners. Jesus came as a sacrifice for our sin. And Jesus is resurrected from the grave, because He IS the LORD God! He came to man to show us the mercy required to save us from death with the grace of reward for eternal life we do not deserve.

    for Church members:

    Recall of a church? WHY do that? SO WHAT IF WE preach what WE want? Pictured Medieval church bell tower during sundown in valley
    The photo to the left & cover photo have been added to the original post along with some minor edits, including this question below from our earlier series on Doctrine of the Church.

    SO WHAT if we do NOT insist that JESUS is the ONLY way of eternal life because of the Cross?

    Gentle believer, fellow saint of Christ’s own body,

    Our own sacrifice is small and our reward great for our touching of hearts with the healing love of Christ Jesus. Sure, the world says of the resurrection, ‘so what?’

    Yet even in these last days of evil we have hope in the resurrection to share with others who also never believed that Jesus would die for them.

    As long ago as the first century and first generation of witness of the gospel, men were still evil. Yet the letters of the Apostles spoke to the Jew and the nations alike, all who would listen about the Messiah Jesus.

    1 Corinthians 15:

    Paul lived in Corinth for a time and wrote of the resurrection to the church, encouraging us in Christ. HERE is his answer to the so what skeptics and listeners in the public arenas of hostile crowds:

    12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

    13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

    14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

    Mention Jesus Christ and you get a tough crowd, don’t you? And most with their face against God show you that ‘so what’ look.

    It was no different in Corinth when Paul taught the gospel to the church there in person or by letter.

    Commentary on a ‘so what’ culture of Corinth

    John MacArthur gives us this background: 

    Even by the pagan standards of its own culture, Corinth became so morally corrupt that its very name became synonymous with debauchery and moral depravity. To “corinthianize” came to represent gross immorality and drunken debauchery… Like most ancient Greek cities, Corinth had an acropolis (literally. “a high city”), which rose 2,000 feet and was used both for defense and for worship. The most prominent edifice on the acropolis was a temple to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. Some 1,000 priestesses, who were “religious” prostitutes, lived and worked there and came down into the city in the evening to offer their services to male citizens and foreign visitors.

    • CAN YOU THINK OF A 21ST Century of the Common Era CITY LIKE THAT?
    • CAN YOU THINK OF A TEMPLE TO GLORIFY US & our gods?
    • ARE THE CITIZENS AND VISITORS OF OUR BEST CITIES LIKE CORINTH?

    Yet Paul preached to the church in Corinth (and all the other believers) about the resurrection:

    17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

    If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

    1 Corinthians 15:19 ESV
    SO WHAT? they say, but IF WE ARE RIGHT..

    Are you like those without hope in the resurrection?

    Does your earth-friendly, Christian-persecuting community “corinthianize” the pulpits of truth with compromises of false faith?

    Roger@TalkofJESUS.com +

    Guard against it, as Paul warned.

    For we have Christ crucified, died and resurrected. We hold to certain hope of eternal life in worship of God our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of the new heavens and the new earth without sin.

    Christ has been raised from the dead!

    20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep..

    26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death…

    The only ‘so what’ question

    Are you looking to your own resurrection?

    Do you share the Good News of Christ’s resurrection with others?

    Do you even Talk of JESUS to anyone — even others in your gatherings ‘at church?’

    “Who was Jesus?” they may ask; for the world hears little of our Lord in these last days.

    This might be the only ‘so what’ question you ever get from your unbelieving friend or loved one. Jesus rose from the dead! Over five hundred witnesses. Furthermore, Jesus promised He will return for you and me, if you would like to have him as your Lord too.

    Here's how Paul continued with the Good News of Jesus' resurrection to Corinthians of the 1st century:

    35 But someone will ask,

    “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”

    36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

    38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body…

    42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable;

    what is raised is imperishable.

    43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

    I know resurrection is a lot to think about. Has a lot more to do with your body and soul than bunnies and eggs. Jesus has a lot to say about it. You should read one of the gospels about Jesus. 

    (John, for instance, tells us a lot about why God sent Jesus to the world.)

    50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

    51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

    53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

    54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

    “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
    “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

    56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

    But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

    58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.