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Tag: fear

SHAKEN 4 – His voice shook the earth
Hebrews 12:
Looking only at Jesus, the Leader and perfecter of the faith..
Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord
IN GOD WE Trusted
Warnings against Rejecting God’s Grace
The Unshaken Nation
Is your soul shaken by this?
Hebrews 12:

Looking only at Jesus, the Leader and perfecter of the faith..

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews encourages the saints of the church to look to Jesus Christ, the originator of all things and only Shepherd perfecting the faith of sons chosen by the Lord God.

In SHAKEN 3 a great cloud of witnesses over our head we shared this call to perseverance: Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus.
FAITH: Swear it upon your biggest BIBLE, mention GOD four times only and Christ Jesus not at all — faith in US?

Does this ‘ONE NATION UNDER GOD’ claim faith without fear of the LORD?

(But I digress..) Returning to the Bible:
Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord

Nor faint when you are punished by Him – Hebrews 12:5b

Speaking of those who would follow Jesus Christ as Lord:

8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

IN GOD WE Trusted

In the days of Moses, David and some some other leaders, a chosen and blessed Hebrew nation had trusted God. Yet at times they became divided to trust each in his own ways.

Some like Zerubbabel responded to the voice of God through Prophets like Haggai and repented (as we pointed out previously). Faithful saints suffered once more in a fading Empire of Rome, which persecuted both Jews and Christians.

The writer to first century Hebrews asks the church to remain faithful to God in Christ Jesus.

Is the U.S. ‘one nation under God?’

Or are claims of both divisions of this troubled PEOPLE no different from failing faith of a divided Israel and Judah?

Hear more from the letter to the Hebrews.

Warnings against Rejecting God’s Grace

12 Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet…

14 Strive for peace with all… that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled; 16 that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau…

How are WE doing with this: our leadership United ‘under GOD?’

Contrast of Sinai and Zion

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest..

For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking.
Hebrews 12:19 NLT

21 (.. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

The Unshaken Nation

25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.

For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth;

but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”

.. the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—

Is your soul shaken by this?

Do you hear the Voice of the LORD?

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,

let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
For our God is a consuming fire.
Hebrews 12:28b-29 KJV

Pray that this ‘one nation’ under God may repent and unite with He Who Was and Is and Will be forever unshaken.
Roger @ talk of Jesus .com

Amen.
January 29, 2021
Disaster From Disobedience, A Savior From Before Eden – 7

By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. – Hebrews 11:7 KJV

Godly Fear

Most of us have a challenge to our faith in God from one of two extremes. Some fear God so much that they cannot relate to the Lord’s Fatherly love for those who love Him.

Other believers assume an automatic entry into heaven because, they say, “I am a Christian,” or I was born into a godly family. They assume a personal acceptance by a loving God they do not know and fail to follow. May God have mercy on their souls.

And of course in addition to believers in between these two extremes are those who have no fear of the Lord. These are godless fools turned toward evil with no desire for the wisdom of God or desire to do good in place of their evil.

He said to mankind, “The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding.” – Job 28:8

Adam and Eve and their early descendants had a personal relationship with the Living God even after the fall. They could ask God personally for the wisdom to do good rather than turning toward evil. Yet through the generations refusal of the Lord’s advice to choose good over evil has fallen on more and more deaf ears.

Genesis 5:

4 Adam lived 800 years after the birth of Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 5 So Adam’s life lasted 930 years; then he died…

23 So Enoch’s life lasted 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him…

32 Noah was 500 years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Time passes (hard to know how many score of generations by today’s lifetimes) and man forgets God. Almighty God our Creator becomes as irrelevant to their sin-filled lives as the Lord is to many in these last days.

And the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.” – Genesis 6:3

Apocalypse of Impending Disaster

If you do not have a relationship with the all-knowing God, who will tell you with accuracy the disaster which draws near? And now that man has the discernment to judge between good and evil, how can you know what is good without listening to God?

In fact, as it was in the later days of God’s true Prophets, no man listened to the Living God except one.

Judgment Decreed

⁵When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, ⁶the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. ⁷Then the Lord said, “I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” ⁸Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord.

Man has not only disobeyed the Creator, but grieves the most loving heart of the Father of man created in His own image.

Now a different relationship with the Living God will begin, one of fear.

^{Genesis 6:17}“Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will die.

Of course for those who disdained God lost in the flood, fear was short-lived until their terrible deaths. But for all who would witness the great power of the LORD in the days since Noah, the Lord God Almighty evokes fear.

Genesis 7:

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before Me in this generation.

You know the rest, or at least you think that you know the rest.

6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood came and water covered the earth.

It seems like a fearful children’s story. All the men and women and children of the earth were destroyed in the Lord’s cleansing flood. The potter has begun again with one man, Noah, from which He will reform the clay of His own creation.

Are you like those who perished having no fear of the Lord or respect for the only man to hear God’s heart? (Read above of the potter and the clay, heading the fear of righteous men.)

24 And the waters surged on the earth 150 days.

Genesis 8:

5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.

The Lord’s Promise
15 Then God spoke to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

You and your family are the only living survivors of the earth’s worst disaster. And the Lord had warned the the evil of mankind had brought man to our own destruction. What does Noah then do? Worship! Noah thanks God for His great mercy.

21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself,

“I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done…

Thank God, I say; thank the Lord, re-formed clay of our Creator.

To be continued…

June 24, 2018
a Gift You Cannot Touch & a God You Can Embrace

What are your expectations for Christmas? What are your memories of gifts and special moments past seasons? What gift have you given? What gifts will you receive?

We hope anew for each Christmas to bring light into the darkness of our disappointments, discouragement of days past, present and future.

Cortland Roller Rink c.1955

What was it like when you were a child? What special gift remains in your memory in great detail, what special moment of Christmas yet warms your heart with love and joy?

Or perhaps your warmest memories are from a special moment of a gift you gave to your own child, hugs of a Pooh Bear or love overflowing through a well-planned shared moment of opening a Christmas gift.

So many of us rely on and turn back to our memories of Christmas. I remember Christmas pageants and little angels elbowing each other, as well as well-rehearsed Christmas carols bringing a chuckle of joy over an unplanned solo or lyric not just quite right.

In the year of our Lord, 2015, Christmas seems so out of reach…

We have ordered even more of our gifts from those online warehouses. We have sent less Christmas cards, made less phone calls, cancelled caroling and planned less dinners with others (at least that’s how it seems here).

I have ordered gifts that may or may not arrive on time to loved ones I may or may not see. I have missed the touch of picking out personal gifts and handling them; wrapping them in a carefully chosen paper and seeing the look on their faces when my gift is opened. Rather, I hope these too many untouched gifts make it to far away places by Christmas.

I have my Charlie Brown Christmas this year and Rudolph…

We have so many lights and a big tree (but it isn’t real & I didn’t cut it down myself as I once did).

Oh, and we do have a Nativity scene on the mantle. (We all get a little distracted by Christmas, don’t we?)

Our church has already had a wonderful Christmas program. We invited guests; about half of them came. Carolers were going to come to our neighborhood this year from the Christian school, but that got rained out. (Less than half of the homes here even have Christmas lights.)

Christmas is named for Jesus Christ

Why, I suppose most would wonder? Why have Christmas? Why does a busy world like ours even need Jesus Christ?

Of course our neighbors, rebellious family and unbelieving friends certainly don’t want to hear about the Cross of Jesus Christ and Easter. (More than enough violence in the world we would rather avoid.) But Christmas, that’s a holiday we can sell. (People like the lights and gifts and all. Makes us all feel good and remember nice stuff, right?)

Just as Christmas has become a time of sending gifts we cannot touch, Christmas has also become a time of Jesus most of us cannot share.

May I gently remind you here that I have shared Christmas messages with friends, family & strangers every year AND that so few of you have responded positively by even registering on my web site?

I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. – 1 Corinthians 9:23

Very few of us SHARE anything about Jesus with others or have any COMMENT on the Christian Social Witness of our brothers and sisters in Christ our Lord.

We live in very impersonal times. Others wear headphones attached to their devices so that they will not have to hear us. The world is engaged in buying gifts for our selfish pleasures more than sacrificing things for the joy of a few others. Christmas is just another buying season, and a big one at that.

Yet when we silence the music, turn off the virtual visual distraction of the games and news and entertainment; when we sit silently for once, peering into the opened gift of our beating heart, we find a void for the Gift of God better understood as the Baby Jesus in a manger, than a fearsome Father God at the Throne of Judgment.

Fear Not!

Fear not! Do you fear a Babe in a manger? Certainly not.

Our GOD is a loving, compassionate and forgiving God, though He IS HOLY.

Mankind feared the Presence of Almighty God, even more than a Father looking over you. Man fears any spirit, which we cannot see and do not understand, let alone the Spirit of the Living God when the LORD has made Himself know in time and place.

Therefore, even angels, who worship and obey Almighty God; angels as messengers sent to the sons of Adam; powerful angels all men fear begin their announcement of the Messiah with: Fear not.

Luke 2:

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Is the LORD pleased with you this Christmas, in His year 2015?

You were made in the very image of God.

No man or woman can reflect the Perfect loving righteousness of the LORD. By our sin we openly rebel against our Heavenly Father, who has created all things. By the distraction of our misguided hopes and dreams of self-righteous accomplishment, we reject the Spirit of God and forget to number our days.

Even so, in His loving plan of redemption for those who will turn back to the LORD,

God sent His only Son to a Manger, that we might embrace HIM.

When Jesus’ beloved Disciple John once more beheld the Risen Christ in a Revelation of God’s plan, what were His first words of comfort?

Fear not,

I am the first and the last, and the living one.

I died, and behold I am alive forevermore,

and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Revelation 1:17b-18

Perhaps you fear other men or circumstances. Maybe you fear your own death. You might even have reverence for God our Father and occasionally give Him a small portion of the glory God deserves.

Yet this Christmas, even by your confession, I adjure you to embrace Jesus as your Lord; embrace Christ Jesus just as you would lovingly hold a baby in a manger.

Merry Christmas, beloved.

Roger

December 24, 2015