Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: forgiveness

  • Closed on Sunday

    Closed on Sunday

    “Rest for the wicked; Hope for the weary.

    Where did that thought come from, I wondered.  Could it have anything to do with all of those early mornings and late nights on the internet? (So I looked it up on the internet… didn’t find it… looked for the quote from the Bible… didn’t find it.)

    My thought was actually concerning rest on the Sabbath, a Commandment. (Forgive us our trespasses.) Did our Father in heaven want us to rest for our own good and also worship the God of any of our goodness through Christ Jesus?  What do you think?

    Deuteronomy 5:11 “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

    12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

    13b On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

    “Observe the Sabbath… Did I remember that wrong? … (I’ll look it up on the internet.)

    I found it. I did remember it. (I think I saw it on someone’s coffee cup somewhere.)

    Exodus 20:8 KJV – Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

    What I had failed to ‘remember’ about the sabbath is the depth of meaning ‘to keep it holy.

    qadash – to consecrate, sanctify, prepare, dedicate, be hallowed, be holy, be sanctified, be separate

    Pharisees had complained about Jesus not keeping the sabbath; but His explanation does not justify any failure of ours to observe the holiness and separation God our Father intended for us to rest… consecrate Sunday and separate ourselves from the world to worship the Lord our God.

    “Most Christians and most 21st c. christian families are guilty of NOT consecrating Sunday to be separate from the worldly and coming together before the Lord our God in holiness.

    (Just an hour of so of obligation to ‘go to church’ hardly counts as “observe” or “consecrate” Sunday, to keep it HOLY.)

    Have you and your 21st c. christian family also been as guilty of remembering to come together as a family of God and worship?

    Forgive us, Lord.  We repent and seek the holiness of Jesus Christ.

    In fact, God willing, I will take another day (after I have rested on Sunday) to talk about: “Rest for the wicked; Hope for the weary.

    Remember to SHARE Christ Jesus and worship the Lord on Sunday as part of our family of the Lord.

    Roger, your brother in Christ -+- Christian Social Witness

  • And Walk in Love

    And Walk in Love

    Some may be familiar with the song: Footprints in the Sand.   Many of us are familiar with the comfort of the poem: Footprints in the Sand.  The poem speaks of the comfort of our Lord, Christ Jesus, during those most difficult times when we thought that we were walking alone. The poem was likely inspired by a sermon of Charles Haddon Spurgeon –  THE EDUCATION OF SONS OF GOD. (The link to it’s opening paragraph is well worth your consideration and prayer.)

    The test of Spurgeon’s sermon is Hebrews 5:8 KJV

     “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered

    Yes, we are all comforted at times from this application of the letter of Hebrews to our personal suffering.  We may wipe away a tear of loneliness and defeat in eventual memory and thankfulness that Christ Jesus IS always with us.

    Yet lately, not only was I finally comforted by this thought, but through conviction of the Spirit I have thanked the Lord for small ways He might use me to comfort others.

    Worse, I realized that I often thought that I walked alone because I never reached out to hardly anyone with this same love of our Lord, the One always carrying me and leaving footprints in the sand of many lonely places.

    I’ve sat with hundreds of my neighbors at almost every football game for the last two years.  I have lived in this small PA town for six years.  I see many nameless faces in the grocery store, at our community food bank, at the Borough Hall shelter after a last year’s hurricane,  and even almost every week at church.  

    “Who is my neighbor?  I have no idea.  

    After walking just a little in Jesus’ love, as if He were using me to walk with another, I became convicted even more.

    I am no different than someone who does NOT know Jesus.  I have not bothered to engage their souls in relationship in the same loving way as our Lord did for so many on every unexpected occasion. 

    Ephesians 4:17-5:2 excerpts:  17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

    18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

    19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

    20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

    30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

    32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

    “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    Dear Lord,
    Forgive me. 
    I have not imitated God.
    I have not imitated the example of God’s Son.
    Most of all I have NOT walked in love — agape — as Christ Jesus loved me.
    I have not sacrificed time for hardly any neighbor.
    ..
    “I have not sacrificed my love for others as a sacrifice to God — the same God who did sacrifice his Son on the Cross for me.
    Dear brother or sister in the Lord,
    How are you doing with that?

    When was the last time you reached out to your neighbor to help carry their hurting soul?  Are you also convicted?

    Matthew 25 excerpt:
    40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’  41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
    ..
    Show your thankfulness.
    ..
    “Leave some footprints on the heart of someone walking alone — someone much in need Christ Jesus to walk with them through the sands of this brief time.
  • First be reconciled

    First be reconciled

    So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.

    First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. – Matthew 5:23-24 ESV