Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: God

  • A Crying Out to the Wind

    Prelude to Disaster

    When life has been comfortable for you, do you cry out in amazement at a turn of events?

    Let’s take a look at a righteous man from the oldest book in the Bible and later examine Job’s pleas to the Lord after his friends have offered no help. Should we cry out to the wind in the day of disaster? What good could possibly come of it; what good could return from a God who allows the winds of change to bring us into the place of disaster?

    Job 1:

    There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil…

    …

    19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

    20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

    22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

    Job’s pain described to his friends

    Job 30:

    15 Terrors are turned upon me;
        my honor is pursued as by the wind,
        and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

    16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
        days of affliction have taken hold of me.
    17 The night racks my bones,
        and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
    18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
        it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
    19 God has cast me into the mire,
        and I have become like dust and ashes.

    When disaster strikes, when disaster even threatens, do you cry out to the wind? When terrors seem to fall upon us, when pain gives no rest, do you even blame God?

    For it is Almighty God who allows the winds of change. It is Almighty God who painfully refines us in the fire.

     Job’s plea to God

    20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
        I stand, and you only look at me.
    21 You have turned cruel to me;
        with the might of your hand you persecute me.
    22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
        and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
    23 For I know that you will bring me to death
        and to the house appointed for all living.

    24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
        and in his disaster cry for help?

    Have you been there? Has this been your prayer, perhaps even now?

    Job’s Appeal

    25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
        Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
    26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,
        and when I waited for light, darkness came.
    27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
        days of affliction come to meet me.
    28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
        I stand up in the assembly and cry for help…

    There is more to the sad turn of events in the life of this righteous man, both prior to our glance at this portion of Job’s tragedy and after this chapter when Job confronts the LORD!

    If you cry out to the wind even now, will you be saved by your own righteousness?

    (I will not give away the ending, in case you have not read or do not recall the conclusion found in the remaining twelve chapters of the Book of Job.) Job faces Almighty God as a righteous man. How will you?

    Wind is a tempest we cannot see and a power we cannot control. Can a man of dust grasp the ungraspable? Will a mere mortal stand still or bow down before the LORD?

    Wind רוּחַ  ἄνεμος

    In Hebrew: wind, breath, mind, spirit; and also used in an attempt to describe the Holy Spirit of God.

    In Greek: wind, a violent agitation and stream of air; a very strong tempestuous wind; the four principal or cardinal winds, hence the four corners of heaven

    Behind the invisible imagery one must see beyond the feel, effect and cause of the wind to a more mysterious meaning of a Source for all wind; therefore a Source also of all calm.

    NOTE: Linked text to source for scripture, Hebrew & Greek definitions and other source material for Roger Harned posts on http://talkofJesus.com

    Pray for us; for we wait in the path of the tempest for the unwielding hand of God!

    Are you a righteous man or woman created by God?

    The heavens and the earth and all mankind is created by God! None is righteous; no, not one.

    Would you confront the LORD without humility and grace?

    Or do you pray to the wind?

    Do you pray to a dead prophet or powerless dead saint?

    Do you depend on the name of your dead ancestors?

    Dearly beloved, for whom Christ Jesus came to this chaotic earth as Son of Man sacrificed for your sins: pray in His Holy Name to God our heavenly Father that you will receive his Holy Spirit, the very breath of eternal life; lest the tempest of His wrath sweep your perishing soul into the abyss of darkness.

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  • Seven Seals

    Seven Seals

    A scroll or proclamation sealed by the One of Authority

    Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. – Revelation 5:1

    The King James Version of the Bible uses the word ‘book’ in the place of scroll and interestingly enough you may recognize its importance from the original Greek: βιβλίον – biblion from the Greek root biblos.

    The Apostle John, exiled to the island of Patmos, survives the other eleven martyred for their faith, and receives a book of prophecy from the risen Lord. A few years prior to John’s apocalypse Rome had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.

    An Ancient Sealed Prophesy

    Seven centuries prior to this witness of John, the prophet Isaiah had correctly predicted an earlier fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC.

    Isaiah 29:

    9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished;
    blind yourselves and be blind!
    Be drunk, but not with wine;
    stagger, but not with strong drink!
    10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
    a spirit of deep sleep,
    and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
    and covered your heads (the seers).

    11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.

    חָתַם סֵפֶר

    When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”

    The Lamb of God

    John had witnessed Christ Jesus slain on a cross. He was the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world; yet three days later and for many days John witnessed the risen Christ! Jesus was about thirty years old, but John was even younger. Hundreds of jews and gentiles saw the risen Lord, who previously had told the Apostles of His return.

    Now John is an old man (even by modern standards). The Lord gives John a vision, just as the Lord has previously uncovered a certain future to His Prophets centuries before Christ.

    John’s apocalypse shows events of a Day to come .. a day of wrath and a day of justice.

    ἀποκάλυψις

     

    Revelation 5:2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”

    9 And they sang a new song, saying,

    “Worthy are you to take the scroll
        and to open its seals,
    for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
        from every tribe and language and people and nation,
    10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
        and they shall reign on the earth.”

    Revelation 6:

    The Seven Seals

    6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder,“Come!”

    3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”

    And again with the third and the fourth seal. “Come!”

    The breaking of each seal introduces a horse of a different color. Did you know this scriptural source of this familiar expression?

    Read in Christ’s revelation to John the fearful imagery of these riders; for the deceiver leads the world to see these foretold truths of that Day as highly imaginable fantasy, when in truth, the wrath of that terrible terrible Day should bring a quaking of terror into unrepentant hearts of the living and souls of the dead.

    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?”

    12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth…

    Read it for yourself, you who fear Almighty God!

    Revelation 7:

    4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

    A Great Multitude from Every Nation

    A seventh seal is yet to be opened…


    When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. –

    Revelation 8:1

    Christ the Lamb looks to you

    • Is reverence for the Lord an attribute of your life; do you show any respect for the deserved honor of the Living God?
    • Does your heart consider deserved repercussions of your sin?
    • Is your arrogance before the risen and living Son of righteous the foolishness of fallen angels who have told adam’, “You will be as gods, knowing good and evil?” Genesis 3:5

    Are you a god, failing flesh with mortal soul?

    Or does your own sin convict you of your many failings?

    Repent! While it is yet today.

    For the Day will surly come when seven seals will be broken and the judgments of God proclaimed before all souls – souls saved and souls condemned.

    To which side will the Lord separate your eternal soul?

    Read the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John and be blessed.

     

  • Behold, the days are coming

    In case you missed the introduction to this post and if impressions of the post image below lead you to current impending events, we are continuing here in Jeremiah’s prophesies about Judah in the 7th c. B.C.

    God’s Nation under No One

    Jeremiah 8:

    Sin and Treachery

    4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
    When men fall, do they not rise again?
        If one turns away, does he not return?
    5 Why then has this people turned away
        in perpetual backsliding?
    They hold fast to deceit;
        they refuse to return.

     Jeremiah 9:

    Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
        and put no trust in any brother,
    for every brother is a deceiver,
        and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
    5 Everyone deceives his neighbor,
        and no one speaks the truth;
    they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
        they weary themselves committing iniquity.
    6 Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
        they refuse to know me, declares the Lord.

    7 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts:
    “Behold, I will refine them and test them,
        for what else can I do, because of my people?

    23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

    25 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—

    Circumcise your hearts you people without God!

    Who do you trust?

    This message from Jeremiah is written to the political and religious leaders of Judah (the circumcised sworn to obey the Lord). The Lord’s messenger is severe in words given to the prophet by the Lord God.

    What leader will step forward to lead as the Lord would lead?

    No one, says the Lord. The Lord directs Jeremiah to be absolutely clear that it is the Lord speaking to the leaders of Judah; not just a man. The difficulty of Jeremiah’s obedience will reap earthly consequences most unpleasant at the hand of men in power.

    Yet are we not obliged to obey the Lord?

    Our leaders hope God will speak against or act against our enemies. Yet as Jeremiah’s story unfolds the Lord makes clear that Judah’s enemy in another nation is the Lord’s servant completing His will.

    Is it not right that the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth should punish His own for disobedience?

    Judah will fall, as all nations will fall. For the Lord endures while the nations fall and are no more remembered.

    Yet God is gracious. For the Lord makes a way for sinners, even the nations to come to Him in Christ Jesus.

    Righteous jews such as Daniel and others will influence leaders and others of the nations who have not known the Lord. God has purpose in this, while the Lord warns the nations (gentiles) of the futility of the worship of idols. The Lord warns even those who claim His Holy Name.

    Jeremiah 10:

    Idols and the Living God

    10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord:

    “Learn not the way of the nations,
        nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
        because the nations are dismayed at them,
    3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity…

    Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
        and they cannot speak;
    they have to be carried,
        for they cannot walk.
    Do not be afraid of them,
        for they cannot do evil,
        neither is it in them to do good.”

    6 There is none like you, O Lord;
        you are great, and your name is great in might.

    7 Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
        For this is your due;
    for among all the wise ones of the nations
        and in all their kingdoms
        there is none like you.

    8 They are both stupid and foolish;
        the instruction of idols is but wood!

    Behold, a 21st c. Lesson from a Prophet from 7 centuries Before Christ

    What should we take from the warning of Jeremiah to Judah?

    In these last days the most powerful of nations turn against the Lord. We turn our backs on righteous ways and run to the power of sin in this decaying world.

    The Lord God brought even his own chosen people to destruction, because of their worship of idols.

    Do we not have more idols than the hills of Samaria?

    Vengeance is the Lord’s; he will repay! [Hebrews 10:30]

    • Who will lead your actions in this nation of sin?

    It is the question of Jeremiah. It is the question of these last days.

    What is your answer?

    The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners.  [1 Timothy 1:15]

    Are you and I not two of these?

    Christ Jesus is my Lord. He saved me.

    What is your answer to the hard questions from the LORD? What is your answer, fellow sinner, to a merciful savior of souls like ours?