Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: God

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
Imperfect Family
The Son of Man – an imperfect family man

Have you ever thought of Jesus as an imperfect ‘family man?’

‘What?’ you may react! God Incarnate in the Person of Jesus imperfect as a ‘family man?’ I thought Jesus is supposed to be God the Father’s Perfect Human (Son of Man) example to each of us.

John 2

an imperfect family man, Jesus at a wedding feast in Cana

… there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. ²Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.³When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

He was known as a son of the deceased Joseph of Nazareth and his widow Mary, who raised His younger brothers at home. Jesus was not a married man who could invite His friends over to His house. His Disciples met at Peter’s house, feasted in the homes of others or even gathered in fields on hillsides or park-like olive groves. Jesus seemed always to be a guest and never the host.

In many ways Jesus can NOT provide a perfect example for us in every life situation.

As a husband, does any human experience of Jesus show you how you should behave toward your wife? (Of course Jesus was not married to a woman.) Jesus does not model the role or place for a woman. This Son of Man who had no children didn’t write a book of how to deal with your teen’s technology or your terrible two’s tantrums.

In a sense, Jesus was just like us in that He was imperfect as a family man.

Jesus loved celebrating with loved ones. He had to choose which parties He would attend and the company with whom He would spend His measured mortal time. Jesus celebrated as a guest with those He loved.

Luke 5:

Jesus at the home of Matthew

29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

Mathew Levi had just left everything to follow Jesus! [v.28] What a wonderful reason to celebrate with a feast.

Who should I spend Thanksgiving with?

Jesus had to make difficult choices in everyday life just like you and me. We cannot be everywhere and with everyone at once. (Neither could the Son of Man, until the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.)

Our difficult relational choices require our time with a certain loved one instead of another beloved.

You and I cannot spend Thanksgiving or Christmas, a certain wedding or obligatory funeral with all at once. My own choices for this upcoming week include situations that never fit into the ‘imperfect family life’ Jesus faced. (You or I need not detail reasons for exclusion of others from our time, but we all must make these relational decisions.) Here are a few questions I must answer now:
- Should I have Thanksgiving dinner with my beloved wife?
- Should I visit my beloved daughter?
- Should I travel to see my aging Dad?
- Should I find a way to visit my widowed Mother-in-Law?
- How can I at least acknowledge my dear step-children in several different states?
- How could I possibly see my brothers, sister and their families in so many different states?
These are the kind of questions which confront each of us at times of celebration set aside for family. Unfortunately, the family of Jesus may not help us to find answers to these heart-felt questions.

Why do I celebrate Thanksgiving?

I could stay home with my wife, who is unable to travel this holiday. I could drive to my dad’s or dine with my daughter. What’s so special about today? After all, can’t we eat turkey anywhere?

Is Thanksgiving just another day off? Or an excuse to overeat and party with friends and family? Is it the day that launches our christmas buying frenzy? Perhaps Thanksgiving is all of that and more.

In one moment of forgotten selfishness, we may give our time or food to others, family or even the hungry. Yet one purpose of Thanksgiving may still be lost on most of us.

If we have not thanked God for our many blessings, no act of charity will outweigh the bounty of our greed.

Only — the righteous give thanks to Thy name,

The upright do dwell with Thy presence!

Psalm 140:13 YLT

It was the Lord who blessed me with a warm place to live and put food on my table when I was homeless and without work. By mercy of what I did not deserve, Christ shared with me from the overflowing bounty of the Table of the King of Kings.

Thanks be to God for all before us on the day of this Thanksgiving feast and every other day.

Psalm 107

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!

Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

Happy Thanksgiving, beloved.

May the LORD of all creation fill your table with His bounty, your soul with His great mercy, and your days with great grace though His only Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Roger Harned
November 25, 2015
Crushed

Let’s get something straight:

You are not good enough for Heaven. I am not even good enough for my church, my wife or my child.

If we cannot do enough good works to earn our place with a Holy God, how will we ever pay what we owe for our many sins?

Answer:

We can not.

No work we can do is good enough to pay the high price of our sins.

Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and many others sought to reform church leadership. Those protesting rejected sacramental penance of man for the true repentance of a man’s heart won back to God.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Ephesians 2:8

Why did the LORD send Jesus to the Cross for my sins?

A most unattainable thing about goodness: We cannot attain it. We will always trespass. We will always sin.

Romans 7:

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

The Scriptures foretold of the coming of the Christ, who IS in the Person of Jesus.

Around 700 B.C., the Prophet Isaiah [in chapter 53] described the Savior of Israel, the Redeemer of the world:

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:10

What good work will your soul offer for your guilt?

Mark 10:

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone…

“… come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

“Then who can be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

Are we good enough for Heaven?

NOT without the grace of God by faith in Christ Jesus, alone.

The generous philanthropy of the greatest foundation for charity to all the causes of good can not buy Heaven and eternal life for even one unrepentant sinner without the grace of faith in Jesus Christ.

GOD gave breath to your spirit, formed you in your mother’s womb and calls you to a life by faith in the Spirit.

Fellow sinner, when will you repent of your many sins?

Are you not crushed by your sins when your mind is convicted in guilt and no good work will lift the burden from you? Do you still consider that another good work will pay the price of the Lord’s piercing and death for you?

Confess your sin before Almighty God! Bow down your selfish will before Christ Jesus. Repent once more, dear fellow sinner. Turn back to the righteousness of our loving Father.

For God intends for your brief journey here beneath the immeasurable heavens and timeless creation to glorify your Lord. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Let us confess that we among many cannot do good without the grace of God.

We are saved by faith alone: in Christ Jesus, the only Son, One with the Father.

Humble your failing flesh to guidance of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, eternal Judge of all mortal souls.

REPENT! Self-righteous sinner.

Turn back to the LORD by faith in Christ Jesus,

While it is yet today;

Before you are crushed

By sin and death,

Before your good legacy becomes

Another forgotten rotting vanity.

October 31, 2015