Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: God

  • Reflections: Before adam, I AM

    Reflections: Before adam, I AM

    creation-of-adamReflect though the window of time on the Person of God.

    touch of mirror

    For now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face.

    Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. – 1 Corinthians 13:12 

     John 1 English Standard Version (ESV)

    The Word Became Flesh

    1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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    Without here debating the nature and essence of the One true God; without here dissecting God’s purpose and relationships of each Person of the Trinity of the One God: let us examine the Person to person relationship of the LORD to a few historic real souls, men and women of flesh and blood in a relationship with the Living GOD.

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     14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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    Prior to the incarnation of God in the birth, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus, God met man in many times, in many places and in several ways. Yet man sins; in every time, in all places and in many ways.

    Mankind sins again and again and yet again throughout the generations. Evil draws us further from the glory God has given to us; glory to worship the LORD in whose Image we are made.

    Any reflection of the mind of man cannot conceive even a mirror Image of the LORD GOD, HOLY AND ALMIGHTY, a loving Father to all He created.

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    Genesis 1:

     26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image…

    To be continued…

  • Reflections in Windows of Time

    Reflections in Windows of Time

    Looking back, running away from God is nothing new. We who would be so critical of Peter denying Jesus three times have now looked back to others faithful to God with moments of doubt.

    Note: Our Lenten reflection continues from where ‘Running from God‘ left off – an introduction to examining a history of relationships between God and believers.

    Moses, God’s chosen Prince, Prophet, Law Giver, Chief Justice, Administrator of the day-to-day lives of the rescued Hebrew nation: even Moses had had it!! – with these rebellious chosen people. Moses was ready to give up on the whole exodus thing more than once during their forty years stranded in the wilderness.

    Elijah, God’s great Prophet who stood against the evil King, with his foreign Queen – Elijah, a true Prophet of God who mocked the false prophets, who mocked the false idols – Elijah, God’s Prophet who both predicted and demonstrated the immeasurable Power of the One Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth!! as the LORD Jehovah came into the place of his witness – Elijah turned from the victory of God and ran in fear for his own life.

    Christ Jesus never shrunk back from the fearful inevitable providential call of the Lamb of God to become the Living Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

    Not only Peter turned away from what seemed like defeat for God – defeat for righteousness – defeat for the witnesses of God’s true word and God’s true will.

    You and I turn from God as well, in our everyday lives.

    Look through the many windows of time. What do you see?

    Are the reflections of our unrighteousness not evident in every millennium, in every century, in every generation?

    Look though the reflection of time: at Jerusalem; at Israel and Judah; look at the Hebrew people before they had a King, before they conquered a land; look before Judges and Generals, reflect before Moses and Abraham: what do we see through the reflections of the windows of time?

    We see God’s patience, God’s mercy and God’s love.

    IF YOU were God or if I was God, WE would have done it differently, wouldn’t we?

    None of this rebellion stuff! None of this disobedience allowed! And the SIN… why.. we would wipe it right out EVERY time, just like in the days of Noah and just like when God destroyed the evil men and the evil women in Sodom and in Gomorrah.

    I do not think you or I could be a merciful God (not even in our best moments).

    No work of any good man or any good woman is sufficient to the Holiness of God.

    The Bible only gives us glimpses into the windows of time at just part of the lives of a few righteous imperfect examples of God. Yet these good men and these good women had their moments of failing – every one of them.

    Jews and Christians and Muslims, who all believe in the ONE GOD, all tend to hold up story lines of convenience, while failing to acknowledge the sins and failings of our fathers of the faith.

    ALL men and ALL women of faith fail in the light of the example and teachings of Jesus Christ!

    The zealous and learned Jew and Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, who we know as Paul, addresses God’s righteousness in Romans 3:

    “None is righteous, no, not one;
    11     no one understands;
        no one seeks for God.

    David, in a moment of weakness appeals to God:

    Psalm 143

    Hear my prayer, O LORD;
    give ear to my pleas for mercy!
    In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!

    Enter not into judgment with your servant,
    for no one living is righteous before you.

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    We are too harsh! God is merciful.

    King David was not only God’s anointed King who united the Hebrew tribes into a United Israel; David, recall, was an adulterer and murderer.

    According to the Law of Moses, should not David have been executed for his sins?

    We see even through the broadcast windows of these evil days, merciless zealots of a false prophet executing judgment without mercy!

    God is patient; God is merciful. Our loving God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will save yet more enemies of the One True God. Was Saul of Tarsus not one of these?

    God seeks repentance in the hearts of all men and all women of every faith; that these will come to the love and grace of His mercy through Jesus Christ, Son of Sacrifice for the sins of the world.

    Look through the windows of time with eyes to see and ears to hear. God has given us the Holy Bible. NO other book is Holy!

    History reveals the hearts of men and women are only continually evil. Why should we worship any man or woman who is NOT God? Why would we kneel or bow down at their idols or lift up their ancestry or follow their teachings from man-made books?

    None is righteous, no not one. Yet God in His mercy reveals both His love for us and our own failings in the lives of the best of us.

    To be continued…

     

  • Running from God – 5 – God pursues

    Running from God – 5 – God pursues

    Are you running from God?

    Here we have Elijah sulking in victory and awaiting defeat under the shade of a broom tree.

    We have heard the same Peter who would glorify Jesus and Moses and Elijah with a shrine, deny knowing Jesus when he risked imprisonment or execution for his confession of Christ.

    We have even seen Moses, God’s hand-picked leader of Israel to lead them to the Promised Land, weary of the weight of leadership.

    Yet God pursues victory beyond the focus of our vision and glory higher than the imagination of our defeat.

    1 Kings 19

    The Lord Speaks to Elijah

    9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him,

    “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

    10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

    11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.”

    And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord,

    but the Lord was not in the wind.

    And after the wind an earthquake,

    but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

    12 And after the earthquake a fire,

    but the Lord was not in the fire.

    And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

    13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said,

    “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

    14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

    15 And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

    WAIT a minute! Elijah, Prophet of Israel who God has used to prove His Almighty Power over the false prophets and worshipers of Tyre and Sidon and places beyond Syria; Elijah, Prophet of Israel, who had thought his battle against Ahab and Jezebel was over (and that they would kill him); GOD commands Elijah to anoint a man Hazael as King of Syria!

    Syria! NOT Israel, NOT Judah. Almighty GOD is anointing a King of Syria; as before Moses, God had anointed a Prince of Egypt named Joseph.

    GOD is strategic beyond the best planning and foresight of man. As with Moses being succeeded by Joshua, God also appoints a powerful successor to the Prophet Elijah. And God also commands the defeated Elijah under the broom tree waiting to die to anoint the next King of Israel to replace his pursuer Ahab. (The fate of Jezebel she has prophesied on herself.)

    [Previously, in 1 Kings 19:2 – “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” ] Of course Jezebel’s gods are nothing more than stone and wood.

    GOD continues Elijah’s orders:

    16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

    Elisha later witnesses the Prophet Elijah taken up into heaven! Seven centuries later Peter, James and John would witness Elijah standing with Moses and Jesus talking about that which is to come.

    And when Peter later denied knowing Jesus, God pursued him. Peter was witness to Jesus after the resurrection.

    NO broom tree to sit under or cave in which to hide – Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus: God pursued Peter.

    And providentially enough, not so much later, Jesus appeared alive once more to another Jew, an Apostle to the Gentiles. And where was it where GOD, in the risen Christ Jesus, pursued Saul, persecutor of Christians?

    GOD met Saul on the road to Damascus, Syria!

    Paul is witness to the risen Christ Jesus! A man from Tarsus (in Turkey) testifies JESUS IS LORD!

    GOD is not ONLY the God of the Jews; GOD is the ONE GOD, over all who believe in Christ Jesus our Lord; any who will listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and return to the way of God’s will.

    Not my will, but thy will be done. – Luke 22:42

    Let us prepare for the return of Christ Jesus our Lord upon the clouds in victory.

    Amen.