Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: God

  • COMPLAINT!

    COMPLAINT!

    Job Replies: My Complaint Is Just

    6 Then Job answered and said:

    2 “Oh that my vexation were weighed,
    and all my calamity laid in the balances!

    Ever had a bad day?

    The Lord had already put on my heart to write from Job’s experience as continuation for our Lenten preparation in consideration of the cost of the Cross. And then I had yet another ‘bad day.’

    Job was angry and frustrated with what GOD had allowed to happen to him after all of his faithful worship and righteousness in every part of his life. GOD had always rewarded Job’s righteousness.  GOD had always brought blessing into Job’s life.

    Blessing or curse: Is it from God?

    WHY! Job asked?

    Why ME! we ask?

    Why, Lord, have you brought me very low to this place?

    I know that I am a sinner. I know that I do not deserve your grace in Christ Jesus. I know that.

    But you have done all these things to me. You have afflicted me with my own sin and the sin of those I love. WHY?

    Prior to Job’s complaint (and God’s eventual answer and restoration): Job 2:

     9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”

    10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

    It’s OK to have an argument with God; Job did. It’s called prayer, private petition; and you had better be ready to brace yourself for God’s answer, if you have ears to hear as our Lord would instruct.

    It is a fearsome place… to be alone in the place of God… no wife (or perhaps, husband) to support you in your love of the Lord and care for your over-abiding love for her by God’s grace. It is a lonely place to sit among friends (even so-called ‘christian’ church friends) who feel sorry for you and fill your wearisome ears with misguided uncompassionate advice.

    Prayer for yourself

    Just between you and God

    Waiting to hear

    The answer of the Almighty

    Should bring us to our knees

    And bow down our sinful souls

    Into the dust and ashes

    Of repentance.

    Let you with ears to hear hear, before you would speak so boldly into the ear of the One who hung upon the Cross for your sins.

    Yet we have questions. And we have an Advocate in Christ who knows our pain. Jesus hears and will answer if only we will hear Him. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart.

    In our strong will to tell GOD what to do, will we hear His answer?

    Job 6:11 What is my strength, that I should wait?
    And what is my end, that I should be patient?
    12 Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh bronze?
    13 Have I any help in me,
    when resource is driven from me?
    14 “He who withholds kindness from a friend
    forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
    15 My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed,
    as torrential streams that pass away,
    16 which are dark with ice,
    and where the snow hides itself.
    17 When they melt, they disappear;
    when it is hot, they vanish from their place.

    Yes, prayer with the Almighty, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a fearful place. Prayer is a fearful place for battered flesh and broken heart of one so continually refined by the fire of the Holiness of GOD.

    Yet the grace of His love comes at high cost. The ransom paid for our continuing sin is more than sufficient before the King for Him to be gracious to those He loves.

    Let us repent once more and listen. Let us this time obey and follow His Cross without turning or regret.

    John 12

      4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said…

    23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…

    27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?

     40 “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
    lest they see with their eyes,
    and understand with their heart, and turn,
    and I would heal them.”

    (Are you praying, you with ears to hear?)

    Jesus Came to Save the World

    44 And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

    48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day…

    You with ears to hear hear… and pray.

    Pray also for me, sinner though I be.

  • lord. What does it mean?

    lord. What does it mean?

    Jesus is Lord.

    What does that mean?

    Is this a Kingly title… like, “Sir Jesus, most exalted ruler” of someone or some land or maybe even some angels? Is that what you mean by, Jesus is lord?

    I say this tongue-in-cheek, but the question of the title ‘lord’ probably yields a not much better answer in most of our freedom-loving minds.

    Lord: a broad definition from the Oxford dictionary

    Origin Old English hlāford, from hlāfweard ‘bread-keeper’, from a Germanic base (see loaf1, ward)

    Last on the Oxford list: Our Lord
    10 Used as a title for God or Jesus Christ:

    IF a man holds all your bread, he literally lords it over you – you are servant of the lord over the bread of your existence.

    Think about wars and war lords (in the middle ages, the Islamic wars & Crusades); even now war-torn parts of Africa, Asia, Arab lands, the Middle East; poor European and Russian wilderness regions; poor areas of Mexico, Central and South America; many islands worldwide – lords of violence enslave and murder their unwilling victims.

    Think about the dependence of the poor on the rule of an over-lord, cruel men commanded by evil and cruel men who control the bread, the rice, the trade, the labor, the sex traffic, the drug traffic, the oil…

    Are there not lords of evil throughout the earth?

    It is no wonder that Jesus Christ stated categorically:

    “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

    You cannot serve God and money.” – Luke 16:13

    It is a matter of life and death to be dependent on a lord. Indeed we are a slave to whatever or whoever feeds us when we have nowhere else to go or no one else upon whom we can rely.

    The large master-slave story of the Old Testament is found in Exodus. Joseph was sold by his brothers (lords of the eleven tribes of Israel) into slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh later became lord and ruler over all the tribes of Israel.

    The LORD, Jehovah,The Existing One, sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand: Let my people go.

    The LORD will rule His people and He will only give them into the hand of another for His refining purpose.

    Consider that in reference to God saving Israel from their Master, Pharaoh; and that the lord over the bread of our very existence is ruler over our lives; Jesus boldly proclaimed:

    “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” – John 6:51

    Lord is used in other contexts of authority throughout the Bible. Sarah calls Abraham her husband, ‘my lord,’ for example. And Jesus points to His authority when He taught, “For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

    Jesus had asked the traditional religious ‘authorities: “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?” – Luke 20:41-47

    The word “Lord” is used 7836 times in the King James Bible.

    Authority must have some importance in the lives of the followers of God.

    Simply stated: He IS God and we are not.

    In these freedom-loving, self-serving last days, let christians recall the chilling (or should I say rather: the fiery, damning) words of Jesus:

    “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21

    19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    Let your ears hear, unfruitful christian, the damning caution of the one you call, ‘lord.’

    Yes, we are free from the Law, from earthly rulers, even Bishops and over-lords. We have the grace of Jesus Christ and forgiveness of the Cross.

    We need no intercessor (with exclusive access to the Holy Spirit) to intervene for us as Priest, father or mother of Perfect Son of Man. We need pray through no dead saint, alive in the Spirit. We are free from all of that.

    Yet by the authority of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the saints (that is, you and me, beloved faithful brother, obedient sister in the Lord) have a relationship of love, a fellowship of grace and mercy with the LORD of all mercy, Lord of all the Heavens and the earth; Judge of all men, ruler of all creation!

    Are we not, fellow men and women of dust, sinful in our every leaning away from our loving Heavenly Father, the command and example of the Living Son of God the Father, and the merciful leading of the Holy Spirit to the overflowing streams of Living Water – are we not perishing ashes of fools destined for the fires of destruction?

    Who IS your LORD?

    Is there not a price to pay for taking up the Cross of Christ Jesus?

    Christians were persecuted in Rome, in Syria, in Greece, in Asia in the first century for proclaiming Jesus Christ as LORD. Are the days not coming, even this day for some believers, to suffer once more for boldly bowing down ONLY to Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior?

    Romans 10:

    … if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

     The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John:

    19:16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

    He Was and IS and Is to come, the LORD!

    Jesus IS LORD!

    What does it mean to you?

    What must you do now (while it is yet today)?

  • My Love – 7 – Love never ends…

    My Love – 7 – Love never ends…

    1 Corinthians 13

    The Way of Love (agape)

    7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

    8 Love never ends.

    Once again, the ‘love‘ we proclaim though scripture from this letter of Paul to the church at Corinth is the agape love of God. Christ’s love and perfect earthly example should permeate every kind of love relationship we have with others, including of course, the love of a husband for his wife and a wife for her husband.

    You can never love too much.

    You can love in the wrong way,

    but never too much.

    Suppose we take the famous scripture of the ‘love chapter’ and put it into the context of ‘The Four Loves’ described by C.S. Lewis of the four Greek words for love. And let’s take this a step further for a moment and begin with the way the world first thinks when the word love is mentioned:

    Eros bears all things, Eros believes all things, Eros hopes all things, Eros endures all things.  Eros love never ends.

    Is this true?

    I can testify by my own divorces that eros love (romantic love) often bears little, believes only at first, hopes less and less and indeed Eros love does end. This, of course, is why our vows before God are so important to our Christian marriages.

    The same could be said of friendship love or affectionate love. Friendships certainly end and so all-too-often does the affectionate love of a parent for a child or child for parent. These tragic endings fill counseling offices and psychiatrist couches.

    Love frequently does end; the other loves fail.

    Therefore I caution us that we can indeed love in the wrong way. We often do not, as sinful and unfaithful human souls, look at love from the perspective of God.

    We think that we have only so much love we can give – only so much friendship we can give – only so much love for one child or for our mom or for our dad to give – only so much we can endure and hope and believe for the love of our life, the wife or husband of our vows. After all, ‘we are only human.’ We are limited in the flesh; we are limited in our love for one another.

    All this would be true, except for the one love for which we were created by God – agape love, which permeates our very being and relationships to every other.

    You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and all your mind. (Sound familiar?)

    Other loves only become timeless in the overflowing love of Jesus Christ when the deep well of God’s love pours forth from our sinful hearts into the love-starved souls of others.

    We are made for Him and we are made for each other. We are created to love each and all; but only in the right way and with the love of God pouring from us.

    When we are empty, God will give us more.

    When we have given all, God will give us more.

    When we cannot bear this soul, God will give us more.

    When we can no longer believe, God will give us more.

    When we have lost all hope, God will give us more.

    When we cannot endure, God will give us more.

    When we think our Eros romance

    or our Philia friendship 

    or our Storge affection

    will end;

    God will give us more.

    For Agape love is not only unconditional,

    the Agape love of God is eternal.

    Agape love never ends.

    The King James English actually encourages us in God by assuring:

    Charity never faileth.

    And the NASB & other versions translate agape: Love never fails.

    Yes, Paul points out that other signs of God working in the lives of the church may fail at times. (We are just a gathering of His imperfect sinners.)

    God gives us His gifts to use in His way in our mortal time.

    Pour forth the unfailing love of Christ Jesus. Embrace every soul in His love.

    (Love one another, as I have loved you, our Lord commands.)

    The love of the church may be evident through varying gifts to different saints (Christians) as different times. Yet Love never fails. God’s own love and charity towards us never fails His purpose.

    It is appropriate reminder to us as I conclude this 7-part series on My Love, to remind us of the love of God for me, a sinner, and for you.

    God has not failed us.

    The Cross of Christ Jesus never fails.

    We are saved by the grace of the sacrifice of our Lord, Christ Jesus.

    As we near the end of these last days I appeal once more to your faithfulness to the Lord Who IS faithful to those who love Him. Be faithful to God in every kind of love God so richly gives to you from the deep spring of His eternal love.

    Have you failed in your love? Have you failed God? Have you failed your beloved to whom you are wed? Have you failed a friend? Have you failed a parent or a child who needs your unconditional love?

    ekpiptō – to fall out of, to fall down from, to fall off; to fall from a thing, to lose it; to perish, to fall: from a place from which one cannot keep,  from a position, to fall powerless, to fall to the ground, be without effect of the divine promise of salvation

    In Christ Jesus, we have God’s unfailing love. By grace we cannot fall. God’s love never fails.

    Peter reminds the faithful of the importance of us not failing Christ Jesus, if indeed He IS our LORD.

    2 Peter 3: NKJV

    10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

    17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand,

    beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

    18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

    To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.