Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: God

  • A Love Letter from John

    A Love Letter from John

    1 John 2: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

    But if anyone does sin,we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

    Beloved brother, beloved sister in Christ: you are going to sin. I do.

    We continue to need Christ as our advocate every day of our mortal lives.

    2 He is the propitiation [the means of appeasing the deserved wrath of God] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

    3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

    We know that we know Jesus: not only knowledge, but an intimate knowledge and personal relationship with Jesus as our Lord.

    4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

    By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

    The New Commandment

    7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

    The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

    Hear this now of God’s unfailing love for us.  Discern which brother and what sister now lives in the light. Understand who hides in the lies of the darkness and remains a slave of the sins of the world.

    9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

    10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

    11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes…

    We may not hate another of the family of Christ Jesus. For all who are saved are filled with His light. In us can be NO darkness at all.

    Do Not Love the World

    15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires [lust], but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

     

    1 John 3: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

    The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

    2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

    4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

    5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

    6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

    7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

    The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

    10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

    Love One Another

    11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another...

    18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

    The Apostle John, who with the Holy Spirit is also author of the Gospel of John, writes to the church of the high importance of the love of Christ Jesus for us.

    Do you believe? Do you know how much God has loved us from the beginning?

    For God sacrificed His Only Son on a Cross for you and for me.

    Will you become His righteousness?

    Dearly beloved, our Bridegroom sends you His love.

     

  • Christians: Servants in Prison Singing

    Christians: Servants in Prison Singing

    What must I do?

    By the Power of the Holy Spirit, preach Christ crucified and praise Jesus as your risen Lord.

    Acts 16
    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Paul and Silas in Prison

    16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.”

    18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

    Remarkable! Paul recognizes the power of a spirit of evil which lives in the body of this woman fortune-teller. A spirit has knowledge and power over her flesh. Yet the spirit subservient to Satan must respond to the command of Christ.

    19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers…

    22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

    23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

    The light of Christ frees a woman from satanic sin. And the reward for these Christians?

    A brutal beating and imprisonment in a dark cell as punishment.

    The Philippian Jailer Converted

    25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.

    Phillipi jailerYou and your Christian friend are beaten severely. You are both thrown in a dark prison cell unjustly. You sing praise to God! Answer? An EARTHQUAKE!

    Maybe God will just let you die now. Maybe God will bring the stones down on you and end your pain and misery.

    NO.

    The trembling earth and falling stones settle into something quite unexpected: a jailer, fearing for his life because you may have escaped and he, instead, could be executed.

    27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.

    28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

    29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

    Only GOD could do a work like this!

    30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

    31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

    I believe in the Lord Jesus. May my wife and our household be in His hands. (This is my personal prayer & witness.)

    32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

    33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

    I have witnessed the Power and mercy of Christ.

    What must I do to be saved?

    You with ears to hear, hear the voice of our Lord and Savior,  Christ Jesus.

     

  • What Must I Do?

    What Must I Do?

    So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

    Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” – Acts 9:6 NKJV

    Have you had a personal encounter with the Living God?

    Saul, an enemy of Christ, religious zealot and persecutor of true followers of the Way (the Apostles and others) encountered the risen Christ. Saul was a stumbling block to those who would claim Jesus as our Lord and our God.

    Saul of Tarsus’ encounter with the risen Christ is no less significant than an earlier encounter of Moses with God in the burning bush. This man, a leading disciple of the Temple is zealous for God; yet before this personal encounter Saul was galvanized against the risen Jesus, God Incarnate.

    Saul comes to the unknown: as Moses approached the unknown and as we each approach God in faith; for God has drawn us into His Presence. We have come from our place of complete understanding onto the Holy ground of marvelous mystery.

    God IS. Jesus IS.

    Now what must I do?

    Saul had asked the risen Jesus at this moment the obvious question: NOT just, ‘what are you?’, but, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

    Saul had finally bowed down in humility to Jesus Christ, Son of God. Saul in worship finally bowed down in humility as we we all must at the moment we encounter Jesus as ‘our Lord.’

    Acts: 9:4 ESV And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

    5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”

    And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

    “Who are you, Lord?”

    Is that what you ask of Jesus now that you have met Him?

    Lord, ‘kyrios’: This ‘relationship‘ between Jesus and a ‘Christian’ believer and follower is used over 100 times in the Acts of the Apostles. This relationship of Jesus as Lord is to show you, dear brother or dear sister in the Lord, and to show me Who Jesus IS and who we are to become in our relationship to Him as our Lord.

    Outline of Biblical Usage
    he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
    the possessor and disposer of a thing
    the owner; one who has control of the person, the master
    in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
    is a title of honour expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master
    this title is given to: God, the Messiah

    Before we bowed down to Christ as our Lord we were stumbling blocks to those who would believe, yet witnessed in us how Christ was NOT our Lord.

    Do you, who believe in the resurrection of Christ Jesus now ask: “What must I do?”
    • Jesus was: before He was born of Mary.
    • Jesus was: before He was crucified on the Cross
    • Jesus was: as He appeared in His broken flesh to the Apostles
    • Jesus was: when you were born
    • Jesus IS: in this very moment and place
    • Jesus IS: when your flesh must die
    • Jesus will BE: in the resurrection of souls for ALL time and eternity!

    What must we do, Lord?

    The answer of Christ is as individual and personal as our new relationship with Jesus as our Lord.

    For Saul who would become known as Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the answer was clear and specific:

    Acts 9:6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

    7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

    9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

    When we first encounter our risen “Lord,” we may also be blind. We will be told what to do.

    IF Jesus is your Lord, take HIS hand and allow your new Lord to lead you into the city of faith.