Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: humble

  • a Common Era Contrition for Lent – Ash and dust

    a Common Era Contrition for Lent – Ash and dust

    lenten series outline & Introduction

    RECENT Posts in Lent 2025 C.E.

    Ash Wednesday 2025 C.E. –

    OUTLINE of a Scriptural path toward Christ’s walk to Gethsemane, Calvary, beyond Bethany and anticipating the Lord’s return in glory in these last days.

    Previously..
    Old Testament Ashes and Dust
    for 2025 – a Common Era contrition
    Latest in Lent 2025 CE

    the path of contrition

    “I am the way and the truth and the life.

    No one comes to the Father except through me.

    Gospel of John 14:6

    Introduction by the author

    The liturgical season of Lent although having no Biblical requirement has always been a reflective time for me. I have provided some glances back for any who have not followed Talk of JESUS in previous Lenten seasons.

    This YEAR – A.D. 2025 to most of you (2025 C.E. to most of our unbelieving world) – I wanted to lead you through some Old Testament Scriptures looking through Jewish eyes (yes JESUS and EVERY Apostle was Jewish). You may glance at a HEBREW organization of the BIBLE below which orders and groups our O.T. Books differently.

    G_d only knows how many of the 40 days of Lent I will publish, but each will likely be briefer than my usual 5-minute READ.

    Finally, beloved brother or sister in Christ,

    IF you look for a connecting thread between these O.T. Scriptures and Christ you may discover a faithful Jewish thread of contrition not seen in the Gospels except in the Person of Jesus. (Think of Gethsemane, now.. and follow Him along the narrow path.)

    Won’t you pray for me and comment here encouraging all?

    Roger Harned – Author and Site administrator, Talk of JESUS .com

    Lent A.D. 2014 Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord + Ash Wednesday - Easter Sunday - Jesus is RISEN! and will return once more
    a picture of LENT from AD 2014

    Introduction to the Hebrew Bible

    On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

    The Word summarizing Jewish Scripture in Matthew 22:40,

    This phrase refers to the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures, known as the Tanakh, which is divided into the Torah (Law), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).

    In the context of Matthew 22:40, “the Law and the Prophets” is a shorthand for the Old Testament.

    STUDY BIBLE Bible Hub .com

    Tanakh Hebrew Bible books
    CLICK to ENLARGE the three sections of the Tanakh [Hebrew Scriptures]

    What path will you walk this day?

    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

    garden in darkness

  • WE do not presume

    God’s Righteous Judgment

    Romans 2:

    .. do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

    So I ask you: are you repentant? Are you sorry for your sins? Shouldn’t we confess our sins against God? Yet repentance demands both confession and turning back to the way of righteousness.

    The LORD is God and we are not! Bow down, o man of dust, to the One Who IS and was and will be forever, the LORD!

    WE seem to have forgotten

    Listen to the lyrics of our music. Much ado about ‘us,’ or ‘me,’ some about ‘you’ and even a little about God. Not so surprising in our worldly wireless abyss of media, but subtly self-centered in an emotional entertainment of worship music. Paul cautions the church at Rome in the preceding verse:,

    3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 

    Who are we to claim Christ with words rarely mentioning Jesus by Name?

    While we rail against the outside world, ‘christians’ claim WE are a people favored by God. Was fallen Israel so different after Solomon? A fallen nation abandons God’s favor for freedoms of over-expression. We accuse each other of forgetting our roots, never once claiming that we have forgotten the Lord.

    Prayer of Humble Access

    We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies.  …

    What presumption that the Lord God should accept our everyday sin without just punishment or consequence. Most certainly this age-old problem of sin confronts every created being of every generation.

    13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

    Regardless of your church traditions of worship and the law, the Lord must judge rightly. Listen to law or ordinance with indifference or never consider it, yet the Lord must judge sinners.

    Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this Law.

    God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. – Romans 2:16b ESV

    Presumption

    Look to today’s news  (or news of any era); presumptuous leaders rise to prominence, replacing our presumptions of yesterday. I speak not only of a president, leader or another country or political party, but of all ambitious men and women. 

    Can any stand before the Throne of the Almighty with a claim of innocence? The time of their judgment will soon enough be at hand, as it has been in every generation.

    Ecclesiastes 1(ESV)

    All Is Vanity
    1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

    We hear accusations and counter-claims from the rich and powerful. Yet even Solomon recognized the inevitable fall of a mighty kingdom given to his leadership. Solomon advised:

    Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake…

    [to the messenger of the media, if you prefer]

    For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear. – Ecclesiastes 5:6a,7

    WE presume much in the contention of carefully-crafted words and excesses of mistaken condemnations. Agendas of man will fail without the purpose of the Lord.

    The antonyms of presumption are knowledge, truth and humility.

    God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance.

    psalm 5:

    Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness
    because of my enemies;
    make your way straight before me.

    For there is no truth in their mouth;
    their inmost self is destruction;
    their throat is an open grave;
    they flatter with their tongue.

    Make them bear their guilt, O God;
    let them fall by their own counsels;
    because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out,
    for they have rebelled against you.

    Truth

    Who can we believe?

    Only God; only the humble. (May the Lord make us humble before Him.)

    John 1:

    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.

    17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

    Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6

    And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Matthew 23:12 KJV

    Confession of the humble before God

    Prior to communion with our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus; prior to our confession: “We do not presume…” Our hearts ought to have come to a more complete acknowledgement of our sin.

    Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness..

    Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake…

    The simplicity of Christ’s Sacrifice for us: humility on a cross does not presume forgiveness, but the love of God for repentant sinners.

    Father, forgive us, for we do not know the Sacrifice of Your love.

     

  • The House You Build

    The House You Build

    Isaiah 66:1-2

    Thus says the LORD:
    “Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool;
    what is the house that you would build for me,
    and what is the place of my rest?

    All these things my hand has made,
    and so all these things came to be,
    declares the LORD.

    But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word.

    5 Hear the word of the Lord,
    you who tremble at his word:
    “Your brothers who hate you
    and cast you out for my name’s sake
    have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified,
    that we may see your joy’;
    but it is they who shall be put to shame.

    15 “For behold, the Lord will come in fire,
    and his chariots like the whirlwind,
    to render his anger in fury,
    and his rebuke with flames of fire.
    16 For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment,
    and by his sword, with all flesh;
    and those slain by the Lord shall be many.

    Our Lord is a consuming fire.

    He will burn away into flames of fire the chaff of our sins.

    He will send away into the darkness of Hades the souls who refuse His refining Word.

    What does the Lord require?

    Matthew 13
    English Standard Version (ESV)

    That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables…

    18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart…

    … one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

    … one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

    23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

    Is your heart the good soil of your soul? What is the fruit of your receiving the Gospel of Christ Jesus?

    The Parable of the Weeds

    24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also…

    Satan has been sowing seeds of wickedness among the good seed of the Gospel for two millennia beyond the Cross and Resurrection.

    Is the time of harvest not certainly near?

    isaiah-662_barn and wheat30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

     “… what is the house that you would build for me,
    and what is the place of my rest?

    But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word.

    1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple…

    1 Corinthians 6:15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

    … do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

     Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

    Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

    25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? 26 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.