Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: islaam

  • Prayer: Begin with God

    Prayer: Begin with God

    To begin, let us get over how selfish we are, even by our prayers for loved ones.

    He IS God! and I am not.

    What is prayer, anyway? (Think about it. What is a prayer? Why would you even bother to pray?)

    prayer request pray list categoriesPrayer is many things. Most of our mind and flesh would relegate prayer to a single context (a selfish context, I might add) called petition. We have a prayer request or petition to bring before God.

    However at its most basic level, prayer is a communication between a mere mortal and the Immortal Almighty God.

    Do you believe in God? Do you believe that God IS, has been before time as we know it and will be forever beyond our timeline to the infinite?

    greek godsbuddhasacred cow hinduchinese temple worshipGod is NOT finite. God is NOT in everything.mother earth

    God cannot be defined or placed into a box of definition or a time observable in the laboratory of life.hawking cosmos

    “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – John 4:24

    “I who speak to you am he.” – John 4:26b

    “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. – John 15:26

    And we do not require any mediator between sinful man and a Holy God other than Christ Jesus! He IS the Very Living Person of the Trinity of Almighty God, sent as Perfect Adam and Perfect Sacrifice for our sins.

    WHO are you and I praying to? IS God a man (or woman) like us? Certainly not! Is any mediator or example required of any man (or woman) other than Christ Jesus?

    NO!

    communion hostJoseph Smithmary worship
    No holy mother, no living lama, no prophet, no priest, no ancestor, no spirit, no angel, no law. Yet as servants of our Master, Christ Jesus, we must obey the scripture, as our Lord has spoken and commanded.muhammed cave

    No intercessor other than Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit is required! Christ our Lord who warned: “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” – Matthew 24:11 KJV

    Worship only God; because the ransom paid for our sin on the Cross by our Savior and Redeemer, Christ Jesus, Who IS and was and will return on the clouds as King to rule in His righteous love: over all mankind, all angels and all creation – the Perfect price of your soul you cannot afford; no ransom for the dead will bring resurrection to the darkness of a soul buried in sin.

    So I ask you again of your prayer: Do you believe in God?

    Do you believe that Jesus Christ IS the resurrected and living Son of God, Who lived and died for our sins as a son of man (technically, Mary)? And do you believe all Jesus said, including His promise of the Holy Spirit to intervene with God our Father (a more loving Image than that of God the Judge of all righteousness)?

    Do you think of God as a Person?

    Then as Jesus instructed, let us first bow down humbly to Him as our Lord. Let us worship the Lord first, before all of our selfish petitions and requests.

    And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,

    Our Father which art in heaven,

    Hallowed be thy name.

    Thy kingdom come.

    Thy will be done,

    as in heaven, so in earth.

    Luke 11:2 KJV

    Should our pattern for prayer not resemble the outline of scripture?

    Even the Commandments begin with four concerning God, followed by six for the actions of man. And did Christ our Lord not give a ‘greatest commandment,’ even prior to our oft’ repeated golden rule, as prerequisite prelude of worship of the Lord our God?

    Matthew 22: 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

    Therefore let us worship the Lord our God, before we presumptuously approach the Throne of Glory with our lowly petitions and requests for our daily wants and needs, which our All-knowing and loving God does know.

    Let us tell the Lord His worth: even before we ask, even as we ask, even as He does not answer, God – our loving God who sacrificed His only Son Christ Jesus on the Cross for our sin – our loving Father for this prodigal of the flesh: He hears our prayers.

    He would have us ask, once we bow down to His Will and His ways, which are Higher and more knowing than our own sinful ways.

    Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Pray, and the Lord will listen; for His heart is kind and gentle for those who love Him.

    Christ Jesus IS Lord.

    Ask Him and ask me; for I will also pray for you, as you pray to God for your own needs.

    Pray also for me. (And next time we will talk about our petitions of prayer.)

    To be continued…

  • Liar, liar, pants on fire

    Liar, liar, pants on fire

    Do you recall that kid’s expression?

    I heard it from my friends when caught in a lie.

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    It’s not a biblical quote, however the Bible continually teaches us the value of truth and the consequence of lies.  God takes truth very seriously.

    “The Liar.” a poem by William Blake from about 200 years ago is probably the source of the expression. Jesus had to deal with liars even in the Temple 2000 years ago. (We’ll get to that shortly.) And about 3000 years ago the Proverbs of the Bible addressed lies as wickedness in relationships.

    Proverbs 17:4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips,

    and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

    Wickedness, mischief, speaking evil – all connected.

    We owe our souls to the master of lies when we are unwilling to face the truth of God.  We tell lies first to our SELF – lies from Satan. Then we lie to others to cover our evil tracks.

    Lies poison our relationships with others.  Liars willingly listen to other liars, accepting lies as truth.

    Why would a ‘friend,’ a family member or a loved one lie for you?   What truth visible to God would they hide?

    Consider the evil motives of a liar:

    “If someone is willing to lie for you, they are also willing to lie to you.

    Men with miserable lives will even die for a lie they willingly believe — (reward of evil: virgins for them in heaven). These same religious leaders who cover women from head to toe on earth will lead their fellow sinners to death for the lie of a false prophet.

    Religious leaders lead followers toward worship of a virgin while claiming chastity to God and hiding unrighteousness with a lie for a friend. Church Bishops have even built homes for mistresses and lovers even in medieval times.

    Wickedness, built on lies – even to the highest levels of religious leadership at times and in all faiths over the millenia.

    Jesus had to confront this in the Pharisees of the Temple – evil and wicked men with motives to hold onto their power and evil even in face of opposing God. They brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus to test him.  They did not bring the man to stone. (Perhaps he was a religious leader.)

    Then the Pharisees accused Jesus of being born out of a relationship of unrighteousness, in essence saying: “Your mother was no virgin.”

    Of course the lie in this is not the issue. The point is Who they confront with all of their lies to hold onto their power:

    Jesus IS Son of Man, Son of God – Jesus IS truth.

    Part of the Talmud is a lie. The Book of Mormon is a lie. The Bible of the Jehovah Witness is a lie (full of incomplete and deliberately mistranslated Scripture). And of course the writings of the false prophet of Arabia are a lie.

    The atheist is both a liar and a contradiction. How can you be ‘against’ a God you do not believe in? Yet justification of SELF and the evil without accountability require much effort and energy of the atheist, the agnostic, and worshipers of creation in place of the Creator. NO God = NO hell (the same false lie and false hope of the idolatrous religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and others).

    Again from Proverbs – the caution from the Bible:

    Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God proves true;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

    Do not add to his words,
    lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

    To be clear (for those who refuse to listen to God’s truth), definition  for ‘rebuke’ from the Hebrew word:

    yakach – [“He will reprove” KJV] – to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right

    God will judge your lie.  Consider the description of Hell, liar.

    John 8:

    23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

    25 So they said to him, “Who are you?”

    Jesus said to them,“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning…

    The Truth Will Set You Free

    31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

    You Are of Your Father the Devil

    44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me…

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    Are you so bold as to stand up to the liars of this world for the Truth?

    Proverbs 8:

    6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right,
    7 for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
    8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
    9 They are all straight to him who understands,
    and right to those who find knowledge.

    Jeremiah 5:3

    O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
    You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
    you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
    They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

    John 14;

    I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

    14 “Let not your hearts be troubled.

    Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

    … “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

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