Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Jesus

  • 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…

  • Prayer Warrior?

    Prayer Warrior?

    NO! I am no prayer warrior. So what did I do? I doubled the size of my prayer list.

    I identify with Simon Peter.

    … he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” – Luke 5:8b

    I understand the great remorse and unworthiness expressed by Saul of Tarsus found in Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth:

    For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 1 Corinthians 15:9

    He is the same Apostle who instructs the church at Thessaloniki: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. – 1 Th 5

    and

    25 Brothers, pray for us.

    No. I am no ‘prayer warrior.’ Look at my life and see how ineffective my many fervent prayers have been in the lives of those I love most, even in my own family, even in our marriage bed. God’s great silence seems more than, ‘Not yet.’ Job’s call of ‘answer me’ seems unheeded in my life. Though I await the storm clouds billowing and the Voice of Righteousness to ask me, ‘Who are you to ask this prayer of me again and again and again?!’ – though I cower beneath the broom tree and hide in the press of life’s defeats, I pray. I pray for these and I pray for me.

    And I will pray for you.

    prayer requestJust ‘Comment‘ and ask.

    (I read & moderate all Comments.  If you prefer not to post publicly, just begin your comment & prayer request, ‘Private.’ )

    – Roger Harned, author & site administrator

    To be continued… 

  • Your ATTN: required

    Your ATTN: required

    20 Jan, 2015, In the US, President Obama, the most powerful man in this world, gave the President’s annual State of the Union address to the US congress and a worldwide audience. (I have neither heard it nor previewed it, but rest assured his priorities are not mine or yours.)

    1 January, 2015, You were likely one of millions to make at least one or a list of New Year’s resolutions. (You’ve had three weeks. How are you doing with that?)

    10 July, 2007, We were on our honeymoon in beautiful St. Lucia. I wanted to establish some important priorities for our new marriage, concepts borrowed from “The 7 Habits of Highly Organized People” by Steven Covey, from which the graphic for this post is taken. My bride was recuperating from another chemo-therapy treatment (not your usual honeymoon activity) and wanted nothing to do with it. I trashed the book.

    Plan all you want; some things are important and some are not.

    Some events become urgent, most do not.

    As a good manager of my life I want to always plan for the important things and important people of my future.

    As the poor manager of my time and relationships (as all-to-frequently I am), I gravitate from the important to the unimportant (as Covey warns) and neglect the inevitable importance of those life events and people which will surly come without warning. (No, I still have not updated my will… for instance.)

    And who would ever think to plan so poorly to have a honeymoon right after a cancer treatment. My urgency and reasons failed to stand in the importance of time.

    I have led a successful and fruitful life in past times in more than one career. (I cannot claim that in this particular fleeting moment of eternal time).

    A man like me (perhaps like you) came to Jesus right when he was on top.

    What can you do for my portfolio, Jesus? Does your new mega-church need some money? I know you have the power here.

    Can you help me out here? What can you do for me?  (Everybody wants me to be part of their church boards and leadership, you know.) How can I help you, Jesus? I know you could do just this one thing for me, please.

    Now you may claim to have never seen this man in the Gospel and that he never said that. Yet look closer to this familiar story (remembering how rich almost ALL Americans and Europeans are (along with a select, exclusive group of the rich in nearly every country throughout the world).

    Consider that you are the RICH man coming up to Jesus. Later we will reconsider our priorities: their urgency and their importance.

    Luke 12:

    The Parable of the Rich Fool

    13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

    14 But he [Jesus] said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”

    Now this is NOT the answer we rich women and rich men expect as an answer from Jesus, is it?

    My father is currently blessed with long life. He is 91. My mother went to be with the Lord in 2007. I have three siblings. (As I mentioned, I have not even updated my own will. {Shame on me..}) For me, this scenario of the rich man could well take place at anytime in the next decade. So easily could I come to Jesus and ask Him to be an arbitrator over my inheritance of earthly riches.

    I’ve had some tough times the past few years… been taken advantage of… lost much. (Nobody bailed me out. No one replaced my income or market losses.) I once had extra storage and extra accounts for all my wealth! But not now.

    Can Jesus help me?

    Listen to our Lord’s reply:

    15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying,

    “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

    19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’

    “Eat, drink and be merry.” You have heard it quoted back to you out of context that this is straight from the Bible from the teaching of Jesus.

    But the rest of the expression, “for tomorrow you die,” though true, is not the application of Jesus’ teaching.

    20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

    “God said to him, ‘Fool!’

    Jesus is not warning us to party now, because one day you will die (and it could be as soon as tomorrow). He is not telling the man not to save some of his wealth, either. Jesus is telling the man that he is saving up for the wrong priorities and possibly a wrong day (of his life) for which he is planning, but does not expect.

    Do Not Be Anxious

    22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.

    Jesus does not tell the man not to plan his barns. Jesus does not tell the man not to save his money for a future need. Jesus does not even tell the man to give some money to his church so that God will bless him. What a ludicrous call to an offering; but it is so often the hope of the rich man who wants and covets even more. (I’ll listen to this preacher and give him a little, because he promises that God will give me even more if I give to his church.)

    What was important to Jesus, then? What did Jesus think the rich man should plan. What does Jesus think you should plan? For after all, tomorrow may be the day your soul is required of you.

    Eternity is a long time. How close our entrance into the rest before judgment! By comparison even to the urgency of life’s every day trials and the importance of this mortal life’s focus on a lifetime; how near we stand each God-given day to the treasure of heaven, or how near we teeter toward the precipice of sin’s backsliding into a long punishment of Hell!

    Does God say to you, “Fool!?”

    Do you think that any investment of your time and money will keep the steep cliff of sin upon which you stand from the collapse of landsliding time? Do you have any hope of surviving the fall without the Savior of the fallen to lift you toward light?

    Jesus Christ has promised us an inheritance in heaven. He has guaranteed our reward by His sacrifice for our sins – and these are many – on the bloody Cross.

    Focus on your eternal future. Manage your earthly time and money. Invest in Christ’s righteousness. This, of course, in addition to worshiping God and giving some of your time and money to the church, means that like Christ Jesus, our Lord (so we claim), we must always love God, always love people (and so many of us are so hard to love – really).

    Do not be deceived by your dreams and desires for a bigger barn on earth. Do not be swayed to avoid the thought that you are mortal and a God-appointed day for the end of this life awaits you.

    Do you think its enough to spend a little time and a pittance of pocket change at church once a week? Is that your storage barn of heaven?

    Let us plan for eternal life by our investment in our daily life. Let it be for Christ Jesus, who sacrificed everything for you and for me.

    Jesus paid the price for your soul. Yet if you do not follow Him as lord of your life, you will not have the ransom for your soul, required to pay for your sin.

    Dearly beloved, mortal sister, mortal brother of this failing flesh: please do not be the rich fool. Repent! Turn back to bow down to Jesus as your Lord, our only Saviour, while it is yet today.

    For all we know, tomorrow! – your soul may be required of you.