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Tag: Jesus

  • Redeeming the time because the days are evil – 2

    Redeeming the time because the days are evil – 2

    Do you know that God has enemies – many enemies? You don’t have to focus on a few evil men in a place far away; just look all around you.

    Mention ‘Jesus Christ’ at work, in school, in homes of your relatives; even in your own home you and your wife claim as ‘the Lords.’  See what happens. You do not need the imagery of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Washington D.C. or any other men in any other place to know that God and Christ Jesus have many enemies in the world – far and near – who would do evil and not good.

    In fact, look deeply into the mirror of your heart and know that you are deceived into thinking you are better than others; you think that because you are not as evil as these men… as these others, that therefore, you are good. But you are not. I am not.

    Jeremiah 17:9 ESV The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

    You do not have to be the Messiah of God to know this. Men are evil and not good.

    Much of our traditional preaching has made a bigger deal that the young man with the big question for Jesus is rich – as are almost all Americans and many others. However, note that prior to answering the man’s question, Jesus goes to the man’s motivation for coming to kneel before Him (in worship) and asking Him our burning question about eternal life. (How can I have eternal life?)

    Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.

    You know it is true. The man had to choose sacrifice before redemption. Yet he would not sacrifice his riches, as many a poor man will not sacrifice his pride.

    We often will not even bow down to Jesus (as did this rich young ruler), let alone obey His teachings.

    You know the Commandments, Jesus said. Yes we do (as well); yet God knows our deceitful hearts.

    Forget your “morality” for others. Forget your “morality” for any other. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in a Biblical standard of good and evil? You need look no further than your own heart. I need look no further than mine. And Jesus asks us, “Why do you call me good?”

    A mere man – a mortal man – looks at some small act or a few fine things you have done because you know that it is what Jesus would have you do as witness. And they say, “You are a good man.” (Or you are a good woman.”) You beam in the compliment, say nothing, think that you have witnessed for Christ; but you are deceived in your heart. I have done it.

    Yet we should have reacted not out of our pride, but as Paul often taught in the humility of Christ Jesus; for he confesses publicly in his letter to the Romans:

    Romans 7:18-19 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

    The church – all the saints of Christ Jesus – sinners! Yet redeemed sinners, only in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    I am a sinner. You are a sinner. Yet in addition to redemption in Christ, we have one thing more:

    By the Holy Spirit of God we desire what is good. By the Holy Spirit of God we hate all that is evil, especially that which is evil within us.

    “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.”  Yet first, preach the Gospel to your own heart.

    IF (for a moment) you have turned off the media and message of the world and tuned in to the headlines of the Holy Spirit through scripture and the Good News for your own heart, then you will truly see that ALL are sinners just like you and me – sinners in need of Christ Jesus.

    Paul writes to the Christians at Rome (not to the evil and wicked men and wicked men of the worldly culture that surrounded them; for these flesh-loving Romans were no more wicked than you and I would easily be lured by the social media of their day):

    Ephesians 5:

    8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.

    15 See then that you walk circumspectly…

    It means to look around you as you walk as an obedient follower of Christ Jesus in this evil world. Use your peripheral vision, so to speak, as you walk on the narrow path to pass through the narrow gate of eternity. Walk perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect; walk diligently in your resolve to do what is right in the Lord.

    not as fools, but as wise…

    Oh, how many christian fools we have seen! and how oft have we been the christian fool!

    Yet do not do it. Be wise as serpents, innocent as doves.

    I do not want to be a fool. Do you? I do not want do be a fool especially when I know that others witness my walk in this world as a bold witness of Christ (when the Lord fills me with His boldness). I do not want to have them say of me, or of my Christian wife, or of my Christian children, “See, that Christian is just like everybody else.” See how he sins just like me. What difference does Jesus Christ make?”

    Therefore, be wise, dearly beloved brother – dearly beloved sister in the Lord.

    16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

    How do I redeem my time?

    How Christians have sadly forgotten that Jesus is our Redeemer, because our hearts have hidden from us the truth of our continued sinfulness. We do claim that slavery is a thing of the past, when slavery lives lavishly in the wickedness of these last days. We have repressed the thought that we must pay for the very slavery of our sinful flesh (if we do not accept Jesus as our Lord and Master, our Redeemer and our King.

    Yes, we must bow down to a King! And how we relish our freedom, though we are chained by the flesh to our sins.

    Pray deeply on the meaning of the word of scripture translated here as ‘redeeming.’

    exagorazō – to redeem – by payment of a price to recover from the power of another, to ransom, buy off

    So many souls kidnapped by Satan! even ‘christian’ souls.

    Will you forfeit Christ’s ransom by your turning from the narrow path to eternal life? Would you have the Lord declare in tears of you, “I never knew you?”

    O, sinful redeemed one, look circumspectly about you at a world which would lure each and every Christian from Light of Salvation and the wisdom that begins with the Lord.

    How do you redeem the time – your remaining days of this mortal life? (For each day and each soul is precious in the eyes of our loving Lord.)

    This, too, is in the definition:

    … make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own.

    Tune back in; see so many lost souls (in your circumspect, peripheral vision) and you will readily see that the days are evil. The days, especially these last days, are very evil; for men are evil and not good. Only God is good, however these days in which we witness for Christ Jesus are indeed evil.

    These days are evil – ponēros – full of labours, annoyances, hardships; bringing toils, annoyances, perils; of a time full of peril to Christian faith and steadfastness; causing pain and trouble. The root word for this evil you may not know, but you will recognize its condition: ponos – 

    1. great trouble, intense desire
    2. pain

    The persecution of Christians and the diminishing of Christ in places once held for Christ has begun and increases.

    Jesus Christ is enemy of the world, yet friend of sinners – sinners like you, sinners like some yet to be won from false gods, false prophets, false spirits, false teachings, false hatred and deceitful love of the things of this world and not the love of God the Father. And I might add, lest the deceitfulness of our hearts hold up our witness for Christ as false: sinners like me.

    All are redeemed in the blood of Christ Jesus, not the blood of those opposed to God. (God will can fend for His own righteousness.)

    God will judge on the last day. God will not reward your flesh with the fruit of the flesh, but your soul for the fruit of your righteousness in the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ is the only redemption sufficient for this sinful soul.

    See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

    • Do you seek to know what the will of the Lord is in your life?
    • Do you look for the Lord’s will in your Bible?
    • Do you seek Him in prayer?

    The Lord’s will is that you would give up your love for the things of this world. Lay down all your earthly cares and belongings before your King.

    For Christ, by His redeeming love for the world, did sacrifice His very flesh and did suffer greatly the price of your punishment for sin – the punishment deserved by me and by you. He has born our sins and paid the full price: redemption for our mortal time, yet resurrection for our now immortal souls.

    In Christ Jesus we have faith and hope and love, but the greatest of these is love; therefore redeem your measured days in His love, because the days are evil.

    May our Lord, Jesus Christ, hold you near and guide your path in the Light of His righteousness.

    Please pray for me, for my wife and for our children.

    Amen.

     

  • Redeeming the time because the days are evil

    Redeeming the time because the days are evil

    Ephesians 5

    15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

    17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

    Turn off the noise and media and message of the world (for a moment). Forget about the weather, a few people with threatening disease, the lottery, your sports team and all the commercials that tell you how sick you are (but they will sell you a cure), how we have something to make you feel younger, healthier, sexier, richer and more important…

    Forget (for a moment) all of the song lyrics and TV imagery of appeal to your lustful flesh for the purchase of the world as they would like you to see it.

    Forget (for a moment) that you have to get up, go to work, make money, buy groceries, get gasoline and find some way to pay for other essentials.

    Forget (for a moment) that you haven’t quite figured out why your loved ones act toward you and others and toward God on a daily basis differently than what you have taught and in some most un-Christlike and hurtful ways.

    Do not worry about these things (for a moment) and consider this story of Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer:

    Mark 10:17 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

    Consider the man’s request. The man ran up to Jesus, knelt before Him as an act of humility and respect. (Some of us should learn from his example of respect to Jesus, the man we claim as our teacher).

    The man asks a question to which we all want to know the answer (if we truly believe in the resurrection).  Our thoughts may proceed quickly something like this:

    You either die and that is all there is – your body and soul (if you have one) will perish. OR At the end of our bodily life, some other life for our soul remains.

    I do NOT want my soul to die. I may want this life to end. I may want to make this life better. But then what?

    And to Jesus, as the rich young ruler might think: You teach that I have a choice; at least, that is, until my God-appointed day do die, as all men will. And then what?

    Is there a way I can buy or earn this eternal life now?

    Admit it. You want something better, don’t you; and we all would like that ‘better life’ to last forever.

    Are the eternal hopes of the rich young ruler any different from your own?

     to be continued…

     

  • Personal Witness of a Personal Love

    Personal Witness of a Personal Love

    Luke 10:23 Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

    Isaiah 53

    Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

    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. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

    Who IS Jesus Christ?

    And what is the witness of His divinity?

    Note that I ask, ‘Who IS Jesus Christ,’ not, ‘who was Jesus Christ.’

    For if Jesus Christ is not divine – if Jesus Christ is not God; then Jesus was and is not; for the son of man was not and is not the Christ – God with us. If Jesus is not the Christ, then the gospel is not true witness and our faith would be in vain (as states Paul in 1 Corinthians 15).

    Yet again, as Paul did witness, as the Apostles did witness, as John the Baptist did witness, as Jesus’ mother and brothers did witness, as many were witness to the resurrection of Christ Jesus: He IS Divine – Jesus, with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit IS GOD! This is our witness of the gospel of grace for those who will believe.

    Where were you three years ago (in 2011)?

    Were you walking near to the life of a loved one? Were you involved in the daily life – the comings and goings of one so dear that you knew nearly their every action, most of what they said and understood much of what they thought? Were you – three years ago and for these past three years – that near to your beloved, a man or woman of this flesh? Were you near to their soul? Are you joined in your purpose and understanding even now to do what they would have you do?

    And where are you now (on this day in the year of our Lord, 2014)?

    Have you remained faithful in your relationship and love to your beloved? to your husband (or wife)? to your children? to your brothers and sisters in the Lord?

    I would venture to say that you have NOT been as near to any soul, to any of flesh and blood, as was the John the Disciple to Jesus. (And may we be convicted by the Spirit for our neglect of the love of those nearest to us in Christ Jesus.)

    This was the intimacy of John, Peter and the Disciples of Jesus: they lived with the Man, they ate with Him, they traveled with Him, they listened to His teachings in public, they listened to His instructions in private, they witnessed His miracles in public and they witnessed His Power in private.

    It is with this intimacy and understanding of the risen Christ and the Incarnate Son of Man that John the Apostle witnessed Jesus by his Gospel, his letters and his Revelation of Jesus Christ.

    Jesus was, IS, and is to come – GOD!

    AND God is love.

    How can we, a mortal man (or woman), a soul surrounded by flesh and bone and a mind finite in understanding, grasp the fullness of the love of Christ Jesus?

    Indeed, we cannot; but must know the Lord by humility and faith. We must believe by faith the many witnesses of God in the flesh.

    The witness of John the Apostle in his first letter [KJV]:

     That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

    2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

    3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

    NO faithful Jew speaks lightly of GOD – of ‘That which was from the beginning.’ John makes a remarkable statement about God here:

    ‘That’ which WAS FROM THE BEGINNING (Only GOD IS from the beginning), we have heard and we have seen with our eyes.

    We have touched GOD! And He has embraced us!

    How near may a man stand to God? How near dare a mortal come to the Immortal?

    John is witness that God, in the Person of Christ Jesus, came near to us – near to him. Is it any wonder that John’s witness is: God is love?

    John comforts us, “our hands have handled … the Word of life.”

    Following the resurrection, the Holy Spirit was witness to John and the disciples of the divinity and power of Jesus. Following these letters of John the risen Christ is once more witness to John on Patmos (after the other Apostles have been martyred for Christ). Yet prior to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, GOD the Father gives witness to the Son in the presence of John.

     Matthew 17

    And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light…

    5 He [Peter] was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

    6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.”

    We may also be familiar with the witness of God the Father at the witness of Jesus’ baptism by John. We are perhaps less familiar of the following witness of God the Father to Jesus Christ the Son, near the completion of Jesus’ three year ministry on earth.

    John 12

    Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead…

    9 When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead…

    12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord…

    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’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.”

    Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

    29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”

    30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

    John, the Beloved Disciple, is witness to the love and glory of Christ Jesus. John says of his Holy friend:

    1 John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

    John held the hand of God, in Christ Jesus. John lay upon the breast of our Lord Jesus, hearing the beating of His mortal heart. John beheld the holes of the nails of the cross in the flesh of the hands of the risen Christ Jesus. John is witness that God is love and in Him is no darkness at all.

    John 13:23 KJV Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

    John’s Gospel and witness and Revelation reveal the light and life and truth of God in Christ Jesus, that only in Him is light and life. He IS the living water. He IS the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

    Only in Him will you have eternal life. Only in Christ Jesus will you have the fellowship of love. Only if by faith you follow and witness by His love: Jesus IS Lord, will you have any life and hope and love for your soul – in this life and that which is to come, which we cannot understand, except by faith in Jesus Christ.

    May our Lord draw you into His arms of love and light and life.

    Amen.