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Tag: John

Shiloh IS Come
… until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

לֹֽא־יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִֽיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּֽי־יָבֹא שֶׂילה וְלֹו יִקְּהַת עַמִּֽים׃
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Genesis 49:10 WLC; KJV

Centuries have passed since Jerusalem fell, was rebuilt and recaptured. Not only have we no peace, but live as a captive people in our own land. And no Prophet has spoken since the days of old. Shiloh, come Shiloh; LORD send peace to the people of your covenant.

The LORD has answered our prayer

O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
Jeremiah 17:13 KJV – 6th c.B.C.

Isaiah tells us:

Again the Lord spoke to me further, saying, “Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah…”

and that the Lord will cleanse the land by the ‘strong and abundant waters’ of Judah’s powerful enemy.

If only you had paid attention to my commands.

Then your peace would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. – Isaiah 48:18 CSB

Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah

The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Kol-Hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofing it over and putting its doors and bolts and bars in place. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, by the King’s Garden, as far as the steps going down from the City of David.
Nehemiah 3:15 NIV – 4th c.B.C.

“Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. – Daniel 9:17

In the Beginning

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. – John 1:1-2 NKJV

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2 NKJV

6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”

9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:26a-27 NASB

Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
Genesis 2:10 NKJV

WE Have Been Here Before

In our lead up to Christmas I have pointed to the Trinity and eternity of the Lord God. One way to think of an eternal Jesus is as the Son of Man in a Manger,

A Child is Born

For thus saith the LORD,
Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream…
Isaiah 66:12a NKJV

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid… “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” – The Good News of Luke 2:9,12 NKJV

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, toward men of goodwill!
Luke 2:13-14 NKJV *textral translation

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” – The Good News of Matthew 1:21 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 CSB

Living Water

Give me a drink.
request of Jesus to a woman at Jacob’s well – John 4:7

Jesus asks you one thing, so do you do it?

(This is the same Jesus born in a manger just thirty years earlier and the same Jesus who was ‘with God in the beginning.’)

OR do you question the Lord?

9 “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”

Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water.”
The Gospel of John 4:10 CSB

You encounter a sinless Son of Man – Jesus – in a manger, on a Cross or along the road of life. Will you ask Him for living water?

Jesus walked on water and He calmed the waters of the stormy sea.

The Lord created, gave life to dust and walked Personally alongside the faithful. He IS the source of the spring of Eden, the river of life and the pool of peace in Jerusalem.

Shiloh or Siloam flows from Him and to Him. He IS the way of salvation to the living water.

The Pool of Siloam

John 9

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth…

7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent).

The Lord touched you and commands, “Go” (do this or that). Will you obey? OR Do you question Jesus?

The religious elite questioned Him, but the blind man obeyed.

“Do you believe in the Son of God?”

36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”

37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.”

38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.

And Jesus said,
“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”
John 9:39 NKJV

Sent to the World – Shiloh in a Manger

“Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. – The Good News of the Gentile Physician Luke 2:11

Thirty some years later He returns to Jerusalem – the Lamb of God in the Person of Jesus.

Luke 19:

Now he came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:

Blessed is the King who comes

in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven

and glory in the highest heaven!

“Wasn’t it necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory? ”
Luke 24:26

Of course it was.

We worship the Christ of the manger of Christmas because of the Lamb of God sent to the Cross for our sins.

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.
John 14:27 CSB
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May the Lord bless your worship of Jesus, 
our gift of Shiloh this CHRISTmas.
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December 25, 2019
WE Have Been Here Before – in Awe of JESUS
We show no awe of Jesus in our no-salt ‘christian’ lives. Oh, perhaps in a stanza of singing, a sentence of sermon or a moment of compassion in our encounter with another; but for the most part we Christians fail to show any awe of Jesus in our worship or daily lives.

Our church and yours will most likely witness the “aahhh” of a baby born in Bethlehem directed for our children. Ah, not awe — the small sprinkling of Christ for the community, rather than Spirit led worship of the Christ who still lives.

AWE!

The forgotten awe of the Lord God witnessed in the past becomes the superstition of today’s disbelief.

When we read of the awe of Jesus we quickly overlook it. How easily we miss a personal awe of the Lord.

So just for a moment put yourself in the sandals of some witnesses we missed in Jesus’ introduction. (For the Gospel shows us much more than the ‘ah’ of a babe in a manger.)

The Gospel of Matthew

1:20b … an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream… 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him.

Note: Maji: Matthew 2:1 A caste of wise men specializing in astronomy, astrology, and natural science

2:2 “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.

The Gospel Mark

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

The Good News (εὐαγγέλιον) of Luke

1:8 … he was serving as priest before God… 11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified and overcome with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah…

26 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David…

2:9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid…

13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
Luke 2:14 NASB – Strong’s G2107 – eudokia Blueletterbible.org

33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.

Does Jesus still amaze you after hearing HIS STORY each year?

Do you hear the awe in these witnesses of Christ? And like them do hold HIM in awe as well?

34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—

Prophecy – Simeon recalls and applies prophecy of the Messiah to Jesus, the Son of Man born in a manger in Bethlehem.

The Gospel of John

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.
John 1:2 KJV of Christ Jesus ‘this one, visibly present here

The Lamb of God in a manger

The Lamb of God

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’

John the Baptist was in awe of Jesus. Are you?

51 And He said to him [Nathanael], “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Awesome! Truly, the Gospel records many instances of awe connected to Christ Jesus.

What is Awe?

φόβος – phobos

You know the greek root and its connection to fear, dread, terror and that which strikes terror.

Yet we marginalize our phobias even of miracles. And awe in this sense startles our sense of the natural. For our human understanding must be finite and understanding of the infinite baffles us.

We mention the fear of the shepherds who witnessed the awe of angels at Jesus’ birth. Yet seldom will we note the supernatural motivations for the multitudes of followers who subsequently had to see and hear the Messiah Jesus.

In just one scene here in Nain, imagine yourself as part of the crowd gathered for the funeral of this man. Jesus, of whom you have heard, walks up and touches the coffin.

“Young man, I say to you, arise!”
The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Fear gripped them all, and they began glorifying God, saying,
“A great prophet has arisen among us!” and,
“God has visited His people!”
Luke 7:14-16

Luke further records witness of the first century church.

Everyone kept feeling a sense G5401 of awe; G5401 and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.
Acts of the Apostles 2:43 – awe = Literally: fear was occurring to every soul

Fear as Consequence of Awe

We frequently live in fear during this brief mortal journey of our life.

Do we fear man and circumstance or the Lord?

Therefore here this one example of awe from the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] as wisdom for our fear.

33:8 יִֽירְאוּ מֵיְהוָה כָּל־הָאָרֶץ מִמֶּנּוּ יָגוּרוּ כָּל־יֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵֽל׃
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
Psalm 33:8 Masoretic Text; NASB
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To be continued...
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December 15, 2019
The Tongue is a Fire! – Religion
The Fire of the Tongue, the Rhetoric of Politics and Religion

In our previous look at public controversy in the media we began with the clash of politics, mentioning the trial of Socrates in 399 B.C. Today we begin coverage of the clashes of religion and the church with everyday culture.

For, “THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS,
MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT.
First Letter of Peter to the Church 3:10 NASB

Without digging a hole into some serious divisions of the church in our brief look at this opening quote of the Apostle Peter to the church, let me just remind us:

Political parties and the church are all gatherings of disagreeable people more or less united in one thing.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Can you think of an application for followers of Christ in current election rhetoric for the (U.S.) election year to come?

The church (saints or people) of this day and the past are all like you, like me and just like every candidate of every party in every country on earth. We are ALL SINNERS.

Therefore, regardless of our politics of the moment or religion of the past, we all speak and do evil.

The Tongue of the ‘Christian’

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
Caution of Christ – Matthew 5:22 NASB

Jesus Christ asks the crowds to examine our own hearts. So before we get to the controversy of Christ, let’s work back from Peter’s last point in this one verse [1 Peter 3:10] instructing “Christians.”

Peter asks or suggests to followers of Jesus:
1. If you desire LIFE, what is life?
2. Do you desire LOVE, what kind of love?
3. So you want to SEE GOOD DAYS, what path do you seek?
4. Do you KEEP YOUR TONGUE FROM EVIL?
5. Would others find you guilty of SPEAKING DECEIT because you have fooled yourself?
Do you speak foolishness in angry answers to others – your loved ones, those you work or worship with, a politician inciting opposition?

How can you judge their speech when you do not even judge your own?

The root meaning of deceit here is to decoy. In other words, deceive another by your words. Of course no politician would do that!

But Jesus speaks to those who want to speak truth. When we do not, like the politicians and leaders of cultural religion we also become hypocrites, as are our accusers.

Hypocrites
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Their audience is US.
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ὑποκριτής, ὑποκριτου, ὁ (ὑποκρίνομαι, which see);
1. one who answers, an interpreter (Plato, Lucian).
2. an actor, stage-player (Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Aelian, Herodian).
3. in Biblical Greek, a dissembler, pretender, hypocrite:
Followers of Christ must look in the mirror first.

If you catch yourself speaking deceit you had best shut your mouth and seal your lips. (Nevermind the hypocrisy of your opponent, just find the beam in your own eye and fire of your own tongue.)

The tongue of Evil

The tongue of evil could be our own!

Paul writes to church of the Romans:

as it is written,
“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
Romans 3:13

He continues in speaking of Jews and Hellenistic culturists (Greeks):

THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.

“THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”
“THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;

“WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”…

“THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Could this be a political treatise against Christians, Jews, Muslims, and ANY claiming God without love on their lips even in this day?

Like Peter, Paul also shows why politics and religion mix in a murky cloud of hypocrisy.

How do you seek GOOD DAYS?

What is the platform of your faith? Your religion? Traditions? Good deeds?

Your works of goodness certainly can not sway the politics of a fallen world or misled nation.

Do you seek an honest path to righteousness? It would be a religion of works and false morality, a religion of philanthropic leading in your own ideals.

… and I’m NOT going to take it anymore!

Do any recall our ‘must elect my candidate’ arguments of religion for the 2016 election?

How will you, being evil, do good for anyone?

My fellow Christians, is your witness for the Gospel of Christ?

Or is your shout to the crowds that you’re mad as hell as if Christ would be swayed by the fire of your tongue?

Perhaps your opponents think that you feign madness before the media.

What good is your shouting into the whirlwind? For the fire of your words fails to witness the compassion of our Lord Christ Jesus.

Mere religion and righteousness never equate.

Love of words or love of the Word?

Here’s a question for so-called ‘christians’ embroiled in the politics of the day: Do you have a love of words or love of the Word?

Surely the politician loves the stage of the world. Certainly the media twists words meant to incite supporters into indictments of political opponents.

Satan works no differently than the internet in spreading false accusation of the believer; for Christ is the only Word of love who can save the sinner.

The Apostle John instructs the church:

Do not love G25 the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves G25 the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15 NASB – Strong’s G25 ἀγαπάω agapaō

Life – ζωή – zōē

Life’s meaning described by Peter is:
1. life
  1. the state of one who is possessed of vitality or is animate
  2. every living soul
2. life
  1. of the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic “logos” and to Christ in whom the “logos” put on human nature
  2. life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.
Peter points not only forward to Christ, but by scripture back to David, a man after God’s own heart.

Religion questions God.

May I add that the politics of the world deny God’s saving grace. By our knowledge of good and evil we lost the fruit of the tree of life in Eden. Mankind spoiled God’s paradise by disobedient sin.

Psalm 34: A Psalm of David

when he feigned madness before Abimelech, who drove him away and he departed.

David looks back at these dark days and praises the LORD.

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Psalm 34:1

9 O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.

13 Keep your tongue from evil
And your lips from speaking deceit.

14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.

From advice for the saints of the Lord, David proceeds to the justice and redemption of the faithful.

21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

The Fire of the Tongue, the Politics of Jesus

Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
John 18:14 NKJV

Jesus against religion

John 2:

14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

John 8:

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

54 Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55 Though you do not know him, I know him.

58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” 59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

a Word of witness to followers of false religion

Jesus answered him,
“I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.
John 18:20 NASB

Jesus continues:

“Why do you question Me? Question those who have heard what I spoke to them; they know what I said.”

Truth has witnesses; yet how do unrighteous leaders of religion react?

When He had said this, one of the officers standing nearby struck Jesus, saying, “Is that the way You answer the high priest?”

Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify of the wrong; but if rightly, why do you strike Me?”

So Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Political reaction to Righteousness

Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
John 18:38; 19:15b NASB

Righteous reaction to the Political

Mark 12:

Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we pay or shall we not pay?”

But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them,

“Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.”

¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Is Politics your Religion OR Religion your Politics?

Psalm 2:

The Messiah’s Triumph and Kingdom

Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the Lord and against His Anointed saying,
3 “Let us break Their bonds in pieces
And cast away Their cords from us.”

Christ Jesus, the Messiah of the Lord God, warned of our anger against God.

⁷אֲסַפְּרָ֗ה אֶֽ֫ל חֹ֥ק יְֽהוָ֗ה אָמַ֘ר אֵלַ֥י בְּנִ֥י אַ֑תָּה אֲ֝נִ֗י הַיּ֥וֹם יְלִדְתִּֽיךָ׃

⁸שְׁאַ֤ל מִמֶּ֗נִּי וְאֶתְּנָ֣ה ג֭וֹיִם נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ וַ֝אֲחֻזָּתְךָ֗ אַפְסֵי־אָֽרֶץ׃

10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings;
Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry,
And you perish in the way,
When His wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
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To be continued...
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November 9, 2019