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Tag: John

  • My Love – 4 – a Love Feast

    My Love – 4 – a Love Feast

    “There is a love of God inexplicable, except by our inclusion in His love feast.

    This love of God is to be sought and treasured, though none can earn this highest of all loves. It is the upward call well-known to the world, yet rejected by the worldly.

    John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

    God gave us Jesus Christ! His love is sacrifice for our sins – and we are ALL sinners.

    Agape – (pronounced: ag’-a-pe) The name Agape or “love-feast,” as an expression denoting the brotherly common meals of the early church… 

    Agape is much more than this, common meals and communion being just one visible evidence of God’s love in the community of the church. This “agape love” appears throughout the New Testament, again the evidence of Christ Jesus in the life of Christians as part of the lives of believers:

    • affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love, charity and other Spirit-given practical application of the benefit of Christ in the lives of the body of believers, His church.

    Hear the caution of Jesus, you cautious or straying believer:

    But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

    – John 5:42

    Agape is the word for love Jesus uses here.

    Would you have this be our Lord’s judgment on you unless you repent? Jesus continues:

    How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? – John 5:44

    God is love; but each of us must accept God’s love and be part of the love feast of Christ’s overflowing love for us shared in His Blood of the Cross.

    C.S. Lewis addresses five loves: the first being our ‘liking and loves for the sub-human:’ animals, the beauty of nature, food and the like. The other four are human loves for humans.

    I have reordered Lewis’ treatment of The Four Loves. We have already spoken of friendship (between equal humans) and affection (between humans unequal in their relationship: parent and child). I have left Eros and specifically the love between a man and a woman (man & wife) until last. Lewis concludes his book with this highest and most important of loves: agape. I cannot focus our thought here on this love any better than Lewis.

    “For most of us the true rivalry lies between the self and the human Other, not yet between the human Other and God. It is dangerous to press upon a man the duty of getting beyond earthly love when his real difficulty lies in getting so far.”

    Love one another. A familiar challenge? Yet Lewis states the difficulty of us experiencing this highest love of God when we cannot get beyond loving others as God loves all of us.

    Lewis points to the moral of a story of St. Augustine after grieving over the death of a dear friend.

    “This is what comes, he says, of giving one’s heart to anything but God. All human beings pass away. Do not let your happiness depend on something you may lose. If love is to be a blessing, not a misery, it must be for the only Beloved who will never pass away. Of course this is excellent sense. Don’t put your goods in a leaky vessel. Don’t spend too much on a house you may be turned out of.”

    Do you believe, then, in God? Why would you not trust God with the love of your soul? God IS. Christ Jesus IS. Would you not also have your love last for ever?

    Lewis concludes “The Four Loves” as follows (after which I will have a little to add):

    “Perhaps, for many of us, all experience merely defines, so to speak, the shape of that gap where our love of God ought to be. It is not enough. It is something.

    If we cannot ‘practice the presence of God’ it is something to practice the absence of God, to become increasingly aware of our unawareness till we feel like men who should stand beside a great cataract and hear no noise, or like a man in a story who looks in a mirror and finds no face there, or a man in a dream who stretches out his hand to visible objects and gets no sensation of touch. To know that one is dreaming is to be no longer perfectly asleep. But for news of the fully waking world you must go to my betters.”

    Love & Charity – Connection between God & feast in His love

    John 15:9-11 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

    Abide in my love.

    10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

    11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

    Jesus commands: Abide in my love (agape).  Learn the application of living in this agape love of God by reading the linked definition and scriptures of ‘abide,’ a word falling from use in our temporal fleshly culture.

    The Greek word for love with which Jesus begins by saying the Father has it for Him and He has is for us is: agapaō. By definition: to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly. 

    WELCOME to the feast of GOD’S LOVE.

    We do NOT deserve an invitation. God loves Jesus. Jesus loves you. (This I know, for the Bible tells us so.) A message of love so simple and profound, yet so clearly unattainable by anyone lacking a trusting and child-like faith in Almighty God, our loving Heavenly Father.

    “IF, you keep Jesus’ Commandments” our Lord says.

    Do you keep and abide and live in the Commandments of Christ Jesus?

    In fact, it is agape love Jesus gives to the lawyer’s of “What is the greatest Commandment?”

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

    God loves. God provides the banquet of love.

    It is by the charity of God that we sinners saved have been invited into the joy and celebration of the love of God in Christ Jesus.

    Let us not forget to extend this love of God in Christ Jesus into our loves for all others in this brief life in the flesh and lasting joy of God’s eternal feast.

    And remembering the words of our Teacher to His learners (disciples) prior to the love feast by which He set His example and remembrance – communion:

    “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love [agapē] for one another.” – John 13:35

    O, the joy of LOVE awaiting us at the banquet table of heaven with our Lord and King, Christ Jesus!

     

  • Woe!

    Woe!

    Micah 7: 5 Put no trust in a neighbor;
    have no confidence in a friend;rings
    guard the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms

    8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
    when I fall, I shall rise;
    when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
    9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
    until he pleads my cause
    and executes judgment for me.
    He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall look upon his vindication.

    He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
    19 He will again have compassion on us;
    he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

    Matthew 10

    32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

    Not Peace, but a Sword

    34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

    Matthew 11:17 “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
    we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

    Woe to this generation as well! For our sin and neglect of the Lord’s household, the family of Christ Jesus, stand in witness against the Blood of the Cross. We betray the Betrothed to whom we have given our vows and solemn promise.

    Do NOT condone divorce, but call the adulteress to repent and sin no more.

    Division Among the People

    John 7: 40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?

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    Why are our faithless families, our faithless children, our faithless spouses not drawn to repentance? Why does the prodigal not desire to return to the Father’s house?

    It is because the Father’s love and Christ’s redemption do NOT overflow from the hesitant hearts of the church.

    Do not shun the faithful, but the faithless.

    Acts:4:31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

    Acts 4:32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

    33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

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    ALL, not ‘some,’ were filled with the Holy Spirit.

    Those who believed were of ‘one heart and soul.’ The Church was not divided in witness: some for Christ, yet others against by their witness.

    Believers were of one heart, filled with the spirit, filled to overflowing with the love of Christ Jesus. This is the witness of Christ to the world: that Christ Jesus is love, that Christians have the love of Christ for each other, even for those not of the church.

    WE, the church, are (or should be) the new and redeemed family of God.

    A New Commandment

    John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

    35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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    Are you, beloved of Christ, a disciple desiring to follow the commandment of the One you claim as ‘Lord?’

    Woe! to the church. Woe! to those who witness by divorce against the Bridegroom of faithfulness. Woe! to this generation of hardened hearts, who have forgotten the love of our Lord for his family.

    Woe! to those who claim the worship of cheap grace and the discordant noise of emotion from hearts easily deceived and broken but for a moment.

    2 Peter 1

    To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

    2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

    … make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,

    and virtue with knowledge,

    6 and knowledge with self-control,

    and self-control with steadfastness,

    and steadfastness with godliness,

    7 and godliness with brotherly affection,

    and brotherly affection with love.

    8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing,

    they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

     +

    Woe! to those who shun the faithful, condone the unfaithful and forget the love of Christ Jesus.

  • Light of Life

    Light of Life

    My wick was dry and lifeless

    Until I beheld Thy Light.

    Witness the touch of Christmas, the distant focused look at the burning bush of Christ Jesus through eyes drawn from darkness to the love of the Lord, which He has planted in our distant cold hearts.

    Come unto me and I will give you rest… God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…

    The world knows of the love of Jesus Christ. The world knows of the love of God our Heavenly Father. Even marginal christians know the price of the blood of sacrifice this ‘baby Jesus’ would make on the Cross. Yet many who have been called and many who would  claim in vain the Name of Christ Jesus do witness against the blood of the Cross by their adultery against the Bridegroom of the church, Christ Jesus.

    Our unfortunate corporate witness as christians shines no more than the darkness and apostasy of God’s chosen families in the days of Isaiah. We gaze upon the love of the babe in the manger and witness in our lives: no, I will love as I please, because I will not take up His Cross.

    How easily we fail in the Gospel message that GRACE comes only after REPENTANCE! A christian who continues to abide in the darkness is NO witness for Jesus Christ or inheritor of eternal life.

    Have we preached the Gospel from John that love of God and love of one another only comes after we turn from the darkness of our continual sin and touch the Light of Life in Christ Jesus?

    John 3:19

    And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

    Are your works evil, dear sister (brother) in the Lord?

    I met someone, you say. I have someone better, you say. Is this your witness for Jesus Christ?

    Adulterer! Adulteress & whore! The Church is Betrothed of Christ, even from the days before the manger.

    Which of the Prophets has not warned of the whoredom of Jezebel? Which of the Prophets has not seen godless men promising the love, lies and riches of the world?

    Say nothing of virgins and babes in a manger. Speak nothing of Christ Jesus. Say nothing of Christmas. You cannot love God and money. Repent!

    Rather love the Lord your God with all your heart. Return humbly to the house of the Lord and heart of Christ Jesus.

    Confess your sins before Almighty God and return to the husband of your vows; the One who loves you. Though you are unfaithful, remember the Blood of the full-measure of His suffering for you.

    Let the desire of your heart be for faithfulness. Remember your vows to the Lord and to your husband. Recall their unfailing love and persistent prayers for you.

    Are lying, licentiousness, adultery, premarital sex, divorce, drunkenness, desires for riches, living together in sin, abortions, cursing the Name of Jesus Christ and all these worldly things you claimed to repent of – are these wild vines of sin your witness for Jesus Christ this Christmas?

    God forbid!

    Many christians cling to those of the world and the sins they proclaim. Many christians claim the sins of darkness alongside their ‘witness’ for Jesus Christ. These neither love God with ALL their hearts or other Christians with the love of Christ!

    John 3:20

    For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

    This, of course, includes those who call themselves ‘christian,’ celebrate Christmas and boldly witness by their sin against Christ Jesus and the Blood of His Sacrifice.

    If you know the truth, yet refuse to turn back to the Light of Truth, you love the darkness of your sins.

    Let your Christmas gift be repentance.

    John 3:21

    But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

    Yes, even ‘christians’ have a choice. You will know them by their love. You will know them by their light. You will know them by their generosity.

    (Have YOU donated anything to any of the charities I have mentioned or other noble works for Christ this Christmas? {It’s not too late for that..}

    You will know them by their faithfulness, their truthfulness. You will know if a Christian is light at Christmas (and 365 days/year).

    John 8:12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

    May I say again Jesus’ words before we move with the scriptures of the Prophet Isaiah, who so accurately foresaw the coming of the Christ:

    Jesus said: ” Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12b

    Jesus was and IS that Light in a time of great darkness of the world. Christians joined to the Bridegroom of Life must abide in the Light of Christ Jesus… or surely the darkness will remain. Will the One you have called ‘Lord’ from whom you turn toward the darkness of your sins not say, “I never knew you?”

    If the Light of Christ Jesus once shown on you, why do you now turn your face from the fire of His holiness?

    Will you, unrepentant christian, now turn your dry wick into the arid darkness?

    Will your feet of flesh not crumble under the weight of your stone-cold heart, which was once touched by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ?

    Why does Isaiah speak of Light?

    When you see the lights of Christmas, remembering the birth pangs of a virgin pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God, remember a Son born of the flesh would die for our sins. Remember the 700 years of darkness from the days of Isaiah to this birth in a Manger. Consider the prophetic warnings for days of great darkness, even before the coming of the end of the age.

    Do you, dear virgins, have oil for your lamps? Does your witness prepare a light for the way of our returning Lord?

    Isaiah 5

    Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

    2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

    20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

    21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

    22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:

    23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

    30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

     Isaiah 7

    10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,

    11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.

    12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

    13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

    14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

    15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

    16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

     Isaiah 9:

    Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation… and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

    2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

    3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy:

    they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

    Do you; beloved brother in Christ, dear sister in Christ; have the JOY in the harvest of the love of CHRIST Jesus, this Christmas?

    JOY to the world. The LORD IS come. Emmanuel, God With Us. Christ, born son of man, son of Mary, son of God.

    6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

    7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

    Christmas – witness for Christ Jesus – is a choice of love… OR a choice of refusal of love (because of your love for the darkness of the world).

    Isaiah 9:13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.

    14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day…

    17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

    18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.

    19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

    Jesus speaks as Prophet of what is to come for true followers who know and abide in Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior:

    Matthew 10:22 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

    26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.

    Isaiah 53

    Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
    2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
    he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
    3 He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
    and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
    4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
    yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
    5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
    6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

    12c yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

     Isaiah 55

    6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
    7 let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
    let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
    8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
    9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

    Isaiah 56:1 Thus says the Lord:
    “Keep justice, and do righteousness,
    for soon my salvation will come,
    and my righteousness be revealed.

    Isaiah 57:

    11 Whom did you dread and fear,
    so that you lied,
    and did not remember me,
    did not lay it to heart?
    Have I not held my peace, even for a long time,
    and you do not fear me?
    12 I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,
    but they will not profit you.

    Isaiah 59

    Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
    or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
    2 but your iniquities have made a separation
    between you and your God,
    and your sins have hidden his face from you
    so that he does not hear.
    3 For your hands are defiled with blood
    and your fingers with iniquity;
    your lips have spoken lies;
    your tongue mutters wickedness.

    20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord.
    21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord:

    “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”

    These are just some of the prophesies of Isaiah some 700 years before Christ.

    Christians dully listen to a few verses from Isaiah in a typical Christmas Eve service. (So few ‘christians’ read the Bible. So few ‘christians’ have even seen or heard these additional prophetic words of Isaiah or numerous references by other Prophets and in the Psalms.)

    Seven centuries (like looking back now to the 1300’s A.D.) from Isaiah’s prophesies until the Redeemer IS born in a manger in Bethlehem. Hear Isaiah’s description of the light of our manger scene:

    Isaiah 60

     Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

    2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
    but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.

    3 And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising.
    4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see;
    they all gather together, they come to you;
    your sons shall come from afar,
    and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.

    5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
    your heart shall thrill and exult,
    because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
    the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

    They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.

    14 The sons of those who afflicted you
    shall come bending low to you,
    and all who despised you
    shall bow down at your feet;
    they shall call you the City of the Lord,
    the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

    19 The sun shall be no more
    your light by day,
    nor for brightness shall the moon
    give you light;
    but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.

    20 Your sun shall no more go down,
    nor your moon withdraw itself;
    for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of mourning shall be ended.

    21 Your people shall all be righteous;
    they shall possess the land forever,
    the branch of my planting, the work of my hands,
    that I might be glorified.
    22 The least one shall become a clan,
    and the smallest one a mighty nation;

    I am the Lord;
    in its time I will hasten it.

    This is the Gospel of Christmas:

    A manger, God With Us;

    The Cross, Christ sacrificed for us and our obedience to the crucifixion of our sinful flesh to follow Jesus;

    Christ risen, the Light and Life of grace for all who repent and worship Jesus Christ as Lord.

    Christ Jesus IS Life and Light eternal for fallen sinners to abide in the Holy Spirit and dwell in the House of the Lord, forever.

    Please pray for my wife in the Lord, Lissette Harned, and our grown children.

    Pray also for me. For I covet your prayers and love, beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord – our Christ of Christmas.

    May the joy of Christmas be your witness to the love of the Father and Power of the Holy Spirit to draw repentant sinners home to the Light of the King of all Creation and life. Jesus IS Lord.

    Amen.