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Tag: judgment

70 Years (or so)?
70 years (or so)…

In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:19 NKJV

Remember… you are dust

We’ve all heard it:

“Remember, you are dust” or some graveside equivalent from the Law of Moses or another ‘humble thyself before the Lord thy God’ quote from the Bible.

In the days of his trouble Job pleads to the LORD:

Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay.
And will You turn me into dust again?
Job 10:9 NKJV

‘Lord HELP ME,’ some of us have prayed;

‘God help me,’ ‘Help me Jesus!”

And we hear the executioner proclaim to the condemned man and all witnesses: “May God have mercy on your soul.”

You and I know deep down and ALL flesh knows in our heart of hearts — our days will end!

But the LORD abides forever;
He has established His throne for judgment,
And He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.
Psalm 9:7-8

Why all this talk about the judgment?

… it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment…
Hebrews 9:27b NASB

NOTE: Roger turned 70

Although my thoughts now gather more urgency, they tend to come to the page just a bit slower.

Change ahead in my Christian Social Witness to you and the world.

Yet as always, my thoughts will remain well-considered in light of scripture before you read it here. (Bear with me and help me by your comments, please.)

I do have a reflection or two on my three score and ten, which I will share with you more gradually than before.
Roger Harned – reflection on continued writing at 70 years old

How many score remain?

Those accustomed to the language of King James Bible may take account of their days by the same measure of years used by Lincoln.

Lincoln and Gettysburg Address

“For score and seven years ago,” Lincoln began on November 19, 1863. He looked back to the year of our Lord 1776 (as they used to say) just 87 years before.

You may also recall from Lincoln’s memorial to those killed:

… that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln – Gettysburg Address

Lincoln could not have known then that an assassin’s bullet would soon end his own life five years short of just three score years, at age 54.

All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.
Job 34:18

Abraham Lincoln and Job were both highly successful men of integrity in life who encountered tragedy. Lincoln no doubt had read in his own King James Bible of Job’s struggles.

If you’re keeping score

Only a few of you will know what I once chose as a ‘life verse’ and that it comes from Job.

{IF you want to know my life verse, just click the link to it above and it will open in a new tab or window.} It may help you to understand more about my purpose and gifts.

It just so happens that in this year of our Lord {Anno Domini} A.D. 2020, I have, by God’s grace, lived three score and ten years.

a bit of biography
- My mother, Marie Hall Harned, lived more than four score years, though her father lived only to three score and five and her mother, Vera Tyler Hall not even to three score.
- My father William E. Harned, his siblings and father William Alba all lived past four score years.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

I praise God for good health of this aging flesh and might easily boast (and speculate) of more years to come.

Yet I remember well so many struggles of the lives of loved ones, their end which came upon us sooner or suddenly.

Therefore like Job I consider that my end will be dust and strive to live for the life of my saved soul — in worship and love of Christ Jesus, One with God our Father.

Take to heart your own possible suffering to come from Psalm 22. It precedes one we know so well about ‘the valley of the shadow of death‘:

Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help…
… you lay me in the dust of death.
But you, O Lord, do not be far off!
excerpt Psalm 22 ESV listen

Psalm 22 was part of our celebration of the wife of my youth, Becky Rice Harned. We considered our end — knowing how she had suffered to survive just her fiftieth birthday.

She went to the Lord in spirit in that same year of our Lord, 1999, on the 10th of February, her disintegrating frame now returned to dust.

Other beloved ones suffer in the flesh even now. Some endure pain known to us, while others, like Becky, suffer in silence.

This frail frame will fail. So will yours, yet be encouraged in the Lord.

Though our aging flesh contains the image and essence of our Holy God, our dust is not our living soul.

A few family and long-time friends know a partial history of my life in this world. And I suspect a handful know yours as well.

Most of you know my own failures and disappointments, as we all have in varying degrees at different times. Yet I do not expect to receive Job’s double blessing before I draw my last breath.

Job suffered much, as some we know — even as Jesus Christ suffered severely for our sins.

I am no righteous man – only in Christ’s righteousness – but like Job I have sought to live my life in integrity. I could not have lived through it all without the encouragement of the Holy Spirit through Christ Jesus, when finally I relented from my sins and sought the Lord for help for this helpless flesh.

Looking back & ahead

Reflecting back on my three-score and ten, as well as looking forward into the light of life given to my own spirit of hope, I continue in God’s grace.

I continue in purpose, perhaps more directed toward that which lives within reach of my limited mortal touch.

Leaving behind each dream and soul beyond my reach, I press on to preach to Gospel exclusively to those whom the Lord has chosen. (You may not be one of these.)

Those not saved by the grace of God have most likely scrolled past the Light of their salvation already.
Roger Harned – reflection on why most will never talk of Jesus Christ

Social Media is not the world

Based on technical data, talkofJesus.com has reached readers in many countries on at least four continents so far. My Christian Social Witness may yet by God’s grace reach some soul who has doubted the only Son of God as the Way and Truth of Scripture.

So often Jesus taught His followers, that is, believers who loved the Lord God and one another, and also preached to multitudes which included many who failed to have ears to hear or eyes to see.

Though in Christ, I am certainly not Christ Jesus. I can no longer preach the Gospel to those who refuse the Good News of Christ Jesus. They have no interest in a relationship with the God of love and life!

Therefore, Christ’s purpose for my witness of the Gospel to a 21st century church, wrought with ‘christians‘ who witness something other than Christ, pales by comparison. Never-the-less:

No soul has more need for the true Gospel of Christ Jesus than the 21st century christian.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Although we will soon return to my 2020 series on the Gospel of John, you, beloved reader, will be in for a new and more pointed relational look at scripture as we speak exclusively to the church.
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To be continued... Lord willing... 
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August 21, 2020
From This World to the Next – Truth
Jesus continues to pray for those the Father has given Him:
And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
John 17:19 KJV

What is truth?

‘What is truth?’ Pilate will soon ask the Creator of all things who came to this world of His creation.

Yet prior to the tragic truth of the trial of His righteousness sacrificed for us, Jesus prays for those given to Him:

“For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” [CSB]

Christ Jesus, sanctified for us, prayed about truth. So just as we previously defined sanctification [in our last post linked above] let’s define truth as used in scripture.

ἀλήθεια – truth
1. objectively
  1. what is true in any matter under consideration
    truly, in truth, according to truth
    of a truth, in reality, in fact, certainly
  2. what is true in things appertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth
    in the greatest latitude
    the true notions of God which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention
  3. the truth as taught in the Christian religion, respecting God and the execution of his purposes through Christ, and respecting the duties of man, opposing alike to the superstitions of the Gentiles and the inventions of the Jews, and the corrupt opinions and precepts of false teachers even among Christians
2. subjectively
  1. truth as a personal excellence
    that candour of mind which is free from affection, pretence, simulation, falsehood, deceit
The Truth of Eternal Life

All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
Romans 3:23 CEV

This includes you, fellow sinner.

Eternal God and Mortal Man
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A reflection of Psalm 90:
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3 You return mankind to the dust,
saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.”

7 For we are consumed by your anger;
we are terrified by your wrath.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 For all our days ebb away under your wrath;
we end our years like a sigh.

But what next?

‘The days of our years are threescore years and ten… OR perhaps eighty, the Psalm reminds us… (OR perhaps a score more, but maybe just 50 years… or a death more sudden).

‘… Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;
For soon it is gone and we fly away.” – Psalm 90:10b NASB

Returning to the night of Jesus’ betrayal

The Messiah Jesus came to man — living among us and teaching God’s way.

The Lord looks toward heaven on this night on which He was betrayed. From an upper room in Jerusalem Jesus prays to God our Father. This perfect High Priest stands before His own Altar of suffering and Sacrifice on behalf of those the LORD has chosen.

For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
John 17:19 NASB

You will die and I will die.

The Son of Man did die… for those whom He sacrificed for Himself.

The witness of Scripture and the Gospel confirm what happened next to the Messiah of God. What will be next for you?

Hebrews 9: excerpt:
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A New Covenant
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Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies… only the high priest enters…

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation..

.. through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

… sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh …

… “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” …

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us
Hebrews 9:24

… at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment
Hebrews 9:27 NASB

AND YES, fellow sinner, you know well from Scripture what is NEXT after DEATH.

28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

Do You await HIM?

As Jesus our High Priest interceded for them, the Apostles only had hint of what would come next. Certain sacrifice of their Lord and ours! Probably persecution and death for each Disciple of Jesus, the only question being when.

Yet by the Lord’s prayer of protection He sent disciples into a world which hates Jesus, the Christ of GOD; a world which hates the very GOD it denies.

No question about it, ALL will die; but few await death with joyous expectation. Do you await the resurrection of our flesh and joining of your soul and the Spirit of the LORD GOD?

NONE want to face the Judgment of sin – an evil nature woven into our being which cannot face the Very Light of the Lord GOD.

Those who deny God or claim Christ falsely must, in time, face the judgment of having chosen darkness over the Light and Glory of God and of having refused God’s grace of a new choice to turn back to the path of righteousness which leads to life in paradise.

What is True of Christ Jesus?

The Good News of John about Jesus our Savior:

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Truth from the Gospel of John 14:6
- 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.
- “Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
  - “This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil…
    “But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
- Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
- “I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:19 KJV

Do you hear your Savior’s voice and open the door to Him?

Will you receive eternal life?

He has sanctified those He calls to eternal life.

How will you get to the paradise of God without the righteousness of Christ Jesus?

‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. – Revelation 3:22 KJV

Amen.
July 31, 2020
Lazarus – Death and Resurrection
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Death and Resurrection
 Hosea 13:4 I have been the Lord your God
 ever since the land of Egypt;
 you know no God but me,
 and no Savior exists besides me.
 5 I knew you in the wilderness,
 in the land of drought.
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“Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. God’s bread is the man who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Yeshua told them, “I am the bread of life…
John 6:32b,34a NOG

The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus

John has already introduced us to those Jesus loves. Lazarus – HELP from the grave.

Now after a considerable walk from somewhere beyond Judea, Jesus arrives in Bethany.

Jesus walks into a scene of death visited by mourners who loved Lazarus but also religious officials from Jerusalem who sought to accuse their Messiah of blasphemy for previous signs on the Sabbath.

As reminder of both heavy hearts and hard hearts in the crowds:

John 6:

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?

… 40 My Father wants all those who see the Son and believe in him to have eternal life. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day.”

John 11

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).

He arrives at the funeral of Lazarus. No talk of death and resurrection here, just wailing and mourning his loss.

19 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Yeshua was coming, she went to meet him.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

Lord God

Ἰησοῦν κύριε – Iēsous kyrios – Jesus Lord

Martha addresses their Messiah and friend.

“I know that God, theos in greek referring to any gods, but for Jews and followers of Christ (a Greek word for Messiah), Martha’s confidence in God includes a mysterious relationship between this Son of Man and the HOLY SPIRIT of the LORD God!

“God with” – ὁ – ho – with the Holy Spirit, the very breath of life which hovered over creation.
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Gen 1:2
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃
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“Who are you with,” we would ask?

Jesus, God with us, frequently answered religious critics with personally relational replies like,

“God is spirit, and those G3588 who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Now, out of compassion for a deceased friend and love for the family of Lazarus, the Messiah Jesus returns to Judea with nothing more to prove. (For the Lord had already raised others from death and healed some near to death of likely life-ending ailments to a cleansing of the flesh with life!)

Death and Resurrection

Death and resurrection always have connection. Will you rise again from the grave?

For Jesus’ friend Lazarus, temporary restoration of health and life in his case. Yet all understand judgment by the Lord God requires a raising of the spirit of your soul to life.

After flesh fails and bones decay to dust and ashes will the Lord also breathe life into a new body of each soul?

“..even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

23 Yeshua told Martha, “Your brother will come back to life.”

24 Martha answered Yeshua, “I know that he’ll come back to life on the last day, when everyone will come back to life.”

25 Yeshua said to her,

“I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Those who believe in me will live even if they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

The Messiah of God!

Do you believe that?”

Pause to think:

“I am life itself!” Those who believe in Jesus ( יְהוֹשׁוּעַ ) will live even though we die. The Lord God IS our Salvation!

27 Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was expected to come into the world.”

She has said this – that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God – with witnesses surrounding her home — Jews who believe and Jews looking for excuse to kill Jesus.

… she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly,

“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him.

30 (Yeshua had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.) The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her…

The Messiah approaching death and resurrection

Compelling drama! – with much expectation.

Those who loved this family and mourned the loss of Lazarus would not have expected Mary’s sudden joy. Rather, they followed her to continue their expected public mouring for the death of a fellow Jew.

Imagine their surprise at the scene about to unfold.

33 When Yeshua saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.

34 So Yeshua asked, “Where did you put Lazarus?”

They answered him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Yeshua cried.

36 The Jews said, “See how much Yeshua loved him.”

An appropriate witness of the true personal compassion of the Lord Jesus. Yet listen to the dissent of hardened hearts.

37 But some of the Jews asked, “Couldn’t this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?”

Jesus hears our complaints and the Messiah hears our kind words. All those comments of the crowds did not matter to the Son of Man sent to this place to weep – sent here to suffer for our sins.

38 Deeply moved again, Yeshua went to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance.

39 Yeshua said, “Take the stone away.”
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To be continued...
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March 28, 2020