Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: lent

  • Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck

    Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck

    Lent 2023 AD + 

    Original post date: 29 March, in the year of our Lord 2022

    Today’s topic is scandal!

    ASH WEDNESDAY in the year of our Lord 2023, we begin with TODAY’S subject:

    cross hanging from car mirror - Christians wear a symbol of a scandalous faith in Jesus Christ as God and Lord

    Christians in the shoes of Jonah

    Repent, Jonah!

    It’s raining and you are NOT Noah who will save only his own family from the flood.

    The ground is shaking in the year of our Lord 2023 and you are NOT Abraham who will rescue only his family from the evil and the fate of Sodom or the judgment of Gomorrah.

    This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says:
    “I, myself, have risen against Babylon!
    I will destroy its children and its children’s children,”
    says the LORD.

    Isaiah 14:16 NLT

    Yet the Prophet Jonah REFUSED to preach to the few who could be saved from the wrath to come to the city of destruction.

    CROSS Remember man that you are dust and into dust you shall return

    Ashes of Ash Wednesday + a Preparation of Repentance

    So YOU claim to be an evangelist of JESUS to the nations?

    GO into all the world and preach Good News, the Gospel of forgiveness and eternal life for those who will REPENT of their sinful past and FOLLOW Jesus Christ as our Lord.

    The Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, becomes BAD NEWS to any who turn the other way – in the direction away from God’s grace.

    Such bad news for evangelicals! christians who suddenly turn in the other direction + a direction of SELF and a gospel of what God has done for ME (and should do for you).

    • Have you turned to a path AWAY from the word of God, even like Jonah?
    • Won’t sailing away from the command of the Lord have dire consequence?

    I WON’T PREACH THAT, Jonah responded by sailing away from the command of God.

    But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness

    1st letter of Paul to the church at Corinth 1:23 KJV

    Christians proclaim a scandalous faith. Our Cross worn as jewelry may well be a millstone worn around our neck.

    Repent, Jonah! Lest Christ who hung on a Cross hang a millstone around your neck.

    For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
    but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

    1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV

    Jesus Warns disciples

    As we have learned in ACTS of the Apostles, disciples are followers of Christ Jesus.

    Evangelical christians who claim His Name but turn away from God’s command become obstacles to the Lord saving others from the cities of destruction.

    At the moment Jonah turned away from Nineveh even this Prophet of God was not an obedient disciple ‘chosen‘ for eternal life.

    A last-days appeal to the Evangelical

    Evangelicals who claim other cause of the world above Christ cannot boast of the burden of the millstone placed around their necks.

    And evangelicals who embrace condemned cultures of the cities of destruction without revealing the cost of the Cross may find the weight of the Cross around their neck weighing down their witness with veiled hope while singing of ME and JESUS.

    Scandal – Do you recognize it in the warnings of Jesus?

    Luke 17:

    Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!

    “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

    Luke 17:2 NKJV
    Rembrandt - Jonah before the walls of Nineveh

    “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

    Luke 17:3

    But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

    Jonah 4:1 NKJV

    Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

    So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

    – Jonah 4:4-5

    The Millstone

    “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck..

    • Does this punishment (even self-inflicted) remind you of Jonah?

    And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

    Jonah 1:12 NKJV

    So what’s the scandal?

    Returning to the Gospel of Luke (NASB20) and Jesus’ warning:

    “It is inevitable that [temptations to sin] stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come!

    σκάνδαλον – skandalon

    the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick

    (And evangelicals with ears to hear, now hear this:)

    any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin

    Scandal: fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation

    Is your faith scandalous because you dare Talk of JESUS?

    ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling G4625 block G4625 before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:14 LSB
    + for one of the most influential churches of 1st c. AD Christianity at Ephesus

    OR will your reluctance to share the Good News of Christ, including the cost of His CROSS, leave you in the same boat as Jonah?

    ‘Therefore repent. But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.

    ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

    Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 2:16-17a LSB
    Your comment on this post and these Scriptures encourage the witness of this author. RH  (original post date 29 March in the year of our Lord, 2022)
Thanks.

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

  • Another Resurrection in Joppa

    Another Resurrection in Joppa

    old man in beret kneeling at grave
    death… Why do you weep?

    Death’s Vigil

    If you should pause briefly near death’s vigil, you may see some soul precariously perched on a precipice above the dark shadows of hades; yet.. lifted to light of life after death.. another resurrection in Christ to eternal glory with God Who Saves.

    Peter and another resurrection as witness

    Even as Peter travels some distance to Lydda and Joppa, somewhere back in towns nearer to Jerusalem a disciple named Lazarus witnesses another resurrection than that of the Lord Jesus Christ: his own.

    Lazarus come forth - photo of sunrise and Bible

    So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!”

    It’s one of the tenderest lines in Scripture. Roger@talkofJESUS.com 

    – on witnesses of Jesus at Lazarus’ funeral John 11:36

    In the ever so brief time prior to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection Peter, the Apostles and many disciples of the Lord Jesus had witnessed this powerful sign of the Messiah as Jesus called out to Lazarus to come out of the grave!

    Earlier in Jesus ministry the Apostle also had witnessed yet another resurrection of a young man sitting up in his coffin about to be carried to his funeral wake in Nain!

    Resurrection of a body which has fallen from life into the valley of death is nothing new to the Apostles. To Peter another resurrection would be completely possible IF it is the will of the Lord.

    Acts 9:

    Click above for Gevurot 9:35-43 Orthodox Jewish Bible; Living Bible; Living Bible; Living Bible; Arabic Bible:

    Death’s appeal from Joppa

    A young woman has died..

    Her friends prepared her for burial and laid her in an upstairs room. 38 But when they learned that Peter was nearby at Lydda, they sent two men to beg him to return with them to Joppa.

    Lydda or Lod is about halfway from Jerusalem to where saints from Joppa on the coast ask Peter if he will do another resurrection. & is the place where Peter healed a paralyzed man
    Aeneas of Lydda: “I can walk!

    Peter responds and ACTS

    Aeneas who had been bedridden for eight years, because he was paralyzed, has been at Peter’s side; just as a lame man in Jerusalem who was healed also had stood with him and John as witness in the Temple.

    35 And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord..

    37 But it happened [in those days] at that time that she [the young woman in Joppa] became sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upstairs room.

    “Do not delay in coming to us.”

    So Peter got ready and went with them.

    ACTS of Peter 9:38b-39a NASB20

    Might a Gazelle Leap once more?

    Tabatha or Dorcus is a name meaning gazelle, which describes a young believer who was to become another resurrection proof for the saints when Peter came to Joppa

    36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which when translated means [Gk. for gazelle] Dorcas);

    this woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity which she did habitually.

    Peter arrives in Joppa

    39 .. as soon as he [Peter] arrived [from Lydda with the two men who had summoned the Apostle to Joppa], they took him upstairs where Dorcas lay.

    It’s the scene of grief – mourning the loss of a beloved servant of all, a friend, a young woman once vibrant in life who succumbs to one of the many maladies of this fragile flesh.

    Like those Peter had seen — the boy in a bier in Nain and Lazarus wrapped in death’s cloths behind a closed tomb in Bethany — here the Apostle takes in the vigil of those watching this Gazelle’s lifeless body, as well as the Apostle’s own entry into their sad scene in an upper room perched above the the shadows of valley of death.

    The room was filled with weeping widows who were showing one another the coats and other garments Dorcas had made for them.

    40 But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed.

    Nain funeral procession where Jesus first raised a boy from the dead

    (Like in Nain, Joppa will cancel its funeral procession today,

    DUE TO this next resurrection.)

    Another Resurrection!

    .. and turning to the body, he [the Apostle Peter] said, “

    Ταβιθά ἀνίστημι

    “Tabitha, arise.”

    The familiar command of Peter (to a dead woman) in ACTS 9:40

    And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.

    41 Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive.

    He Raised Her Up

    You Raise Me Up – Selah – 5 min.

    DEATH.. and all hope for flesh and blood lost.. except for the hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ! And once again, here and now, another resurrection — by the Apostle and not the Lord Incarnate.

    Luke continues with the resurrection theme [45x] in his second account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

    ἀνίστημι – Strong’s G450 – anistēmi – an-is’-tay-mee – to cause to rise up, raise up

    42 The news raced through the town, and many believed in the Lord.

    43 And Peter stayed a long time in Joppa, living with Simon, the tanner.

    ACTS of the Missionary Journeys of Peter: To be continued...
  • Be Kind to One Another before..

    Be Kind to One Another before..

    teaching children to pray and be kind to one another

    “Be kind to each other before you must say,

    ‘I’m Sorry.’“

    Be kind to one another..

    Some children (it seems) never say ‘I’m SORRY,’ after they do bad things to you. But I know that you do because you are a kind child of God.

    Sound familiar? The parental leading or teacher’s prayer of repentance for your unkind words?

    “Be kind to one another, BEFORE you must repent.”

    A Lenten Short Take on Scripture

    That’s NOT in the Bible, is it?

    No, not in those exact words but this advice to the children of the Lord God resounds throughout the Bible.

    Some of us have been thinking about Lent as a time we should pray for forgiveness for all of our shortcomings — sins of commission and omission — things we have said that we ought not to have said..

    Sins of ours for which JESUS was NAILED TO THE CROSS!

    • Yet wouldn’t we do better to behave a Christ?
    • To act like JESUS in our relationships with others?

    Kindness OR Repentance?

    Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

    Letter of Paul to the Church at EPHESUS 4:32

    We teach this to our children. (And we claim to be children of the living God!)

    חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת אַל־יַעַזְבֻךָ קָשְׁרֵם עַל־גַּרְגְּרֹותֶיךָ כָּתְבֵם עַל־לוּחַ לִבֶּךָ׃

    CLICK HERE for translations of ENGLISH BIBLES Mishlei (Proverbs) 3:3 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

    Repentance BEFORE Kindness

    What were your most recent unkind words for which you must repent?

    If our hearts would only have heeded the wise words of Scripture prior to allowing our tongues spew out unkind darts toward another, then our repentance and I’m sorries would not have been so required this day.

    When it is My desire,

    I will discipline them..

    Sow for yourselves, with a view to righteousness;
    Harvest in accordance with kindness.
    Break up your uncultivated ground,
    For it is time to seek the LORD
    Until He comes and rains righteousness on you.

    Hosea 10:10a,12 NASB20

    WHAT’S YOUR SHORT TAKE ON THESE SCRIPTURES ABOUT KINDNESS?

    • What unkind words have brought you to a need to repent?