Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: Lord

  • Reflections: Israel – a people

    Reflections: Israel – a people

    Genesis 32: “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

    28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

    When you hear ‘Israel,’ think ‘Jacob.’

    When you read Jacob after Genesis 32, remember GOD has renamed him Israel. When you read of the sons of Jacob, recall appropriately that we refer to the generations of the man Israel, born to one of his wives. (We won’t get into all that here.)

    Jacob’s Children 

    [partial list]

    • Genesis 29:32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben

    Genesis 29:35 And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

    • Genesis 30:5  And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
    • Genesis 30:10 Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
    • Genesis 30:17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
    • Genesis 30:21 Afterward she [Leah] bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
    • 22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”

    God made a covenant with Abram and renamed him Abraham. God saved Isaac, son of Abraham from the human sacrifice of blood on the altar of faith. God provided the substitute offering to be slain on the mountain of God. The LORD chose Abraham from among all tribes. The LORD chose Isaac, son of Sarah, over Ishmael, son of Hagar. And the LORD chose Jacob over his twin brother Esau, son of Isaac and Rebekah. The LORD renamed Jacob, Israel.

    The LORD chose Joseph, son of Israel and Rachel, to save God’s chosen people along with saving the people of Egypt (of Hagar) and many other peoples. The LORD chose Joseph over Reuben or even Judah, oldest sons of Israel; sons of Israel’s first bride, yet sons of Leah, bride given to Jacob by deceit of Laban, father of Leah and Rachel. Along with their servants, it was the LORD’s will to make Israel father of many nations in a place contested until the end of days.

    Whether Judah, Benjamin or sons of Joseph, remember Israel is a people more than a place: chosen sons and daughters of the LORD.

    We have already explored the rebellion of the Hebrew people even as Moses led them by the Hand of the Almighty from the slavery of Egypt. We have already witnessed their covenant to obey God’s Law: the Ten Commandments.

    We have heard a later warning of Elijah to divided nations of Israel and Judah of the consequence of disobedience to the LORD their God.

    What happened to God’s chosen Kings? What happened to God’s chosen Nation? Why did Israel become divided? Why did their Kings suffer defeat?

    Why did they not follow the Law and obey God? (For that matter: are we, sons and daughters of adoption, saints of Christ’s church, so much better in these last days?)

    What happens when the LORD chooses His family and we become prodigal sons?

    To be continued…

  • Reflections: Eden

    Reflections: Eden

    Genesis 2 English Standard Version (ESV)

    15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

    “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

    18 Then the Lord God said,

    “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

    +

    Examine the Biblical text from ‘in the beginning;’ for before the beginning, GOD IS.

    The LORD יְהֹוָהYĕhovah GOD אֱלֹהִים‘elohiym

    made adam אָדָם ‘adam

    in his Image צֶלֶם tselem.

    First: LORD GOD, Yehovah elohiym; not Allah, not any other NAME. The LAW, or first five books of the Bible are a narrative written by Moses for the Hebrew people – God’s Chosen people. It is not an eyewitness account – Moses was not a reporter in the garden of Eden – yet Moses spoke directly with Yehovah elohiym. GOD told Moses!

    Second: The LORD God put Adam in Eden to work it and keep it.

    Third: The LORD God had not only created Man, God created everything in the heavens and the earth and made man in His Image in this place to glorify Him.

    God met with, spoke to and had a personal relationship with man in this special unspoiled garden. It was a place where the LORD God walked and talked with His beloved man of His creation, Adam.

    Think about it: the ALL-POWERFUL CREATOR of ALL, walking in a place with a creature of His creation – GOD carrying on a conversation with adam, enjoying the good of His creation with His personal friend, Adam.

    Would one made in the Image of a good God, a loving friend, not want to do all the Lord commands?

    Adam is an innocent sinless child of God! The first man and the first woman have no father and mother. They were both created by the LORD God!

    Does it matter if the LORD created them in His Image?

    Yes.

    Does it matter if the materials were dust or rib?

    Does it matter where an archaeologist might dig up this garden paradise?

    Could it possibly matter to a generation gorged on the tree of speculative knowledge when all of this took place?

    What, then, is important from the Biblical account of Genesis?

    The LORD raised Adam and raised Eve in the garden as a Father raises his innocent children.

    God provided. God gave them their purpose. God gave them love.

    And as a good father will do, God gave them a rule for their own continued good (as ones made in the Image of the God of Perfect Good).

    The LORD God did this for the perfect pleasure of the man, of the woman and of the LORD!

    (Note: If you haven’t followed the links to root definitions, you ought to – especially this last one.)

    To be continued…

  • lord. What does it mean?

    lord. What does it mean?

    Jesus is Lord.

    What does that mean?

    Is this a Kingly title… like, “Sir Jesus, most exalted ruler” of someone or some land or maybe even some angels? Is that what you mean by, Jesus is lord?

    I say this tongue-in-cheek, but the question of the title ‘lord’ probably yields a not much better answer in most of our freedom-loving minds.

    Lord: a broad definition from the Oxford dictionary

    Origin Old English hlāford, from hlāfweard ‘bread-keeper’, from a Germanic base (see loaf1, ward)

    Last on the Oxford list: Our Lord
    10 Used as a title for God or Jesus Christ:

    IF a man holds all your bread, he literally lords it over you – you are servant of the lord over the bread of your existence.

    Think about wars and war lords (in the middle ages, the Islamic wars & Crusades); even now war-torn parts of Africa, Asia, Arab lands, the Middle East; poor European and Russian wilderness regions; poor areas of Mexico, Central and South America; many islands worldwide – lords of violence enslave and murder their unwilling victims.

    Think about the dependence of the poor on the rule of an over-lord, cruel men commanded by evil and cruel men who control the bread, the rice, the trade, the labor, the sex traffic, the drug traffic, the oil…

    Are there not lords of evil throughout the earth?

    It is no wonder that Jesus Christ stated categorically:

    “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

    You cannot serve God and money.” – Luke 16:13

    It is a matter of life and death to be dependent on a lord. Indeed we are a slave to whatever or whoever feeds us when we have nowhere else to go or no one else upon whom we can rely.

    The large master-slave story of the Old Testament is found in Exodus. Joseph was sold by his brothers (lords of the eleven tribes of Israel) into slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh later became lord and ruler over all the tribes of Israel.

    The LORD, Jehovah,The Existing One, sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand: Let my people go.

    The LORD will rule His people and He will only give them into the hand of another for His refining purpose.

    Consider that in reference to God saving Israel from their Master, Pharaoh; and that the lord over the bread of our very existence is ruler over our lives; Jesus boldly proclaimed:

    “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” – John 6:51

    Lord is used in other contexts of authority throughout the Bible. Sarah calls Abraham her husband, ‘my lord,’ for example. And Jesus points to His authority when He taught, “For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

    Jesus had asked the traditional religious ‘authorities: “How can they say that the Christ is David’s son?” – Luke 20:41-47

    The word “Lord” is used 7836 times in the King James Bible.

    Authority must have some importance in the lives of the followers of God.

    Simply stated: He IS God and we are not.

    In these freedom-loving, self-serving last days, let christians recall the chilling (or should I say rather: the fiery, damning) words of Jesus:

    “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” – Matthew 7:21

    19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

    Let your ears hear, unfruitful christian, the damning caution of the one you call, ‘lord.’

    Yes, we are free from the Law, from earthly rulers, even Bishops and over-lords. We have the grace of Jesus Christ and forgiveness of the Cross.

    We need no intercessor (with exclusive access to the Holy Spirit) to intervene for us as Priest, father or mother of Perfect Son of Man. We need pray through no dead saint, alive in the Spirit. We are free from all of that.

    Yet by the authority of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the saints (that is, you and me, beloved faithful brother, obedient sister in the Lord) have a relationship of love, a fellowship of grace and mercy with the LORD of all mercy, Lord of all the Heavens and the earth; Judge of all men, ruler of all creation!

    Are we not, fellow men and women of dust, sinful in our every leaning away from our loving Heavenly Father, the command and example of the Living Son of God the Father, and the merciful leading of the Holy Spirit to the overflowing streams of Living Water – are we not perishing ashes of fools destined for the fires of destruction?

    Who IS your LORD?

    Is there not a price to pay for taking up the Cross of Christ Jesus?

    Christians were persecuted in Rome, in Syria, in Greece, in Asia in the first century for proclaiming Jesus Christ as LORD. Are the days not coming, even this day for some believers, to suffer once more for boldly bowing down ONLY to Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior?

    Romans 10:

    … if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

     The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John:

    19:16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

    He Was and IS and Is to come, the LORD!

    Jesus IS LORD!

    What does it mean to you?

    What must you do now (while it is yet today)?