Tag: Lord

  • take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    Take up a song of mourning for what God is about to do to you;

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    The earth quakes and Empires crumble


    Take up a song of mourning for all the people shaken and crushed as the Lord makes the earth and sea to quake.
    NOTE 21st c. Gaziantep, Turkiye beyond the path of Paul’s 2nd missionary land journey from Antioch to Derbe with Silas.

    TODAY, we interrupt the earthquakes and witness of Paul’s second missionary journey in Philippi from ACTS of the Apostles to re-post a 4-part series from two years ago.


    Rejoice that I am no prophet

    (For the only prophesy I ever imagined may have been from God has not yet happened.)

    My song of mourning echoes God’s indictment spoken to falling nations of the Old Testament and the New Testament warning of Hebrews. For my own heart mourns ahead for what is to become of this land of so much promise.

    And allow me to add an unpalatable and unspeakable truth: Muhammed was no prophet of God, Joseph Smith was no prophet of Jesus Christ and no political leader I know even comes close to speaking the hallowed word of God.

    Source: Middle East Monitor:

    Gaziantep, Turkiye on March 02, 2023 [Adsız Günebakan/Anadolu Agency]


    SHAKEN! – a 4-part continued warning

    SHAKEN! part 1 – Jan. 22, 2021 – “God, you have rejected us – Psalm 60
    January 25, 2021 – ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? – Haggai 2:3
    January 27, 2021 – “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7b CSB
    January 29, 2021 – but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” – Hebrews 12:26b

    A song of mourning through Ezekiel

    Picture a Prophet, faithful to the Lord God, lamenting the downfall of nations including his own. Ezekiel speaks a song of mourning for nation after nation and leader after leader.

    WHY have these listened to false prophets?

    What consequence for those who have turned against the LORD.

    The compelling scenes of Ezekiel’s encounters with the Lord God will seem familiar to those of you who have also discovered the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.

    Most of what God has to say should bring even a 21st century observer of these last days to mourn for the lost righteousness the LORD has intended. Once again the faithful must sing a song of mourning for so many cities and every nation.


    Mar. 16, 597 B.C. – Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar beseiged Jerusalem a second time and took captive King Jehoiachin and a group of 10,000, including Ezekiel.

    Source (paraphrased) John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – Ezekiel


    .. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”

    And as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have revolted against Me to this very day.

    Ezekiel 1:28b-2:3 NASB20


    “But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

    Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me;

    and behold, a scroll was in it.

    When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back,

    and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Excerpts from Ezekiel 2

    Ezekiel - When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Shall WE speak more woe to those who are perishing?

    Ezekiel 19:

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of Israel..

    ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard..

    ‘But it was uprooted in fury;
    It was thrown down to the ground;
    And the east wind dried up its fruit.
    [fn]Its strong stem [fn]was torn out
    So that it withered;
    The fire consumed it..

    ‘And fire has gone out from its stem;
    It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
    So that there is no strong stem in it,
    A scepter to rule.’”

    This is a song of mourning, and has become a song of mourning.


    Ezekiel 25:
    • Prophesy Against Ammon
    • Prophesy Against Moab
    • Prophesy Against Edom
    • Prophesy Against Philistia

    “So I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful reproofs; and they will know that I am Yahweh when I lay My vengeance on them.”’”


    Could there be a Prophecy Against US?

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of … - Ezekiel
    a song of mourning
    Prophesy Against Tyre
    Ezekiel 26
    
    

    Thus says Lord Yahweh to Tyre,

    “Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your downfall when the wounded groan, when the killing occurs in your midst?

    Lament over Tyre
    “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’
    “Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
    Your builders have perfected your beauty.
    
    “Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise,
    Your sailors and your pilots,
    Your repairers of seams, your dealers in merchandise,
    And all your men of war who are in you,
    With all your assembly that is in your midst,
    Will fall into the heart of the seas
    On the day of your downfall.
    

    ‘Who is like Tyre,

    Like her who is silent in the midst of the sea?


    Ezekiel 28:

    “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

    “Because your heart is lofty
    And you have said, ‘I am a god;

    I sit enthroned in the seat of gods
    In the heart of the seas’;

    Yet you are a man and not God,

    Although you make your heart like the heart of God—

    debate stage Trump, political idol of the extreme right and Biden, political idol of the extreme left.

    “You had the seal of perfection,

    Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…

    “Your heart was lofty because of your beauty;

    You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.

    I cast you to the ground;

    I put you before kings,

    That they may see you…

    “All who know you among the peoples
    Are appalled at you;

    You have become terrified,

    And you will cease to be forever.”’”

    Ezekiel 28:19 Legacy Standard Bible

    Revelation

    The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

    Look, he is coming with the clouds,
    
    and every eye will see him,
    
    even those who pierced him.
    
    And all the tribes of the earth
    
    will mourn over him.
    
    So it is to be. Amen.

    Could a song of mourning be for US?

    For all the nations have drunk[fn]

the wine of her sexual immorality,

which brings wrath.

The kings of the earth

have committed sexual immorality with her,

and the merchants of the earth

have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess. - Revelation 18:3 CSB

    The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

    Revelation 18:9

    Rejoice over her, heaven,

    and you saints, apostles, and prophets,

    because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!

    Revelation 18:20 CSB

    Washington DC mall
    White House and lightning

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    Woe, woe, the great city,

    dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet,

    adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;

    for in a single hour

    such fabulous wealth was destroyed!

  • He Leadeth me beside still waters – Psalm 23

    He Leadeth me beside still waters – Psalm 23

    He leadeth me beside the still waters.

    He restoreth my soul:


    Psalm 23 – a song of calm confidence

    Many of us know it well. Perhaps we even recite the six verses of Psalm 23 even as I learned in the melodic flow of the King James Version of the Bible.

    The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

    David’s focus introduces his encounters with death. Believers and unbelievers alike frequently hear his psalm in the context of a life already lain down in the stillness of death.

    No more want then…

    So why would today’s want worry me today?


    Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, 

    I will fear no evil: 


    Questions from fear

    These are the words of Psalm 23 we know so well, yet in our DOUBT we do fear the death casting a deep shadow upon our days ahead.

    We walk quickly along in our quickened last days of a mortal life spent yet not finished, an ending of struggle along a ledge between Light and complete darkness.

    • Have I missed the table which the LORD hath prepared for me?
    • Hath the LORD anointed me with prosperity?
    • Doth the LORD overfill my cup with abundance?

    Goodness and Mercy?

    Surely goodness and mercy seem NOT to have followed me in these last days of my mortal life!

    Certainly the LORD did bless King David all the days of his life, BUT what is missing in mine?

    I walk in the shadow looking to my end in the valley, yet David seemed rested even before those somber last words:

    May he rest in peace.


    • WHAT have I missed that David seems to sing in this 23rd Psalm?
      • REST and PEACE along this treacherous path toward the VALLEY of the SHADOW of DEATH.

    He Leadeth Me

    The reaffirming metaphor of the still waters assumes the still waters assumes the same role as that of the green pastures. Just as the grass of the green pastures is deep enoughto lie in, so also we must understand that still waters rund deem. Any deep experience with the Shephers can only be accomplished by time spent with the Shepherd, as the words lie down indicate.

    King James Bible Commentary Psalm 23, p534

    In addition to my memory of Psalm 23 in the King James, a 19th century hymn sung frequently by our local church encourages believers both corporately and individually.

    Many may sing He Leadeth Me from the shadowed hillsides of our own valleys.

    “He leadeth me, he leadeth me, for by his hand he leadeth me..

    He Leadeth Me from Psalm 23

    YET in our DOUBT and FEAR, let us remember the place of peace by which we may have quickly passed in Psalm 23.

    for Thou art with me

    I cannot cross into the Light with you.


    The lonely lament of this shepherd so accustomed to the place of darkness in many fields of so many sheep among wolves does not lift me.

    David was a king 3000 years distant from my own walk in the fields of death’s fear. He does not comfort me and my most beloved ones cannot go to the place where I must go in a time unknown to any of us.

    Yet David’s Psalm was not addressed to ME, but to the LORD as well as his own beating mortal heart.

    The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

    יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָֽר׃

    Yᵊhōvâ LORD rāʿâ my shepherd

    תְהִלִּים (Psalm) 23:1

    It is THE LORD who David asks to lead him.

    And how?

    By the LORD’s own actions this mortal shepherd will follow and obey the Shepherd of shepherds and the LORD of Lords.

    We all like sheep have gone astray.


    So ask Him: Where will He lead you?

    Like me, you may have missed this:

    He maketh, he leadeth, He restoreth, he leadeth

    Do you see a tread of connection here in David’s Psalm?

    He, THE LORD, leads — that is, IF we will humbly allow Him. BUT like sheep WE don’t particularly like to follow any lead other than our own.

    AND we may have missed yet another comfort to David due to our own rebellion again the leadership of God (or anyone else, for that matter).

    thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

    OUCH!

    Authority? Bowing down humbly to the LORD because HE IS more powerful than YOU?

    Yet in death as in life, we remain powerless.

    THY ROD speaks more to our relationship as people of the Shepherd than to the power and authority capable of beating us into obedience (which is not like the Lord who called us).

    His staff which pulled you into mortality will lead you into eternity.

    Therefore David concludes his Psalm from the valley of the shadow of death with a first person assurance with the LORD.

    Where is the house of the Lord?

    Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

    Thank you Lord.

    thou anointest my head with oil;

    Thank you Lord.

    my cup runneth over.

    Thank you Lord.

    Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life


    David concludes with confidence of good in God’s mercy — why he trusts in the LORD and does not fear the evil of death — death before the Lord’s own appointed time. His confidence speaks forward to where he shall dwell once the LORD does raise him up from the valley of the shadow of death into the Light of the LORD’s own presence.


    Where are YOUR still waters when you consider the valley of DEATH?

    How do you envision this place beyond the deep waters and above the highest heavens of this temporal mortal place?

    Who do you trust to lead you into the house of the LORD, forever?

    Please SHARE your COMMENT or Questions about Psalm 23
    
    AND
    
    Look for my Part 2 New Testament take on Christians humbly helping each other to navigate this shadowy path where sheep of the Lord should fear no evil.

    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

  • Church: Religion? Philosophic Discourse? or Cultural Calling?

    Church: Religion? Philosophic Discourse? or Cultural Calling?

    The instant you say, ‘church,’ you dip your toe into waters of reactions which you know not how hot or cold, how shallow or deep, how stagnant or storm-tossed the hearer of your faith.

    Do you dare even ask?

    • Are YOU a CHRISTIAN?
    • Where did you worship last Sunday?
    • Do you belong to OUR church?
    • What are you currently studying from the Bible?
    • Would you talk of JESUS with me?
    • May I SHARE the Good News of my Biblical Christian faith?

    Just imagine the wide range of reactions of any other soul to ANY of these questions of the faithful evangelical Christian daring to share the Gospel of their Biblical Christian church.

    An even more troubling question:

    Does a Christian dare engage OTHER ‘christians‘ in a conversation about Christ (the Namesake of our Christian faith) addressing ALL of these questions and more about our Biblical Christian faith?

    Have YOU, in fact, tested these troublesome waters?

    IF SO, perhaps you too have received a baptism of hot opposition or a cold withdrawal of the flesh from the waters of faith.

    That would be evangelism = a RED FLAG of RELIGION to which a world (inclusively with some calling themselves a ‘church,’) will often react with ears that do not hear, as well as the rhetoric of rebellion against the Lord God and anarchy against salvation of the sinful soul.


    • Perhaps evangelism nets too few caught in the rising waters of a cultural flood of this world reacting to the ‘church,’ by denying Christ Jesus.
    • Maybe a pure Biblical Christian faith offends some tiptoeing into the mire of murky waters of philosophic denial.

    The [*] wicked fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

    They act corruptly, they commit abominable deeds;

    There is no one who does good.

    Psalm 14 :: Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) * wicked – one who rejects wisdom in rebellion against God
    (Although some these wicked fools have crept into pulpits of places which call themselves, 'church.')

    ANY constant questioning of authoritative adherence to the Word of God, the Holy Bible of our Christian faith, should sound an alarm to the faithful:

    Beware of the tempter in sheep’s clothing.

    Who else would deconstruct the Biblical Christian foundation of the Church, only to reconstruct our faith by compromises of the only Truth, replacing authoritative Scripture with several shifting pebbles of heretical half-truths ‘reasoned’ by the wicked at war with Christ?

    So I ask you .. I ask us:

    Who are these 21st century Christians?

    What are YOUR answers to my earlier questions I dare to ask my fellow evangelical Christian believers and worshipers of Jesus Christ? (ADD your Comment on Scripture to this Saturday Post of TalkofJESUS.com) 
    Our church in Christ Jesus has no place for the unrepentant wicked fool; for our Gospel is for those who believe.
    

    I began this Saturday Post series as a deeper discussion of DOCTRINE (or teaching) of the Church. The alarm of the watchman on the wall rang in my ears while hearing about a subtle teaching, an undercurrent of doctrine seeping into the evangelical christian church.

    Evangelical RECONSTRUCTION was something I naively had never heard of; YET now I will raise the trumpet of warning to sound the alarm:

    Medieval church bell tower during sundown in valley

    Something’s wrong with our church!

    (Who wouldn't agree?)
     YES it is.

    So why not RECALL it?

    (Send it ‘back to the manufacturer? Can’t do that. So how can WE evolve the church into a 21st c. style faith?)

    Tear it down to the ground demolishing doctrine by doctrine.

    Then WE can RECONSTRUCT that which WE have deconstructed to fix the church how WE want.

    But WE had better do it subtly (so as not to offend anybody) and stealthily (without account of a foundational Biblical Christian teaching).

    A 21st c. RECALL of the CHURCH is just what WE need for OUR Evangelical Reconstruction of the Church into a socially acceptable gathering which will attract any follower from religions of every culture of our world.

    NOT!

    To borrow from the Apostle Paul refuting premises of clear untruths:

    By no means!

    Perfect Teaching (for God’s imperfect ‘church’)

    https://talkofjesus.com/talk-jesus-com/what-is-doctrine/
    διδασκαλία – didaskalia – doctrine (19x), teaching (1x), learning (1x). – source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Doctrine, whether by preaching or teaching or proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is foundational to faith and therefore never to be torn down by any mortal sinner. Scripture affirms God’s truth and the trustworthy teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ for those who believe.

    .. so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, ..

    Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Church in Ephesus 4:14 Legacy Standard Bible

    This same Apostle (to the Gentiles) confesses in his first letter to the pastor, Timothy 1:15

    .. that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

    And the Apostle Peter fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying,

    “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

    the Good News of Luke 5:8 Legacy Standard Bible

    Some call Peter and Paul, Saints (and they are); yet all of God’s faithful are saints to the Lord.

    Psalm 34:9 (WLC 34:10) יְראוּ אֶת־יְהוָה קְדֹשָׁיו כִּי־ אֵין מַחְסוֹר לִירֵאָֽיו׃

    Yodh
    Oh, fear Yahweh, you His saints;
    For there is no want to those who fear Him.
    Do YOU FEAR THE LORD GOD, oh you sinner?
    
    The MARQEE denominational name of your 'church' matters NOT, my fellow sinner. 
    Seek the salvation of the Lord, my dear fellow saint, His redemption of your soul to eternal life witnessed in the Gospel of the Christ JESUS.

    Perfect Preaching (Teaching)

    Is based on & does not manipulate Scripture.

    THE LORD GOD IS! (God IS God and mankind is not.)

    God spoke to and through men whom the Lord God chose and commanded to write HIS words.

    “God is not a man, that He should lie,

    Nor a son of man, that He should repent;

    Has He said, and will He not do it?

    Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?

    Numbers 23:19 LSB
    Do you really believe that? Can you affirm that ONLY Scripture Sola Scriptura is the inspired word of the Lord God?
    ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura

    All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness,

    2 Timothy 3:16 LSB

    NOT ‘some,’ NOT ‘select scripture’ ..

    AND separate from the truth that some church pastors will never reprove or correct those wayward weak sheep of their own flock,

    ALL of the WRITTEN WORD OF SCRIPTURE IS GOD INSPIRED!

    Mortal SINNERS DO NOT get to reconstruct what GOD has said.

    (But false teachers of every era subtly seek to lead Christ’s lost sheep into the abyss of disbelief.)

    Inerrant TRUTH: Our reasoned Biblical Faith

    Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

    The Apostle John’s Good News for you is:

    .. that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

    Evangelical RE-construction of the Church

    Source material for the following is transcribed (written as accurately as possible) from the A.D. 2022 podcast 'Just Thinking,' previously recommended and linked on TalkofJESUS.com and used with permission of its author. - RH

    In deconstruction everything is a SOCIAL construction, including the church.

    Darrell Harrison
    By the way, this Saturday Post series, Church – Who are these 21st c. Christians? - is directed toward faithful evangelical Christians who fear God and believe Scripture as a warning and caution for infidelity to Christ we increasingly hear from the pulpits of our RE-engineered 21st c. 'churches.' - RH
    
    I will add brief comment to Harrison's outline below for your consideration and intentional thinking about the teaching of your church. Why not add your own thoughts in the Comments at the bottom of this post. 
    
    God-willing, we will continue the course of identifying the faithful of our 21st century 'Church' next Saturday.
    
    © Darrell B. Harrison and Just Thinking Ministries

    Evangelical Deconstructionism

    Most of the points quoted may be found in the Just Thinking Podcast near 1:32.

    FIVE-POINT PROGRESSION of Evangelical Deconstructionism

    1. EMBRACE and posit [plant or assume] the idea [philosophy] that the CHURCH is a SOCIALLY constructed system, NOT a divinely ordained idea [institution] that originated in the mind of God.
    2. ASSUME that this socially constructed system is designed to be exclusive of certain intersectional identities, traditions and behaviors.
    3. IDENTIFY subjective [reasoned in the mind] points or cracks in that socially constructed system that have failed [as reasoned by the philosopher] AND need to be fixed [or reconstructed].
    4. APPLY a hermeneutic [interpretive explanation] of SUSPICION to that SOCIALIALLY-CONSTRUCTED system so that ANYONE [who even remotely] connected to that system is deemed UNTRUSTWORTHY.. deemed an enemy.
    5. RECONSTRUCT this SOCIAL SYSTEM [church, etc.] into the IMAGE and likeness of the CULTURE with socially acceptable.. [everythingology].

    Have you heard the alarm?

    “Therefore watch out, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you:

    Acts of the Apostles 13:40 LSB [in context 13:23-41]

    Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

    Gospel of Matthew 7:15 LSB – a warning of Jesus

    “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

    Gospel of Luke 6:46 LSB – CHALLANGE of the Lord Jesus Christ to followers


    What must we do?

    Does YOUR local church have a new cultural calling to evangelism?

    Please comment below on what you observe of Evangelical Deconstructionism?

    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

Do you SHARE the Gospel by either email or text?