Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: Lord

  • Christian Anger

    Christian Anger

    Ephesians 4:25-27

    Christian AngerEnglish Standard Version (ESV)

    25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

    26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

    Do you ever get ANGRY? What do you do with your Christian Anger?  

    Do you let many moons set on your ANGER, even though the Bible tells us NOTto let even one day go by?

    I rarely get angry because I am quick to remember the hurtful consequences of past anger; but one day last week, I became angry.

    I hope that it was righteous anger.  I was lashing out against a sense of frustration in trying to defend my wife against an immovable bureaucracy causing high cost of injustice.  (I wanted it taken care of RIGHT AWAY!) Have you ever been there?

    Of course in time our Lord will right all injustice and reward all PATIENCE for suffering injustice.  It may have been “righteous anger.”

    After the situation was partially resolved, I made a phone call to the person who patiently endured my tirade of something out of her control and I apologized (before the sun set on her tough day).

    Here is what helped me to PAUSE before I let out anger

    Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

    Stimulus____Response - Frankl

      Even when Jesus showed righteous anger, his anger was witness to God! 

    Careful… Our ANGER usually is not witness for God and makes others think that Jesus makes NO difference in us, IF HE is NOT Lord over our ANGER.

    Between the STIMULUS ……..and……response…. Pause for Jesus’ sake.

    We PAUSE here for you to Worship our Lord over the weekend…

    …to be continued with a series beginning Monday, 16 September 2013:

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God

  • Liar, liar, pants on fire

    Liar, liar, pants on fire

    Do you recall that kid’s expression?

    I heard it from my friends when caught in a lie.

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    It’s not a biblical quote, however the Bible continually teaches us the value of truth and the consequence of lies.  God takes truth very seriously.

    “The Liar.” a poem by William Blake from about 200 years ago is probably the source of the expression. Jesus had to deal with liars even in the Temple 2000 years ago. (We’ll get to that shortly.) And about 3000 years ago the Proverbs of the Bible addressed lies as wickedness in relationships.

    Proverbs 17:4 An evildoer listens to wicked lips,

    and a liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

    Wickedness, mischief, speaking evil – all connected.

    We owe our souls to the master of lies when we are unwilling to face the truth of God.  We tell lies first to our SELF – lies from Satan. Then we lie to others to cover our evil tracks.

    Lies poison our relationships with others.  Liars willingly listen to other liars, accepting lies as truth.

    Why would a ‘friend,’ a family member or a loved one lie for you?   What truth visible to God would they hide?

    Consider the evil motives of a liar:

    “If someone is willing to lie for you, they are also willing to lie to you.

    Men with miserable lives will even die for a lie they willingly believe — (reward of evil: virgins for them in heaven). These same religious leaders who cover women from head to toe on earth will lead their fellow sinners to death for the lie of a false prophet.

    Religious leaders lead followers toward worship of a virgin while claiming chastity to God and hiding unrighteousness with a lie for a friend. Church Bishops have even built homes for mistresses and lovers even in medieval times.

    Wickedness, built on lies – even to the highest levels of religious leadership at times and in all faiths over the millenia.

    Jesus had to confront this in the Pharisees of the Temple – evil and wicked men with motives to hold onto their power and evil even in face of opposing God. They brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus to test him.  They did not bring the man to stone. (Perhaps he was a religious leader.)

    Then the Pharisees accused Jesus of being born out of a relationship of unrighteousness, in essence saying: “Your mother was no virgin.”

    Of course the lie in this is not the issue. The point is Who they confront with all of their lies to hold onto their power:

    Jesus IS Son of Man, Son of God – Jesus IS truth.

    Part of the Talmud is a lie. The Book of Mormon is a lie. The Bible of the Jehovah Witness is a lie (full of incomplete and deliberately mistranslated Scripture). And of course the writings of the false prophet of Arabia are a lie.

    The atheist is both a liar and a contradiction. How can you be ‘against’ a God you do not believe in? Yet justification of SELF and the evil without accountability require much effort and energy of the atheist, the agnostic, and worshipers of creation in place of the Creator. NO God = NO hell (the same false lie and false hope of the idolatrous religions: Hinduism, Buddhism and others).

    Again from Proverbs – the caution from the Bible:

    Proverbs 30:5-6 Every word of God proves true;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

    Do not add to his words,
    lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

    To be clear (for those who refuse to listen to God’s truth), definition  for ‘rebuke’ from the Hebrew word:

    yakach – [“He will reprove” KJV] – to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right

    God will judge your lie.  Consider the description of Hell, liar.

    John 8:

    23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

    25 So they said to him, “Who are you?”

    Jesus said to them,“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning…

    The Truth Will Set You Free

    31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

    You Are of Your Father the Devil

    44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me…

    Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

    Are you so bold as to stand up to the liars of this world for the Truth?

    Proverbs 8:

    6 Hear, for I will speak noble things,
    and from my lips will come what is right,
    7 for my mouth will utter truth;
    wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
    8 All the words of my mouth are righteous;
    there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
    9 They are all straight to him who understands,
    and right to those who find knowledge.

    Jeremiah 5:3

    O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
    You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
    you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
    They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

    John 14;

    I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

    14 “Let not your hearts be troubled.

    Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”

    … “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

    6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

  • This is my son

    This is my son

     “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

    I am well pleased in some things: like how hard he has worked and what he has achieved as part of his football team. In other things: I am not so well pleased.

    We know that this quote is not mine alone and that the original speaks of another Son.

    Yet I would like you to think of God our Father in a more Personal way.  I would like you to have a more personal picture of God’s only son Jesus.

    Imagine that Jesus grew up doing other things (like football) that boys and young men do as part of their preparation for what God, our Father has planned for their life.

    Can you picture our Heavenly Father saying, “I am well pleased,” when He watches every play of that football game? 

    Of course, God our Father witnessed this of his only Son: Jesus.

    You probably haven’t thought much about Luke 2 past the familiar Christmas pageant scriptures.

    Jesus of Nazareth, as he was known, was born of a virgin… And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. – Luke 2:40

    You know the story that follows: Jesus was twelve and remained in Jerusalem after His parent’s left for Nazareth without Him. We don’t know every detail of Jesus’ youth.

    God did not reveal much about this young man; but the Father watched over every game and all the challenges of His growing up in obedience to His Father and His step-father, Joseph.  Turn the page in Luke’s Gospel and Jesus’ story now continues in about his thirtieth year.  

    This is one source of our familiar quote when Jesus was baptized AND born again in the Holy Spirit (as we say; but that is a different conversation).

    Luke 3:22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

    Returning to our personal picture:

    Just like I am far from the example of a Perfect Father, our son is not the Perfect Son, either.  I am not so pleased in other things with my son; but I love him and pray for him that he will look to the Perfect example of Jesus, with whom our heavenly Father is well-pleased with all things.

    We’re thankful that David is not a ‘prodigal son.’ (We know Jesus’ story is a parable about our Heavenly Father.) Our son is not a rebellious prodigal anymore than King David was a prodigal when he sinned against God with Bathsheba.

    Our David is not the resentful son who would not rejoice with the father when the prodigal son was welcomed back to the family.  I don’t think my son resents anyone, but loves his family and friends.

    While I’m at it, David is my step-son. I am no more his father than Joseph, husband of Mary and father to Jesus’ brothers, was father of Jesus, born to Mary when she was a virgin.

    Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (you may remember) was about adoption.

    The resentful son is Israel, chosen sons of God. The prodigal son is the gentiles, nations rebellious to God before Abraham; and their descendants include most of us.

    When Jesus was born of Mary, God our Father was not pleased with the Jews.

    God was not pleased with the Gentiles (or Nations).

    Yet God through his mercy and grace, gave Jew and Gentile alike the welcome of a loving Father to the rebellious sons of the Nations AND of his Chosen family.

    “The means of grace is Christ Jesus, in whom God our Father is well-pleased.

    So why my picture of David?

    Two reasons:

    1. The Jews had become comfortable in the nostalgia of their past and worshiped King David more as the Son and the Temple as their heritage.  Jesus IS the Son AND our heritage. The Father has adopted followers of Jesus.
    2. We often fail to think of God in the way that Jesus taught – as a Personal Father to a Personal Son.  Picture our David and think of me sending my only son to the cross. This is how personal God’s love is for us.

    David is my beloved son.  His soul is a personal concern of mine.

    The Apostle Paul had adopted or mentored a son of the faith, Timothy, who followed his earthly example of righteous leadership of the church, people he loved personally like a father.  Paul writes: 

     Timothy 1:15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. 

    16 However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

    Imagine: Christ Jesus came into the world to save you and me. How Personal.

    Imagine: The Father condemning His only Son to the suffering and Sacrifice of the Cross for you and me. How personal.

    And imagine the confidence we have knowing that the Father will send the Third Person to His obedient children in the HOLY Spirit who follow His Son our Savior.

    (Imagine Paul writing to Timothy about his Personal God… imagine me, a step-father to David writing about our Personal God… Imagine God your Father sending the Holy Spirit to you.

    +

    Our Father will always be Personally with you IF you will call on His Son Personally.  Christ Jesus.

    God will do much more than just watch over you, as He watches your every game (mine too).

    Remember, our Heavenly Father, His Heavenly Son and His Holy Spirit all want to hold us very near.

    “God’s love for us is Very Personal.

    1 Tim. 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.