Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: love

  • As in the days of Noah

    As in the days of Noah

    Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27

    While our lives and attentions become entangled in worldly affairs: politics, news, entertainment, sports, gossip, shopping, empty relationships with thankless individuals, online social contact, cell phone texting and numerous other distractions awayfrom God Almighty, our Creator and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: God IS.

    Yet do we bow down for even a moment in our hurried days of this futile flesh?

    2013, in the year of our Lord, may be a time for Christians to look forward to a time that will not be and years no longer numbered…

    This could be a time like any other when our time will end as do the mortal lives of all men.  You MAY have seventy (or perhaps a hundred years) OR perhaps the Lord will call for your death tomorrow.

    Are you ready to be awakened NEXT to the trumpet of the calling up for Judgment?

    Twenty centuries ago Christians were ready. Twenty centuries ago persecution of the church and the imminent fall of Rome would have seemed like a world near to Judgment. (And throw in some disasters of God like the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and a case for preparedness could well be made.)

    NOW, in the year of our Lord 2013, would it not be more prudent to hear the voice of Christ Jesus in our attitude toward preparedness for the Judgment and the end of the old earth?

    It doesn’t look like the end of the world is near.  It doesn’t seem like God is doing anything about the pervasive evil of this world and the lack of worship (even respect) of God Almighty and the Sacrifice of his only Son, Christ Jesus, for our sins.

    So it is and as in the days of Noah the world did not listen to God. Will you worship the Lord? (Don’t miss the boat.) 🙂

    2 Peter 2

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    False Prophets and Teachers

    2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

    4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

    Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

     Thus says the Lord: Beware.

    Beware of the days of much false teaching that would lead the elect astray.

    In these last days you will need no other ark than the Spirit of the Living God and the Cross of Christ Jesus our Savior.

    Mark 13

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Signs of the Close of the Age

    3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are about to be accomplished?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See that no one leads you astray. 6 Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7 And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. This must take place, but the end is not yet.8 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These are but the beginning of the birth pains.

    19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.

    The Coming of the Son of Man

    24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

    The trumpets of Heaven will then sound; but first, much tribulation, many false signs and false prophets, as were Muhammad and others.

    JESUS CHRIST IS. JESUS CHRIST is Lord. Worship Him. He IS God. Receive the Holy Spirit through Him. Receive life eternal and grace – the mercy, forgiveness and peace of God our Father in Heaven.

    For as in the days of Noah, so it shall be. Are you bowed down to the Lord our God and the Cross of our Savior?

  • A Higher Presence, a lower self

    A Higher Presence, a lower self

    I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. – 2 Corinthians 12:2

    I have let the scripture speak for the most part in this series of posts. In one brief summary from an earlier post:

    Worship requires the creature to bow down to it’s Creator.  The Apostle John records the worship of the living creatures. Man must also bow down to the Lord our God.

    Man ‘adam is that creature.

    Man: created by God in His own Image, the very Image of the Son of Man sent to us in Christ Jesus, the very Spirit given to whom He does choose created by Him, the One God Who sits on the Highest Throne of Heaven — man, you and I, must WORSHIP GOD.

    The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God – Joseph Hayden

    Psalm 19:

    The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.earth from moon

    2 Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
    3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.

    4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.

    What is the point of worship?

    God created.

    He created the heavens and the earth and the creatures of the earth.

    God created man ‘adam.

    Man must bow down to God.

    He created us to worship Him and love one another.

    Again, look to the true meaning of worship – shachah – 

     to bow down to God or before superior in homage

     

    Jesus also speaks of worship – proskyneō – in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication used of homage shown to men and beings of superior rank

    1. to the Jewish high priests

    2. to God

    3. to Christ

    4. to heavenly beings

    5. to demons

    Jesus said: John 4:23 

    But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

    Are you willing to bow down to God Almighty as a true worshiper?

    NOTHING you can do is worthy of ANY relationship with God.

    Yet the Cross of Christ is sufficient for you to be called into the Higher Place and eternal relationship of Perfect Love with God our Father in Heaven.

    Daniel and Ezekiel also gave words to the wordless and imagery to the indescribable place of Heaven and the Almighty God of creation. The Apostle John reveals an experience of being brought up to the Throne of the Living God, where the Apostle is given revelation of the completion of the days and the fulfillment of all scripture.

    It is a fearful place and awesome Revelation of what is to come!

    If you can image beyond the imagery of the describable, Paul’s attempt to describe the third heaven is something like this:

    1. We see through the first heaven of the blue atmosphere of this earth.
    2. We look into the endless and timeless black heavens at the stars and galaxies of creation.
    3. Higher than even this, God IS in a Third Heaven, a dimension beyond time and space and the created mind of man. He IS and was and will always be.

    God can and does show certain created men what man cannot know or comprehend.

    We are dust. We are a speck of sand on a vast sea of an incomprehensible creation.

    Whether from true Prophet or true Apostle, description of our lowly position, requiring worship of God and description of heaven is worth noting.

    What does it mean to ‘bow down?’ Paul describes it in relation to other men of God and to God our Father.

    2 Corinthians 10

    I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!

    7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.

    13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you.

    17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

    2 Corinthians 11: 30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

    2 Corinthians 12

    ESVEnglish Standard Version (ESV)

    Paul’s Visions and His Thorn

    12 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

    11 I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you…

    And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

    It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved.

    2 Corinthians 13

    He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

    5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

    No, Paul’s description is not of the Higher third heaven, but of the lower self. The Apostle describes a Power in Christ to which we have claim, and a humility of the Cross to which our Lord submitted even Himself, as He sacrificed His mortal life for the Immortality from which He descended to those He loved.

    The love of God our Father in the Place of the Highest Heaven is high above and well beyond the heights of our imagination and the depths of the understanding of our created mind.

    That God would die on a lowly cross for His created ones is a grace well worthy of our worship.

    Worship and bow down to Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen. 

  • Our Sin

    Our Sin

    Psalm 51

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

    To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

    4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.

    Mark 8:

    34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,

    “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it…

    38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

    Titus 1:16  They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

    2 Timothy 2:

    If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
    12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
    if we deny him, he also will deny us;
    13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

    God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

     

    John 13

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

    Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end…

    17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

    18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

    If you know our Lord’s commands, ‘blessed are you if you do them.’

    And if not blessed for obedience to our Lord who died for our sins on the cross…

    IF not blessed, then cursed. (May God have mercy on your soul.)

    One of You Will Betray Me

    21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you,one of you will betray me.”

    22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”

    You believe your sin is against me; but your sin is the adultery of Judas.JudasBetrayal

    I gave her time to repent, but she refuses… – Revelation 2

     John 15:12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

     

    Ephesians 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Walk in Love

    Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

    2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

    a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    Walk as children of light

    9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

    11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

     

    Wives and Husbands

    22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

    23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

    24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

    25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

    31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

    32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

    33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

    Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight…

    Forgive us, Lord

    by the fragrant offering of the Blood of Your Cross.

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