Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: Matthew

  • Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    Rest for the wicked; hope for the weary

    It so happens as the Lord had planned it that the launch of http://talkofJesus.com -+- CHRISTIAN SOCIAL WITNESS coincides with the American holiday: Labor Day.  We will have picnics, parades and some much-needed family time.  No school.  Post offices, banks and many not-so-greedy businesses closed to give their employees a rest from their labor – something all of us need at times.

    A prior post began with this same thought. It is about Sabbath rest – a related, but different reference to the word of God in the Bible.  We’ve likely heard the expression:

    ‘NO rest for the wicked and the good don’t need any.’

    NOT true; NOT Biblical.

    We ALL need rest and we all need work.

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    American’s inherited this Labor Day idea of rest though the long-standing culture of the King James Bibles so much apart of our Christian heritage.  The original call for rest comes from Jesus.

    “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Matthew 11:28

    At one time Americans realized the importance to honor God through our labor and to honor labors as God’s own workers.  Sadly, in a 21st c. America (or Europe, Asia or any other place) we don’t get that, do we?  (Jesus tells us why – which I will reveal in a moment.) The world has two approaches to labor:

    Work hard for your SELF. (More work, more reward: right?) God doesn’t really need that “offering AND tithe” to honor Him — after all, the Government gets plenty of our required monetary support.  Our Country will take care of us.

    OR

    I don’t need to labor because Uncle Sam* takes care of me and will always help me.

    *  ‘Americanized’ personalization of our impersonal ‘representative’ Government.

    God never intended for ANY to have a rest from the work they will NOT do.  (We won’t go there today. That’s a different scripture.)

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    Getting back to talk of Jesus:

    The crowds had flocked to hear Jesus on the hillsides of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.  Jesus traveled from city to city on His northern tour.  Everywhere Jesus traveled, He was expected.

    Matthew 11: When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

    Imagine the excitement of the promised Messiah of God coming to your city.  Jesus was predicted by the Prophets.  Jesus was proclaimed by the greatest prophet their contemporary, John the Baptist.

    John was a ‘hell-fire and damnation’ kind of preacher: popular with the people, but imprisoned by the religious establishment.

    REPENT! And be baptized (changed permanently). Cleanse your sins before you must stand before the HOLY ONE.

    Yet our Lord is also calling the people of the cities to hear Him and obey.

    20 Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.

    Jesus? … Preaching ‘hell-fire and damnation’ like John?

    Read what He said comparing the disobedient to the people of Sodom.

    Come to Me, and I Will Give You Rest

    25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will…

    28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    What is Jesus saying about our labor?

    Jesus is illustrating a picture of manual labor.  He doesn’t say to just give it all to Him and He will take care of it.  (I’m not saying this about prayer.  We are talking ‘labor’ here.)

    • Take my yoke upon you a picture of the collar of two doing the work of one.
    • learn from me – a direct reference to learning from the example of His life.
    • I am gentle and lowly in heart [Jesus is kind and humble. Have you learned this from His Perfect Example?]

    and [IF you will do this, according to our Lord]

    • you will find rest for your souls. 

    30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

    Jesus didn’t say ‘Take a break and I will do it all for you.”

    Jesus actually called out the people who refuse to repent and listen to Him for their wickedness.

    Our Lord knows how weary we become in this world.

    Do we remember: disobedience was punished in Eden.  Unpleasant work became part of our sinful heritage for having knowledge of good and evil.

    Jesus offers to share in our work in this world.

    Will you work with Him on that?

    Though we are wicked sinners

    Because of the Cross of Jesus 

    Weary laborers have hope.

    Come unto Him.

  • Look For The Good In People! – by Darrell “Coach D” Andrews

    Look For The Good In People! – by Darrell “Coach D” Andrews

    Unlike any time in modern history, people seem to focus on and highlight—the bad in people. Politicians now run their entire campaigns not on what they can do to fix things, but the faults of their competition. Many of the reality shows are rated and considered a success, based upon the vitriol people can spew about each other. I recently watched a cooking reality show and the chefs were bashing one another! I certainly will not eat at their restaurants! Lastly, I remember being in a Church years ago where the Pastor used to make jokes about a certain denomination for their still way of worshiping God. They were not overly emotional in their workshop so he called it, “The Church of the Chosen Frozen.” Yes, this even happens in ministry.

    My message to you today is not long, but please, try to look for the good in people. It is so easy to fall into the world’s system of negative thinking and fault finding, but work to do what the scripture says in Mark 12:31, “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Notice the scripture did not say you have an option to do this. It tells is that we “shall.”

    Fault finding most happens in families. In particular marriages. Some marriages grow cold and stale because someone is holding on to something to hate the other for. Something they said or did. The spouse can be doing 99 things right, but the other looks at the one wrong—and holds the other spouse hostage in their web of discontent. This is a tragedy when God tells us the opposite in Mark 12:31. This is why so many relationships end in divorce. Some parents do this to their kids, and kids to their parents. Some family members have not spoken in years due to faults they find in one another. A lifetime of disconnect, due to something they disagree with.

    Today, choose to go against the grain. Practice loving they neighbor as thy self, especially in our families. The world has given us enough hate to view on TV, lets not carry this into our personal life.

    Remember, the scripture tells us “Love never fails.”   Is it possible we are where we are today as a nation and world due to a lack of it?

     

    Darrell Andrews Enterprises’ mission is to transform individual and organizational perceptions with the goal of improving individual and organizational outcomes.

    Darrell Andrews Enterprises is a strategic motivational speaking, training and coaching firm.

    Please pray for his work with families and communities and share your Christian Social Witness with your friends. – Roger

  • Intimacy of a Christian Friend

    Intimacy of a Christian Friend

    “Now you are my friends.”

    If there is anything I would commend to you, it is your value as my Christian friend.

    I have embraced the love of many throughout my life: family, my wife, our children, co-workers, neighbors, school-mates, team members,  club members, teachers, students, mentors, apprentices, bosses, employees, and many more.  I have included friends into parts of my life from each of these roles and relationships at various times, but none is so valuable as a Christian friend. But you, my beloved Christian friend, contribute more blessing than those who do not know Jesus Christ.

    “What is the difference between a true Christian friend and any other?  It is the intimacy of the love of Jesus Christ.

    Intimacy is valued only as a commodity by the worldly.  Intimacy is maligned to mean sexuality in a way that is not intimate at all.

    Where is the closeness of the relationships of family and friends of the world?  It is sadly lacking (for the most part), because we have so few friends we can trust who embrace the righteousness of Christ.

    Among the worldly, integrity of relationship is displaced by the hypocrisy of shallowness.

    (My indictment includes many shallow christians and all-too-often, my own timid relationship to Jesus Christ.)

    Who do you trust?  What friend will you lay your life down for?  What  time-tested faithfulness of your intimate friend  has such value in your life that you cannot live or die without this love?

    Intimate friends such as these… such as some of you… I have found ONLY within the intimacy of the church.

    My former wife (before the Lord took her) was part of these intimate relationships with our friends.  Our daughter has been part of the relationships with these intimate friends.  I have loved and do love many of you who were first part of a ministry, or small group, or Bible study, or the regular gathering of two or three in the Name of the Lord.

    I thank God for the intimacy of my friends who have seen to my needs in the most trying of times — you, my friends in Christ Jesus.

    Matthew 10: 16 “Look, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves… 21 “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. 22 And all nations will hate you because you are my followers…

    35 ‘I have come to set a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
    and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
    36     Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

    Jesus asked His twelve Apostles to go out and tell the world “the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” {v.6}

    His Twelve friends did what He asked.  

    Eleven would NOT betray Him.

    We need the intimacy of friends we can trust.  (Have you betrayed a beloved friend? Repent. Apologize. Return to our Lord.)

    True Christian friends have an intimacy of love for each other which resembles the love of Jesus Christ.  Your parents may not have it.  Your siblings and your cousins may not have it. Your spouse may not have it. Your children may have forgotten it. Those you work with and associate with may go about their obligatory relationships to you without ever sharing one word of compassionate empathy. And even your near friend, when self-interest steps in, may betray you to death.

    Christian friends obey Jesus as our Lord.

    John 15:

    12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

    13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves.

    Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.

    16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

    The World’s Hatred

    18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world.

     

    Yes, dear friend, it is the intimate friend who knows the heart of his friend… the friend who shares in the same Spirit of the love of our Lord and Savior, Who laid down His Life for all of us.  It is our Christian friend who has done what our Lord commands:

    “Love each other.

    Any friend of Jesus is a friend of mine, beloved.