Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: paul

Running from God – 5 – God pursues

Are you running from God?

Here we have Elijah sulking in victory and awaiting defeat under the shade of a broom tree.

We have heard the same Peter who would glorify Jesus and Moses and Elijah with a shrine, deny knowing Jesus when he risked imprisonment or execution for his confession of Christ.

We have even seen Moses, God’s hand-picked leader of Israel to lead them to the Promised Land, weary of the weight of leadership.

Yet God pursues victory beyond the focus of our vision and glory higher than the imagination of our defeat.

1 Kings 19

The Lord Speaks to Elijah

⁹There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him,

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

¹¹And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.”

And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord,

but the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind an earthquake,

but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

¹²And after the earthquake a fire,

but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

¹³And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said,

“What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁴He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

¹⁵And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

WAIT a minute! Elijah, Prophet of Israel who God has used to prove His Almighty Power over the false prophets and worshipers of Tyre and Sidon and places beyond Syria; Elijah, Prophet of Israel, who had thought his battle against Ahab and Jezebel was over (and that they would kill him); GOD commands Elijah to anoint a man Hazael as King of Syria!

Syria! NOT Israel, NOT Judah. Almighty GOD is anointing a King of Syria; as before Moses, God had anointed a Prince of Egypt named Joseph.

GOD is strategic beyond the best planning and foresight of man. As with Moses being succeeded by Joshua, God also appoints a powerful successor to the Prophet Elijah. And God also commands the defeated Elijah under the broom tree waiting to die to anoint the next King of Israel to replace his pursuer Ahab. (The fate of Jezebel she has prophesied on herself.)

[Previously, in 1 Kings 19:2 – “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” ] Of course Jezebel’s gods are nothing more than stone and wood.

GOD continues Elijah’s orders:

¹⁶And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. ¹⁷And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. ¹⁸Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Elisha later witnesses the Prophet Elijah taken up into heaven! Seven centuries later Peter, James and John would witness Elijah standing with Moses and Jesus talking about that which is to come.

And when Peter later denied knowing Jesus, God pursued him. Peter was witness to Jesus after the resurrection.

NO broom tree to sit under or cave in which to hide – Jesus walked along the road to Emmaus: God pursued Peter.

And providentially enough, not so much later, Jesus appeared alive once more to another Jew, an Apostle to the Gentiles. And where was it where GOD, in the risen Christ Jesus, pursued Saul, persecutor of Christians?

GOD met Saul on the road to Damascus, Syria!

Paul is witness to the risen Christ Jesus! A man from Tarsus (in Turkey) testifies JESUS IS LORD!

GOD is not ONLY the God of the Jews; GOD is the ONE GOD, over all who believe in Christ Jesus our Lord; any who will listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and return to the way of God’s will.

Not my will, but thy will be done. – Luke 22:42

Let us prepare for the return of Christ Jesus our Lord upon the clouds in victory.

Amen.

March 11, 2015
My love – 2 – Friendship

A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity. – Proverbs 17:17

[Eleanor Rigby] All the lonely people… where do they all come from?

Are you one of them (at least sometimes in your chaotic busyness)? I think we all are at times; yet not for a lifetime, I pray.

Can you think of any love more important and personal in those times when you need compassion, empathy and perhaps even an embrace of love? Is any relationship on the planet more necessary to you at that moment than the support of a friend?

History and the Bible retell many stories of the great love of friendship. Like the word ‘love,’ we have also cheapened the very love of friendship, philia, or brotherly love. Wisdom and the pens of poets caution us against ignoring, confusing or devaluing the true love of friendships God would put in our lives.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend;
profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:6

Has there been a Judas in your life? Yet the love of a friend loves you when you are wronged, embraces you with kindness and defends you in the battle of righteousness. A loyal friend holds near the double-edged sword of truth.

“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

The incalculable value of your friend is the faithful love of trusted relationship.

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. – Proverbs 18:14

Jonathan was such a friend to David, who would not have become King of Israel without him. Jonathan was a hero to Israel even before David slayed Goliath (many of us will not recall).

1 Samuel 13:3 Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.”

Jonathan, son of Saul, was in line to be King.

1 Samuel 17:

57 And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

18:1 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.

The high value of David’s love for Jonathan and the love of Jonathan for David is well-documented in the many encounters between Saul and David prior to Saul’s death and David’s God-anointed ascent to the throne.

Are you a friend like Jonathan to someone you love?

Jesus was a friend to His Apostles.

John 15

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Imagine, a friend and equal to Jesus! This is the great humility of God. This is the greatest love of all, that He makes us once more His friends and commands us to love each other.

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Friendship!

This love is the relationship of the church, modeled many times in the Acts of the Apostles and the letters. Perhaps a favorite early unlikely friendship is the one which brought Saul of Tarsus and Barnabas together as friends in the Lord. Here is the beginning of Saul’s story after seeing the risen Christ (you may remember):

Acts 9

Saul in Jerusalem
26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

Barnabas took Paul to Cypress to his home for their first missionary journey. When Peter heard of the gentiles receiving the Holy Spirit, the church sought out Paul, who would become known as the Apostle to the gentiles.

Acts 11

21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number [of gentiles or Hellenist Greeks] who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.

25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 14: Barnabas & Paul refuse to be worshiped as gods in Lystra after God performs a miracle through them.

And later, in Jerusalem:

Acts 15:12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

It is a lasting friendship, a faithful love, that blesses the life of a Christian (even that of an unbeliever, who my be won by your faithfulness to God).

The Letter of Paul to the Galatians:

2:1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.

My love, my friend: my dear brother, my dear sister in our Lord and savior Jesus Christ,

Do you have a friend you love in the Lord?

We should, in fact, have more than one love, a fellow like-minded believer.

Do you LOVE your church friend? Do you hear in your heart and soul the command of our Lord and friend, Christ Jesus?

To be continued

February 6, 2015
Prayer Warrior?

NO! I am no prayer warrior. So what did I do? I doubled the size of my prayer list.

I identify with Simon Peter.

… he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” – Luke 5:8b

I understand the great remorse and unworthiness expressed by Saul of Tarsus found in Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth:

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 1 Corinthians 15:9

He is the same Apostle who instructs the church at Thessaloniki: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. – 1 Th 5

and

25 Brothers, pray for us.

No. I am no ‘prayer warrior.’ Look at my life and see how ineffective my many fervent prayers have been in the lives of those I love most, even in my own family, even in our marriage bed. God’s great silence seems more than, ‘Not yet.’ Job’s call of ‘answer me’ seems unheeded in my life. Though I await the storm clouds billowing and the Voice of Righteousness to ask me, ‘Who are you to ask this prayer of me again and again and again?!’ – though I cower beneath the broom tree and hide in the press of life’s defeats, I pray. I pray for these and I pray for me.

And I will pray for you.

Just ‘Comment‘ and ask.

(I read & moderate all Comments. If you prefer not to post publicly, just begin your comment & prayer request, ‘Private.’ )

– Roger Harned, author & site administrator

To be continued…

January 28, 2015