Talk of JESUS .com

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  • 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.

  • And Walk in Love

    And Walk in Love

    Some may be familiar with the song: Footprints in the Sand.   Many of us are familiar with the comfort of the poem: Footprints in the Sand.  The poem speaks of the comfort of our Lord, Christ Jesus, during those most difficult times when we thought that we were walking alone. The poem was likely inspired by a sermon of Charles Haddon Spurgeon –  THE EDUCATION OF SONS OF GOD. (The link to it’s opening paragraph is well worth your consideration and prayer.)

    The test of Spurgeon’s sermon is Hebrews 5:8 KJV

     “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered

    Yes, we are all comforted at times from this application of the letter of Hebrews to our personal suffering.  We may wipe away a tear of loneliness and defeat in eventual memory and thankfulness that Christ Jesus IS always with us.

    Yet lately, not only was I finally comforted by this thought, but through conviction of the Spirit I have thanked the Lord for small ways He might use me to comfort others.

    Worse, I realized that I often thought that I walked alone because I never reached out to hardly anyone with this same love of our Lord, the One always carrying me and leaving footprints in the sand of many lonely places.

    I’ve sat with hundreds of my neighbors at almost every football game for the last two years.  I have lived in this small PA town for six years.  I see many nameless faces in the grocery store, at our community food bank, at the Borough Hall shelter after a last year’s hurricane,  and even almost every week at church.  

    “Who is my neighbor?  I have no idea.  

    After walking just a little in Jesus’ love, as if He were using me to walk with another, I became convicted even more.

    I am no different than someone who does NOT know Jesus.  I have not bothered to engage their souls in relationship in the same loving way as our Lord did for so many on every unexpected occasion. 

    Ephesians 4:17-5:2 excerpts:  17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

    18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

    19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

    20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—

    30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

    32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

    “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    Dear Lord,
    Forgive me. 
    I have not imitated God.
    I have not imitated the example of God’s Son.
    Most of all I have NOT walked in love — agape — as Christ Jesus loved me.
    I have not sacrificed time for hardly any neighbor.
    ..
    “I have not sacrificed my love for others as a sacrifice to God — the same God who did sacrifice his Son on the Cross for me.
    Dear brother or sister in the Lord,
    How are you doing with that?

    When was the last time you reached out to your neighbor to help carry their hurting soul?  Are you also convicted?

    Matthew 25 excerpt:
    40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’  41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
    ..
    Show your thankfulness.
    ..
    “Leave some footprints on the heart of someone walking alone — someone much in need Christ Jesus to walk with them through the sands of this brief time.