Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: repentance

  • Stubble & Chaff – Repentance before the Lord

    Stubble & Chaff – Repentance before the Lord

    “Behold, I send My messenger,
    And he will prepare the way before Me.
    And the Lord, whom you seek,
    Will suddenly come to His temple,
    Even the Messenger of the covenant,
    In whom you delight.
    Behold, He is coming,”
    Says the Lord of hosts.

    Malachi 3:1 NKJV

    The prophesy is clear from Malachi, Prophet of the Lord in Judea of Persia, perhaps shortly before his death in about 486 B.C. History of the next five centuries leading up to another Prophet in the wilderness and the Messiah would be tough times for God’s chosen ones.

    What main course awaits Priests, Rabbis and a defeated people of Israel?

    Repentance!

    Malachi 3: ESV

    refiners-fire Malachi 3.22 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

    For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver…

     

    Surely the LORD can do this. He can bring repentance to the life and purity to the heart of any man. Yet how we resist: Priest (sons of Levi) or Rabbi (teacher), or common one who knows the Lord and continues in the impurities of sin.

    The LORD is going to send a fuller’s soap man to the Jews to purify their hearts and prepare the Temple.

    Malachi 3:5 excerpt I will be a swift witness against

    • the sorcerers,
    • against the adulterers,
    • against those who swear falsely,
    • against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages,
    • (those who oppress) the widow and the fatherless,
    • against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and

    “I will be a swift witness against … those who do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. Mal. 3:5

     

    A mere mortal would come along in time to accuse a Jewish King rightfully of adultery. He would accuse officials of the Temple and teachers of the Law of their leavening of God’s word. Like Prophets before and John the Baptist, who would follow five centuries later, Malachi warns that God requires repentance.

    7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.

    The Lord indicts us of our sin through the words of the Prophet Malachi. Note that some, not all respond.

     

    The Book of Remembrance

    16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

    Malachi 4:

    The Great Day of the Lord

    Malachi 4:14  “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

    sun of righteousness2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

    4 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

    5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

    Five Centuries Later

    Luke 3:

    John the Baptist Prepares the Way

    3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

    7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.

    As humble as the Lord Christ Jesus IS, born in a manger, baptized by John though He is righteous, and sacrificed on a cross for our sins; He IS King and Lord yet to return on the clouds in these last days to call up the dead to judgment and the living to new and eternal life.

    Repent!wheat-kernals-in-hand1

    Turn back to your Father, the Lord. Bear the fruit of righteousness, fellow sinner condemned.

    Or meet your Maker as He separates the wheat from the chaff.

    Even the Chosen of God and christians only claiming Christ are lost without repentance, a turning of our hearts back to the Lord our God.

    Isaiah 33:

    10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
        “now I will lift myself up;
        now I will be exalted.
    11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble;
        your breath is a fire that will consume you.
    12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime,
        like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”

    Are the warnings of God through the Prophets not more urgent to sinners in these last days?

    Therefore, repent! The Lord IS come.

    13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done;
        and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
    14 The sinners in Zion are afraid;
        trembling has seized the godless:

    “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?
        Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”

    To be continued…

    These messages highlight the scripture of the coming of the Messiah, Christ Jesus, Who IS and was and will always be. Prepare your hearts in this year of our Lord, 2015, for Christmas and for the day when the Lord will return.

  • He has put eternity in their hearts

    He has put eternity in their hearts

    It is no longer a question of God: God IS – and we all know it. Our question and quest for knowledge and power over our own lives and circumstances only asks: will I bow down to the eternal God?

    We have knowledge, near complete and inexhaustible. We have Bibles we refuse to read and evidence to which we turn our backs.

    God created. God judges. God punishes. God redeems. God forgives. God loves.

    And God has sent a Savior and Redeemer to the world in the Person of Christ Jesus.

    The decision is in the heart and response of each created being – each man; each woman.

    • Will you bow down to God the Father, Eternal Creator of all the world and all mankind?
    • Will you receive the love and sacrifice of God the Son in Christ Jesus; who IS and who was and who will return to judge your soul?
    • Will you open your heart of stone to God the Holy Spirit, turning from your sin and following the love of Christ’s example?

    God has put eternity in your heart. The world knows eternity and God, yet cannot accept the limits of each breath and heartbeat to sustain our soul, our mind, our failing flesh and crumbling bones.

    Loved ones

    gasp for breath,

    wait for the strength

    of another heartbeat,

    search faulty thoughts for

    what was once recalled,

    walk tenderly on bonesold hand

    once thought sturdy

    and measure days

    till the grave

    by mem’ries

    and dreams of our past.

    LORD GOD,

    will I finally remember

    old man in beret at graveeternity of my soul,

    saved for your love

    by your love,

    saved from just punishment

    for my many sins,

    by your own Sacrifice

    of Christ Jesus –

    will I remember

    the eternity you have placed

    in my heart

    before the end of the daysiv

    you have created

    for this failing flesh?

    God test us, that we may see that the end of our earthly days will be no different than animals, that in the end our ashes return to ashes and our dust to dust.

    Yet only man has a soul made in the Image of God!

    And only Christ Jesus lived as a sinless man in the Image of the sinless God of eternity.

    By the sacrifice of Jesus only – by the blood of Christ only – by the love and grace of God only do we yet have the choice for repentance from our sins and life eternal for our soul – life eternal without blame in the Presence of the love of God our heavenly Father; Christ Jesus who loved us even to the death and IS eternal for us in the resurrection; of the Holy Spirit who would even now break through the hardness of our heart toward the loving Father and bring our prodigal soul home forever.

    You may ask in these passing days of passing seasons, ‘Where have I heard that He has put eternity in my heart?’ How do I know that my soul lives life once and will sleep until the judgment?

    It is written in God’s Holy Bible. Have you read it?

    Do you read (in these passing seasons of your flesh) God’s intention and purpose for your remaining measured days?

    Ecclesiastes 3

    NKJV

    To everything there is a season,
    A time for every purpose under heaven:
    2 A time to be born,
    And a time to die…

    9 What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

    11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

    12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God.

    14 I know that whatever God does,
    It shall be forever.
    Nothing can be added to it,
    And nothing taken from it.
    God does it, that men should fear before Him.
    15 That which is has already been,
    And what is to be has already been;
    And God requires an account of what is past…

    17 I said in my heart,

    “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked,
    For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”

    18 I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals.” 19 For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity.

    20 All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. 21 Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?

    Christ Jesus said:

    I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

    John 12:46

    Do you yet live in the darkness of your sin? Or does your soul embrace the light of life in Christ Jesus?

     

    To everything there is a season

    A time to every purpose under heaven.

    A time for repentance

    Or a time of judgment,

    A time of sin

    Or a time of grace,

    A time of darkness eternal

    Or a time of light.

    I pray for your heart and soul to embrace the love and grace of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

    Amen.

  • A Temporary Throne – 11

    A Temporary Throne – 11

     CHAPTER 11

    DO YOU LOVE THESE MORE THAN ME?

    I knew the answer…

    YOUR SIN IS COVERED BY MY SACRIFICE. YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS MY OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

    “Thank You LORD!” I thought from my heart; yet surly the LORD heard my thoughts, as I was now aware that the LORD had heard my prayers.

    YET SIN CANNOT BE UNPUNISHED.

    Once again, in my thoughts (as I did not speak, but knew the LORD did hear):

    “My sin? No. Her sin! … And his sins… and his and hers…”

    As I thought, their faces came clearly to my mind. (The Lord would not have me reveal these to you by name.)

    THEIR SINS AND WICKEDNESS REMAIN NAKED BEFORE ME.

    Yes… For none had come to conviction or repentance for their separation from God. None would hear of Jesus Christ and the cross as reason to change their day to day lives. None would have anything to do with church or Christians or talk of righteousness through the Blood of Christ.

    All, though they are beloved family members, live for the day, while denying the Day of their Judgment.  It is true of dear of dear friends as well. These remain unbelievers by choice – rebellion against God and more so against Jesus Christ.

    Yes, I am a sinner, a terrible sinner; yet I lay my filthy sin before Christ’s cross.

    I need His love now more than ever. I need Christ’s love for ever.

    GOD SMILED, HIS EYES PIERCING ME WITH LOVE.

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.