Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: salvation

  • Hansel and Gretel – 3

    Hansel and Gretel – 3

    IF you have NOT already taken time to watch the Hosea Movie of a previous post, it is related to this series and I recommend it. Watch it as a family, if possible (80 min.); especially your teens.

    Roger Harned

    DIVORCE! in the Bible is more a picture of our broken relationship with God, than a contemporary image of broken vows between broken people with broken hopes and broken families.

    The  truth of christian divorce remains a picture of our broken relationships with God.

    HANSEL & GRETEL – Chapter 3

    1 Samuel 15:23 KJV

    For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

    Saul was anointed by Samuel, God’s Prophet and Priest as King over God’s own family.

    How would you feel if once you were chosen by God and assumed that you would always be over God’s family; but then the Lord reveals: God rejects you?

    Hansel and Gretel witchGod’s judgment compares rebellion to witchcraft.  (Children know instinctively that the witch in Hansel and Gretel is evil.)

    The worldly reveling of Halloween month,  ‘natural’ cures, historic abuses and over-exaggerated images from our clouded past taint our Biblical understanding of witchcraft.

    Witchcraft – pharmakeia –

    Transliterationpharmakeia Pronunciationfär-mä-kā’-ä (Key)
    Part of Speechfeminine noun Root Word (Etymology)From φαρμακεύς (G5332)
    Dictionary AidsVine’s Expository Dictionary: View Entry
    Outline of Biblical Usage

    1. the use or the administering of drugs
    2. poisoning
    3. sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
    4. metaph. the deceptions and seductions of idolatry

     “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft…”

    “From the beginning it was not so…”

    Dearly beloved christian wife

    (any of a Christian husband),

    You know and quote well John 3:16;

    do you also quote Genesis 3:16?

    To the woman he said,
    “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
    Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

    In the beginning: rebellion.

    In the end times: rebellion.

    Yet our story of Hansel and Gretel does not have to follow a trail of breadcrumbs to see revelation of God’s love.

    To be continued…

  • Hansel and Gretel – 2

    Hansel and Gretel – 2

    IF you have NOT already taken time to watch the Hosea Movie of a previous post, it is related to this series and I recommend it. Watch it as a family, if possible (80 min.); especially your teens.

    Roger Harned

    HANSEL & GRETEL – Chapter 2

    DIVORCE! in the Bible is more a picture of our broken relationship with God, than a contemporary image of broken vows between broken people with broken hopes and broken families.

    The truth of christian divorce remains a picture of our broken relationships with God.

    Where is your commitment to your vow in the Name of God?

    Where is your commitment to your Lord?

    Where is your commitment to your husband and lord of your family?

    Where is your commitment to the children of your bowels (to borrow from a  KJV lesser-known depiction of a deeper nature of the womb or compassion)?

    Jesus said: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

    Pretty harsh words from our Lord.

    And what follows Jesus’ caution against divorce in Matthew 19?

    A lesson on the importance of children.

    My wife is a christian. She is NOT an unbeliever. I need not go into the difficult detail of our not-so-fabled pasts to say how our children of another husband or wife became step-children in our crumbling houses of gingerbread.

    The lesson for our Christian family relationships remains the same regardless of past circumstance:

    God is Father and Jesus IS Lord over every family.

    Rebellion of husband, wife or child is rebellion against Christ as LORD.

    The fear of a child, even in a house of faith, is well warranted.  Fear of our children as orphans as in the story of Hansel and Gretel is real.  Fear of our children as orphans as in Jesus’ mention of children immediately after His caution against divorce is real enough in our broken homes of this 21st century.

    Fear of separation from God for eternity ought to be the underlying motivation for ANY of our rebellion against a loving Father God and the blood of our redemption in Christ Jesus, His Son of the Cross.

    To be continued…

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 13

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 13

    “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…” echoed the near-silent words of the graveside.

    I thought of the stark contrast of the graveside scene to the love and glory of the depiction of Heaven in the little girl’s picture.  I smiled with joy.

    “Amen,” the words of the graveside service confirmed in my heart.

    They now seemed to be speaking to my soul, rather than to the clutter of noise in my ears and my thoughts.

    Everyone left the graveside. I watched as the casket was lowered… and then I left.

    +++

    It had always seems too difficult to glorify God on earth. We really do love our sin and hate God.

    Yet that day and one picture had changed everything.

    Jesus was now real. Jesus was now: God in the flesh — flesh and blood, broken and shed for me. His love even for a sinner like me.

    I thought of the picture of Jesus carrying a lamb.

    I thought again of the weightier significance of a childhood song:

    Jesus loves me

    This I know

    For the Bible

    Tells me so.

     I am weak

    But He is strong

    It’s for His love

    That I now long.

    I think the kid’s verse is different, but this is what I was thinking.  It’s what I was singing in my heart.  And I had His joy – like a lamb warmly held in His arms.  I was safe from the world now.

    Jesus loves me, this I know… and I had a little girl to thank… a little girl with a picture of heaven.

    +++

    Conclusion to follow tomorrow; but in case you missed any chapters or want to SHARE: 

    A Picture of Heaven – prologue.