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Tag: saul

  • What Must I Do?

    What Must I Do?

    So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

    Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” – Acts 9:6 NKJV

    Have you had a personal encounter with the Living God?

    Saul, an enemy of Christ, religious zealot and persecutor of true followers of the Way (the Apostles and others) encountered the risen Christ. Saul was a stumbling block to those who would claim Jesus as our Lord and our God.

    Saul of Tarsus’ encounter with the risen Christ is no less significant than an earlier encounter of Moses with God in the burning bush. This man, a leading disciple of the Temple is zealous for God; yet before this personal encounter Saul was galvanized against the risen Jesus, God Incarnate.

    Saul comes to the unknown: as Moses approached the unknown and as we each approach God in faith; for God has drawn us into His Presence. We have come from our place of complete understanding onto the Holy ground of marvelous mystery.

    God IS. Jesus IS.

    Now what must I do?

    Saul had asked the risen Jesus at this moment the obvious question: NOT just, ‘what are you?’, but, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

    Saul had finally bowed down in humility to Jesus Christ, Son of God. Saul in worship finally bowed down in humility as we we all must at the moment we encounter Jesus as ‘our Lord.’

    Acts: 9:4 ESV And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

    5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”

    And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

    “Who are you, Lord?”

    Is that what you ask of Jesus now that you have met Him?

    Lord, ‘kyrios’: This ‘relationship‘ between Jesus and a ‘Christian’ believer and follower is used over 100 times in the Acts of the Apostles. This relationship of Jesus as Lord is to show you, dear brother or dear sister in the Lord, and to show me Who Jesus IS and who we are to become in our relationship to Him as our Lord.

    Outline of Biblical Usage
    he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
    the possessor and disposer of a thing
    the owner; one who has control of the person, the master
    in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief, the Roman emperor
    is a title of honour expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master
    this title is given to: God, the Messiah

    Before we bowed down to Christ as our Lord we were stumbling blocks to those who would believe, yet witnessed in us how Christ was NOT our Lord.

    Do you, who believe in the resurrection of Christ Jesus now ask: “What must I do?”
    • Jesus was: before He was born of Mary.
    • Jesus was: before He was crucified on the Cross
    • Jesus was: as He appeared in His broken flesh to the Apostles
    • Jesus was: when you were born
    • Jesus IS: in this very moment and place
    • Jesus IS: when your flesh must die
    • Jesus will BE: in the resurrection of souls for ALL time and eternity!

    What must we do, Lord?

    The answer of Christ is as individual and personal as our new relationship with Jesus as our Lord.

    For Saul who would become known as Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, the answer was clear and specific:

    Acts 9:6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

    7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

    9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

    When we first encounter our risen “Lord,” we may also be blind. We will be told what to do.

    IF Jesus is your Lord, take HIS hand and allow your new Lord to lead you into the city of faith.

     

     

  • 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…

  • Why Not Saul?

    Why Not Saul?

    The scene above is much later in life after the Lord has rejected Saul as King and he asks a witch to speak with the dead Prophet Samuel. 1 Samuel 28

    It’s too late. The die is cast. What happened? How did Saul lose favor with the Lord?

    Earlier (before it was too late)…

    1 Samuel 15:1 One day Samuel said to Saul, “It was the Lord who told me to anoint you as king of his people, Israel…

    The Lord Rejects Saul

    10 Then the Lord said to Samuel, 11 “I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has refused to obey my command.”

     Consider that you may be anointed by the Lord, yet later rejected.

    In just ten verses of 1 Samuel 15 we witness both the anointing and the rejection of King Saul. The Lord had chosen Saul to lead his chosen people.  All seemed to be going Saul’s way as the anointed King of Israel; but then the Lord rejected him.

    Why would the Lord anoint a King and later reject him?  Why not Saul?

    The indictment of the Lord against Saul is much more serious than we would imagine.  It seems that in victory, what Saul explains away as a simple misunderstanding is inexcusable in the eyes of the Lord.

    From the time the Lord had led the Hebrew people out of Egypt they had demonstrated their stiff-necked resistance to doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord; so why such a harsh penalty for Saul for just one act of partial obedience by His newly anointed King?

    Hear well Samuel’s reprimand of Saul from the Lord:

    Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

    OBEDIENCE. Now there’s a word we resist. Submission: BOW down to the will of GOD and NOT the will of your SELF.

    Some christians will proclaim grace again and again, before remembering repentance and obedience.  Yet sometimes God will reach the limit of his patience with us.

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    Saul Pleads for Forgiveness

    24 Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. 25 But now, please forgive my sin and come back with me so that I may worship the Lord.” 26 But Samuel replied, “I will not go back with you! Since you have rejected the Lord’s command, he has rejected you as king of Israel.”

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    Perhaps you would argue that this is the God of the Old Testament — God B.C. — God before the grace of the cross.

    Recall then, the disobedience of Ananias and Sapphira. God is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. (You recall it from Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.) Recall also that Christ Jesus said: “Before Abraham was even born, I AM” John 5:58

     GOD judged Saul — as God judged Ananias and Sapphira — as God will judge you and me — and as God will judge every claimant of Christ and every disobedient soul.

    So let us examine with more diligence the sin of Saul by which he lost his anointing by God. Listen! Obedience… (I’m sure we get the idea.)

    Submission: that is, bow down to God’s will in place of your will of SELF. Hear the warning of 1 Samuel 15:23

    23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.

    What does it mean for you to say: Jesus Christ is LORD?

    Are you a stiff-necked rebel?  Judas was a rebel.

    Do you worship something other than the Word of God? Like Saul, do you build monuments to your SELF?

    Money? Power? Position? Status?

    Are you stubborn for your freedom to do whatever YOU wish?

    IF so, you worship idols.

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    In these last days and in this season of much false worship, let us not overlook the comparison of the Lord that rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft.

    Let’s not overlook the dark nature and 21st century reality of witchcraft (so easily dismissed as fanciful myth by those too stubborn to worship God).

    Later Saul would consult a witch to speak to Samuel from the grave, as in the scene depicted above in the 19th c. painting by Edward Henry Corbould.

     

     What is witchcraft?  

    From the Hebrew in 1 Samuel 15:23 & other verses:  qecem – divination, witchcraft; 

    1. of false prophets

    The root word of the New Testament word for witch is: pharmakeus.

    False contact with the dead OR false prophesy OR false cures – drugs, vitamins, natural treatments of the earth for remedy to God — ALL prevalent in these last days.

    And the consequence of the sins of idolatry and witchcraft are well documented in the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John:

    Revelation 21:8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

    SO BECAUSE YOU HAVE REJECTED THE COMMAND OF CHRIST… (fill in the blank…)

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    You with ears to hear: Do NOT say, “Thus says the Lord,” when the Lord has not said.”

    Do NOT say, “I follow Jesus,” when you worship your SELF.

    Do NOT say, “I have given myself to Christ,” when you have held back your heart from the LORD.

    Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

    23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.

    So because you have rejected the command of the Lord…

     

     I pray that it is not too late for your obedience, submission and return to the cross of Christ Jesus, our Lord and savior.