Tag: Scripture

Scripture is the word commonly used for the Written Word of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.

TalkofJESUS.com would like to hear from you via your comments and questions on a NEW Series of brief posts in A.D. 2022.

Short Takes on Scripture – Tell us your thoughts about this brief quote from the Bible.

Sola Scriptura ! written on a blackboard (Latin for ''only scripture'
ONLY Scripture

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  • Follow After Me -3- The Holy Bible

    Follow After Me -3- The Holy Bible

    It is written…

    And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. – Deuteronomy 9:10

    All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV

    muhammed cave
    written from an angel
    Maya_dream_of_the_Birth_of_Gautama_Siddharta
    written from dreams

    A man comes up to you and claims, ‘I have a new doctrine, a new teaching. It was given to me by an angel in a cave.’ Would you follow him? Would you believe him?

    A different man tells you, ‘I have a new doctrine, a new teaching. It was given to me when I sat alone on a mountain.’ Would you follow him? Would you believe him?

    Wouldn’t you ask a man who would lead you to death for proof of his doctrine and teaching? Wouldn’t you ask a man making a claim of royalty and promises for the after-life for independent proof beyond dreams and visions?

    In fact, Jesus IS the Christ of the Living God! When Jesus came to us, our Lord and Savior not only worked miracles by the Hand of God, Jesus pointed always to Scripture.

    He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” – Matthew 21:13 ESV

    Jesus was challenged by not only Satan to prove He IS the Son of God, Christ was challenged continually by the Jews, who asked him,

    “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

    Our Lord answers always with additional proof from the scriptures.

    • And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
      “‘This people honors me with their lips,
      but their heart is far from me… Mark 7:6
    • And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ – Mark 14:27
    • and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead… – Luke 24-26
    • It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— – John 6:45
    • In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. – John 8:17

    Some make false claim to know what God has said, who God is and how God would have you use your mortal life. They may speak of a peace in death or a present leading to death for their cause…

    Do you follow these who would claim to know God better than you from ancient and unreliable myths never proven true? Would you bet your eternal life on their self-serving temporal claim of a mere mortal man?

    Hebrews 9 English Standard Version (ESV)

    The Earthly Holy Place

    Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness

    12  he [Christ] entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

    26b But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

    27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

    28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

    +

    hawking calculationWe will face, though we would deny it, a day of our mortal death. We will face, though we justly fear it, a day of our eternal judgment. And let us not think that any calculation of our own can alter the plan of Almighty God.

    Job 10:

    “I loathe my life;
    I will give free utterance to my complaint;
    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
    2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
    let me know why you contend against me.
    3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
    to despise the work of your hands
    and favor the designs of the wicked?

    18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
    19 and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.

    20 Are not my days few?

    Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
    21 before I go—and I shall not return—
    to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
    22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
    like deep shadow without any order,
    where light is as thick darkness.”

    +

    Now I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, “What shall I do to be saved?” – John Bunyan, from The Pilgrim’s Progress

    I saw also that he looked this way, and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go. – Bunyan

    14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? 

    I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. – Ezekiel 22:14

    To be continued…

    NEXT: Evangelist

  • What do I do with this? – Grace

    What do I do with this? – Grace

    ‘Grace’ is a continuation from the ‘Law.’

    The Law convicts us of our sinfulness.

    Some leaders of God’s people and teachers of God’s word use the Law to convict ALL of our sinfulness. (And well they should; for who among us is without sin?) Yet those who have no regard for GOD have no regard for the Law of God.

    Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? – John 8:46

    Pharisees asked Jesus questions in many attempts to convict the Son of God of sin. Yet only Jesus Christ lived a life without sin.

    What about the rest of us? Who can God accept as sinless?

    God’s answer to our conviction by the Law is the redeeming grace of the sacrifice of Christ.

    2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV

    All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

    +

    Do we use scripture like the Pharisees to convict only? Or unlike most men, do we not only convict ourselves and others of our sin but also show how God has forgiven our sins?

    Are YOU a sinner? (I sin.) Then we need mercy or we cannot live in the love of a Perfect loving God. We are unable to live a Christ-like life. We are sinners forgiven.

    God instructs us in scripture to make us more God-like, a more perfect image of Him. God instructs us through scripture just like a loving father teaching his beloved children. Even the Law of the Father is foundation to the instruction of the obedient child, yet a loving father instructs also in our failings.

    What father does not teach and rebuke his own sons and daughters? What father does not correct and instruct his own children in the righteousness of more abundant life?

    Instruction is the whole training of a child (or adult); not just in school, not just by a teacher, not only by our parents. Correction by our heavenly Father is a redirection back to the Law and the will of our Father who loves us dearly.

    Instruction by God is given in scripture for all who would be children of the Living God.

    We are convicted in the heart: I am a terrible sinner, always turning from the ways my loving Father intends. We need God’s fatherly love even though we reject our Father’s instruction of scripture.

    Can you see the love and compassion of our heavenly Father in sending the loving Son, Christ Jesus, to the Cross to pay the price of your sin and of mine?

    God our Father has shone us not only mercy for our sins, but His grace of abundant love and eternal life.

    What is grace? It is favor and acceptance we do NOT deserve. We are more than accepted by God our Father; we are loved in the fullness of His grace.

    Who would not desire the kindness, the compassion, the gentleness of Jesus?

    Would all mankind not be more god-like if only we would mirror the image of Jesus?

    We sin. We break the Law. We trespass to that place where we do not belong in God’s will. What should we expect? Punishment.

    What if we are caught (by the living God who knows all things)? What if we will come to His judgment at the last day or at the day of our inevitable death? What will GOD have to do to cover our sin we sometimes try so hard to hide from others?

    What if our eternal soul must suffer for our mortal sins of this brief, measured life? What does the Law require?

    GOD did not require grace for you or for me. God required a price to be paid for your sin and for mine. By His own love God paid the Court of Judgment everything just for the love of your soul.

    For the love of our souls Christ died on the Cross that we might have eternal grace and unending love.

    Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. – Hebrews 4:16

    For the sake of Christ’s love, God’s very mercy sacrificed for you, accept the reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness by our heavenly Father; for your soul is sought by His eternal and overflowing love for you and for me.

    Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. 2 John 1:3

  • What do I do with this?

    What do I do with this?

    All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

    2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

    Daily we must remind ourselves that God IS. Daily we must recall that Jesus not only died on the cross for our sins (and oh so many of them), but that Christ rose from death in the body and spirit and Christ Jesus IS. Daily we must seek relationship between our living spirit breathed into us by God with the Holy Spirit sent to us as our counselor by Jesus. The Holy Spirit of the Living God near to our soul, IS.

    All of this seems well and good as we carry our Bibles into a worship service or open the Bible in the privacy of our homes. Yet once we return from worship or Bible study we encounter the woes and trials of everyday life, the challenges of everyday relationships.

    Don’t we ever-so-briefly ask of our Bible verses and stories: “What do I do with this?”

    Bible“All Scripture is God-breathed” or “All Scripture is breathed out by God.” or “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”

    We know it. God said it. But what do we do with it?

    Think of our everyday life as a brief journey to a place of which we have only dreamed.

    How do I get there? (I don’t even truly know where I am now?)

    I know God wants me in a different place today than where I failed so miserably in sin yesterday. I am lost and have no GPS. In fact, once I leave church or the security of home (though I know this place is a brief shelter for this breathing, decaying flesh of mine), I not only have not sense of God’s direction, I can not even find weak signal of God’s voice speaking direction into my daily life.

    Genesis 12:

    ur to haran to caanan mapNow the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

    So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

    Just suppose you have retired comfortably in your hometown or near to your family and making an amazing promise, GOD asks you to just pick up and move. Will you go?

    I have little understanding of Abram and his lifestyle millennia ago. Yet what same application do I see to my own life when it seems everything must change from how I have always seen my life?

    Everything must go forward in some new direction. How do I get there? Who will help me along the way? What will I find in this new place? I am blind to any knowledge of the challenges ahead, the place where I will go and what I will do when I get there. (And what does Abram have to do with me in this fast-paced life even two millennia after the Cross of Christ?)

    Again scripture provides an answer and encourages us to apply scripture to our every day life.

    Galatians 3:4-6  Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

    7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

    Sure, I can teach someone scripture or sit under some teaching to the church which I like; but can I apply to the lesson of my life the Voice of the Lord’s Spoken Word?

    If God asks me to leave everything behind for the unseen promise of hope, will I have the faith of Abraham to hear and obey the voice of the LORD?

    How many times has the LORD asked you to do something after you were in the comfortable place?

    Or again, how many times have your own misguided plans brought you to your knees before the LORD asking, ‘Where did I go wrong? What do I do now… Lord? Where do I go with this? Show me the way… please… Lord?’

    And ALL is silent… No answer. And again we cry out to the LORD.

    And the Lord is faithful in His answer. Yet we do not like it. It is not the ‘comfort’ we expected. In fact, it makes us even more uncomfortable and will require even more faith than we believe possible – faith to ‘believe God’ and have it counted as righteousness.

    What next? (Isn’t that always the question from the comfortable place or the house of desperation?) What next, Lord?

    To be continued…