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Tag: Shaken series

  • SHAKEN 4 – His voice shook the earth

    SHAKEN 4 – His voice shook the earth

    Hebrews 12:

    Looking only at Jesus, the Leader and perfecter of the faith..

    The writer of the letter to the Hebrews encourages the saints of the church to look to Jesus Christ, the originator of all things and only Shepherd perfecting the faith of sons chosen by the Lord God.

    In SHAKEN 3 a great cloud of witnesses over our head we shared this call to perseverance: Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus.

    FAITH: Swear it upon your biggest BIBLE, mention GOD four times only and Christ Jesus not at all — faith in US?

    Does this ‘ONE NATION UNDER GOD’ claim faith without fear of the LORD?

    (But I digress..) Returning to the Bible:
    Exhortation from Hebrews 12:1-2 - SHAKEN! from a troubled 2020 election to troubled times: Joe Biden Presidential Oath of Office sworn on Douay-Rheims Bible (1899) of his Roman Catholic faith

    Do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord

    Nor faint when you are punished by Him – Hebrews 12:5b

    Speaking of those who would follow Jesus Christ as Lord:

    8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

    IN GOD WE Trusted

    In the days of Moses, David and some some other leaders, a chosen and blessed Hebrew nation had trusted God. Yet at times they became divided to trust each in his own ways.

    Some like Zerubbabel responded to the voice of God through Prophets like Haggai and repented (as we pointed out previously). Faithful saints suffered once more in a fading Empire of Rome, which persecuted both Jews and Christians.

    The writer to first century Hebrews asks the church to remain faithful to God in Christ Jesus.

    $20 bill

    Is the U.S. ‘one nation under God?’

    Or are claims of both divisions of this troubled PEOPLE no different from failing faith of a divided Israel and Judah?

    Hear more from the letter to the Hebrews.

    Warnings against Rejecting God’s Grace

    12 Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet…

    14 Strive for peace with all… that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled; 16 that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau…

    How are WE doing with this: our leadership United ‘under GOD?’

    Contrast of Sinai and Zion

    18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest..

    For they heard an awesome trumpet blast and a voice so terrible that they begged God to stop speaking.

    Hebrews 12:19 NLT

    21 (.. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

    The Unshaken Nation

    25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks.

    For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth;

    but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”

    .. the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—

    Is your soul shaken by this?

    Do you hear the Voice of the LORD?

    28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,

    Christian fish drawing gif
    and His voice shook the earth.. Hebrews verse and picture of earth from space

    let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
    For our God is a consuming fire.

    Hebrews 12:28b-29 KJV

    Pray that this ‘one nation’ under God may repent and unite with He Who Was and Is and Will be forever unshaken.

    Roger @ talk of Jesus .com

    Amen.

  • SHAKEN 2 “Think carefully about your ways

    SHAKEN 2 “Think carefully about your ways

    SHAKEN 2 of our 4-post series is an update of commentary on the January 6th crisis of 2021 following the insurrection and assault on Capitol Hill - a lingering malignancy which not-so-amazingly continues to shake the very foundations of freedom of WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES of America who must agaub think carefully about our ways.

    Think back carefully: Do YOU remember this recent history correctly?

    Capitol dome behind gate
    Trump State of the union address with Speaker Pelosi tearing up the President's speech text
    inciting disrespect for Government
    We hold these truths to be selfevident..
    “So help me God.”

    GOD & Government

    Although this series points to current events of the United States and the world, SHAKEN! is not a partisan political post, but a fleeting glace at government and the role of God in the leadership of nations.

    Our next post will point back to God and government at various times including this Prophet’s writings. So here’s the setting and time, NOT the US in A.D. 2021, but Persia in about 521 B.C., some 2500 years ago.

    Darius the Great was the third Persian King of the Achaemenid Empire

    About 50,000 Jews returned. In 536 B.C., they began to rebuild the temple (cf. Ezra 3:1–4:5) but opposition from neighbors and indifference by the Jews caused the work to be abandoned (cf. Ezra 4:1–24) – source: Commentary of John MacArthur

    • Where is the great City of David or the expansive Empire of Solomon of five centuries before?
    • Where is the rebuilt Temple of the Lord from the Book of the Law uncovered during the reign of a previous administration (of Cyrus and the Governor Nehemiah)?

    Prophecy of Aggeus (Haggai)

    In the second year of King Darius..

    בִּשְׁנַ֤ת שְׁתַּ֨יִם֙ לְדָרְיָ֣וֶשׁ הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ בַּחֹ֨דֶשׁ֙ הַשִּׁשִּׁ֔י בְּיֹ֥ום אֶחָ֖ד לַחֹ֑דֶשׁ הָיָ֨ה דְבַר־יְהוָ֜ה בְּיַד־חַגַּ֣י הַנָּבִ֗יא אֶל־זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל בֶּן־שְׁאַלְתִּיאֵל֙ פַּחַ֣ת יְהוּדָ֔ה וְאֶל־יְהֹושֻׁ֧עַ בֶּן־יְהֹוצָדָ֛ק הַכֹּהֵ֥ן הַגָּדֹ֖ול לֵאמֹֽר׃

    Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: This people saith: The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.

    Aggeus (Haggai) 1:2 DRB

    Darius the Great

    King of Kings
    Great King
    King of Persia
    King of Babylon
    Pharaoh of Egypt
    King of Countries

    Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Consider your ways!

    Haggai 1:5 NASB

    6 You have planted much
    but harvested little.
    You eat
    but never have enough to be satisfied.
    You drink
    but never have enough to be happy.
    You put on clothes
    but never have enough to get warm.
    The wage earner puts his wages
    into a bag with a hole in it.”

    7 The Lord of Armies says this: “Think carefully about your ways.

    WHY has this happened?

    Are theirs not the same questions as our political and religious leaders ask in these days of desperation?

    WHY has God allowed this?

    9 “You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?”

    This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

    “Because my house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

    So on your account,
    the skies have withheld the dew
    and the land its crops.

    Haggai 1:9b-10 CSB
    esile to babylon


    11 I have summoned a drought
    on the fields and the hills,
    on the grain, new wine, fresh oil,
    and whatever the ground yields,
    on people and animals,
    and on all that your hands produce.”

    What is the PEOPLE’s response?

    12 Then..

    • Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,
      • governor of the Achaemenid Empire’s province Yehud Medinata led the first group of 42,360 Jews who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the first year of Cyrus the Great, the king of the Achaemenid Empire. – source: Wikipedia
    • the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak,
    • and the entire remnant of the people

    .. obeyed the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him.

    So the people feared the Lord.

    That was their response to the Lord God.

    Yet what answer now from ‘the entire remnant .. of the people’ from US?

    Washington DC mall

    God responds to righteous fear

    Haggai 2 – Encouragement & Promise

    3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn’t it seem to you like nothing by comparison?

    Remember Zerubbabel their governor, the high priest Joshua and all of the people obeyed the Lord their God and therefore ‘So the people feared the Lord.‘

    The Lord’s declaration:

    • 4 Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel
    • Be strong, Joshua
    • Be strong, all you people of the land..

    Be strong, all you people of the land—this is the Lord’s declaration. Work! For I am with you—the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

    5 This is the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit is present among you; don’t be afraid.’”

    The LORD Who Leads

    Can you imagine WHY the LORD God would restore a broken nation whose LEADERS OF GOVERNMENT AND WORSHIP had not led ALL of the PEOPLE to repentance?

    In fact, Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the remnant of Israel once again bowed down in awe to the LORD, the God who had led them from Egypt and once again from Babylon.

    Yet hear the word of the Lord to US — for WE THE PEOPLE are a stiff-necked and rebellious people led by winds of wantonness and words of wrath which stand upon our own strong wills.

    For the Lord of Armies says this:
    “Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
    I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the Lord of Armies.

    Haggai 2:6-7 CSB
    To be continued... Shaken 3 - surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses
  • SHAKEN ! PRAYER IN DIFFICULT TIMES – Psalm 60

    SHAKEN ! PRAYER IN DIFFICULT TIMES – Psalm 60

    The following 4-post series is an update of commentary on the January 6th crisis of 2021 following the insurrection and assault on Capitol Hill - a lingering malignancy which not-so-amazingly continues to shake the very foundations of freedom of WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES of America. 

Have WE prayed to the God in whom 'we trust' in these difficult times? OR have we led the PEOPLE against God in the difficult times of these past two years destined to continue?

    I have taken brief pause from my January 2021 series to weigh what tears at the hearts of mortals in this world. Today I am introducing next week’s topic – Shaking by the LORD God.

    So now on this hallowed ground where just a few days ago violence sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.

    Joseph R. Biden Jr. – 46th & current president of the United States since 1/20/2021
    Jan 15, 2021 – 51 sec

    YOU have made the land quake

    God bless America is a frequent prayer of Christians, but the prayer of difficult times must be, "America, Bless God!"

    AMERICA, bless GOD

    Psalm 60 – PRAYER IN DIFFICULT TIMES

    God, you have rejected us;

    you have broken us down;

    you have been angry. Restore us!

    You have shaken the land and split it open.

    Heal its fissures, for it shudders.

    You have made your people suffer hardship;

    you have given us wine to drink

    that made us stagger.

    ‘I am going to shake H7493 the heavens and the earth.

    Haggai 2:21b – Strong’s – רָעַשׁ

    READ HOW: next in SHAKEN 2 , surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

    May America bless God. May the Nations bless God. May the People acknowledge GOD as one nation. One nation.. under God.

    To be continued, God-willing...