Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: sister

  • Dearly Beloved

    Dearly Beloved

    If you think only of a moment of marriage vows for these kind words, think again.

    How can you claim a relationship to Jesus Christ when you will not witness by your relationships to other Christians that we are dearly beloved by you?

    Christ Jesus demonstrated a genuine love for sinners. (Do we not all remain sinners, even in Christ?) Yet some sinners do cling to an earthly love for temporal things, though Christ offers a clear choice to follow Him or be condemned to judgment.

    Jesus has genuine compassion for us. Yet His compassion is not enough to save you from Hell unless you embrace a relationship with Him.

    Dearly beloved, dear brother in the Lord,

    (Though I speak to you as a beloved brother in Christ, I include our sisters in the Lord also by my appeal.)

    Do you have love and compassion for other Christians? Do you care about those of your church – the body of Christ?

    Dearly beloved,

    Are you not beloved believers, near to the heart of our Lord?

    Yet how far removed from His love are your hearts of stone which reject fellowship with your fellow disciple.

    Who would Jesus embrace? Think of the example of His Disciples, those who gave up everything to follow Christ Jesus.

    Who acknowledges the love of Jesus by nearness to His love?

    The risen Christ had been asking Peter for the commitment of His love in leading the church after His ascension. Jesus had asked Peter three times: “Do you love me?”

    Following this, the Gospel records:  Peter turned around and saw behind them the disciple Jesus loved— John 21:20

    John will so embrace the believers of the church, evidenced by his witness, letters and Revelation. Yet the Apostle John also cautions believers to have relationship with Christ and not to claim Him only in Name.

    1 John 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

    7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

    we have fellowship with one another,

    and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

    The ‘disciple Jesus loved,’ who as a young Apostle reclined at Jesus’ side in the fellowship and communion of the Twelve, instructs the church to ‘have fellowship with one another’ – a relationship. John and Peter both frequently address believers as, ‘dearly beloved,’ as do Paul, Jude and the writer of Hebrews.

    Dearly beloved,

    Do you claim a relationship to the love of Christ Jesus?

    You who call yourselves Christians, why do you boast about your special relationship with him? [see Rom. 2:17]

    Dearly beloved,

    We must also embrace the relationship of fellowship with our beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord. You know the scripture:

    But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. [Romans 5:8]

    Do you neglect the call of righteousness which follows?

    So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. [Romans 5:11]

    Let us, dearly beloved, also rejoice in the new relationship with one another in Christ Jesus, our Lord and beloved friend.

    The beloved disciple, John, writes to us, the chosen, dearly beloved Bride of Christ:

    2 John

    I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth— 2 because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever.

    3 Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue to be with us who live in truth and love…

    5 I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning. 6 Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning…

    Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. 9 Anyone who wanders away from this teaching has no relationship with God. But anyone who remains in the teaching of Christ has a relationship with both the Father and the Son.

    Dearly, beloved,

    Remember the example of our loving Lord, Christ Jesus. Remember the example of love and fellowship witnessed through the Apostles of our Lord.

    Remember your relationship to our loving Lord by nurturing and embracing the relationship of Jesus’ unfailing love with one another.

    Dearly beloved, I pray for you.

    Pray also for me.

    Roger

  • Are You the One? – 2

    Are You the One? – 2

    Jesus to the multitudes

    Speaking of John the Baptist…

    Luke 7

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    26 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written,

    “‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way before you.’

    28 I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29 (When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, having been baptized with the baptism of John, 30 but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

    31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

    “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
    we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

    See the contrast of walking into two very different churches and hearing the complaints of the ‘worshipers.’

    33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’

    We will have only grape juice (and only on occasion).

    34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

    We will have wine (and every time).

    35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

    One preacher is loud; one is soft. One place of worship is grand; another quaint. One has an organ and a choir; another only one with a guitar. One place they kneel; in another they jump up and down and fall to the floor.

    And what do the multitudes say?

    Jesus is not John… and John was not Jesus.

    Perhaps they were pious before John, while they were joyful around Jesus. Yet they complained of John’s piety and Jesus’ lack of it. Two brothers of the faith; two sons of God — yet both were more than that.

    God has a family of his own children. The speech and ways of one child of God will win the heart of another, while a very different way of  witness will not win this soul.  Our brother or sister of the family of God may win a soul that we cannot.

    John and Jesus (even cousins) were so different in so many ways. And you are so different from me.

    Wisdom is justified by all of her children (and God has many children). The words and ways and witness of the children are important, each for different times, different purposes and different souls for the family of God; but it is the Father and the wisdom of the Father to which all must yield.

    Worship is not for the multitudes; worship is of the Father.

    Wisdom is justified by all of her children.

    John was one child of God (none greater, according to Jesus). Jesus was One child of God. They taught different. They had different purposes for our Father God.

    Some children were chosen for the family of God long before their birth. (Jews.) Some children were chosen by adoption into the family of God before we were conceived in the womb. (Gentiles.)

    I thank the Lord for my inclusion in the family of our Heavenly Father by His redemption for my sin. I thank God for all of my brothers and sisters in the Lord – the multifaceted family of believers who have eternal life in Christ Jesus.

    And the merciful and Almighty God is justified by ALL His children.

    God is NOT justified by those who refuse to worship Him and honor the Lord our God humbly as a child of God. Jesus, John, Peter, Paul, the Prophets have always pointed out that these are children of their father the devil.

    Consider for just a moment the individual living souls of two witnesses:

    Jesus was NOT John and John was NOT Jesus, yet both are children of the Father.

    I am NOT my brother Ed nor my brother Ken nor my sister Jenny. I am NOT my wife Lissette. I am NOT my father Bill nor my mother Marie.  I am NOT my daughter Rachel nor my step-daughter Ashley nor my step-son David. I am not even the same as any Christian brother or sister in the Lord.

    Jesus asks John’s messengers (and the multitudes) to stop comparing one child of God to another and to take no offense.

    Luke 7:23 KJV And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

    It is good advice for ANY brother or sister, whether in the Lord at this time or not.

    Do not be skandalizō by the teachings and miracles of your ‘brother’ Jesus or the right teachings of any child of God our Father.

    The religious ones and outwardly righteous ones in the crowds (as recorded in Luke 7:30) were scandalized by the teachings of Jesus.  The common sinners, tax collectors, drunkards and others (v. 29) repented when they heard John and changed their ways to continue to follow Jesus as their brother and our Lord.

    My dear brother; my dear sister; my beloved wife and beloved children:

    What is my message for you?

    Do NOT be offended by the teachings of Christ Jesus.

    What is the fruit of your witness?

     

  • Impersonal, Indifferent

    Impersonal, Indifferent

    Your Christianity is too impersonal for me, dear brother.

    Your claim of Christ is too distant from me, dear sister.

    Your cause of Christ is too narrow for me, dear born again believer.

    Your concern of Christ to me seems indifferent, dear spirit-filled singer.

    Your text is too convenient,

    Your facebook page too unfriendly,

    Your phone call too infrequent,

    Your visit too unheard of.

    Your life appears too pristine,

    Your sin is too much covered,

    Your love is too too distant,

    Your witness too self-affirming.

    If the Lord were here

    And I with Him,

    Would He say, “You have done for me

    As you have done for him?”

    Would we even know you, dear member of Christ Jesus?

    Matthew 25: 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”