Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: spirit

  • Crushed

    Crushed

    Let’s get something straight:

    You are not good enough for Heaven. I am not even good enough for my church, my wife or my child.

    If we cannot do enough good works to earn our place with a Holy God, how will we ever pay what we owe for our many sins?chained to sin

    Answer:

    We can not.

    No work we can do is good enough to pay the high price of our sins.

    Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and many others sought to reform church leadership. Those protesting rejected sacramental penance of man for the true repentance of a man’s heart won back to God.

     

    For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

    Ephesians 2:8

     

    Why did the LORD send Jesus to the Cross for my sins?

    A most unattainable thing about goodness: We cannot attain it. We will always trespass. We will always sin.

     

    Romans 7:

    crushed by guilt15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

    18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

    19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

     

    The Scriptures foretold of the coming of the Christ, who IS in the Person of Jesus.

    Around 700 B.C., the Prophet Isaiah [in chapter 53] described the Savior of Israel, the Redeemer of the world:

    He was despised and rejected by men;
    a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
    and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
    Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
    yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.

    But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
    upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.

    All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
    and the LORD has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

    Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;

    when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
    the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

    Isaiah 53:10

    What good work will your soul offer for your guilt?

    Mark 10:

    17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone…

    “… come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

    “Then who can be saved?”

    27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

     

    Are we good enough for Heaven?

    NOT without the grace of God by faith in Christ Jesus, alone.

    The generous philanthropy of the greatest foundation for charity to all the causes of good can not buy Heaven and eternal life for even one unrepentant sinner without the grace of faith in Jesus Christ.

    GOD gave breath to your spirit, formed you in your mother’s womb and calls you to a life by faith in the Spirit.

    Fellow sinner, when will you repent of your many sins?

    Are you not crushed by your sins when your mind is convicted in guilt and no good work will lift the burden from you? Do you still consider that another good work will pay the price of the Lord’s piercing and death for you?

    Confess your sin before Almighty God! Bow down your selfish will before Christ Jesus. Repent once more, dear fellow sinner. Turn back to the righteousness of our loving Father.

    For God intends for your brief journey here beneath the immeasurable heavens and timeless creation to glorify your Lord. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

    Let us confess that we among many cannot do good without the grace of God.

    We are saved by faith alone: in Christ Jesus, the only Son, One with the Father.

    Humble your failing flesh to guidance of the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ Jesus, eternal Judge of all mortal souls.

    crushed by guiltREPENT! Self-righteous sinner.

    Turn back to the LORD by faith in Christ Jesus,

    While it is yet today;

    Before you are crushed

    By sin and death,

    Before your good legacy becomes

    Another forgotten rotting vanity.

     

  • Until He Was Taken Up – 3

    Until He Was Taken Up – 3

    It’s evening. Cleopas and another disciple of Jesus have left Jerusalem, broken bread with a fellow sojourner in Emmaus. The risen Jesus is revealed in the breaking of the bread. They return to Jerusalem with the Good News.

    Luke 24:

    And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

    (Women have seen the empty tomb. The women ran to the Apostles Simon Peter and John with the Good News the empty tomb. They witnessed the empty tomb and embalming linens, then returned to their own home. Mary has wrapped her arms around her risen Lord, whose crucified body she had partially wrapped in the linens of death.)

    35 Then they (Cleopas and the disciple who had stopped in Emmaus) told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

    36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!”

    37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

    38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

    Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

    40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

    41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.

    44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

    45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them,

    “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

    48 You are witnesses of these things.

  • I was in the spirit

    I was in the spirit

    I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. – Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John [1:10]

    We interrupt our series on Psalm 119 for a message about prayer, the Holy Spirit and hearing from God.  God willing we will continue tomorrow, 28 January, in the year of our Lord 2014.

    Life in the Spirit

    8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…

    26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

    Luke 12:12 “… for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

    John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

    IF you attended church on Sunday, good for you; yet consider that not all who attend church are part of Christ’s church. Some are not yet saved (in our mortal timetable) and others will turn back to their hearts of stone forever until Judgment. We must consider the witness of our corporate worship and our prayer in church.

    Lord, I want to thank you and praise you for your salvation: for saving me, for Your own sacrifice for my own sinfulness. I thank you for the Cross of Christ Jesus and the Spirit of your Presence, which does comfort me from time to time (for I do not always listen, as I ought).

    IF I pray the prayer I have just prayed in private, it is my prayer to God – my part of a conversation in the Spirit with the Living God. IF I utter this same prayer in the company of believers (church), it becomes my corporate prayer of witness.

    Is it the same prayer?

    It is the same words, but not the same prayer; for my own life and soul stand before my brothers and sisters in the Lord and also non-believers among us as witness of the sincerity of my words (known only to God) or the motive of my proclaiming loudly in the company of believers the same.

    Personal prayer is an intimate conversation between you and God. Corporate prayer is a public proclamation to God before witnesses.

    Jesus tells a story of two men who went up to the church to pray. One prayed most publicly, as if his prayer thanked God that he was not like those who were not saved. His teachings were that he showed concern for others and for God, but his witness was that his only concern was to be seen at church. Another prayed so humbly he would not even look up to God from the holy place where he worshiped.

    Paul often prays for individuals both individually and corporately as a specific church (a named group of real people with real and specific needs for prayer and supplication). Paul’s corporate prayers have no hint of self-aggrandizement like the Pharisees.  (‘See how I pray as I should and how you likely do not pray?) Paul frequently asks for prayer for himself and his companions, but for the sake of Christ and for the Church. You can read more of Paul’s heart and example by guidance in almost any of his letters to the churches (the epistles). 

    Paul gives further instruction to the church as to corporate worship and corporate prayer. Some of our 21st century worldly ways have accepted as proper that which is non-scriptural and causes controversies unhelpful in building up each church and body of believers. Some christians will stand firmly on the shaky foundation of just a single verse of scripture (or two). I will not do that. Let the Spirit instruct you as to what is right for you and for your particular church.

    Some often heard in church ought to keep silent and others not heard in church ought to be heard from.

    I speak of the gibberish of prayer in tongues without interpretation, prayer for the stranger rather than for the near brother or sister in the Lord, and prayer for proud example of your personal witness (as if evangelizing the faithful in the place of worship). Again, I will leave it to you and the instruction of the Holy Spirit to help you in this (excerpted below).

    Pray for All People

    First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people…

    1 Timothy 2:1 alone is worthy of much more of your consideration and that of the worship leaders of our churches.

    8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling…

    11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.

    The proper culture of the centuries has been that a man is the head of the woman. Some use this to oppose women preaching and some to oppose women speaking in church or being part of church leadership. My observation is that too many wives are the heads of their christian husbands; some because they insist, but most because their husbands with not step up to bold witness in Christ as we ought. For Jesus said:  “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” [Luke 19:40]

    I, myself, have been guilty of both not speaking when I ought and more often guilty of speaking when I ought not. I have done what I ought not to have done and said what I ought not to have said. (Who is not guilty in these things?) I am poor example to any of one led always by the Spirit, failing in humility to Christ Jesus as our Lord (even IF I lift up my hands as if I am humble unto the Lord). Even now I find I must leave my gift at the altar because of unforgiveness, because I am not humble enough before the Lord to ask a sister for forgiveness seven times seven. [Matthew 5:23-24]

    Yet if I am led by the Spirit to pray or to speak or to sing or to raise hands or to kneel or to exhort or to teach or to preach, I will by the grace of Christ Jesus do what God would have over the will of every man or woman, mostly over my own will in obedience to His.

    • Let us not say, “Thus says the Lord,” when it is not the Lord who has said it.
    • Let us not presume to pray for unknown others as if we are priests and intercessors for the church; as if all do not have the intimacy of the Spirit near at hand and within the body of the Church.
    • And let us not cry out of our own need so much as we plea for it in private and as a church we plead for our beloved brothers and sisters near to us, drawing all nearer to the Lord God by prayer.

    I do not know, but the Spirit knows, what will build you up and what scripture may lift higher your corporate worship of Christ Jesus, our Lord. I leave it between you and the Lord.

    Prophecy and Tongues

    14 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit…

    4 The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church…

    9 So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 10 There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, 11 but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me. 12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.

    13 Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. 15 What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

    I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. – 1 Cor. 14:15b

    19 Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

    Therefore, beloved fellow believers and worshipers, let up worship the Lord in holiness. Let us pray and sing and worship corporately as just one stone next to others of the same Temple, singing and praying in thankfulness for the Cornerstone of our faith. Let us build up one another in Christ’s abiding love, faithful to those who will wait upon Him, praying without ceasing, and loving one another in the certain hope of our community of living faith to the witness of all the Lord leads into the church and all who gaze upon Christ’s Temple of His Church from the darkness of this world.

    I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day and so I was grieved over our many sins and especially my own. But thanks be to Christ Jesus for His righteousness and for the Holy Spirit of the Living God, Who comforts and guides. He hears our heartfelt prayers.

    Pray also for me, that the Lord would lift me up in the Spirit in loving witness to His way, His truth, and His most holy Life, given for us by His Blood of the Cross.