Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: truth for life

  • Christmas Concert TODAY Christ in a Manger

    Christmas Concert TODAY Christ in a Manger

    I’ll be brief. The following is an audio from Truth For Life asking you to consider which part of the audience you are as we all participate in the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

    The text of our sermon is from Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia. (You may safely click on any link in this post or on the Truth For Life website also linked at the bottom of this post.)

    A Personal INTRO

    I would have been here early as a participant, parent, praise band player or orchestra member. The backstage minutes prior to the doors opening for the annual Christmas concert rush toward the time when the audience will be allowed to enter the church for the best seats for the Christmas pageant. Most of the crowd is early for this full-house spectacle.

    BUT WHAT IF

    Before you enter you had to choose ONE of THREE sections for the Nativity Program based on your faith?

    The key question YOU must answer (toward the end of today’s sermon) is this.

    WHY DID CHRIST COME?

    You cannot understand Christmas without Calvary.

    Alistair Begg

    SO before you enter the doors of our Christmas Story from the stage of our local church, please choose your preferred seating for the Christmas Story.

    Group number one

    (We have nearly unlimited seating for you.)

    Group number one has never trusted in Christ, and the reason they’ve never trusted in Christ is because they’ve never had the law preached to them. 

    Group number two

    The second group .. is made up of people who have had the law preached to them and need to understand the promise of God.

    (We have a smaller section of seats for you too.)

    Group number three

    Regrettably, we must seat the other two groups first.

    BUT LISTEN

    Alistair Begg will include this group too near the end of his brief Christmas sermon.

    This Talk of JESUS .com page will close when you click the link below:

    TFL – WHY GOD SENT HIS SON – PART 2

  • The Golden Rule

    The Golden Rule

    Read: Luke 10:24-26

    (Don’t miss the question which sets the stage of this most famous parable of Jesus.)

    Parable of the GOOD Samaritan

    A Democrat, a Republic and an Indian were going down from Washington to..

    NO, that’s not it.

    An evangelical christian, a jew and an Indian were going down from the Capitol to..

    NO, that’s not it either.

    What was the QUESTION of the Lawyer?

    Were you listening?

    (IF you don't know it or don't really care anything about the relationship between GOD and humans in need of charity, no sense clicking ANY of the links below.)

    ‘If you want a religion to make you feel good about yourself I certainly don’t recommend Christianity’ either, but that wasn’t the QUESTION by the lawyer to Jesus, was it?

    (For Christians, Jews, and everybody else)

    Facebook link below:

    https://www.truthforlife.org/broadcasts/2022/02/19/the-golden-rule-part-2-of-2–/?src=22SPBN0P&utm_campaign=2022%20Program%20-%20Social%20Media&utm_content=198236420&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&hss_channel=fbp-47823137261&fbclid=IwAR3WKvO-gZnJpjUpHqTa3ul6MURc02Hd4V6C1Aeght5SqK6ArGq5INp_P7k

    What if WE become the one by the side of the road?

    Who do YOU hope will ACT like the ‘Good Samaritan?’

    A personal application

    Near the end of this brief sermon Alistair, after bringing in politics and the like mentions ‘christians’ in rather contemporary terms, then mentions more serious ACTS of the church in earlier generations.

    Are we missing it, my fellow Samaritan?

    Next week Rochelle will be admitted to Christ Hospital for surgery. I ask your prayers for us, but also your consideration of why anyone would call their hospital by the Name of Christ.

    It was Jesus Christ who used the parable of the Good Samaritan as illustration of the question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’

    We could have chosen Jewish Hospital (aka Mercy Health), after all, we have some beloved and blessed Jewish physicians involved who practice at both. When I grew up in the Youngstown area patients with some of the most serious needs could be helped at Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital (named for a saint of the church, but now also owned my Mercy Health.)

    And yes, we could have chosen a local ‘Good Samaritan’ hospital

    Have you asked yourself lately:

    What must I do to live after I die?

    Read more above OR listen.

    Listen
  • A Foundation of Truth

    A Foundation of Truth

    My father was a builder when I was a boy. He and my uncle and the men who worked for them built houses from the ground up.  My dad could look at a piece of ground and survey it with his eyes and see a finished house. What just looked to me like piles of dirt being moved about progressed into a hole deep in the ground with leveling lines of string and cement blocks tapped with a hammer were set just so, one by one below the foundation of the house.  We watched these men set block by block on the dirt in the raising of a house over a strong foundation where they would walk on the dirt floor from room to room knowing the outline of what was to come.

    In many ways reading the Bible becomes a foundation to the foundation of truth. Daily devotional time with God becomes a leveling of all that seems out of kilter in our lives. Regular worship with like-minded Christians and perspective from the sermons of a God-fearing Spirit-filled pastor/preacher becomes a plumb line for our ascent into a higher place nearer to truth and the certain hope of our salvation in Christ Jesus.

    I paint you this picture as introduction to what I attempt to do in my personal life.

    • I read the Bible. It is 66 Books. I have read all of them, most numerous times. Every time I take on a book of the the Bible to study I learn more about God.

    READ & STUDY a book of the Bible. THEN, read another.

    • I pray. (More than once or twice daily.)  It is personal conversation with God. I do not hear God as well as I ask God for the needs of others and sometimes my own desires.

    I need to pray much more. Do you?

    • I worship with others. I don’t just ‘go to church, I try to be part of Christ’s church. I am a member of our local church and try to worship with our church every Sunday. I have done this in different places, buildings and denominations most of my life. God is a relational God. Jesus is a relational Savior. The Holy Spirit is a relational Counselor. AND Christians must, according to scripture, have a relational love for each other and the whole church.

    We are Christ’s church, the bride of Jesus. We are one with Him and with one another.

    I say all of this a introduction to an introduction (a borrowed thought) from a lesson on Titus I recommend to you.

    In addition to my daily time set aside for the Bible and prayer, I listen to Truth for Life and the teaching of Alistair Begg. I read and listen to the teachings of others as well. Do not rely on any one man (or woman) for the truth of Biblical teaching.

    The risen Jesus Christ sent out twelve Apostles to different churches in different places to lead and instruct the church. An Apostle to the Gentiles (once known as Saul of Tarsus) encountered the risen Christ, who in turn instructed others how to instruct the church. By the Spirit, Paul wrote many of the letters of the New Testament for Christians. Two letters to Timothy and one to Titus are considered as ‘Pastoral Epistles,’ letters to the church through these two pastors of certain churches.

    Pastor Begg suggests reading this short Letter of Titus every day.

    This teaching from Truth for Life will follow this short letter daily on the radio and online in January 2014 for a series of lessons titled: “Get It Right, Volume 1.”  I would like to recommend these to your daily devotional time.

    Christ’s servant,

    Roger Harned

    (site administrator) http://talkofJesus.com