Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: witness

  • ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 1

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God – Part 1

    “Our lives are weighed on a sensitive scale of love-hate relationships.

    Why do Christian seek secular solutions for problems of God?

    Answer: Because we share in common the same love-hate relationships of man.

    The true answers of ANGRY children of a loving God must come directly from God.

    To begin, let us establish the difference between the scriptural approach of Christians to our ANGER and the ineffective secular approach of those separated from our loving God.

    John 3: 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

    18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

    20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

    Do Christians sometimes practice evil?  Of course we do.

    Do we believe in Christ Jesus, the only begotten Son of God?  Of course we do.

    Therefore each time we sin; every time we have anger; all times we hate the light and turn to darkness:

    we must repent and turn back to our loving Heavenly Father and the Perfect example of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

    We must hate only evil and love all that is good.

    Yet it’s not always easy.

    Hear this discussion between a lawyer and Jesus:

    Luke 10:  “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

    26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

    27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

    28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

    29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

    Isn’t that just what we tend to do when we do NOT want to love someone?  How like the world we can be in our relationships with others.

    Two commandments: Love God.  Love each other.

    Where does that love-hate relationship seep into each of our lives?  The answer is: in our sin.

    [To be continued…]

    Just in case you missed our earlier related post: Christian Anger

  • Christian Anger

    Christian Anger

    Ephesians 4:25-27

    Christian AngerEnglish Standard Version (ESV)

    25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

    26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

    Do you ever get ANGRY? What do you do with your Christian Anger?  

    Do you let many moons set on your ANGER, even though the Bible tells us NOTto let even one day go by?

    I rarely get angry because I am quick to remember the hurtful consequences of past anger; but one day last week, I became angry.

    I hope that it was righteous anger.  I was lashing out against a sense of frustration in trying to defend my wife against an immovable bureaucracy causing high cost of injustice.  (I wanted it taken care of RIGHT AWAY!) Have you ever been there?

    Of course in time our Lord will right all injustice and reward all PATIENCE for suffering injustice.  It may have been “righteous anger.”

    After the situation was partially resolved, I made a phone call to the person who patiently endured my tirade of something out of her control and I apologized (before the sun set on her tough day).

    Here is what helped me to PAUSE before I let out anger

    Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

    Stimulus____Response - Frankl

      Even when Jesus showed righteous anger, his anger was witness to God! 

    Careful… Our ANGER usually is not witness for God and makes others think that Jesus makes NO difference in us, IF HE is NOT Lord over our ANGER.

    Between the STIMULUS ……..and……response…. Pause for Jesus’ sake.

    We PAUSE here for you to Worship our Lord over the weekend…

    …to be continued with a series beginning Monday, 16 September 2013:

    ANGRY Children of a Loving God

  • A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 9

    A Picture of Heaven – Chapter 9

    The born again crowds all seem to have a plan for our salvation and confident assurance of a place in Heaven… I just don’t see it in most of their lives.

    I see people who talk about Jesus and Heaven differently in different places. I don’t even think that they understand the salvation they preach.

    Some are always happy to be alive and can’t wait for Heaven. Some are sorry to be alive and can’t wait for Heaven.

    Some celebrate as if Heaven can be claimed on earth.

    (I doubt that they are really looking forward to failing health and open caskets as part of our Heaven on earth.)

    And I have met just a few who talk about Heaven as if they live there, instead of here. They seem to be here though, as if it had something to do with Jesus.

    Somehow all of these pictures of Jesus didn’t paint a clear picture for me. But yesterday, a little girl seemed to have a simple answer. in a clear picture, of some things of Heaven I had been ignoring for a long time.

    Our serial story on Grief, salvation, and being born again from death to eternal life in heaven will resume NEXT Monday.

    In case you missed an earlier episode, here is a link to the beginning of our story.