doer

Messiah and His Words

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

To let the readers of Broken Pieces know… I have been doing mostly a reading and study of the gospels for the year of 2019. I read through and studied Matthew through John January through March, then I read and studied them again April through June, then the Acts through Jude; following that I  read the Prophets Isaiah through Malachi.

For the month of December I am reading and doing a study in the gospels once again, but dealing mostly with the gospel of Luke from December 1 – 24. Here is what I did.  I would read chapter 1 and 2 in Matthew on December 1, and chapter 1 of the gospel of Luke.

Now we are a day past Christmas, and my posts will be on the gospel of John, so I share with you all today the following…

“Then said some of them of Jerusalem, ‘Is not this He, whom they seek to kill? But, lo, He speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?’ ” John 7:25-26 (KJB)
He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear not, because ye are not of God.” John 8:47

The question was being asked by some of the people, “Do the rulers know indeed that this Jesus is the very Messiah?” I wonder that as well.  Did they know? Were they just fearful of the change He would or could bring if He was indeed the Christ  – the Messiah?

I pray everyone reading this today realizes that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, and the only Savior and Lord God of the world, and of all the created order.

If they knew they were stubbornly being stiffnecked, hard headed people indeed.  That was much like those who refused to hear the words of Moses and the Prophets of old.

Jesus makes it clear in John 8:47 that those who hear – meaning those who hear the word and take His words into their hearts and minds, doing them they are of God. Those who do not hear and do them (James 1:22) these are not of God; they are in fact enemies of God and have no hope.

Where do you fit in this word of the Messiah?

Faith Living

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations; knowing that the trying of your faith works patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all liberally, and reproaches not; and it shall be given him.  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:  but the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.  For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and the flower of it falls, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
Blessed, the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.
Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God:’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
Do not err, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.  Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.  Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and overflowing of evil, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholds himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what manner of man he was. But who ever looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, ‘To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, to keep himself unspotted from the world.'”  James 1:1-27

REFERENCES: 4:8; Deuteronomy 32:26; Acts 2:5; 13:26; 1 Kings 3:9; Mark 11:24;  Job 5:17; 14:2; Numbers 23:19; Jeremiah 2:3; 1 Corinthians 4:15; 15:2; Matthew 7:21; Romans 2:13; Luke 6:47; Isaiah 1:16; John 8:31-32