RESURRECTION 2016 - TIME TO LIVE AGAIN - Not to Denigrate Any but to Serve Many

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Christians, the followers of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, live out the privilege to be servants of humanity through Jesus' Model. Three primary texts from the Gospel and one from the Hebrew Bible provide direction for Christian behavior and activity when it is TIME TO LIVE AGAIN.

All over the world, people tend to see Jesus in the context of their culture. To some, this is a challenging point of view. History promoted through the eyes and pens of European Christians made Jesus of Nazareth, a white man. Non - White Christians hold to view more consistent with culture and context of the 1st Century. The Apocalyptic Revelation presented the likeness of a dark skinned man with wooly hair.

Africans, Asians, Latinos and Indigenous Peoples see Jesus in their likeness. All who see Jesus in their likeness do so to honor the magnanimity and genius of GOD lived out in the life of Jesus. This level of love and generosity in forgiveness of insult and injury, paved the way for the coming of the commentary of the Apostle Paul from 2nd Corinthians 5 vs 21, "For GOD hath made him (JESUS) to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of GOD in him (JESUS)."

Gospel Text Number One Matthew 22 vss 36 - 40

Because Christian Behavior has not been the most exemplary of the life of Jesus, especially in the late 20th and early 21st Century, there is no better TIME TO LIVE AGAIN than now. Living again must by moral imperative require revisiting the first order of business to be Christian.

The text says, "36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Living out these directives is indicative of TIME TO LIVE AGAIN with imperative priorities on moral foundation. The moral foundation is love.

Gospel Text Number Two Matthew 28 vss 18 - 20

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Jesus' recorded words influence genuine Christian activity. It is from this text, the first spiritual marketing program emerged.

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. ¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

The primary objective of all christian behavior is is the influencing of the development of Christian community. This is not to denigrate any but to serve many.

Gospel Text Number Three Luke 4 vss 17 - 20

Christian demonstrate love for God, self, and each other by engaging the activity presented in this text. This activity provides others opportunity for resurrection, TIME TO LIVE AGAIN.

¹⁷And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, ¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, ¹⁹ To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. ²⁰ And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

Wherever suffering is witnessed, the Christian task is to serve those who are suffering and work to minimize their suffering. The hungry for motivation, nutrition, or information struggle to be filled. The blind by ignorance or the inability to see struggle to find their way. It is is the Christian privilege to help.

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The Hebrew Bible Text Ezekiel 37 vs 10

When God calls the dead back to life, it is TIME TO LIVE AGAIN. In this text, a dead black army lay on a desert valley floor. Their bones were dried and disconnected. These are not social and morally dysfunctional as many are today. They are dead.

God charges the prophet Ezekiel to answer the question, "Can these bones live again?" There is only one logical available answer, "God only you know." 

After charging Ezekiel to speak to the bones, this followed as presented in the text. ¹⁰ So I prophesied, reports Ezekiel, as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Might all of us who bear the mark of Christian by our lifestyle and activity assert ourselves to be available to God to raise the dead. They are those who are alive but living out dead conditions back to life. May we all hear the voice of God call us to live and love at our best all times. Amen

What time is it the Resurrection Season? It is TIME TO LIVE AGAIN.

Are God's World Issues Revealing Ours as Opportunities

          Are God’s world issues revealing ours as opportunities for service? The question must receive examination from what the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels have to say. Is it possible for humans to assume responsibility for God level world issues?

This is the whole story: Honor God with your living. Follow the direction and directives God leads: This is the task of the whole human family on Earth.

Ecclesiastes 12 vs 13

(Paraphrased)

I recently asked spiritual friends this question. Are God's Issues Our Issues? Incidentally, we are all Christians and ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I believe the Number One issue that God has with the world is people not accepting him as their Lord and Savior. So, our mission is to be a vessel to aide in planting seeds so the Holy Spirit can draw (others to relationship with Christ). His “issue” is people not having reverence for Him. So we are the tools to fix his root issue.

~Derrick Shawn Farris

My answer is simple, kind of. God’s issues are always our issues, ours just may not be God’s……

~William JC Wallace

On some level, yes. We struggle to grasp what God’s issues are. In or limited understanding, some try to address them, but I think when we get to the other side we will be shocked what He had a problem with.

~Keenan Actkins

Thematically consistent with the responses of my spiritual friends, these texts emerge for consideration.

          In the beginning, God created all things that we observe, all we cannot observe, and said it was good. ~The opening lines of the Hebrew Bible Genesis Scroll, known as the Book of Beginnings.

Genesis 1 vs 1

          The Creator God from within the Godself, family, community, and nation of the US (God) responding to an inner prompt divested self into the creation of the Cosmos and the human focal point, the Earth. Living directives follow in Hebrew Language as living commandments, imperatives, must do’s.

1.     Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2.     Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I theLord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

3.      Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lordwill not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

4.     Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

5.      Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

6.      Thou shalt not kill.

7.      Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8.     Thou shalt not steal.

9.      Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

   10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy                  

        neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,    

        nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Exodus 20

Beyond the Hebrew Bible, words from the Gospel of John Chapter 3 vs 16 says For God so loved all God created, God elected to become human to model for humans God’s model for living.

The pinnacle texts of Mark 12:28-31 (KJV) encompassing the whole of God’s issues also ours reveal themselves in the commandment superseding all commandments.

28. And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

29. And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 

31. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

The capstone of the dramatic presence of God on Earth as a human being in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is the marketing message given to all he influenced in the 1st Century through the present 21^st Century. In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 28 vss 18b – 20, Jesus says,

18. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  

19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. 

Are God’s world issues revealing ours as opportunities for service? Yes, they are according to the record of the biblical texts.

Is it possible for humans to assume responsibility for God level world issues? Yes, they are according to the record of the biblical texts.

Clearly, from the perspective of the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels, all who follow the model of Jesus, God’s issues are our issues. Living out the directives of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission are imperatives for human service. They are not optional. None is exempt.