November & Thanksgiving 2009
Dearly Beloved of Our Lord:
We send you greetings in the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus Christ. We thank our Lord for you as you remember us as we labor in the harvest in Portland, Oregon. Thank you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your support.
Near the end of this month our nation has a day of Thanksgiving. And we are privileged to pause and have a time of Thanksgiving to our Lord which we can share with those we love.
This brings to mind the question of just what it is that we are truly thankful for. Most of us would be able to say that we are thankful for Jesus, thankful for the cross where we have been forgiven, and thankful for the resurrection through which we also may be raised from the dead into eternal life with Jesus. And we are thankful that we will live forever in His love in the New Heaven and New Earth with brothers and sisters from every tribe and tongue, from every geographical location on earth, and from every time in history.
And we are thankful for one another with whom we live and share His wonderful love as we journey through this time on earth with all of the joys, victories, challenges, sorrows, disappointments, and times of suffering.
But the day of thanksgiving has become confused in our nation. It is now often called “turkey day” and the beginning of the holiday shopping season. In the first chapter of Romans we read that:
…although they knew god, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21-22)
Even though there is great confusion upon the land we are very thankful that we have the privilege to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to those who are stumbling in the darkness of sin and its judgment. (See John 16:7-11)
“WHICH JESUS?”
You may remember Paul’s concern in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 where he writes about leaving the simplicity that is in Christ and receiving a different Jesus and a different spirit. We are amazed at all the things Jesus gets blamed for and what people expect from Him. We will give a couple of examples.
We meet those on the streets who believe that Jesus is supposed to feed them regardless of their own behavior. Then there are those who say that God is love and that Jesus loves them even though they curse Him and brag of their own misery and lust. And then there are so many different religious concepts and teachings about Jesus that we are not surprised people are confused, angry, and disheartened. People actually ask us, “Who and where is the real Jesus?”
Earlier this month, during a time of open-air preaching at Portland State University, we encountered students who definitely had a different Jesus and a different spirit. One young man had grown up in what he called “a Christian home” and went to a seminary. Because of sin and hypocrisy which he saw both at home and in the seminary, he rejected his faith and his “Jesus” is “a good man, a good teacher, and definitely someone to be respected.” Another very vocal Muslim student from Saudi Arabia was adamant that his “Jesus” in the Koran was the right one. His Jesus, or Isa, as they call him, never died on the cross for our sins because Allah took him and replaced his body with another body. His Jesus, or Isa, never atoned for sin and never died in our place so that we could live with Him. Thus he never rose from the dead and conquered death. The ‘Jesus’ or Isa of the Koran is a different Jesus than the Jesus of the New Testament.
Like so many others, these students have received a different Jesus and a different spirit than the Jesus of the New Testament. And they have received a different spirit than the Holy Spirit.
So here is something which can help us with this problem. John was an eye witness to the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Jesus appeared to and spoke with John after His ascension and we all can read about it in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ at the end of the New Testament. Other eye witness accounts are written by other apostles in the New Testament. Muhammad’s revelation came to him in the seventh century so he was not an eyewitness. The same is true for Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon.
We had the opportunity to have an open-air discussion concerning many important issues confronting this generation, including the need for eternal life on a planet where everything living is subject to death. At the end of the twelfth chapter of John Jesus says that the Father gave Him the command of Life Everlasting! He is unique among all men in that He is Life Everlasting walking among us by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God had a name and a face while He walked among us on the earth. Now the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17) which we cannot enter or see unless we are born of the Holy Spirit, not by the will of man or his religious ideas, but only through the Holy Spirit. (John 1:12-13)
So our challenge to these and other students at PSU is to go to an eye witness account. Find out what the New Testament has to say about Jesus. Let us not leave the simplicity which is in Christ, and His presence through the Holy Spirit, which are so well described in the book of John. May we do all we can to help others receive the Jesus who is revealed in the New Testament. Then they may be taught by the Spirit of Truth who is the Holy Spirit.
THANKSGIVING
We want to express our thanksgiving to all the brothers and sisters throughout the ages who risked their lives and their freedom to bring us the New Testament in our own language. We are so thankful to God for John who endured persecution, exile on the island of Patmos, and threats of death to bring us his eye witness account of the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and appearance of Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Thank you!
And we also want to express our heartfelt thanksgiving to our Lord for you and for your support and encouragement over the years. With this letter we send you our love, our prayers, and our thanksgiving! May His wonderful grace and love fill your heart to overflowing!
~ Ron & Karen
E-mail: awakening1s@comcast.net
Home Page: awakening1s.net
church @ 24/7
Ron & Karen Rohman
PO Box 14292
PORTLAND OR 97293