Reflecting the SON: February 2014

12 Hours of Jesus is a community focused effort to teach the world more about Jesus. Our first event is May 10th in Radcliff Kentucky.

Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com

If you have friends, family, or acquaintances that you feel could benefit from RTS, please forward

their e-mail address to me and I will add them to my mail list.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Jesus Disciples Are...Moldable!

Matt. 4:18-20 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. (19) And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (20) And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

Jesus, as a teacher and a religious leader was a revolutionary. In so many ways he went against traditional thinking. In his sermon on the mount, he taught several lessons that went against the nature of man. For instance he taught his followers to “turn the other cheek”. Likewise, in this passage we find a similar radical thought. Instead of Jesus recruiting specialists to continue and spread his mission, he went to common, ordinary folks. Here in Matt. 4, Jesus finds two “blue collar”, uneducated fisherman. They have no formal training in theology. They are not accomplished public speakers. They have no experience in changing the minds of masses of people. But, ordinary, even uneducated people were the very kinds of people Jesus continually sought after and chose. Notice very carefully what he tells them as he recruits them. “I will make you to Be...”. Jesus was able to take fisherman, tax collectors and other common people and revolutionized the world. So what does that say about his disciples? They must be willing to be molded, shaped and trained to be what God needs them to be. There is something beautiful about this concept. Too often, I have run across people thought they were not good enough to be a Christian. And the reality is, that, in manner of speaking, they are right.

Romans 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

No one, because of the sin that we have committed...not a single human being, with the exception of Jesus himself, is deserving of ANYTHING from God. But, when we are willing to be a followers or disciples of Jesus, HE will help us to be what God wants us to be. We do not have to be flawless in order to be a disciple, We don’t even have to fix ourselves first to become a follower of God. Jesus is will to take care of all of that. But...we have to be willing to change and to be changed by Him.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (2) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

That change or transformation must begin in our minds. And eventually must transform our whole being. But when we are willing to change and be changed, God can turn a fisherman into a world-class preacher. He can turn a murderer into a missionary. And he can turn what ever you are today...Into great things for his benefit.

Reflecting the SON,

Dennis Hogan

12 Hours of Jesus is a community focused effort to teach the world more about Jesus. Our first event is May 10th in Radcliff Kentucky.

Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com

If you have friends, family, or acquaintances that you feel could benefit from RTS, please forward

their e-mail address to me and I will add them to my mail list.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Jesus Disciples...Are Learners!

Matt. 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Jesus says come unto to me. Jesus, in this plea, is clearly looking for disciples. He offers this invitation to all that will come to him. With that invitation, is an offer to all comers to be relieved of certain burdens that only he can unload. But along with coming and unburdening ourselves, Jesus requires a couple of things from us. One of which is that we learn of him. Jesus is not just wanting us to have a good sense of history. He desires that we truly, sincerely, learn all that we can to understand his will. He wants his teachings to have significance in our lives. And for that, to be his disciples, it demands that we make a concerted effort.

Matt. 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

Mark 7:17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable.

Matt. 13:10-18 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? (11) He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. (12) For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. (13) Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. (14) And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: (15) For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. (16) But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. (17) For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. (18) Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

On many occasions, Jesus’ true disciples didn’t just casually listen to a sermon, then go on home and carry out their lives as before. We looked at 3 instances (and there are many more that we did not examine...and I am sure many more that were not even recorded) where after hearing a teaching of Jesus, his disciples approached Jesus and wanted more detail on what he had already spoken. To be Jesus’ disciples, we MUST be more than casual or curious listeners. We must desire to know all that we can to better understand the will of God

Acts 17:10-11 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. (11) These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Here we find the Holy Spirit making a comparison between two broad groups of people: The Thessalonicans and the Bereans. The one notable characteristic between them was the diligence at wanting to understand the scriptures. To be a true follower of Jesus, we too MUST be diligent at understanding and knowing the mind of Christ.

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

How do we do that?

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Reflecting the SON,

Dennis Hogan

12 Hours of Jesus is a community focused effort to teach the world more about Jesus. Our first event is May 10th in Radcliff Kentucky.

Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com

If you have friends, family, or acquaintances that you feel could benefit from RTS, please forward

their e-mail address to me and I will add them to my mail list.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Jesus Disciples...WANT to Hear!

Matt. 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

In context, this passage is the introduction to Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount. This is a subtle, yet interesting commentary on those who are the disciples of Jesus. At the end of verse one, it says that the disciples came to him. Why? Because they WANTED to hear what he had to say. At the end of chapter 4, we find that Jesus had performed various miracles:

1. He healed all manner of sickness and disease (vrs. 23)

2. Casting out demons (vrs. 24)

3. Curing the Mentally Ill (vrs. 24)

4. He comforted the tormented (vrs. 24)

But mixed with that, he taught and preached in every place that these miracles were done. So as these people followed him from place to place (Matt 4:25), He stopped and postured himself to teach. What then was the reaction of his disciples when he set to preach? They came to him. so they could hear him .

There are many people today that would claim to be followers but have a completely opposite reaction to Jesus. Many people who claim to “Love” Jesus want to get as far from a Bible lesson as possible. You can’t get them to come to a Sunday morning Bible study before worship. They cannot be persuaded to come to a midweek Bible study. They are often quite scarce at worship services where Jesus’ teachings are proclaimed. And are sometimes even offended to hear the Bible referred to outside of a church service. Does that sound like someone who wants to FOLLOW Jesus?

Is it reasonable then to make the claim that you are a disciple of Jesus and not want to hear his teachings or not care about what he says? Absolutely NOT! There are some instances in life that we could be a follower of some famous person and not care about what they think or say. I, for instance, could be a fan of Tiger Woods because of his extraordinary talent at golf, and could care less about his political views. But with Jesus, He is not known for his athletic prowess. He is not popular due to his incredible musical ability or acting brilliance. The ONLY reason others follow him is due to his teachings as a religious leader. So to say that one is a follower and does not want to listen to Jesus defies logic.

Do you claim to be a follower of Jesus? Shouldn’t you want to study God’s word to listen to Jesus? Shouldn’t you want to come to every service of the Church to hear God’s word proclaimed?

Reflecting the SON,

Dennis Hogan

12 Hours of Jesus is a community focused effort to teach the world more about Jesus. Our first event is May 10th in Radcliff Kentucky.

Questions, comments or further explanation? Contact me at: dennis.hogan@icloud.com

If you have friends, family, or acquaintances that you feel could benefit from RTS, please forward

their e-mail address to me and I will add them to my mail list.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Discipleship is More than a Claim

The word “CLAIM” is defined this way: To state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof”. So just because someone makes a claim, does it make it true? Certainly not. Unfortunately, the kind of society that we live in today lends itself to people making all kinds of claims without substantiation. We see it on a regular bases in politics, advertising, sports and virtually every other aspects of life. Unfortunately, we see it in religion as well. Many people today claim to be followers of Jesus, But are they? And, an equally important question is...Does it Matter? Should we care that someone makes a false claim that they are a follower of Jesus? We would care if the claim they were making was that they are a doctor! Would we want to go to a doctor that is only claiming to be a medical specialist but has no formal education nor training? Certainly Not. In a similar manner, it is dangerous for a person to claim to be a follower of Jesus and is not.

Matt. 7:15-16 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. (16) Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Even Jesus informs us that a claim should not be taken on face value. Instead he said that we shall know someone by their fruits. Something more substantial than simple, superficial claims. But rather, to identify discipleship by one’s actions. In fact, he even goes one step further, He tells us that some that make that claim are actually INTENDING on being deceptive. They are wolves in sheep’s clothing. That is false teachers...agents of Satan....PRETENDING to be Christians and teachers. Their sole purpose is to lead away those that would follow Jesus. Now that is not to say, that I believe that all that make claims are false prophets. Not by a long shot. But none the less,even false disciples are making claims that are not true, regardless of the intentions. And it is at the very least dangerous for the one making the false claim.

Matt. 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Jesus here shows us that there will be folks that make that claim, EVEN TO HIM, They demonstrate it by saying unto him Lord, Lord. What is worse is that they have deceived themselves and BELIEVE with all of their hearts that they are true followers of our savior. But Jesus specifically and clearly says that NOT everyone that makes that claim, Will go to heaven. Who then? Those that do the will of God. In general, It is those that not only CLAIM to be a follower, but actually ARE TRUE followers of Jesus as he has defined it. Can we therefore know who is a disciple? Does Jesus tell us who are his followers? He does and that is the basis of our study. The most important question of the day then is...Who does the Bible define to be a follower or Disciple of Christ. For the next several days, we will look at the characteristics that Jesus says makes one of his disciples.

Reflecting the SON,

Dennis Hogan

12 Hours of Jesus is a community focused effort to teach the world more about Jesus. Our first event is May 10th in Radcliff Kentucky.