WALKING WORTHY OF THE KINGDOM

Kingdom people are admonished to walk worthy of the call into God’s Kingdom. Walking worthy requires a living sacrifice... submission to the rejuvenating work of the Holy Spirit to bring out the character and nature of Christ in us, producing the fruit of His Spirit in our everyday lives – love... divine agape love, out of which flows joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, the essential ingredients of Kingdom hearts. Walking worthy is to so partake of Christ’s nature that we become humble, mournful, meek, and merciful, peacemakers with a pure heart who hunger and thirst for righteousness... Sons of God willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake.  We are “counted worthy” of God’s Kingdom when we manifest the evidence of His righteous judgment - His equitable adjudication - by demonstrating patience and unswerving faith during trials, tests and adversity... the difficult pressures of earth-life. Walking worthy means we are fellow workers, constantly fruitful, producing righteous fruit for the Kingdom.  Walking worthy means giving all diligence to add to one’s faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love, for if we do these things we will be fruitful in the knowledge of God and never stumble. Walking worthy means to abide in the Holy of Holies, in the shadow of His wings, seeking the Face of God over all earthly treasure -- drawn to His presence like metal to a magnet -- living in the revitalizing presence of God. Walking worthy means commitment to diligent, continual study of God’s word, becoming self-feeders capable of rightly interpreting scripture and discerning truth, and thereby ever increasing in faith and the knowledge of God. Walking worthy means a life of ceaseless prayer and supplication, continually talking to Daddy. Walking worthy is a life of worship -- more of a dance than a walk -- strengthened by the joy of the Lord. Walking worthy embodies the recognition that we are the temple of God, indwelt by His Holy Spirit, and that we are in Christ and Christ is in God... we are in God and God is in us! Walking worthy means we are thankful for we are sons and daughters of the living God who have been delivered from the powers of darkness, made partakers of God’s inheritance, translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son, and seated at the right hand of God – In Christ – in the heavenlies. Notice these are all past tense: We have been adopted into God’s family, redeemed from the chains of enslavement to the Law of sin and death, given full rights of divine Sonship, and transported into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.  Saints, we desperately need to know who we are, what we are, and where we are... In Christ!  Walking worthy means a life of Love, Obedience, Passion and Sacrifice... putting a twinkle in Daddy’s eyes. Walking worthy is a lifestyle of ordered behavior pleasing to God in everything... A Divine Discipline... A Habit of Choice. Kingdom people are simply captivated by Jesus... People of One Thing! 

MORE OF A DANCE THAN A WALK

THE ROAD TO EMMAUS

The road to Emmaus is the road we take after we’ve been to Golgotha. It’s the road out of town... the get-away road, when other roads we’ve tried turn into dead ends and cul-de-sacs. It’s the road of disillusionment, when earthly hopes and dreams fail to become reality, adversity finds our door, suffering isn’t relieved, and questions aren’t answered... the road to blaming God. Much like the first century Christians we try to drag the promised blessings and glory of God’s eternal Kingdom into our present earthly reality... into now. They had the presence of God in Jesus Himself, and God’s power was manifested in signs so numerous that if recorded “even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” But, they loved their life and wanted freedom from the world’s oppression, adversity, affliction and suffering. They wanted a king to bring them their best life now... not a martyr... crucified between two thieves. We want that too... health, wealth, our best life now, not the thorns and nails of our cross, not the transforming pressure of the crucified life, not the fellowship of our Lord’s sufferings... not adversity in any form, shape or fashion. The road to Emmaus is well marked in the battlefield of our mind, pockmarked with the doubts, fears and dead-end whys our half-truths spawn in misplaced faith... we have no difficulty finding it: “How foolish you are, says our Lord, and how slow of heart to believe all that I have spoken.” But even as we walk away our Lord is walking after us, wanting to draw us near, offering His companionship, and revealing His Truth that sets us free from false hopes... causing our hearts to burn within us... burning with our eternal hope in Him. The road to Emmaus is the road of great transformation as we finally lay aside our will... our wants... our earthly desires, in submission to His Lordship... moving ever further into God.

THE ROAD TO TRUTH

“FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY”

Most saints will never have a large national or worldwide ministry.  Our callings, though unique in content, are very similar in scope. First and foremost we are called into Christlikeness, the progressive life-long heart surgery of God’s Spirit whereby we put off our Self-nature, and put on the nature of Christ. This process involves, by necessity, the death of Self on the cross of Christ and submission to the Lordship of Christ. As we grow in grace in the knowledge and understanding of our Lord we are changed in degrees of glory, becoming more like Him and less like Self, who is the usurper of God’s rightful throne.  

God places in each of us unique mixtures of natural talents and spiritual giftings – suited to our uniqueness as individuals -- to enable us to help those we meet along our journey home to God. In a real sense our life is our ministry, as we feel the tug of God’s heart and respond to the physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual needs of others. We become what we behold, extending grace and mercy to others as God has extended them to us, loving the unlovable with the agape love we have beheld in our Lord. Our faith will be stretched by the sacrifices of our heart, and our faith will be tested again and again to come forth approved as pure gold. Love, Obedience, Passion, and Sacrifice become the foundation stones of our ministry... our life, bringing a twinkle to our loving Daddy’s eyes.

It won’t be easy to transform sin stained cripples into beacons of light in a dark and dying world, nothing of real value ever is easy. All God needs and wants is our willingness... or our willingness to be made willing, and He will do the rest.  Our job... our ministry, is to become the best Bondservant... Love-slave, on the planet, totally dependent on our Savior, marching to the rhythms of His heartis heart.. Most saints will never have a large national or worldwide ministry. And considering the way many mega-ministries are bowing to the altar of culture, this is a good thing. The Body of Christ is not, after all, a church building, denomination, movement, or mega-ministry, but rather all the “called out ones ... members individually” who have washed their robes of flesh in the sacred blood of Jesus. It is these individual members who received the Great Commission to “go and make disciples.”

My heart’s desire is to be what God has called me to be, and do what God has called me to do, with passion and joy, above all wearing the cloak of love that others might see Christ in me. I pray this is your desire likewise. And if you don’t know what your ministry is... well, you are just not listening. The ministry road begins with a heart willing to change...

“PREDESTINED TO BE CONFORMED 
TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON”

“FOR THE WORK OF MINISTRY”

TWO SPEAKINGS, TWO COVENANTS, TWO BOOKS

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son…” (Heb. 1:1-2). God has spoken, revealed Himself to mankind, on two distinct occasions, the context not implying two singular speakings but rather two time periods of speaking with distinct methodologies and purposes. “In these last days” since the coming of Christ (implied) -- the writer of Hebrews has now stepped past the cross into the end times, the church age – God has spoken again, and this time He has “spoken to us.” Today, “us” is still “us”.  The writer views history, as it relates to divine revelation, as two time periods, “in time past” and “in these last days.”

The Old Testament is God’s self-disclosure; it is God telling man about Himself: The main character is God, the setting is God’s covenant with His chosen people and the speaker is God.  It is the revelation of God revealed through man, history and Israel – who He is, His attitudes, attributes, likes, dislikes, what He tolerates, His powers, what He does and how He responds to the human condition – within the legal parameters of the covenant He makes with Israel.  The Old Testament reveals to mankind God’s character and nature, His desire for relationship and holiness, and His judgment against sin, within the context of His covenant people, Israel, and His Law.

The New Testament is God speaking forth the revelation of His Son.  The prophets spoke as mere mouthpieces, but when the Son spoke it was God Himself speaking, and in a sense it is God being revealed By His Son in and through the Son’s life, the Son’s message, the Son’s redemptive work and the Son’s  return to establish His (i.e., God’s) eternal Kingdom. The New Testament reveals to mankind God’s redemptive plan established before the foundations of the world with the foreordained sacrifice of the Son of His love, that we, the “us” of Hebrews 1:2, might be partakers of salvation and know eternal fellowship with God through His covenant of Grace – His indescribable grace.

It is therefore contextually correct to interpret Hebrews 1:1 and 2 as directly referencing the Old Testament and New Testament respectively. The foundation of each covenant is a book, and in each book it is God speaking. The primary reason there are two books is to define these two uniquely different covenants, which are people and time specific. Embedded in the Old Testament historical narratives is a wealth of rich insight into the character and nature of God, providing valuable principles and lessons for living the Christ-life. The Law teaches us about the character of the Lawgiver. The wisdom of Proverbs provides practical moral and spiritual guidance, God’s ageless wisdom to live by, and the Worship Books provide revelation of a relational God, inspiring models of how to communicate with and worship God. This is not the substance of doctrine but rather tools, crib notes, for being a delight to our loving Father. The “new and better covenant” has new and better commandments to regulate the Christian life on the road to eternity with God. All New Testament doctrine must be based on New Testament writings – one wouldn’t use a California Roadmap to travel Missouri – new wineskins require new wine. Any theological precepts or principles drawn from the Old Testament must be filtered through the cross, the new covenant teachings, which will either accept them, modify them, or reject them.   

“FOR YOU ARE NOT UNDER LAW BUT UNDER GRACE”