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”

TITHING, FOOT WASHING, AND HOLY KISSES

Tithing is an Old Testament commandment right out of the Law of Moses, with no precept or application under New Covenant Grace, totally unsubstantiated by New Testament scriptures. Tithing is endlessly taught – dragging Old Covenant passages out of context – dragging legalism into God’s awesome Grace. Under the Law tithing was a sure thing – obedient works insured God’s blessing – one could call it giving to get! The Law actually required three ten percent tithes, two yearly and one every three years -- i.e., 23 1/3% each year – and each tithe had a specific purpose under the Old Covenant. As for New Covenant giving, God doesn’t want 10%... 23 1/3%... or even 100%. God wants hearts raptured by His love that give as prompted by the Holy Spirit --  giving sacrificially, even as the widow gave out of her need – always depending on Him for our future provisions as we demonstrate His love to others. New Testament giving takes faith for there is no automatic reimbursement entitlement as there was under the Law of Moses!

Washing the saints’ feet is a New Covenant precept instituted by Jesus as an example that we should do as He had done, promising that we would be blessed if we washed one another’s feet: “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” It can’t get much clearer than this: “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”  “Ought” – opheilo in the Greek – is the verb of “owe” and expresses a special personal obligation, a duty to do something... a debt of love. Much like the command repeated five times in scripture to “Greet one another with a holy kiss”, a “kiss of love”, we tend to ignore precepts that bring us up close and personal with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And, we miss out on the humbling transformational experience of washing another saint’s feet...  miss out on emulating our Lord and invoking His promise: “Blessed are you if you do them.”

In the Old Testament the tithe was compulsory and was a means of earning the favor of God. Under the Law the Jews were prone to do the external and material -- neglecting the expression of inner spiritual qualities --  more concerned with the outside of the cup than the inside ( Lk. 11: 37-44). New Testament saints, however, are urged to give voluntarily – from the heart – without neglecting the development of inner spiritual qualities (2 Cor. 9:7). Note Jesus speaking in Luke 11:41: “But rather give alms of such things as you have.”  The phrase “such things as you have” is a word cluster translating the Greek word eneimi which means “to be within”, those things that are inside you -- spiritual qualities, the nature of Jesus – literally “Give that which is within as your alms.” Our relational Daddy wants His children to relate to one another from their heart -- sharing the nature of our Lord He has deposited there --  and His expectations go well beyond the precepts under discussion. As we are transformed by the nature of Christ, to give that which is within as our alms will take on a whole new meaning. This verse immediately proceeds the ‘Woe to you” Jesus pronounced on the Pharisees for tithing while neglecting justice and the love of God.

Now my purpose here is not to convince anyone to quit tithing – that is the job of the Holy Spirit to those who have an ear to hear -- rather to encourage obedience to the commandments of our Lord. Anyone who takes the time to study tithing will find it was instituted by the Roman emperor Constantine in the third century becoming a common practice in the eighth century, and was never a part of the first-century church. New Testament passages which reference tithing do not impose it as a commandment under Grace; rather they reference it as a part of Judaism, in commentary relating to the Pharisees and the tribe of Levy. Many churches pull passages such as “Will a man rob God” out of their Old Testament context -- where they were dealing with Israel’s failure to obey the Law – in a veiled effort to leverage giving, rather than have faith in God for their ministry provisions.

The Apostle Paul said “the Law was our tutor to bring us to Christ”, for “Christ is the end of the Law ... for everyone who believes.” And Paul likewise warned that to put oneself under any precept of the Law – be it circumcision, sabbath keeping, tithing, etc. -- was to become a “debtor to keep the whole Law”, calling the Law a curse: “Do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage ... For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”  New Covenant saints have been delivered from and died to the requirements of the Law so that they can “serve in the newness of the Spirit.” It is most ironic that in our striving to prosper (through tithing) in a world our Lord warned us not to love, we ignore those humbling most basic commandments that are rooted and grounded in His desire for us to demonstrate His agape love to one another.

Saints, our lives should re-present our Lord to this world: We are our Lord’s hands as we wash one another’s feet, our Lord’s kiss on the cheek, as we greet one another with a holy kiss of love. These are simple things which are humbling to express. Our Savior gave us these precepts as an example that we too would have a servant’s heart. And, He said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Notice whose commandments we are to keep: The Lord was not referring to the Old Testament commandments of the Mosaic Law, but rather His commandments, the commandments of the New Testament... the New Will... the New Covenant, written in His blood!

Postscript: If we embrace tithing, as a New Covenant precept, we should at the very least get the amount right... 23 1/3 %. And, as New Covenant believers, we must all embrace the commandments of our Lord, especially ones which go against our nature like the examples noted. Obedience, after all, is the only scriptural method of demonstrating the first, greatest, and most essential commandment... to love God...

(Lev. 27:30-33; Num. 18:20-21; Deut. 12:17-18, 14:28-29, 26:12-13; Jn. 13:3-17; Rom. 7:6, 10:4, 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5: 14; Gal. 3:10, 24, 5:3; James 2:10; Jn. 14:15; Gal.) 

“IF YOU LOVE ME...

KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS...”

SIN, CHOICES, AND LAWLESSNESS

When we drive down Temptation Lane there are many detours into the Badlands of lawlessness. God does not tempt us, it is the tempter’s job, but it is our own desires that bait the tempter’s sin trap, drawing us into sin once the trap is sprung by our conceived desires. First John makes an important distinction between sin, singular, occasional sinning, and sins, plural, practicing sin. Jesus advocates Grace before the Father for all who occasionally sin... that would be all the saints, inviting us to boldly approach the throne of Grace in confession. When practiced sin becomes a habit of death, for habitual sin, be it a besetting sin or sinning in general, leads to lawlessness. The Apostle Paul’s strong repudiation of “over-abounding” Grace in the face of willful sin must be noted lest we cheapen Grace in our presumption: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?  Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it”? How indeed! Truly sin dead people... with nail scared hands and feet, don’t practice sin. Jesus spoke of professing Christians who said they did great things for God’s Kingdom... but they practiced sin... practiced lawlessness, and this lawlessness ultimately separated them from God’s covenant of Grace: “I know you not.” We can sin our way out of Grace, becoming “unknown” to God, lost in our lawlessness, not possessing that which we profess.

Sin, under The Law, is missing the mark... God’s mark, specific acts offensive to God. The Law defined sin by actualizing sin and revealing its true character, discharging its holy function by unmasking sin as sin. Under Grace the commands and precepts of the New Testament -- the new will of God -- define and actualize sin. New covenant sin has became an attitude of the heart, more subtle and pervasive, where, for example, mental lusting becomes adultery and anger in one’s heart becomes murder... the bar has been raised considerably under Grace. The “Holy Road” is much more difficult under Grace so God indwells us with His Holy Spirit to teach, guide, direct and comfort us... helping us stay on the narrow gated difficult Way into transformation. But there is one string attached: God helps us if... and this is a big IF, we willfully want to be helped..

Sin under Grace is still missing God’s mark, but our loving Father only inputs to our account the marks we knowingly miss -- for sin to be sin to us it must be known as such -- stretching His awesome Grace to cover sins committed without our understanding. We are accountable to God to live within the revelation of His will that we have received; as God grows us from babies into mature sons and daughters our accountability changes with our progression of understanding. Sin then is a choice between demonstrating our love for God in obedience... turning from our desires that bait us, or demonstrating our love for Self by giving in to the desires and pleasures of this earth-life. When we take the devil for a ride... he’ll want to drive... you know. And he will take us farther and keep us longer then we really wanted to go... he knows all the back roads to nowhere! Frequent trips to the throne room will keep the Holy Spirit in the driver’s seat and us out of the Badlands of lawlessness.

OBEDIENCE IS A TEST OF LOVE

“IF YOU LOVE ME...

IF NOT FOR GRACE

We ask God as a means of receiving from Him, we seek God in order to find Him, or rather to be found by Him, and we knock to gain entrance into His Kingdom. The promised results of our efforts are stunning in their spiritual significant: We receive, we find, and it is opened to us. In a sense “knock” is to continue to ask and seek, sort of a built in metaphor, the perseverance that unlocks the King’s domain. The “Pearl of Great Price” and the “Treasure in the Field” are metaphorically interpreted several ways and rightly so for God’s word is by no means shallow or common. They may represent man, individually or corporately, as seen through the eyes of a loving Savior who was willing to sacrifice His all on the Cross... to purchase us with His precious blood. They may represent Jesus, who certainly is worthy of man’s pitiful sacrifice, his life in submission to the Lordship of Jesus... death of Self on the same cross... a life for a LIFE. They may also represent God’s awesome Grace, His enabling power that provisions all that we experience as His children... Grace enabling what it commands. We ask and Grace answers -- we receive. We seek and Grace answers -- we find. We knock and Grace answers opening the door into God’s presence. God releases an immense and unbroken supply of His Grace to mankind, to draw willing hearts to Himself and reveal the mystery of the indwelling Christ-Life. Our loving Father – The Great Physician – knows we need heart surgery to remove the callus of Self that encases our heart preventing the implanted DNA of Jesus from coming forth. Enter Grace. In Grace we are transformed into Christlikeness... conformed into the nature of His Son. Surely Christlikeness is yet another “Pearl of Great Price” and “Treasure in the Field”, the ultimate desire of our Daddy’s heart. So, our task is to keep asking... to keep seeking...  to keep knocking -- drawing ever closer as we pursue the one passionately pursuing us -- while being engulfed in a deluge of His immeasurable superabounding Grace...

GRACE... THE POWER OF INFINITE LOVE