ENDINGS

 Without a doubt, this will be one of the most difficult blogs I've written.  Last Sunday morning, I hung up my spurs, laid down my pen, and closed the book. It's something I should have done before I even started our last study.  "Should have done" is something I'm trying to stop saying. Actually, those in leadership can attest to the fact that over the last six years, I'd tried at least three times to 'end' my role as teacher. Each time, I would let them talk me into staying in the teacher's seat. THIS TIME, circumstances have intervened.  

Last Sunday, I summarized my tenure as teacher with the three things I set out to do over 18 years ago.  

1. To instill a desire and hunger to study God's word.  I've never been big on doctrinal statements, mission statements, or...statements. In the entire history of mankind, never has God's word been more readily available than it is today. It rests on night tables, coffee tables, library shelves, and now it LIVES on our phones.  To not study that word with all the tools we have at our fingertips is a sin.  According to Jesus, knowing God is eternal life.  (John 17:3)  This was always my driving purpose in our Men's Bible Study Group.  

2. To have a deep and abiding relationship with Christ through the leading of Holy Spirit. As wonderful as it is to have the Word of God at our fingertips, there is nothing more satisfying than being led by God's Spirit through life. Holy Spirit, in agreement with the Word of God will take us through every moment of our lives with grace, love, tenderness, compassion, and joy.  When His Spirit is alive in us, we become His instruments of righteousness, and conduit for miracles.  I hoped to inspire a deep and abiding trust in Holy Spirit to lead us moment by moment through good times and bad times. There are no surprises in following Jesus, just days full of wonder.

3. When Pastor Goff asked me to lead our Bible Study nearly 18 years ago, I told him that the only way I would do it is if our young boys could join us.  I set the age for joining at thirteen, and as each boy in our church came of age we would joyfully welcome them into our group. When Holy Spirit dropped this idea into my heart, the purpose was the same as Paul taking Timothy under his wing.  Instead of allowing our boys to become victims of their passions, and the lure of the world, we would show them the joy of Christian fellowship, the reward of honoring their earthly fathers as commanded, and how they could create lifelong fellowship among one another as men. As with Paul, and Timothy I desired to offer our boys the opportunity to study and present lessons themselves. Some of my happiest memories are of the 'boys' teaching all of us men what they saw in the Word of God. Some of them have gone on to other places, and some have even become ministers where they went. This is what I've always wanted, while my dream was for one of them to one day take the reigns of our fellowship. Each boy that went to Nicaragua has preached to large crowds in the different churches we went to. We never went on a Missionary trip that we didn't take at least five young men with us.  Some things have to be experienced to be appreciated.

I believe the men of our fellowship accomplished all that we set out to do.  As for myself, I believe I've done all I can do, and now it is time for me to end.  There is nothing wrong with ending something when there appears to be no reason to. I'm not going to wax maudlin, or try to create tearful farewells. If someone else wants to pick up the mantle of the Men's Bible Study, they would have my blessing.  One of you has already asked if I would mind if they picked up the mantle. I would be thrilled but, I just won't be a part of it. I know that sounded harsh, but it isn't. I'm in standby mode, and have been since Glenda passed away. Nearly three years on since her death, and I still feel something (not someone) else is out there. The endings in my personal life have left me alone, without family living nearby, and without many of the people who were important to me. In October of 2021, my Mom went on to her reward, and in 2023 my Dad went to his reward. In late 2022 my Aunt Barbara passed away, and in September of 2023 my wife passed.  Throughout 2023 I lost four awesome men who I worked with, studied with, laughed, and cried with as they all went to be with Jesus. Many other things have happened to people around me, and many brothers in Christ have gone on to other fellowships. Through all of this sorrow, I know Jesus is waiting on the other side of this vale, and He will never leave me. Endings happen to all of us, and some are more difficult to face than others. 

For those of you who stood by me, encouraged me, and made our studies exciting, I thank you for every moment, and precious memory you gave me. I've been a follower of Christ since I was ten years old, and was taken to church from infancy. In the sixty plus years of being in churches all across America, I can say without reservation that this has been the best group of men I've ever known. It would take endless words to recount all that we've done and experienced together over the last 26 years that I've known you guys. In the interest of brevity, I'll say three words that I hope will bring smiles to your faces. Nicaragua, donuts, and OCC.  If you know me, you know what these are to me.  You are the BEST men, and it's been a privilege to serve you.

In a couple of weeks, I'll have Google compile all my blogs into a file, and then I'll delete my blogs. They were for your consumption, and a means for me to release what was in my heart. That will be the end of this wonderful journey for me. I don't know what God has in store for me in the future, He hasn't spoken to me except to tell me to step aside. I'll continue here at Real Ministries as long as God tells me to stay here.  What has changed is that I will be going places, visiting family, and doing things I've always dreamed of doing. In my wallet is a bucket list that is about half completed.  I'd like to do my best to finish it.  That is the one BIG thing I learned from Glenda before she died. She wanted a joy journey before she passed this vale, and she got one. She left me with her goodness, her love, and with a profound sense of joy. I still come across people who tell me how much she affected their lives. 

Lastly, for those of you who just have to understand everything, and have reasons for everything, I'll say it one more time; I am not angry, disappointed, or injured.  It is simply time to end.  I promise, it will make sense sooner than later, so please don't make my stepping down about something going bad.  I look at it as something going good.

THE

 "The," is the most use word in the English language. When we read or talk we use 'the' at least two to three times in a sentence. In the English speaking world we use "the" to specify a specific person, place, or thing. In grammatical parlance, 'the' is a considered a definitive article, and is used to identify specific nouns, of which a sentence would not be a sentence without a noun (the subject). It is a small 3 letter word assigned a huge task.  By now, if you've read this paragraph you've already noted how many times I've used the word 'the.'  In many other languages, the noun itself speaks to its specificity. This is largely due to most ancient languages being pictographic in origin. To put it in simple terms; we got tired of drawing a bird whenever we wanted to say 'bird'.  Laziness is often the main driver in the streamlining of language. I could spend hours disecting our use of double consonants, archaic placements of extra letters. It would be fun, but won't serve the purpose for which I'm writing this, but it goes to the modern use of emojis.  We all like them when we're texting or writing emails, but they would really be useless as a tool of Shakespeare even though I would not be surprised if someone tried it.

As we move on into our book, I want to clarify some quirky usages by me. As I've told you before, I was given a Hebrew and Greek Interlinear early on in my formative years. For a period of almost four years, I read scriptures with the interlinear rather than a traditional translation. When I would stumble upon phrases (why don't we spell it 'frazes'?) that obviously had far fewer words than the original, or when the original had more words than the translation, I would take a concordance and research the phrase word by word. It didn't take me long to realize that Hebrew and Greek didn't rely on the definitive article "The".  So, why is this important to you?  Because throughout our study, you're going to notice that I don't say "The Holy Spirit."  On the other hand, you will probably see me use "The Spirit."  This arises because the Greek language we've translated the New Testament from uses a 'gender' neutral word for 'spirit'. However, my problem with this translation solution is that it reduces Holy Spirit to a thing instead of a person. It assigns the third person of the Trinity to being a thing without personhood.  This is insulting, and I believe it is why so many passages relating to Holy Spirit are reduced to concepts instead of truths. How can you blaspheme a 'thing'? How can you grieve a 'thing'?  When we say 'The Holy Spirit' we talk about Him as if he were in the third person. Our conversations about Him imply that He isn't an active part of our experience, but simply a 'force' like magnetism, gravity, or inertia.  This allows Holy Spirit to be ignored, or disregarded.  Yet, when Jesus promised the indwelling of Holy Spirit, He gave Holy Spirit the job of being 'Jesus' (Him, His presence, His being) until Jesus returns.  

I could carry this exercise out to craziness in the extreme, but that would defeat my purpose. Even I found myself while writing a lesson out using 'the Holy Spirit' out of habit. I quickly backspaced and gave Holy Spirit His rightful place in the Godhead. He is not an it, He is a person, and has emotions like we do. A matter of fact, our emotional center is more in line with Holy Spirit than we even know.  Our minds have to be renewed constantly, but it is Holy Spirit who informs our minds. We are just as complex as our creator because we are created in His image. His Spirit leads and guides us into all truth, which implies a physical presence, and a hearable voice. Do I need to speak to Jesus saying that 'His sheep know His voice'?   

Now, even in the Greek, when Paul, Peter, James, and John speak about "The Spirit of God", they use the Greek 'to' which is not the same as our 'to' but it's the way it looks or something close to.  In other words they will say; The Spirit, The Spirit of Christ' or  "The Spirit of God." THE is actually "to".  Which is why you have to have infinite patience when reading in Greek.  And I don't know how to go from Greek text to English text on my word processor.  I'm sure it can be done because I see Google do it all the time when I query it for scriptures in Greek.  I'm going to have to buy me a new interlinear.  

So, I hope you'll understand if I don't get slap happy when someone makes a big issue of when 'the' is used and when it isn't. I figure the first big translation gap came from when they translated Aramaic and Hebrew to Greek. Then to add to the fun, we then move it from Greek to English. Some things I leave be, because they don't change the intent of the scripture in question, but I've grown to hate using "The Holy Spirit."  I hope you will show me grace, (In this instance I'm using the word to mean 'latitude') in how I address the personhood of Holy Spirit.  He is so much dearer to me than 'it'.  

GRACE, MERCY, AND BETRAYAL

 At this point in my life, it becomes more difficult to become interested in things going on around the world, and in our nation.  My world is distilled down to my house, my church, as well as stores, and restaurants that I frequent.  I stopped using Facebook about five years ago not long after my mother died. I've trained my news feed to give me the news sources I trust, and I have become fairly good at spotting 'click bait.'  I get thrilled when new discoveries in physics and nature are made, but it won't be long until I am going to be face to face with the creator of everything and I'll know how it all works anyway.  I really don't desire to know the latest gossip concerning musicians, actors, or other 'artist' types.  I don't care about their opinions, because in the end, they are just people like me.  

However, there are times like yesterday when I hear distressing news within the 'Christian' community from two separate men, and I sense the question of 'how does this kind of thing happen?'  I won't go into the accusation, but from what I can tell it wasn't sexual misconduct as is often the case.  Instead it was a blatant misrepresentation of a gift of the Spirit. In other words, the same thing that has happened since the Church was first born. The book of Acts, and the letters to the churches, all document how easy it is for false teachers to slip in unaware and lead people astray. THIS IS NOTHING NEW!! Like everything else in today's modern age, the little 3" x 5" hunk of metal and plastic we carry in our hands amplifies a story beyond it's depth.  In this case, an individual is accused of using people's social media posts to make it appear as if the person was using a gift of knowledge, or a gift of discernment to reveal personal things about people.  Nothing new here, it happened in the early church, and I saw it in the churches where I grew up. Its just a variation of the old carnival mentalist act.

I've seen a long line of carnival acts that were paraded through Pentecostal, and Charismatic circles during my many long years as a believer.  Mentalist acts prey upon the human tendency to reveal intimate details of our lives to, and around total strangers.  Mentalists observe things that we brush off, or ignore so that they can perform their carnival act and 'wow' you with their mind games. During my childhood I experienced my share of one eyed drivers license readers, with lovely 'assistants' now wives. I've also seen evangelists come in claiming to operate in the gift of knowledge, revealing intimate details of a congregants life.  It always resulted in 'love' offerings at the end of the service and then they'd go on to the next church. After I left home, I had the privilege to work with a wise old man of God who taught me a great deal about how to navigate the waves of fakes who preyed upon those seeking a supernatural move of God's Spirit.  His advice seems relevant in the light of what I heard happened, and the knee jerk reaction of those standing on the outside looking in.  

His rules for people coming to speak in the church were simple, and concise.  

First of all, he never met with an evangelist, nor had conversations with them before they spoke.  He'd learned long ago that hucksters depend on this to make their 'manifestations' more believable. It's easy to share the illnesses, battles, and marital struggles of a church with someone who is outside the fray. Then when the evangelists speak to those situations, everyone thinks Holy Spirit revealed it to them. I've watched my own mother fall prey to this.  We used to call it 'reading someone's mail.'  When someone comes in and that is their primary 'ministry' I immediately turn them off. It doesn't matter whether they're a man or a woman, hucksterism is hucksterism.  Like Pastor W, I refused to be the source of their 'material.'  

When an evangelist called, or sent a letter seeking an opportunity to speak, Pastor W would inform them that there would be no 'love' offering taken at the end of a service.  He would then inform them that the church had agreed that they would pay $100 dollars to speakers.  In the 1970's that was good money, but nowhere near what a love offering could bring in especially if the speaker was good at making their spiritual routine look bonafide.  You'd be surprised how many of these so called evangelists would instantly back down.

Another rule Pastor W followed was totally biblical.  He wanted letters of recommendation with the names and numbers of the pastors where the evangelist had been over the past year. Just the demand for recommendations would deter many hucksters.  

You see, we all fall prey to hucksters in every aspect of life.  When I was told about the incident yesterday, both people were upset by the reaction of other churches to the way the host church handled it. Being as I don't have social media, I don't have access to these reactions, and I really don't care. I am only responsible for my own reaction. I can't represent nor make excuses, only the pastor of the host church. That pastor is going to have to stick to his guns, or he's going to have to deal with the individual and apologize for allowing someone to hurt the body of Christ. One of the more distressing things I heard was the reaction of other denominations demanding that all Pentecostal churches, and Charismatic churches must close their doors. WHAT?  Every religion has its hucksters.  Even the First Church of the Internet has scammers that steal far more money than has ever been taken by false prophets and teachers. Wolves prey on the weak, and the old, no matter if they believe in God or not.  The fact that they can slip into a church and wreak havoc is not exclusive to Pentecostal or Charismatic churches.  Every denomination has had to deal with acts of lust, and greed. 

Personally, I refuse to dump my faith in God, or my Pentecostal beliefs simply because someone decided to run a 'mentalist' game on people who should have had spiritual discernment.  If the church caught up in the scandal refuses to deal with the issue, they deserve to be closed down. The problem is in us, the members of the church. We love to be titillated, thrilled, and experience the sensational. Too many people believe that our everyday humdrum life can be made more bearable if we can occasionally witness a supernatural act. This is true for Christians and non-Christians alike. It is part of human nature to seek miracles, or see the supernatural. From the dawn of time, we've created monsters in the dark, giants in the woods, and mysteries in the seas to thrill our need for the sensational. To prove my point, just go through the TV listings of the Discovery Channel or the History channel.  We love movies about super heroes, and we surround ourselves with video games where the hero can respawn over and over. We use ghost stories, and fairy tales to get that momentary thrill that makes our hearts beat faster. Sadly, we are setting our children up for disappointment when we don't give them the truth about the world outside of their Christian bubble. We send our boys and girls to seminaries, and Christian colleges hoping they will come out better people, but we haven't spent the time when they were 'kids' in our churches telling them the pitfalls of 'freedom.'  We don't explain how to navigate the hucksters, pedophiles, abusers, and degenerate of this age. With modern AI, who needs social media, you can just create your own lies and make them look real.  

We need to practice grace, by allowing the person caught in sin the opportunity to confess, and then offer them a road to redemption. The Apostle Paul called this 'restoring' the soul of the person.  It is an act of grace, that we rarely offer to one another, but desperately crave for ourselves when we fall into the trap of sin. The betrayal of trust is hard to forgive. Trust is the only thing we can give to another person that expresses our desire for intimacy. Usually, moral failure isn't done over a lifetime, but is usually a trap that is set for us after a trial.  Mercy, or forgiveness is the one superpower that God gave us. We can either hold onto our offense and use it to crush those who hurt us, OR we can forgive them which sets them free from God's wrath.  What we forgive, God forgives.  Once I laid hold of that truth it changed my life. It is such a powerful force Jesus used it to prevent God from destroying mankind. He had to cry out on the cross, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."  Without Christ's forgiveness the world would have ceased to be.  Through His forgiveness, we could enter into the presence of God, and be like Jesus when we too forgive. Jesus faced the ultimate betrayal, and yet opened the door of mercy to us.  

So what are we to do with this young man?  I've seen worse things done than what I heard was done by this young minister.  I believe he should confess his sin, and submit himself to the leadership for discipline willingly and of himself.  The leadership in turn should explain what they are doing to restore him, and make paths of forgiveness possible. The fellowship in question needs to be more discerning of what is said and done in front of them.  Their services may be less sensational, but, then again...they could be more spiritual.  Which do you want?       

HUMILITY

As we prepare to rejoin a book we all read years ago, I hope we can open its pages with new eyes, and fresh revelation.  I certainly had my thinking challenged as I read deeper into the book over the holiday. What challenged me wasn't finding a new revelation, or even finding something I'd missed in our earlier reading. What I found was an even deeper appreciation of the unknowable God we serve, and I truly mean SERVE. 

My brother and I were talking about world issues, and as you can guess, we were doing a pretty good job of solving them. During the conversation we were trying to estimate how many billions of people are on the earth at present, and that led me to ask Google how many people are estimated to have lived on this earth since creation.  When the answer came, I wasn't prepared for it.  A global population research organization believes that there have been between 107 to 118 billion people born throughout the history of our planet.  What is even more amazing is that eight billion people are on the earth today. Of that number, I am just one. Yet, in my finite brain, I am the core of my existence. I am all I will ever know at an intimate level, that even my wife couldn't know. More amazing than that, is the knowledge that this moment, this instant in time, is unique to me. No one else will see the world from my eyes, hear the sounds I hear, or experience the world as I am doing at this moment. Later tonight, if it is clear, I can look up into an infinite universe, and be confronted by just how finite I am.  My physical eyes can only see an infinitesimal amount of the universe. I can only see this universe with eyes that are made to see white light only.  

BUT, lets bring it back to reality!  On my way home on this trip, I decided to pull into to the scenic viewing area just as you go into Marshall. In all of my time of going back and forth from Harrison, I've never done it before.  I was shocked at just how far I could see.  Yet, even what I could see was just a paltry part of the state of Arkansas, and even it is just a small postage stamp size cut of the land mass of our world.  

By now, you might be wondering what this has to do with the book we're going to read?  Everything!! It is all too easy for all of us, myself included, to take the sum of our learning and say; "That's all there is."  We have formulas for how to be saved, how to move God, how to build churches, how to reach the lost, or how to sing, or how to even how to KNOW God.  The reality is; we don't have the slightest clue how big God is, or even the universe He breathed into existence.  Every star we see is but a speck of sand in the hand of God.  YET,...

Here we are contemplating the unknowable, and reaching for the unreachable.  We are clothed in the glorious light of God's Holy Spirit, and at the same time we trudge through the swamps of mankind.  We live a 100 years and we smugly believe we've accomplished something. We map the DNA of our bodies, and yet we die of the same diseases as our ancestors did. Often times, we think we've found the cures for everything that ails us without the slightest bit of humility.

So, with all of that said, I want to prepare you for our first three conversations outside of the book. We've had these conversations in the past, but I feel very strongly that we need to look at them from a perspective of humility. Before we can launch out in our study I think we have to look at Faith, Grace, and the purpose of our salvation. If we don't, I believe we will be wasting our time. I don't have much of that to waste anymore.  

With that said, I want to ask you to dig deep and find out what faith is aside from Hebrews 11:1 .  What is the difference between faith, belief, hope, and trust?  Please bring any and all scriptures, as well as revelation from Holy Spirit.  The book we're going to be studying relies on us all having a foundational understanding of faith, so let's lay that foundation.  

Brothers,

I’m using the old TURN 180 blog site to give you a word that God brought to me while watching a totally unusual video. I hope sometime soon to share what God revealed to me to the congregation and I will show the video at that time.  

During this unremarkable video, a member of a helicopter rescue team calmly states that a female hiker who has slid down the face of a cliff “has a good purchase.”  That statement immediately made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I felt an overwhelming sense of revelation.  I knew what the man was saying because I’d read it many times whenever we would read Psalm 40.  The Psalmist was telling of how he’d become mired in clay (despair) and how God rescued him by putting his feet on solid ground. (hope)  All of us stumble and fall at sometime in our lives, and we find ourselves grasping for a purchase from which to keep us from falling to our doom.

Over many generations the word “purchase” has come to mean a foothold or solid footing. This is especially true in the military, and in mountain climbing.  It means a small foothold from which you can stand firm, but more importantly from where you can advance.  A foothold is never a permanent place.  You cant stay there forever.  It is only a temporary place of safety from which you can launch out to more solid footing.  Yet, the past often becomes a place we cling to instead of calling for God's rescue chopper.

I’ve been working this over in my spirit ever since I saw the video, and over the last two weeks Holy Spirit has been showing me how we become locked in place because we are unwilling or afraid to let go of our foothold. This can often be seen in people who cling to the way things used to be or even the way they are right now. This was what kept the religious leaders of Christ's day from accepting that He was the Messiah. Many people who are locked in the past, don't even realize it. They are like the Apostle Paul who during his first imprisonment was allowed to walk around freely, but under constant guard by Roman soldiers. It is a scary place to be in, when you think you are free, but you aren't.  Even as a church, we can become stuck in the past clinging to old forms, and traditions. We'll tell new people that "it's just not done that way."  Or, we'll wrap our arms around our past glories and worship them instead of the God who led us through them.  "We should have never done that..." or "I wish we still had that..."  or even "Why'd we let that/ them go?"  It's easier to bemoan the past than to embrace the moment.   

This morning I couldn’t go for my usual morning walk at six because of the flood of revelation He was giving me.  I sat up in my bed with pen and paper and wrote down the thoughts that were coming into my spirit. After I felt a release, I texted you guys with a condensed version of what I’d received, got dressed and went on my walk.  Because you all have my text message, I’m going to launch out with what I feel God wants us to know. This isn’t for just ONE person, but for all of us, myself included. When Bro. John prayed last night, he said that the awakening would not be like anything that has come before. It was then that I knew it was time to release what I’d been given.  

Spiritually, for those of us who claim Christ Jesus as our savior, it is all too easy to become locked up on dogma, and even worship the traditions of men. Carnally, it is also all too easy for us to become locked up by regrets for bad choices we’ve made in the past. Emotionally, it is all too easy to fear letting go of past hurts, and injuries due to careless words, or actions.  Jesus says; Let Go!!!! He’s got you wrapped up in His arms, and He won’t let you fall!  Every one of us has made, and will make bad or stupid decisions. Sometimes it's because we don't listen to Holy Spirit, well...actually it's always because we don't listen to Holy Spirit. The beautiful thing is, God isn't surprised by, and isn't scared of anything we do, or don't do. His plan will unfold.  We can only lament the fact that we didn't get to be a part of what He wanted to do, or even miss the thing He did with what we perceived as failure.  I kinda think the entire Bible is a record of what He can do with our mess. 

When we become locked up in the past, we can’t see ourselves moving up or down. Like the woman who’d slid down the side of the cliff, you can only look up and see where you slid down from, or look down and see nothing but death and destruction below.  Jesus is your rescuer!! He is right in front of you telling you not to be fearful, but to relax and rest in Him. The problem is that we can be lulled into a false sense of security because we have a footing, but that footing is tenuous at best. You can’t stay there forever! The rock you are standing on is far below where you fell from even though it offers you a small amount of hope. You become imprisoned by the fear of letting go. You will die there if you don't accept your rescue. Instead of trusting the creator of Heaven and earth, you have convinced yourself that what has worked for you in the past will continue to work for you in the future. Even with Jesus telling you to trust Him, you cling to the emptiness of your past.  

I am here to tell you that when you focus on your past mistakes, broken dreams, and bashed hopes, you will never be happy. The tragedies of your past do not limit what God can, and will do right now. You have to let go, and trust that God has you. None of us can go back in time and redo anything!  Remorse is fine, and Godly sorrow is the solution to your past, but regret is a prison that keeps you from living every moment with joy, and hope.  

The Lord revealed to me that I too was locked up on a cliff face trying to hold on to what I’d known.  In my case it was mourning Glenda that had me all locked up. This is where He revealed to me that sometimes we cling to good things in the past and refuse to move on because we can’t imagine anything being better than where we are right now.  There isn’t a day I don’t think about Glenda, and all the good things she did, and the wonderful person she was. It wasn’t until I told a Chaplain I walk with in the morning that I would give anything to have her back again. 

"But you can't have her back again can you?"  He asked.  "You had a lot of years together, and it's normal to miss her, but you want something that you can't have. Sounds like you're stuck." It was right at that moment that I realized I’d become locked in the past just as much as that woman in the video. I’d become afraid that people wouldn’t think I loved her enough if I didn’t mourn her intensely.  A good thing in the past had become my prison, and kept me from living the good things I have right now. 

So, how do you know if you’re living in the past?  What are the clues to help you let go and trust Jesus to carry you off of your purchase?  Actually they’re pretty easy clues. Your conversations consist of:  “I wish I’d never…”  fill in the blank with whatever you wish you’d never done, or said.  I promise you that YOU CAN’T go back so it is fruitless to live in your land of wishes.  The inverse of this statement is: “I wish I’d had…” If you didn’t do it or say it, and you wish you had, then you are locked up on that moment.  Regrets reveal your lack of faith in Holy Spirit’s leading, and a lack of trust that God can work all things for your good.  Regret is simply a lack of faith.  Without faith it is impossible to please God. It’s a rock you can’t get yourself off of. HOWEVER, I promise you that Jesus is ready to put a rescue harness around you and take you back to where you fell from if you trust him and let go of the past. One of the greatest obstacles to the gospel being preached is the imprisonment of God’s people to the past.  It is impossible for a prisoner to preach freedom to the lost, if they are both in the same cell. We need to be a church that is free indeed. Many Christian's lives are often dictated by the past, instead of being led by Holy Spirit who knows our steps, and our hearts.

As a final offering of hope, I want everyone to know that I never want to diminish the power of remorse, or Godly sorrow.  “Godly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance leads to salvation.”  Oh, wait a minute, that’s a scripture verse; 2 Corinthians 7:10.  

Mourning over your past sins and mistakes was never intended to be a continual state of mind. “There is now, NO CONDEMNATION, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (the past), but after the Spirit.” (NOW!)  Romans 8:1

Rejoice brothers, let go of your tenuous purchase and find freedom standing on the the ROCK of your salvation, JESUS CHRIST! 

SPIRITUAL PREPARATION FOR MEN'S GROUP

 Those of you who've known me over the nearly 25 years we've been a fellowship, know that I try very hard not to motivate you with guilt, or fear. A life of guilt, fear, and retribution was the hallmark of my Christian experience in my childhood, and teenage years.  The fear of never doing enough, or living up to what people said I had to do, shaped my existence well into my early adulthood.  Even after coming into the freedom of Christ paying it all, I've had to fight against guilt throughout my adult life with some success, and then there are times I revert to my default 'training' from my youth. So, my desire for this blog is to encourage you to increase your spiritual preparation for our Sunday Bible study without putting you under the weight of feeling that you are a failure if you don't.  So, before I jump into how to spiritually prepare for our studies, I'm going to tell you to RELAX, enjoy the journey, and TRY to implement some of the ideas I'm going to put before you.  

In the last blog we discussed the physical items you might want to have available as you study our source material. I used these tools all my adult life, and have grown accustomed to having them 'out' and positioned for study. Believe it or not, this is a spiritual preparation. 

FIRST: Find a place, whether it's small, or an entire room where you can spread out your study tools.  I call this; Making Room.  Making room is simply setting aside a spiritual meeting place for you to read, write, and meditate upon what you are studying. I had a pastor while I was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base who viewed his office as the tent of meeting, and his desk as the Holy place. The office space was where he sought Christ the light of the world, broke the bread of fellowship with staff and lay members. His desk became the Holy of Holies whenever he opened his Bible and began to seek God for a message for the next service.  He told all of us men to similarly seek a place where you are alone with God, free of distractions from the world, and able to lean back and close your eyes in prayer at any time.  He told us that he'd often fallen asleep in his office chair while praying for the message. There is no sin in falling asleep while in God's presence.   

POINT: Make Room, Find a Place, and purpose to meet God for a word from Him.

SECOND: Find a time!  During my adult years I always found a way to make a study space. It was always fun for me to do that.  I've emptied out closets, set aside corners of bedrooms, and at one point in my life, I even made myself an office space. It's always been easy to do. What wasn't and still isn't easy to do is find time.  Time is harder to give up than money, or things.  I can't count how many times I've heard someone say "I need some 'me' time."  or an even less selfish phrase like "I just don't have time."  I know when someone loves me if they are willing to give me time.  Your wife knows that, your children know that, and believe me God knows that.  I've told you all numerous times how much time I spend studying for our Sunday morning meetings.  I would be lying if I told you that over the last three years I've missed spending all that time studying for our men's group. So, let me make it bearable, and affordable if you give value to time.  Find time!  Whether it be thirty minutes, or an hour, dedicate yourself to as much time as you can afford to study.  

POINT: Make time, start small, enlarge your tent as you go.  

LASTLY: Pray to receive!  There are times I hate the word 'prayer' because of the negative connotations associated with it. Prayer is often portrayed as someone kneeling or sitting with hands clasped in a false display of reverence, with their faces contorted into a pained stoic expression.  Dear God in heaven, how would you feel if your wife looked at you like that when the two of you talked. (Long Pause here while you grasp what I'm alluding to.) Spiritual revelation doesn't come from how hard you squeeze your sphincter muscles and how eloquent your words are.  MY ADVICE for approaching God for revelation is a simple phrase that basically has this nugget at its core. "Hi God, I don't know anything without you revealing it to me. What do you want me to know."  Pause, which is polite way of saying shut up, read up, or speak up. Study time is not the time to solve all of the worlds problems and let God know your opinion on how to fix them. Your are the empty plate that He is going to put the bread of His word on, and the two of your are going to commune over it together.  

POINT: Open your mind, open your heart, and open your spirit to receive His Spirit.

Okay there you are!  Make space, make time, and open yourself up to receive.  Wow, too hard right? NOW, to absolve you of any guilt, and to place you in a position to live your life free of condemnation. You don't have to do anything I've written. None of my suggestions will affect your salvation, none of it will keep you from going up at the last trumpet. Any one of you can continue to come to our men's group without opening the study material during the week and still receive good stuff. I promise you, you'll be able to enjoy God's awesome word at no extra cost to you.  That is a promise.  No guilt, no condemnation, no shame.  You'll never hear any condemnation from my mouth.  

Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling, and skillfully teaching the word of truth.  2 Timothy 2:15  AMP      

Oops!  I didn't do that!  Bro. Paul did that.  I didn't tell him what to say, I promise.  I was trying real hard not to put you under any guilt or condemnation, but then he shows up.  I hate it when that happens.  I mean really, what did he know about life?  He didn't have a wife or kids, he didn't have a job, (well he was self-employed) but he was his own boss and didn't have to worry about pleasing anyone but God.  Well, now that I think of it, he did have those pesky Roman soldiers guarding him, and he was always being hounded by the Jewish religious leaders trying to kill him, or get him killed. Never mind how many letters he had to write to help gentiles understand this new Jewish sect called "the Way.'  Paul had no worries.  Just study and write.  Right?  

Unlike today's generation, there is no award for just showing up.  HOWEVER, there is amazing great joy when what you've prepared for bears fruit.  

STUDY PREPARATION

I wanted to prepare you guys for our next study. For those who remember, this blog was created in an effort to save copy paper and ink. Now it will be where I give my commentary on what we are studying, and also a means for you to know the direction the study will be going before you come.  The Lord willing, I will try to have the study notes posted on Fridays. If I have to say something critical of the book we're studying, I will opt for a lesson sheet like I used to do just to prevent the World from using my thoughts as a battering ram against Christian unity. If you don't believe it happens, just look at the struggles between the Apostle Paul, and the disciples. People amplified the 'works' focus of the Apostle James with the freewheeling grace of Paul. This debate continues well into our present day and has been the focus of many books. Even in our own midst, we all have varying ideas of how our life in Christ should look. To that I always say be gracious, and kind as much as possible, and punch each other out somewhere out of sight of others. (You'll figure that one out if you are at rest in your knowledge of Christ.) LOVE is always our guide. As all of you know, I often react negatively to new ideas when they are given without warning, and in a group environment.  It is only after I get alone and pray that I am able to hear from Holy Spirit whether that thought was valid or not.  My point being, be ready to give your thoughts on what we're studying, please respond when I ask for input, but know that my initial reaction may seem to be...tough.    

As always, my hearts desire for all of you is that you do take at least an hour at minimum to read the chapter we're in and make notes while you are reading.  As many of you know it can take us months to study a chapter, or we can zoom through one in two lessons. When you open up your books to study, ask Holy Spirit to give you revelation that will benefit and edify the entire group. To Resolve a couple of semantics, I will address Holy Spirit without the qualifier of "THE".  Until God reveals His name to us, I am uncomfortable referring to Holy Spirit as an object without feelings or individual attributes.  The 'the' in "the Holy Spirit" was created by us and we have failed to grasp how it denigrates Him to a lower status when He is an equal part of the triune godhead.  

TOOLS OF STUDY

Some of you remember my favorite study materials, but for those who never studied under me, I believe you should study with a yellow legal pad, or at least a spiral notebook to write YOUR thoughts down as they come. I also believe you should at least have one physical Bible with which to underline and highlight passages. Nothing thrills me more than a highly marked up Bible, it's better than chocolate.  I also believe you need a good five pack of highlighters so that you can isolate words, and phrases. Highlighters also give you a means to make your note taking remind you of what was important in your own notes. I also highly recommend a good physical edition of Strongs Exhaustive Concordance, Vines dictionary, and the Webster's 1828 Dictionary.  I also use the Complete Jewish New Testament commentary for greater insight into Jewish understanding of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.    

BIBLES:  As I've stated many times before, the KJV isn't my study Bible. At the same time, I always default to the KJV whenever I am thinking of a scripture verse because I grew up reading it, and hearing it for well over twenty years when I was growing up. I won't knock it, nor demean it, but as someone who grew up reading the KJV, I have issues with how it was translated.  As you've heard me say hundreds of times, if you can read the KJV with comprehension, you can read anything written by man. BUT, For simple readability, I prefer the NLT.  For beauty, and the poetic style of the Bible, I love the ESV.  My go to Bible for understanding Hebrew culture and how it applies to the Word is the Complete Jewish Bible.  Before we leave the whole Bible issue, let me explain that the NIV was translated by men and women who wanted to provide a readable, contextual version of the Bible. Despite its many detractors, the NIV is currently the most popular English Translation. The NIV has often been criticized for emphasizing a more modern view of the Bible with emphasis upon living a 'spiritual' life. It always amazes me how many negative comments are made about the NIV on the internet, yet it is so popular with the masses. On my study table I have three versions of the Bible that I use for comparison.  I have the CJB for context and history, the NRSV for accuracy (New Revised Standard Version), and the ESV for flow and readability.  As a side note; the ESV is considered an academically satisfactory translation. Personally as I stated earlier, I love the way it translates the poetic style of the Old Testament passages. Please feel free to USE whatever translations you are comfortable with, but at least have the maturity to know what the pros and cons of your choices are. IF you think in English, and read in English, it doesn't matter what you choose, because they will all be translations.  EVERY 'version' of the Bible carries an inherent bias of the translator even when there are other translators 'checking' their translation. This has been one of the biggest complaints about the NIV for instance.  It's emphasis upon Spiritual life and favorable interpretations toward Pentecostalism, and Charismatic concepts is obvious.  Choose your sweet stuff and don't feel the need to defend it.  That is not what we are about. Feel free to bring whatever version you feel comfortable reading from.  Nobody in our study group will confront you about what you bring with you.

THE BOOK WE ARE STUDYING

Due to copy-write restrictions in this blog format, I will try everything within me to avoid mentioning in the blog the source material for what we are studying. Another reason for avoiding mentioning the author and the book is because the author, and the book have come under a lot of criticism from Christians.  (Go figure)  The fellowship the author pastors has also come under a great deal of criticism for their focus on the supernatural, and focus on Holy Spirit. This is a public blog, and I want to avoid as much outside controversy as possible over the internet. Trolls will troll, internet vandals will vandalize, and creeps will...creep. If someone wants to disagree, I'd prefer they be in our study, and have facts ready. We know what we are studying and don't need references to know where we are at. 

As far as my own criticisms of the material go, as you know from the last book we studied, I believe we can all have questions about an author's conclusions, and even find them to be incorrect.  That doesn't mean that the author isn't a mighty man of God with a spiritual experience I can only dream of.  However, there were a few times I took a dim view of some of his ideas.  The same is true of our coming study.  I don't agree with everything the author says. Actually, I agree with a lot more than I disagree with. We'll have those discussion in private in our study group because the enemy of the Church likes it when believers disagree with each other.  He enlarges it, feeds it, and then exhibits it to the world so that the powers of this world can use it to dismiss our faith. Disagreements in bias should never be reasons for believers to stop fellowship with one another.  At the same time, I want to encourage you to read the book with your spirit man listening to Holy Spirit. Let discernment and wisdom guide your study, and seek out deeper truths that can help us be renewed, transformed, and guided into deeper revelation of the Kingdom of God. When all else fails remember one word: EDIFICATION.  

Before we step into the study, please remember that much of what we battle with among one another is not actually interpretation of the Bible, but when an idea challenges long held 'traditions'.  The statement; 'That's the way we've always done it' is not acceptable. Traditions of men is exactly what Christ came to abolish. Please have the malleability to recognize when what you are clinging to might just be a tradition based upon scripture taken out of context.  Context is everything. 

I strongly encourage you to PRAY that what we are about to study will be added to our study of intercession, and that we will become the disciples that Jesus desires us to be.  I am seeing more and more fellowships being led by Holy Spirit into deep and abiding prayer.  It is in prayer that our minds are renewed, and that we are guided into all righteousness. It is no accident that we were led to study about intercessory prayer for the last two years. Nothing is done in the Spirit without a purpose.  If you believe we are in the last days, then act accordingly, and PRAY as the days become more and more evil.  It is easy to look at this present moment and think that good has overcome evil because our present government is amenable to Christianity.  Even now, the evil one is preparing his next attack, and we must be alert, praying, and interceding for those around us. Just as Jesus would go out alone and seek God for revelation about what He was supposed to do the next day, so too should we be given over to prayer as we see this world in need of the Kingdom power that is within each of us.  I still believe there will be one more great outpouring before the final page is turned. The one verse that has come to 'temper' my view of end time events is Matthew 24:14.  " And this gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." ESV

Let's get busy!  

JAMES, GALATIA, AND FAITH

Most modern scholars seem to agree that the book of James was written to Messianic Jews living in what is known as Galatia.  Of course, we wouldn't recognize Galatia today because it is almost completely woven into the modern nation of Turkey.  The Celtic genetic influence is clearly visible in the large number of Turks with red hair.  Which has nothing to do with the letter of James to the Messianic Jews in Galatia.  At the same time, the Gauls of Christ's day had a huge influence upon the Jewish people who lived there.  Even Paul himself was from the city of Tarsus which was situated in southern Galatia.  For James, (we won't try to discern which James) the message he brought to the Messianic Jews in Galatia was typically Jewish.  At the time of this letter, Paul hadn't written one letter to any church yet.  Paul was still going into the Jewish synagogues, and winning converts to "the Way," as Christianity was called in the beginning.  

It is said that Martin Luther despised the book of James with its emphasis upon works, and condemnation of those whose lives were empty of works. Yet, a more modern understanding of James' writing shows that his reasoning was in line with the words of Jesus.  Let me use an example to prove my point.

Every year my wife makes me plant a garden.  Some of the plants are already cultivated and grown from seed somewhere else, mostly tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries.  Still, whenever I put a seed in the ground, it is a seed.  I don't know what that seed will be until it begins to grow.  I water it, fertilize it, and remove weeds so that it will grow.  Within that seed is the genetic information that will tell it what it is, and what it must do.  As a seed, it doesn't have one piece of fruit on it.  The fruit is in it, written within its genetic framework.  Environmental conditions dictate whether the fruit will come.  I've planted gardens only to have them devoured by bugs, and disease.  I planted seeds when the spring rains came, and then watched severe drought, and heat burn the plant up.  Still, no matter what conditions were around the plant, it at least attempted to make fruit.  

James is arguing the same point, but in a view toward our own lives being fruitful.  Never once does James say that doing good works is the path to salvation.  He simply points out the obvious, that we should be producing fruit.  This is the same message Christ taught.  James questions the faith of a believer if they don't produce the expected fruit.  I like to look at faith as the DNA code of our being a new creation in Christ.  Our fruit reveals our DNA.  Works (fruit) are the proof of who we are.  Whether we are grapes, corn, wheat, figs, or any other number of other fruit bearing plants, we have to bear fruit.  

The Messianic Jews in Galatia would've understood this.  I think Martin Luther wrestled with the book of James because he'd seen the dark side of the early Catholic church.  Living in Grace, and living by faith is one of the hardest things for Christians to do.  It is human nature to establish dogma, and do 'things' to earn right standing with whatever god we worship. Thankfully, Jesus paid the price for our salvation, and all we have to do is believe that.  Once we believe, and are born again, we are free to live out what our spiritual DNA says we are.  Just as chlorophyll is the life blood of the plant kingdom, so to is love the life's blood of Christians.  Love, will feed our works, and produce the seed of future generations to come. Love is the message of James.  Look at your life, remove the weeds, kick out the bugs, and love.    

 

ETERNITY

 As we're about to wind up our look into Galatians, eternity is something I've been wrestling with since we began looking into the celtic peoples that became the Galatians.  The Gaelic Celts who left a trail of death and destruction as they moved into what would later become known as Galatia, were feared for their fearlessness in battle.  Their culture was based upon dying with honor upon a battlefield and securing a place of honor in the afterlife.  As we've read through Paul's letter to the Galatians it is apparent that he didn't need to convince them of life after death.  They understood Eternity.  Paul's persuasion was more focused on the path to enter eternity, which stands in stark contrast to our present day.  

Christianity is almost solely focused on and is concerned with our lives after this fleshly tent is laid to rest.  The promises of God, the work of the cross, and the entire reason for the resurrection was to procure our place in eternity. It seems to me that there isn't much belief in eternity in today's culture.  A matter of fact, most people I talk to who don't believe in Christianity, don't believe in God, and ultimately don't believe in eternity.  The moral beauty of Christianity is not its greatest drawing card, and even less so without a belief in eternity. Those who believe that this life is all there is are more prone to be atheistic, or agnostic at best.  Without eternity, Christianity is a fruitless experiment.  

Someone asked me just this week if there was a book of the bible I would recommend to an atheist to convince them of Christ.  The answer is, NO.  Without a belief in Eternity, or should I say eternal life, there would be no reason I could give for someone to believe in Christ.  It'd be easy to blame a disregard for eternity on the worldly culture of our present day, but the worldly culture of today is a symptom of unbelief.  A belief in the afterlife is established in childhood.  I grew up in a home, and a church where life after death was used as cudgel to make me be good, and establish morals within me.  Fear of God, and His judgment were pounded into me, and became part of my emotional life in this present day.  It didn't represent Christ, and instead put me in the place of failure every day.  It took a long time for me to discover eternity outside of judgment.  It took a long time to understand that those who will be judged at the end of the age, didn't believe in eternity.  If any part of the letter to the Galatians identifies the fact that it was definitely written to them, it would be the absence of having to convince them of eternity.  

If we are to give our children the very best gift we can give them, I believe we need to convince them of eternity.  If we are to make that gift wondrous, and able to withstand the pressures of this present age, we need to make eternal love real to them.  Without love, who would want to live forever?  

GALATIANS 3 PART 2

We're going to take up where we left off in Galatians chapter three.  If you open your bible to verse 15, you will see more than Paul's intellectual understanding of grace. He makes his greatest argument for grace through the work of the Cross, versus works of the law.  The arguments are simple yet profound, and display Paul's deep understanding of Torah, and the principals of the promise.  Even more astounding is the fact that Paul is addressing gentiles who didn't have the cultural heritage of Judaism, or even a race identity as Hebrews.  Paul would eventually give his life to erase the divide between Jews and gentiles. Sadly, the divide still exists.  

It would be easy to think that with Christianity having spread to almost every nation on earth, that this divide wasn't an issue, but it continues because of erroneous teaching in the church.  It still continues because men simply can't give up control of their fate to their creator.   Just because someone calls themselves a Christian, doesn't mean they are.  Sadly, even well meaning Christians can become confused if they fail to listen to Holy Spirit, and ignore the cultural backdrop onto which Paul's message was put in front of.  

There are many awesome ideas that Paul puts forth in the 15 verses we're going to look at, but here are three that stand out to me.

The Promises to Abraham and His child.

The purpose of the law.

The Promises to all who believe. 

If we can't clearly express the promises of Abraham, and how they are important to others, we risk losing our ability to bring the nations to Christ.  We don't have to make the gospel relevant to the day and age we live in, we have to know what the gospel is and does for everyone we touch on a daily basis.  Just as Holy Spirit used Paul to make the gospel appealing to a bunch of rowdy Celts in Galatia, we can still make the gospel appealing to a dying generation.

Last week I was talking to a wonderful man of God who is also a landlord.  He was  about how his denomination was facing a crisis in reaching out to young people.  Among the denomination's leadership there was a sense that they could no longer reach young people for Christ.  As the leadership began to brainstorm the problem, they used old worn out ideas about relevancy, modernization, technology, and message. I asked him what the average age of the people in his church was, and he told me about 68 years old.  What he said next surprised me; Some of those need to die out in order for new blood to come in.  

I said NO, they need to pray like never before for a revival to sweep through their churches, and to preach Christ, and HIM crucified.  Everything else we do is 'pop culture' and generational reaction to the gospel.  If I want to praise God today, I'm not going to go find a harpsichord and play Bach.  Even as beautiful as it would be, it wouldn't 'appeal' to this generation.  However, if I tell what Christ has done on the cross for all mankind, it will have the same effect as it did 40 days later when Peter preached his Pentecost sermon.  We are the relevance to this generation, and the message of Christ is the appeal.  Holy Spirit knows who we are going to face everyday, and if we are listening to Him, He will fill our mouths with the relevance, and the message.  If you don't think you know what to say, just open your mouth and watch what spills out.  

Galatians Chapter 3

The gospel of Christ is exclusionary on purpose, yet the invitation for salvation is to everyone who will believe. In the letter to the Galatians, Paul not only has to deal with the quirks, and culture of the Galatian people, but with the interference of legalistic Messianic Jews who are insisting that the gentiles adhere to Jewish observances as a prerequisite for Messianic life.  We’re never told exactly who these “Judaizers” are, but we know that they came from a group of Jewish Christians who seemed intent on continuing to observe the law as well as believing that Christ was the Messiah.  

Chapter 3 is the heart of the matter for Paul. His arguments against religious observance of the traditions of men became the foundation of Christianity.  This was never Paul’s intent.  I am sure that Paul would be astounded to learn that his intimate letters to the churches of Galatia had shaped the church.  

What we can glean from the letter is that Paul had a deeply intimate relationship with the people of Galatia, and he was defensive of them.  

In chapter three, we see him use language that he doesn’t use in letters to any of the other churches he’d written to.

First, he plays to their cultural fear of curses, and belief in the afterlife.  As we learned in our study of the peoples of Galatia, the only thing Gauls feared was heaven itself.  War and death had been their lifestyle for centuries prior to settling in Anatolia, so it is safe to assume these were fearless men and women in battle, without a fear of death.   So Paul’s question as to who had bewitched them was designed to appeal to their fear of being placed under a curse.  Paul even uses ‘cursed’ numerous times in chapter 3 to emphasize the danger of depending on works for salvation.  

Secondly, Paul uses the inverse of a curse, which he refers to as a ‘blessing’, as a means to give more import to the power of the gospel over the curse of the law.  You had to be a Galatian to grasp the power of what Paul was telling them.  For a people who would rather die than be cursed, the power of the blessing was just as meaningful.  Even today, most superstitious people fear being cursed, while diminishing the power of being blessed.  We especially see it in the knee jerk reactions to the fear of being ‘cancelled’.  This was especially true of the people of Galatia at the time Paul wrote his letter to them.  The Jewish Christians who were demanding that the gentiles be circumcised were appealing to their fear that they’d missed a step in their walk with Christ.  Doubt is a powerful tool, and it is one that the enemy of our soul uses all the time.  Doubt is a twisting of reason.  What makes it so powerful of a tool is that our adversary knows that once doubt has been sown, it is almost impossible to repair the damage done by it.  I’ve known men who once were rock solid in their faith become misled by a question or incident that challenges their belief.  The question or doubt gnaws at their thoughts until they have no faith left.  Not everything in the gospel is rational to the human mind.  

Finally, chapter 3 begins Paul’s discussion of liberty through our faith, and how Christ has set us free from the slavery to the law of sin, and death.  The term “grace” is used only once in Chapter 3, but you can feel its work in the constant references to “promises” and “blessings”.  This is again a direct result of Paul’s intimate knowledge of Galatian culture.  The promises, and covenants made with the Gauls by ancient kings were the entire reason that Galatia became their home. The celtic quality of being a people of honor, and being ‘men of their word’ was cooked into them from generations past.  As a warrior people, the military ethic of being bound by your word was critical to who they were.  Paul uses this to remind them that God’s promises to Abraham were being realized in them.  It was a continuing promise of blessings that formed the basis of the gospel.  It wasn’t what the Gauls had done, or what they could do that brought the blessings or promises, it was their faith in Christ. By being circumcised, they were saying that more could be done, and that the blood of Christ wasn’t enough. This is always the slippery slope that comes from adding to or taking away from the work of the cross.  This was especially true in the early days of the Pentecostal movement when many denominations implied or stated outright that you had to be ‘baptized’ in the Holy Spirit.  As a pentecostal, I believe in the sheer joy of being ‘baptized’ in the Spirit, as well as His being a vibrant and powerful part of our work on earth.  On the other hand, it can be like circumcision was to the Galatian people, just another box to check off in your walk to heaven.  

It is fun to see how the Galatian culture affected Paul’s letter to them.  It is wonderful to know that God is so intimate with us, that he reaches out to us through our cultural background, as well as making the Jewish culture alive to us. 

THE GIFT OF LOVE

The world at the time of Christ was not totally bleak, or monstrous. I know what the gospel of Christ is intended to do, and at the same time I know that human beings are what we've always been.  In a day and age where fewer people have a faith in anything beyond themselves, we can see the darkness that surrounds that lack of faith. The headlong plunge into carnality is revealed in Paul's letter to the Galatians. As we learned from our Brother Colby, the Galatians were all about themselves. Parties, orgies, sexual promiscuity, killing, self-abasement, violent outbursts, and lawlessness were the normal way of life.  Then came the gospel!  

Looking at the gospel from our distant vantage point, it is impossible to imagine what it must have felt like to those first few converts as they felt Holy Spirit begin His work in their hearts.  Try to imagine how strange they must have seemed to old friends and family as their lives reflected the work being done in them.  To a world filled with carnality on all sides, these first believers must have seemed crazy.

If you think about it, the gospel had to be the craziest idea ever floated in a sea of ideas.  God could have simply spoken a word and every one would have done what He commanded.  He could have sent in an angelic army and subjugated everyone to His will.  He could have winked us all out of existence and started over again.  Instead, He gave us a gift of love.  

In Paul's letter to the Galatians, he makes it clear that the law imprisons us, but faith in Christ sets us free.  The ultimate expression of love is freedom.  As I look at the world around me today, I see humanity turning their back on the freedoms they once enjoyed under the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The more secular we become, the darker the repression becomes.  

For tomorrows men's group, allow yourself some time today to read Galatians 3 and see how Paul was addressing the specific culture of Galatia. 

WHAT CHILD IS THIS?

The beautiful Christmas carol "What Child is This" asks the question that we should be asking of ourselves. Do we see God's love laying in Mary's arms? From the moment Christ was born we were forced to see what God valued above His own self.  The gospel of Jesus Christ has changed many things in this world, and at the same time, many things remain the same.  There is much work still left to be done by the church in helping mankind to value little children.  Here in the United States, and in many western European nations, children have become prized and valued.  The modern celebration of Christmas is centered around children and the joy we can bring them through giving them gifts.  I know we've lost the true reason for Christmas, and it has become commercialized beyond belief, but there is a beauty in knowing that millions of people value their children so much, that they are willing to go into debt like they do. This is a direct result of the Church glorifying the birth of Christ. 

As we've been learning over the last few weeks, things weren't always as they are now. Children weren't always valued like they are today in western culture. Sadly, despite what the Church has done, there are many places in the world today where children aren't valued, and their lot in life hasn't changed much over the many thousands of years of recorded history.  

The stink and the filth of mankind's contempt for life is often revealed in how children are treated. The worth of children was often measured by their sex, and physical features, and to this day, unwanted children are killed in every way imaginable. It is utterly mind boggling how we can value a whale, a tree, or even inanimate objects more than we value children. Even among so-called 'progressives' there is an utter disdain for unborn children, and among the most rabid of pro-abortion advocates is the belief that a child must breathe air to prove it is 'viable'.  We don't need to stop abortion as much as we need to once and for all make a legal definition of personhood.  If in the matter of law you can be charged with two counts of murder if you kill a pregnant mother, then that definition needs to be applied to all children.  Our nation, as well as many other western nations, is still trying to wrestle with the idea of what to do when a mother doesn't want the child in her womb. 

In ancient cultures, unwanted, or deformed children were thrown out into the rubbage heaps of ancient cities.  In ancient Greek and Roman cultures, babies were thrown over the walls of cities, and into ancient ravines if they were the wrong sex, or had physical abnormalities.  Things don't change much when you remove the influence of the church.  We're at a point now in our development where it will be possible to genetically modify an embryo to suit our desires.

Throughout history, children have always been abused as free or cheap labor.  This practice continues today in many societies.  There is little difference between a child being given up to serve as a shrine prostitute in ancient cultures, and what is seen in many impoverished communities all over the world.  The gods of ancient civilizations are nothing more than the god of money today. Child sex trafficking can be found in every modern society as well as many third world countries.  This disdain for the innocence of children breaks the heart of God. 

When God chose to show how much he loves the world, He didn't send his Son as a full grown man, but instead put him in the womb of a woman that He would be truly human as we are. Children have never been less in God's eyes.  We're told in both the New and Old Testaments that he prizes children and sees us as we will be even before we are in the womb.  

It is amazing how easy it has been over the course of human history to marginalize children and make them pay for our sins.  Human sacrifice is almost exclusively focused on little children.  

The Church has changed that!   Wherever Christ is taught, the value of little children is also taught.  I personally long for the day when little boys and girls are allowed to laugh, play, and live free from fear.  I look forward to a time when the idea of "Jesus loves the little children," will be sung in our hearts with appreciation for the man or woman they will become.  

The greatest sin of child abuse, is the crushing of promise.  

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

Not long ago I had an interesting conversation with a customer who was genuinely unhappy with how he’d been treated by so-called Christian businessmen.  I’ve heard this complaint before from other customers, and it is often used as a means of defending against taking advantage of them.  The problem with the area of the country where I live, is that most trades people are Christians, and I can point to far more trades people being taken advantage of than customers.  If you express your faith in Jesus Christ to your customer, it becomes a test of your faith, and a battle of wits.  Neither of these scenarios are the way Jesus wants us to live.  I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, “If that’s the way Christians are, I don’t want to be one.”  What makes that statement ironic is that it is often said by people who moments before were trying to tell me how good of a Christian ‘they’ are.  Thankfully, I've been blessed with awesome customers, and the ability to fulfill my obligations to them.  I said all of that, because the Kingdom of heaven isn't about perfection but about the perfect one.  The carnal nature rises up in every one of us from time to time.  If it weren't so, then Paul would have never told us to 'renew our minds daily'. At the same time, the carnal nature isn't our default nature any more.  In the name of Jesus we overcome the carnal nature by living in the Spirit of Christ.  

I think most of you have caught on to the notion that I believe the Kingdom of Heaven is something we’re supposed to bring to this earth.  I hold on to a belief that we can walk this vale in the power, and leadership of Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of life will guide the listening, the loving, and the obedient to a life of purpose.  

What is that purpose?  SIMPLE!!!!  Proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ!!  

How you do that is what makes you a unique, and valued citizen of the Kingdom.  The message is the same message Peter said in Caesarea Philippi.  “You (Jesus) are the Christ, the son of the living God.”  

As we move forward into our study, I find it exciting that we are in the book of Acts as part of our daily reading.  I would hope that as we go forward into our daily reading that you would have a notebook handy so you can write down places, dates, people, and events.  This will find its way into our future studies into the epistles of Paul, Peter, James, and John.  

The same advice goes for the letters themselves.  Look at each letter and look for specific, and unique things that the Apostles addressed to each church.  This is important because the gospel didn’t explode on the world of that day.  It began slowly, and eventually picked up steam.  As the Apostles left Israel, and began to preach throughout the middle east, they could only hope that the churches they planted would grow.  Some churches never made it out of the initial phases, and others sputtered along until they finally became bastions of the faith.  It would take nearly 1900 years for the gospel to be preached in every nation, and it will take a while longer for those nations to be discipled.  Still, the Kingdom of Heaven moves on.  The advance of the Kingdom can be slowed or sped up simply by whose name we chose to advance it.  If we do everything we do in the name of Jesus, then I have faith that we will move at lightning speed.  If we stumble and build a kingdom on any other name, with any other gospel, the next generation will have to start all over. Let's choose to lift up the name of Jesus!   

As we study the people of Galatia, I hope you will find out where and when the gospel was preached to them, and by whom.  See if you can determine the keystone issues that Paul had to devote time to.  Open up the book of Galatians and see what Paul said.  

I look forward to what Pastor Colby has to bring our way.  

THE COURAGE TO LIVE FREE

“O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

It takes courage to live free!  In the USA today, we could replace the last line of the National Anthem to say “O’er the land of the afraid, and the home of safety.”  The true definition of a great society is providing a place where people are free.  We stopped being a courageous people and have followed other fallen societies into the quagmire of enslavement to our baser nature.  Fear is our base nature.  

If someone were to ask me what is the greatest advantage of living in the Kingdom of God, I would tell them; living free!

It takes a lot of courage to trust God.  It takes even more courage to live free of fear, but that is what Christ purchased for us on the cross of Calvary.  As we mature in our faith, fear is replaced with love, and worry is replaced with trust. The Spirit led life is a life of courage, bravery, and nobility.  The carnal nature cowers in the dark, huddles shaking with fear in the middle of the pack, and follows the crowd, even if it means surrendering their freedom.  The carnal nature yearns for safety, while the Spirit led life yearns for freedom to love as Christ loved.  It takes great courage to love.  One of the most common examples of this is when couples are dating and everyone knows they should get married, but one or both of them is “afraid of commitment.”Simply put, they are afraid to really love.  It’s easy to have sexual relations with someone, but it takes courage to commit yourself to someone for a lifetime. The Kingdom of God is the courage to love, and it is by the Spirit that we are able to live free to love.  In 2nd Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

It takes immense courage to follow Christ!  When we are born again, God’s Spirit makes us a new creation. The new creation no longer lives in fear of death, or punishment, but lives for love, and goodness. I’ve been in so many churches where the leadership felt the need to hammer people into their own image by using the fear of the rapture as their hammer, and the fear of hell as their anvil. I have to believe they meant well, but it quickly devolves into a religion of touch not, taste not, and look not. They become enslaved again to a form of legalism, bound up by chains of fear. This form of religion is exactly what Christ warned the disciples about when he said ‘whoever wants to be great among you must be a servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of everyone else.’ (Mark 10:43-44 paraphrasing mine).  It takes courage to live for others first, but it is the only way to be truly free.  

I’m sure being a world leader must look attractive, especially to those who have been at the bottom of the social ladder most of their lives.  It’s easy to think that they can do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and go wherever they want, but nothing is further from the truth.  It has been my experience that those who want great power, live in great fear.  Look at all the handlers surrounding our own President.  Look at the Secret Service agents it takes to protect our President.  Our own President surrounds himself with advisors, and political advisors who direct his every move.  The powerful eventually become enslaved by fear. At no time in history was this more evident than at the time of Christ’s crucifixion.  

Christ challenged the religious leaders of the day, pointing out their fears. He revealed their lives of fear and the bonds of public approval.  In return, they appealed to their captors, the Romans, to help them get rid of Christ. Even Pilate found himself giving into the will of the crowd when he gave the choice of freeing Christ, or Barabbas. The carnal nature is defined by fear, while the Kingdom is defined by courage.  Walking by following Holy Spirit is a life of freedom!  (Romans 8) Paul made it even clearer in Galatians chapter 5 (please read the whole chapter)

The carnal nature of fear is expressed in:

Sexual immorality (fear of missing out on something or someone to fulfill your pleasure)

Impurity (fear of doing the right thing)

Debauchery (fear of being alone)

Idolatry and sorcery (fear of being powerless)

Hatred (fear of others being better than you)

Discord (fear of more than one person being better than you)

Jealousy (fear of others being valued more than you)

Rage (fear of the knowledge that you aren’t the one in control)

Rivalries (giving your fear of being like everyone else to someone else)

Divisions, (fear of being united with someone)

Factions, (giving your fear of being united to someone else with the same fear)

Envy (fear that someone else has something you don’t)

Fearful people will seek out other fearful people, get drunk in their fear, submit to sexual perversions in fear, and give in to every kind of debasing behavior to mask the fear) Murder, theivery, deceit, and destruction are all symptoms of fear. 

BUT,,,,,

The Kingdom of God is; 

LOVE (the courage to put someone else above ourselves)

Joy (the courage to express our happiness with what we’ve been given)

Peace (the courage to be at one with our creator, ourselves, and others)

Patience (the courage to defer judgment, criticality, and fear)

Kindness (the courage to give others what we would want)

Goodness (the courage to share our glories, victories, and honors with others)

Faithfulness, (the courage to live courageously no matter what we face)

Gentleness (the courage to lay aside our strength, power, and prestige for others)

Self-Control (The courage to do what is right even when we know we are afraid)

If we go back to Romans 8:1 we can understand the courage it takes to live free. Those who seek power and to enslave others will be the most fearful among us.  The tool of enslavement is CONDEMNATION!!!! In today’s world we see it in the rebirth of racism, gender politics, and especially in social media.  I’m always amazed by those who preach the new religion of ‘identity’ and the hypocrisy they get away with.  Social Media has given rise to what is called the tyranny of the majority and all dissent is condemned by mindless millions who like nothing more than to pile on the weak. John Adams warned against it when our nation was being formed, and now we see it in all of its ugliness through social constructs. It will take courage if we are to bring the Kingdom of God to earth.  Holy Spirit gives us that courage if we will learn to trust HIM.Throughout history, the Kingdom of God has been resisted, and its citizens killed for preaching it. Still, it has advanced despite persecution.  Love conquers fear.

THE KING OF LIFE

There never was, and there never will be a King like Jesus. It is easy for us to view Him through the abstract lens of His deity, instead of seeing Him as the expression of God’s compassion, and goodness.  Without the help of Holy Spirit, our view of Him is that of a stoic, emotionless man sent to keep people from having fun. Yet, if you try and inform people of what life was like under ancient rulers, they won’t believe the tyranny, and utter disregard these ancients had for individuals.  How do I know how God feels about humanity?  By looking at what Jesus did while He was on this earth!  How do I know what the Kingdom of heaven looks like?  By looking at the King of heaven and what he did. 

The Kingdom of heaven is life!  Not just your heart ticking, and your brain spinning, but a life of wholeness, and healing.  When Jesus entered into this vale, He didn’t come as a warrior king with a vast angelic army.  He came as  a lowly infant, lived among us, and became as we are.  The Spirit of God put on the garment of flesh, so that He would know exhaustion, pain, sickness, and disease.  He is touched by our infirmities!  There is nothing we can go through in this life, that He hasn’t touched or seen. Throughout history, when the Kingdom would invade this earth, it would be to bring healing and life to all it touched.  Every other king could only take life.  They worked people till they couldn’t work anymore.  They brought diseases with them from foreign lands they conquered.  Jesus conquered sickness and disease.  No other king has done this.  

Jesus brought life to the downtrodden, giving them worth, and value.  He knew the very number of hairs upon our head, knowing when they fell.  Once liberty has been given, it can’t be taken away.  They can lock you up, beat you, and even kill you, but the liberty of Jesus Christ can’t be taken away. No other King has ever done that!  Only Jesus has set the captive free!  The foundations of other kingdoms were built upon the emptied lives of slaves, and servants.  No matter where you were in a kingdom or empire, you were still subject to the king.  You couldn’t escape or run away from your fate.  Ancient kings saw everyone as their subjects, and if you tried to escape, you were killed.  

Ancient kings would try to invent cruel ways to kill rebellious subjects. The description of these horrors don’t need to be recounted here, but suffice it to say that death was often more preferable to the torture humans could inflict upon one another.  Highways were often lined with the rotting corpses of those who dared to challenge the kingdom.  Jesus opened up the gates of the Kingdom of heaven and paid the price for our entry into it.  He prepared it for us, and is making everything ready for us to enter.  

The King of Life allowed himself to be suspended between heaven and earth, offering his life for our salvation.  His anguish allowed Him to be a caring loving King extending a hand of mercy, to all who reached out to Him.  

More than anything else, He left His Spirit within us!  His Spirit allows us to extend grace and love to generation after generation.  There is a direct line of ancestry from the cross to a document stating that all men are created equal, and granted inalienable rights by their creator. His Kingdom is life, and He is the King of life!  

THE GOSPEL

What is the gospel?  In our evangelical fervor it is easy to forget the fact that most people are fairly content in their lives, and the gospel has very little draw.  For most people living today, there is little thought beyond tomorrow, and even less thought given to eternity.  Yet, in most evangelical services you will be bombarded with the threat of an eternity in hell without Christ Jesus.  This is not the Kingdom message Christ sent His disciples into the world with. Gospel is almost always translated as "Good News."  

So, what is the good news?  What was so different about the message of Jesus?  

You have to look at what HE said, and what HE did to come to an answer.  

John 3:16 is the encapsulation of the salvation message, but it isn’t the good news.  Prior to Jesus, and for many centuries after His death, and resurrection, the governments of this world operated on the idea that you had value only as long as you were valuable to the ruler over you.  It didn’t matter whether you thought you were valuable, only someone above you could give you worth. The idea of imputed worth flowed from the family who needed sons as a captive workforce.  It was also given to you if you were of worth to the tribe, city, state, or nation you were in.  Your worth was determined by what you did, or who your family was.  This was never God’s intention.  Kings, and rulers believed they were either chosen for their role as rulers, or that they themselves were gods and were fated to rule.  

Then came Jesus!  

The incarnation of the godhead didn’t come to this earth in splendid array, dressed in gold, nor did He come in adult form.  If a ruler ever stooped to live in the poverty and squalor of the poor, He would have been quickly dethroned.  More than that, Jesus came to restore individual worth, and liberty to all people. If you ever wanted to know what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like, all you have to do is look at Jesus’ first message.  

Let’s look at Luke 4:14-30

This passage was a description of what Jesus said immediately after being baptised, and then being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and nights.  

You can’t preach the kingdom without being in the power of the Spirit.  Jesus taught in the synagogues as He made his way to Nazareth, and we’re told He was glorified by all. 

Then He gets to His hometown where he goes to the synagogue of His youth.  He is given the scroll of Isaiah (He didn’t choose it), and proceeds to read from Isaiah 61.  This is the mission statement of the Kingdom.  God didn’t come down with angelic armies (even though He had in the past.)  He didn’t enter with great pomp and circumstance as men would do.  

He said; The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, (if the Spirit isn’t upon you, you aren’t anointed to proclaim the good news.)  because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 

Unlike any other King before Him Jesus wasn’t interested in the rich and powerful.  The poor were the ones who were treated the worst, and were often forced to sell themselves as slaves to those who were better off.

He said; He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives.  The slave, servant, or indentured servant could be free.  Freedom is why Jesus came.  

What does a good God do?  He heals the blind, gives liberty to the oppressed, and declares the year of God’s favor.  

If there is one thing that defines the Kingdom of God, it is liberty, healing, and deliverance.  These blessings have flowed independently at various times throughout history before Christ, but never together.  While many want you to believe that the miracles of Christ were done to convince men of His divinity, I would argue that they were simply the expression of the Kingdom, and were meant to continue in us, through us, and as gifts to mankind.  They were never meant to be signs, but were simply the heart of God being revealed to people everywhere, in every time. If as Paul said in Romans 8:29 that Christ was to be the firstborn among many brothers, then the same Kingdom purpose should be in us. Throughout the history of the Church, the greatest threat to the Kingdom has never been from the outside, but from men and women of God focusing on only one aspect of the Kingdom message. The mission statement of Christ should prompt us to be like Him. There is nothing we can do to rectify past failures of the Church. What we can do live up to the high calling of Christ, and become  what God predestined us to be. The Kingdom has come slowly over the last 2,000 years, but there is a resurgence as we take Christ’s words to heart.  Jesus is speaking throughout the nations to His brothers to break the bonds of enslavement both physically, and spiritually.  We have to ask ourselves

What is good news to the poor?  

What is good news to the captive?

What is good news to the blind, deaf, and lame?  

What is good news to the oppressed?

We don’t have to guess what the good news is. God spoke it through His Son, and the Son showed us what the Kingdom looked like through His actions!  God’s first ambassador revealed what the Kingdom looks like in heaven, and what it should be on earth. Because God is Love, everything Christ did was love. The Kingdom abhors poverty, enslavement, disease, and oppression. Most people today don’t know what the Kingdom is, because we’re fulfilled by the things of this life. The carnal nature rises up if it feels threatened by the Spirit working within us, and justifies itself by using scripture to push away Holy Spirit.

For example, caring for the poor is often shut down by quoting Jesus saying that ‘you will always have the poor among you.’  During the early part of the Evangelical movement, the Second Coming of Christ was used to bludgeon people with fear to accept Christ. The fear of hell was preached so often, that no one knew what the Kingdom of God looked like. The Church has focused on eternity and getting out of this present life for so long, that we don’t know how the Kingdom flows beyond salvation.  Physical death comes to all of us all too quickly, and we waste most of this life wanting to escape it.  

Jesus came to give everyone who will believe in Him a taste of the Kingdom so we will know that we have worth, and value to the Father. The poor, the captive, the crippled, and the oppressed all have hope because the Kingdom is here. 

What Jesus said about individual worth:  Matthew 10:31, Matthew 6:30-32, and most especially the Parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son found in Luke chapter 15.  In Luke chapter 19, Jesus reaches out to Zacchaeus (A tax collector) and offers to eat with him.  Through one act of kindness, the Kingdom came to an entire family.  This is just like what OCC does with one shoebox.  One child gets the box, and an entire family finds salvation. Individual worth for one is the light that shines on others.   

KING OF KINGS

Here we are at the last lesson in the Introduction.  WWHHAATT!!!!!!!!  You have to be kidding me!  This was just the introduction?  

We’re talking about a bunch of History, and in the midst of all of that a long succession of kings, kingdoms, and empires.  As we study the individual cities and states that the Apostles wrote to, we’ll look at their kings, and the crazy, and also cruel things they did throughout history.  For the moment, I want to talk about Jesus,the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.  These were titles He never gave himself, but were ascribed to Him later by the Apostle Paul, and John.  (See: 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17: 14, Revelation 19: 16, ) In a bitter touch of irony, Pontius Pilate mockingly declared Jesus to be the king of the Jews as they hung Him on the cross.  Jesus was MORE than the King of the Jews.

What could Pilate the Roman Prefect of the great Empire have to fear from an unknown zealot who’d been handed over to him by his own people.  It was barely worth his time to deal with the situation. To Pilate, Jesus was just another in a long history of messiah’s. The history of the land of Canaan was filled with would be kings, upstart city kingdoms, and small insignificant rebellions.  In his mind, this Jesus was just another slave of Rome.  He would be hung on a cross just like every other rebellious slave.  It would be just one more tree in a forest of crosses that dotted the roads between Rome, and its far flung holdings.  Pharaohs had come and gone, The Assyrians, Persians, Babylonians, Philistines, and Greeks had all failed in their attempts to establish lasting kingdoms.  Like every good Roman, Pilate believed that the Roman Empire would be the last great kingdom, and it would last forever.  The man who stood before him, this Jesus couldn’t even scrape together a handful of supporters to defend him.  The man’s ‘disciples’ had all disappeared when he was arrested, with only a few women left to weep and cry as Pilate  pronounced his judgment on him.  Herod had told him about outlandish rumors of healings, and miracles done by this ‘Jesus’, but the man standing before him could barely stand. If he was a sorcerer, or great magician, he was keeping it well hid. 

King indeed!

Little could Pilate know that the beaten, bleeding man who stood before him would one day establish a worldwide Kingdom called Christianity.  Little did he know that Jesus would influence the affairs of men from lands as yet undiscovered. The unseen Kingdom of Jesus would change the affairs of mankind from that day forward, and it will do so forever.  Jesus was a different King, a servant King, a lowly humble peasant king whose Kingdom wasn’t enforced with military might, but enshrined in grace and love.

As we’ll discover as we go further into our study, the kings of the ancient kingdoms were cruel, and ruled by the carnal nature.  Most of them viewed themselves as being more than just kings.  They saw themselves as gods, and their exploits were sung everywhere they went until they died, or were killed in battle. Then a new king would arise, and shine briefly, and then be forgotten soon after they too died.  The crimes these rulers did to their subjects were never punishable, because they were....kings.

It would be the lowly son of a young girl from the tribe of Judah that would change the course of history more than any other king before Him.  Jesus was everything ancient kings had hoped to be.  Where King Darius claimed to be the defender of the truth, Jesus said, “I am the truth.”  The kings of Persia, Medea, Greece, Egypt, and yes even the Philistines hoped to be seen as placed in rulership by their gods. They claimed to know the way, while Jesus boldly declared “I am the way.”  The ancient kings would dress themselves in golden splendor, and sit on thrones plated in gold, Jesus declared, “I am the light of the world.”  The ancient kings ruthlessly murdered opponents in hideous forms of torture, while Jesus mildly restored the ear of a guard when Peter picked up a sword to defend Jesus.  Ancient kings would gather vast armies and send them on great campaigns to conquer and destroy.  Jesus would send disciples in front of him to declare that “the Kingdom was at hand.”  When the King of kings would arrive, He would quickly get to work healing, delivering, and restoring lives.  The Kingdom of God brought new hope to a beleaguered humanity; Individual Worth!

Prior to Jesus, the individual had no rights. The world Jesus was born into didn’t recognize individual worth.  Eighty percent of the population of the civilized world were slaves to one ruler or another.  The only way a person could be ‘free’ was to live on the fringes of society, or to be born into power.  Power was defined in physical strength, prowess in combat, financial strength, or dynastic birth. The only equalizer throughout history was death.  Everyone dies!  Even in death, your wealth was plunder for the bandit willing to dig up your grave.  The oppressor, could be overcome, and become the oppressed.  The cycle went on and on through thousands of years. Then Jesus came and offered citizenship in an eternal kingdom.  Even this idea wasn’t new.  What was new was who was offered citizenship.  God’s offer of eternal life was predicated upon one simple premise; Belief in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  Eternity no longer belonged to the powerful, noble, or religious adherent. As if to add insult to injury, Jesus made it clear that every human being could have eternal life through believing in Him.  His was an unseen kingdom, and its power would eventually change the way governments ruled, secure rights, and liberties for every human being, and lay the foundations for the individual rights we enjoy today.  

Sadly, the power of the carnal nature is insidious, and pervasive. It would take nearly 1700 years for men to fully embrace the message of Jesus.  When Jesus left this earth, He left behind His Church to advance His kingdom. The Church would stumble and lurch its way forward through outright persecution, and sadly through corruption from within. The carnal nature would infiltrate the Church, and subvert believers into inaction, and impotence.  Still, despite the deception of the evil one, and our own carnal nature, Holy Spirit guided and directed the church in its mission to bring the Kingdom of God to earth.  Many lost their way, because they listened to their carnal natures, others lost hope, but the Church has never failed. 

The message of the Kingdom persisted because Jesus was a king unlike any other before, or after Him. With His death, and  resurrection, He defeated the grave, and made us eternal children of God.  Not just to one, or a few, but to as many who are called.  Jesus gave mankind their individual worth.  Many internal battles have been fought, with most people barely being able to live a victorious personal life.  Yet, the Kingdom of Grace and Love has changed the world in ways we’ll soon discover.  Hold your head high Christian, be a jubilant church, the kingdom is at hand and will be until Christ returns.  

Now, our study can begin in earnest.  WHEW!!!