Tag Archives: Kingdom of God

Christianity, what is it saying?

Don’t know about you, but I think they are saying the wrong thing.

Studying the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation, it seems to be pushing this thing called “Kingdom of God”. What I don’t hear from chrisitanity is “Kingdom of God”, but I seem to be hearing week after week, we need to go out and bring the sheep in out of the cold, and let us take care of them.

Although, that last statement might sound right to us(only because we have heard it from the pulpit),but the storyline we must hear is that we are now in the “Kingdom of God” with God and his people molded into one, God in us,us in Him. This is the story of the “Restoration of God’s World” that is told in the New Covenant.

We for to long have taken this storyline upon ourselves to take it further in our own humanistic ways. Which totally is not what God has said in scripture. What we done, I believe, in Christianity, and Catholicism have seen the literalization of God’s word’s to Peter ” I will build MY Church upon you”. We have taken this as our War cry to use for us to take it further on ourselves to champion the call to do this on our own, No God needed! God’s exclamation with Peter was a call on humanity was one of this is the first stone(Peter realized that Jesus was the Messiah,first to acknowledge this,even from the disciples)He would be put next to the cornerstone(Himself) to start the ‘building’ of His Body(Ekklesia). This is the ‘Picture’ that was to be ‘seen’ by the disciples and to the world.

Jesus presence in the human world was first an ‘on hands experience’ to be with his fellow humans(He was 100% man, and 100% God) He was showing man that His God side was being shown too, in his healing people, out of this world wisdom,His power, His New talk of the things to come, in his people to be ‘New’ in his Creation of the World.

This was a foretaste of the ‘New World’ of God’s Kingdom. God was inviting all to come and join him for this new experience.

If this is not what you are hearing from christianity, then we must correct our insight to ‘see’ that God is calling us to his Kingdom. It is now but not yet.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” John 18:36

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Kingdom of God-What is it?

We are going to delve into the Kingdom of God. All the questions that surround it and what it all means after we know them.

Jesus’s Ministry on earth was one of multiple facets. Jesus was on a mission. Mission from God.It was a one of ‘identity’,one of ‘reason’, and one of ‘salvation’. It was a Mission of intrigue.

We are going to concentrate on the end result or the ‘reason’ for all the mission.

The Kingdom of God is describe to us in Revelation’s 21st and 22 chapter. For a foundation on what we are dealing with I feel that we must all be on the same page. So here is the two chapters to read, we will continue with this in the next blog.

The New Heaven and Earth

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

5 And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He *said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7 He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

The New Jerusalem

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. 12 It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east and three gates on the north and three gates on the south and three gates on the west. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 The one who spoke with me had a gold measuring rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great as the width; and he measured the city with the rod, fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height are equal. 17 And he measured its wall, seventy-two yards, according to human measurements, which are also angelic measurements.18 The material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; 20 the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

The River and the Tree of Life

1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.

6 And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.

7 “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”

8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 But he *said to me, “Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the words of this book. Worship God.”

The Final Message

10 And he *said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.”

12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

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How does one discern God?

For me it is a couple of things, Studying the word, and Studying other people or groups that are discerning God.

Now, when I am studying for myself I am eclectic in my ways, I do not have(yet) a proven methodology of just doing one thing at a time. I am doing probably 10 things at a time, which I seem to like, because I haven’t changed much over the years. I have curiosities of different subjects on my mind at all times it seems so I am trying to tackle all of them at the same time. I am curious. This should be every christian in their walk with God. Never going without that everlasting water to feed us God.

Those that do not feel that they only need to spoon fed a drop of water on a certain day, seems to be just asking for it. How can one be ‘satisfied’ all week long, with just a spoonful? As was Paul when He was a pharisee was a zealous pharisee. He was a 100% pharisee. It was also the case when He became a disciple of Christ, He was fully enveloped into being one with Christ. Paul says so in multiple verses in his letters to this fact. He knew the scrolls, but he more importantly knew what they meant when God and Jesus were orchestrating things on earth and his people to know.

As in the beginning of the 1st century, there was multiple understandings of what God or Jesus was all about. The first issue that had to be worked out was, who Jesus was. Was he a man, was he a prophet, was he imposter,was he devil, was he a god, or was he all of the above? There is time where there is indecision for man to work out the paradigm that was just starting with Jesus on the scene. What did it mean. For the gentiles it was plethora of answers, for their world was wide open to anything. It is for the Jews that it was in their back of their heads, “Was this the ‘Messiah’ that we had been promised?”, How can we tell? People were giving all kinds of answers to these questions. It wasn’t until Jesus started to ask his own disciples(seems weird asking these men that had been following you around for months,who do you think I am?) who do you think I am? It was Peter that said “You are the Messiah”.

Some people believe that it is detrimental to get your hands dirty in ‘knowing’ other peoples mindset to a question or a belief, or a religion, but the significance of this is very important in my mind is that how does one minister to someone without ‘knowing’ them and their viewpoints. I am a believer in knowledge of the other christian beliefs to be able to ‘know’ what is out there to see what you are contending with.

I read. I don’t read just the things that I like. I have multiple books on things I need clarification on,new things, subject matters, people of the bible, history, prophecy,spiritual realm, authors,reference material, outside materials such as apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha , and some other inter-testimonial books. I watch sermons,talks,lectures, debates, and bible studies. It is cool just to listen to things outside the box of my beliefs that it strengthens my standing in my faith, but it also challenges it too. I have to ask myself, why do I believe this or that.

One thing that I have been coming across with people that I talk to in various discussions is the ‘concreteness’ of their stand that it is solidified in stone that this stand is and was the final statement that mankind was to believe in. My question to them is ‘if this was so, then it would of been seen as the ‘way’ for “everyone” in a instance. I believe that ‘we’ are getting close to that point but not yet.

I challenge people to do not sit on your tufit, waiting for you to be spoon fed that teaspoon of water, but to dig into it with a fork and a knife, to not only get the juice but the thick meat and vegetables of that hearty stew of God.

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New Study Plan

I have decided to have an extensive bible study of John, thru the blog, with your help in giving your comments and insight. I will try and have some small but intriguing thoughts hopefully every other day. My goal is to go very deep in our journey with John.

Stay tuned for the beginning of a very wonderful journey into John and his letter.

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Following the signs

As in the real world we need signs to get us where we want to go.

It is the same for us in the following of God’s plan for us in His eternal purpose.

God has designed his plan with specific wonders and detail. God uses his son to achieve his goal to rein in his creation. The embryo of his people the Israelite’s, was the beginning of this journey. God’s people,the people of the land of Canaan, was the ideal of God’s people in the sense that He was their God, and they were God’s people. This was the simplicity of His Kingdom.

Israel was connected to God by the institution of a Temple and it’s ways. The institution of precise rules and regulations thru a mediator of a High Priest connecting them to God. It was a institution that could not be followed by the people of Israel, or any man. It was a model that couldn’t be fulfilled to God. Man was unable to follow the law, the law of man or God.

But it wasn’t true of God or his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ being man and of God, was the perfect symbol of what one was to fulfill God’s ways came on the scene to be the example of the ‘One’ to be a follower of God. If we are really understanding of God’s ways and wonders, We will ‘see’ what God was telling us in this example of allegiance.

Man is incapable of following God, by himself. It is when we allow God to be apart of Him, and Him in Us that we are able to be with our creator. This was the example that Jesus set for us, He was of his Father, yet he was of just a man of the world. His showing us that it is possible to be with our creator and also be in the kingdom that He created for us, should be more enough to prove that He is God of all His People.

I bring these points out to show us that it is this scenario that has changed the blueprint of the New Testament(I prefer to use the New Covenant most of the time, but use it here to emphasize that it is in the N.T. that this is what is being said) God is telling us that the institution of the old covenant is over, the New one is not the one of a high priest in a temple in Jerusalem, but that ‘We'(all people) are now the High Priests of the Temple(the World). This is the exact picture we see in Genesis 1-2, and also the reality of this ‘not yet’ that is told to us in Revelation 21-22.

This is the sticking point of christianity that has stifled the ‘ekklesia’ of God. We are still imitating the model of the institution in Jerusalem as we go to the ‘High Priest’ or ‘Pastor’, or ‘Pope’, or ‘Rabbi’ to ‘try’ to get to God. This is just WRONG. God has given us the example to ‘come’ to Him in the reality of Him in us and us in Him. It’s just that simple.

God’s ‘Ekklesia’ will not be the ‘Ekklesia’ not only until we ‘see’ this but until we are actually in Him, and He is in Us!

Shall we strive to be the Ekklesia today!

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Why do you believe?

If you don’t ask yourself this on a regular basis, you need too!

You need to confirm to yourself that this is exactly what you believe and why. This is should be an affirmation to your faith in God. This is daily thing. God’s eternal purpose has traveled down a winding road thru many a centuries to get His blueprint down to us and all of mankind. God has worked thru many people,many leaders, many enemies to get us to where we are now.

God is in control. God has created man, God has put up with man’s rebellion, man’s inability to work with God and live up to his potential. God’s image has taken over itself as a life of its own. We have made our own world,our own rules and our own lives.

This is a road that alot of us have taken. But it is when we sit back and look at God and His purpose and we try to see what God has in store for us that we realize that It was a hard road but it was an easy one. We have to not really rest on our laurels and ‘seek’ out him in all our ways. This is just not about our taking up the gauntlet of our forefathers, but seek him out for ourselves as if was brand new and fresh. Questions need to be asked all over again.

Who is our creator?

Why did He create us?

What is an Image Of God?

Who is an Image of God?

What is our vocation?

What is the body of Christ?

What is the Kingdom of God?

Who is the World?

What is Love?

Why Me?

These are some things worth our time to think on, these things are an macro view of God’s eternal purpose. We are the players in this drama of life and times of God’s people. We are important to the story, all of us.

One thing that has got to change in our very acute way of thinking about God, this story is about Him, his all saving Grace for his creation and His Kingdom. We have seem to think that it is us that sets the rules and regulations on when are where we do things for this or that. God’s Kingdom does not work like that. God’s ways are simple- Love me, Love your neighbor. This is God’s Kingdom, five simple words.

It is time to get out of that box that we worship in and also the thinking box to actually ‘see’ what God really is!

He cannot be confined. He is everywhere, everywhere we are, He is there also. This is the story of Genesis 1-2 and Revelation 21-22.

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Kingdom of God

What does it look like?

Good question!

I am not sure that to many people have really thought about this to much to even describe it. What probably is the main issue here is what does it look like When Christ comes to take the body of Christ to God to unite us with Him. This will be the re-unification of the players in the Garden of Eden.

Mark 4:11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables;

Matthew 6:33 (ESV): 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Mark 1:15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Matthew 12:28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Luke 8:1 Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him,

Luke 10:1 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’

These are but a few of the descriptions of the kingdom of God, Jesus’s ministry was one that His being within their midst(Apostles) was quite exasperating to Jesus, I am sure, let alone the disciples and the followers. But It is ironic that Jesus saying to the crowds that his Apostles should of known what He was describing of what the Kingdom of God was, but still had to describe to them what the parable of the seeds meant. It was the parables that was for the ones that did not ‘know’ the gospel of God that he was saving them from this world of sin.

There many episodes that the disciples where in that was beyond their sight(seeing) or hear(hearing) Jesus in what he actually said or what He stood for in the many walks with him thru the countryside. One instance was the journey in the ship with all the disciples aboard, traveling to the other side of the lake and the storm’s were raging against them, and they were stricken with fear of death, when they had God with them all the time. This is the reality that the disciples were still unaware who Jesus was.

Luke 7:41-50 when Jesus tells the story of two debtors that owe a moneylender, and tells the disciples that the moneylender forgives the debtors for the money,one for 10 times the amount of the other. It is when, Peter is asked by Jesus that who should be loved more, the one of the smaller or larger? He says, “the larger”, He then tells him because the woman of the house has kissed him and cleaned his feet and gave him water, and anoint him with oil,that he will forgive her sins first, for over his love for him is little.

Another note to also consider in the ‘knowing’ of what God’s gospel was for the people of Israel, were their leaders during this time, the Sadducee’s and the Pharisees the keepers of the Jewish law. It was if they were blind to ultimate vocation from God, to be the ‘first fruit’ of the gospel. (The reason for this will be another blog into why this was)

Getting back to the understanding of the Kingdom, Jesus took under his wing, disciples to learn and ‘know’ and ‘see’ who Jesus was, what Jesus represented, why were his ways were different, who was his ways for? This was alot for them to swallow about a man that called himself ‘the son of God’, it was only shadowing Jesus for 3 years in the time frame. The disciples were being hard pressed for the knowledge of this man, It was going to take time. I don’t know if they really honestly ‘knew’ or ‘saw’ what ‘Jesus’ was or stood for even before He died. I believe that even after He died that only a few were close to what the purpose was.

The Kingdom of God, the Rule of God, The Government of God, Garden of Eden, New Jerusalem,Zion are just a few descriptive phrases that are of the scriptures that are use. To what we believe or understand about this is very hard to understand about this but it is also very easy to understand. God is the Creator,King,Savior, of the the world. His Authority is the utmost,Holy, and righteous act for mankind there is. He is the reason, for everything.

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are we still confused?

I have distanced myself from the whole business of how christianity,christians are to be pigeon hole into a political realm, for the past 12 years, the only thing that I do do, is laugh at it.

This will go along my same train of thought that I have had in my spiritual journey over the same time frame is to realize that christians and christianity are ‘stuck’ in the thinking that God works in mankind’s realm to fit His realm. His ‘kingdom’ is not our ‘kingdom’. Hear lies the problem, mankind has failed in it’s attempt to be a ‘good’ example of his ‘being in charge’ of the world.

What christianity is trying to do is be ‘Christlike’ thru a ‘christian nation’, this is not what it teaches us in the scriptures, We are to be ‘Christlike’ as a ‘people’ for all the ‘nations.

We fail to use all the pieces that are given to use in the scriptures to fit the whole storyline of God’s eternal purpose. God and Jesus have always been apart of the Heavenly realm, the Kingdom of God. It stands to reason that this kingdom is to be where God is wanting us to get back too. Our desire is to begin to first ‘see’ this Heavenly Kingdom as for what it is, and to then walk and talk in the ‘new light’ that is to be in the ‘new age’.

Our failure to ‘see’ that this was what God was doing with Israel, for all the world to see, and be the difference of a Godly people that all would be coming to Him in Holy Praise!

This is the example that we should still use as the ‘image’ of our God in His temple(world), to all of mankind.

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