Sunday, July 29, 2007

Hidden Treasure

*We apologize once more for our lack of consistency in posting our entries regularly. Perhaps we should not apologize; in our blogging experience here at Fear Them Not, Zack and I continue to be reminded just how much higher God’s ways and thoughts are than ours. Our intent is to study the Word together and share it with you in an entry every week, but week after week, we see that God has the bigger picture and is in ultimate control. We continue to solicit your prayers as we do this for the kingdom. And we continue to ask that you send us your prayer requests, so that we can agree with you in prayer concerning whatever it may be that you are seeking God for.

*About a week ago, Zack’s friends were involved in a tragic road accident on their way to Mbarara in Uganda. Anita Kamaliza, Zack's close friend, was among those that passed away in that accident. Generation Caleb humbly asks that you pray with us through this difficult moment – pray for the families that are grieved, for the speedy recovery of those who were injured (already we see God’s mighty hand working, praise Him!), including Zack’s friends, Aggie, Joan and Jesse, and for Zack, who has continued to let the joy of the Lord be his strength and let his light shine before men despite his aching heart. We thank you and bless God for your prayers.

It's very encouraging for us when, with each entry we post, we realize that we are growing as well. This is my testimony for the entries on the Armour of God and the Kingdom of God - I have grown in the Lord. Sharing the Word with Zack and with you guys actually does a great deal to boost my faith and enlighten me, and so I thank you all.

Matt 13:44 – Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field: the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
“A treasure hidden in a field” reminds me of a story I read as a child. Its title was Buried Treasure. I do not remember what the story was about, but I think it had to do with pirates. I think there was a treasure buried somewhere that the pirates wanted to find, and I am not sure whether or not they had a map.

Perhaps in the days when Jesus walked this earth, people hid their treasures in their fields. Maybe the man in His parable was a worker in the field where he found the treasure. And perhaps he stumbled upon something that a previous owner of the field had buried. Or maybe he realized that there was some mineral in that land.

I don’t know. All we can tell from this story is, this man was going about his daily life, when he found the treasure. He probably could not afford the field, which is why he sold all he had to buy it. And for him to sell everything, that field must have meant so much more to him than all his possessions.

It’s the same way with the kingdom of God. We are busy, going about our daily lives, doing what we’ve always done, working in our fields, when suddenly, we stumble upon the Great Truth. I cannot really say we stumble upon it, because the reality is that God sees us in our futile struggle in life and shines His Truth in our faces. And suddenly, we realize that we must have that truth, no matter what it costs. The man hid the treasure, just like we must hide the Truth in our hearts. But this is not a hiding in the way that we would normally think of it. This is like what David said in Psalm 119:11 – Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee. We must be wary not to attempt to hide the kingdom of God from our brothers and sisters, because remember, Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

When we discover the magnificence of the kingdom of heaven, and compare it to the filth of the earth, we realize that nothing of this life is worth wasting time over. Like Paul, we begin to count all things as dung, that we may win Christ (Phil 3:8). And as we grow in and continue to seek the kingdom, in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, we realize that all the things that we may have longed for are added unto us (Matt 7:33).

Blessings!

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Righteousness, Peace, Joy in the Holy Ghost

I was going to blog about the kingdom of heaven being like a pearl of great price (Matt 13:45) but I felt the need to first of all talk about what Paul said to the Romans.

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).
First of all, it is called the kingdom of God because God is the King, and I agree entirely with what Zack says, because this is from the Bible: there are only two kingdoms, and if you are not in one, you’re in the other. There is no in-between, fence-sitting, lukewarm kingdom where one can have a little of this and a little of the other (Matt 25:33-46, Rev 3:16).

The kingdom of God is Righteousness: We need to be submitted to God in our every thought, word and deed. We must obey His every command without debate or compromise. He tells us to be holy, for He is holy (Leviticus 19:2). Of course, to attempt this in our own strength is to fool ourselves; it is impossible to try and live a holy life with our Adamic nature controlling us. The blessing in this is that God Himself became our Righteousness – when Jesus Christ died on the cross (Jer 23:6, 1 Cor 1:30). Now, for everyone covered in the Blood of Jesus Christ, all God sees when He looks at you is holiness. That’s how we have access to the throne of mercy. It is from this – the righteousness of God in us – that we draw the strength and are filled with the wisdom and temperance to obey His every command. This is not to say that we will not occasionally make mistakes (see Romans chapters 6 through 8). For as long as we are in this realm, we will have our flesh wrestling against our spirits. Living in righteousness is living in that place where sin will be abhorrent to us, so that should we stumble, we immediately recognize our error and repent, humbly and contritely.

The kingdom of God is Peace: The Bible says that the chastisement for our peace was upon Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:5). This means that Jesus Christ took the punishment that was otherwise awaiting us, and He did it so that we could have peace. When you give your life to Christ and realize that He gave you His very own peace (John 14:27), then you will begin to walk in that peace. And when you do that, you will be walking and living in the kingdom of God; regardless of your positioning in this earth as a human being, you will spiritually be walking in the kingdom. Peace is a state of being where one is calm and unfazed, with the mind on Jesus Christ, regardless of what is going on in the immediate or distant surroundings.

The kingdom of God is Joy in the Holy Ghost: The fruit of the Spirit is joy, Galatians 5:22. It is impossible to live in the Holy Spirit and be devoid of joy. But what is joy? Joy can be said to be a prerequisite to peace. The world pursues happiness because it is lacking in joy. Joy is not an emotion; like peace, it is a state of being. It does not depend on the surroundings. There is no joy except in God, and the point in life at which one realizes this, is the point at which they begin to walk and live in the kingdom of God.

As I’m sure you can see, Kingdom things do not depend on earthly things, in order to function. Righteousness abounds despite surrounding unrighteousness as does peace despite surrounding turmoil, and joy despite surrounding heaviness. And I believe that although the kingdom of God is technically heaven, it begins here on earth – it is a gift to those in this realm who will dare to seek the LORD for their salvation. When we pass on to glory, we do not begin to live in the kingdom of God, we just continue on to a higher and absolutely perfect level of kingdom living in which the surrounding conditions are no different than internal or spiritual conditions. It is like Jesus said; faithful in little, faithful in much (Luke 16:10). If we are faithful to walk in the kingdom in this realm, then He will reward us by taking us to a higher realm in Him, to dwell with Him eternally (Matt 25:46). From glory to glory, Paul said, we will be changed into the image of Jesus (2 Cor 3:18).

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, THE KINGDOM OF GOD: an introduction

In this first part of many forth-coming series, we share about the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. The primary focus of Jesus’ three year ministry when He walked this earth as a man and was later crucified for our sins, and rose again conquering hades and death, and ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand side of God and preparing places for us in the Father’s house of many mansions. The message of the Kingdom of heaven, Kingdom of God represents Jesus’ whole teaching; also we can perhaps say it was the determinative subject of his discourse.

Briefly, I’ll labour an explanation of the two different phrases as might perhaps be confusing unto some of us. The Kingdom of heaven versus the Kingdom of God; in the Bible, those two statements are one and the same thing that were only used interchangeably. In reading the synoptic gospels, we notice that it is only Matthew who used the title “the Kingdom of Heaven. Take for instance:

Matthew 3:2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. versus Mark 1:15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

Matthew 5:3, 10 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. versus Luke 6:20, 22 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God... Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

Matthew 11:11 Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. versus Luke 7:28 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.


The term "Kingdom of Heaven" occurs 31 times in Matthew. And it is worth mentioning that it appears nowhere else in the New Testament. In contrast, the term "Kingdom of God" occurs 63 times in the New Testament. 9 times in Acts and Paul's epistles, only 5 times in Matthew -- the balance being found in Mark, Luke and John. In tackling the question as to why Matthew preferred "kingdom of heaven" to "kingdom of God," the explanation has long been that Matthew, writing to specifically Jewish readers, inserted "heaven" for "God" so as not to offend the Jewish sensibilities regarding uttering the name of God or the term that describes Him. So for our readership here, it is important that you know this bit of history so that we can then go on together with the same mind that in this new series, the two phrases have no difference in meaning.

Having established this truth, we are still left with the question, "What is the Kingdom of Heaven/God?" In trying to define something, I also labour to find out what it is not. Applying the same concept here, I have found out that the Kingdom of Heaven is not the same thing as heaven. When the New Testament uses the phrase “the Kingdom of Heaven” it is not referring to heaven. Instead it is referring to the Millennial Kingdom which has been ordained from heaven, that is, from God -hence the interchangeability between "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kingdom of God." The Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom from heaven, not a kingdom in heaven. God reigns supreme in heaven. Heaven is the locus of His authority. Heaven is the point from which God rules the universe. The words “of heaven” in this case are referring to the origin of this Kingdom. It is the place from which the Kingdom is coming, not a destination to which we are going. So we see that although the Kingdom of Heaven is heavenly in character and origin, it is not the same thing as heaven.

From the book of Matthew to Mark and Luke and to John, it is plainly visible that Jesus, whenever he taught, was always constantly talking about the Kingdom of God. “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Matt. 4:17. And then to one of my favourite passages from the Bible, God’s own account:

“Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:25-34

The point ladies and gentlemen, that we’re trying to make here is that while we live out our earthly lives, we actually are living in one of two kingdoms. And if you’re not living in the kingdom of God, then you are by default living in the other kingdom, the kingdom of Satan and his demons. I remember a movie I watched once where someone said the biggest lie that the devil has had very many people believe and still wants to keep them believing is that he (the devil) does not exist. In this series, we are dispelling that. It is your choice to which kingdom (of the two) you are going to live, but it isn’t your choice who your king is going to be in either kingdom. God, our Heavenly Father is the king of this kingdom and in being “our Heavenly Father”, He is not the Father of sinners. To listen to some folk talk ‘we are all children of God; God is the Father of all of us, and we are all brothers and sisters’ is not something right, I believe. Because the Bible does not say so! Because you see, the devil is the father of some people. John 8:44, Jesus said to some of the most religious people of that day, “Ye are of your father the devil”. Jesus didn’t say our Heavenly Father was their father. He said the devil was their father. For the natural man is motivated by demons. He is ruled by Satan. I’m not saying he is demon-possessed. What I mean is all those who have never been born-again have Satan as their god, king and father, whether you knew it or not. They are in the kingdom of darkness; a kingdom ruled by Satan and demons. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” I Cor. 2:14

By faith, we shall continue to share with you in our subsequent posts, each one, our opinions on the message of the Kingdom of God and what it means for you/us. But in all, the question still begs, in which kingdom are you living or choosing to live? And is that the best choice you could make? God bless you.

My Prayer For You Today: And may the grace of God enable everyone reading here to have their minds and eyes opened up by the Spirit of God to the realisation of the power that lives and operates in the kingdom of God. And may as many as read here choose wisely which kingdom of the two that they shall choose to live in this day. In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN.

by TemplatesForYou
SoSuechtig,Burajiru