Greetings Kingdom citizens,
As a side study to our 52 Weeks of Praise, I feel compelled to speak on race relations within the body of Christ. To begin, allow me to bring up a few scriptures. You're going to want to grab your Bible for this. Also, be sure to chime in on the discussion by leaving comments.
- SCRIPTURES -
Galatians 6:10 - As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Proverbs 3:27 - Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.
Acts 17:26 - And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.
Galatians 3:8 - And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
Revelation 5:9 - And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.
Revelation 7:9 - After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.
Revelation 21:24 - And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Romans 5:18 - Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Romans 12:17-18 - Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
1 Corinthians 15:39 - All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 - And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.
1 Timothy 2:1 - I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.
1 Timothy 2:4 - Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 4:10 - For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
1 Peter 2:17 - Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Now that we've reviewed some scriptures, allow me to take a deeper look at some biblical precepts to further set the stage for this discussion. Keep your Bible near. We'll come back to elaborate on these scriptures.
Notwithstanding, from just reading them we can derive a good idea of what our attitude and behavior should be as we interact with other believers/citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, regardless of race. As citizens of Heaven, but believers on Earth we represent God. He is seen or manifested to others through our obedient actions. Therefore, it is clear that we should interact, engage, and respond to people as our Heavenly Father would in order to represent Him properly. In other words, it is Heaven's culture that we should shew forth on the earth among men. As it is in Heaven so should we be, execute, and demonstrate consistently on Earth. We are on the earth but not [spiritually] from the earth. Moreover, we are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14,16). Our original spiritual citizenship/birthplace was (and is) Heaven because that's where our human spirit was created in the first place (Genesis 1:26-27). It is only our physical bodies, which house/encompass our human spirits, that were made on and from the earth. So when we were born again, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (e.g. The Holy Trinity) took up residence inside our human spirit NOT our physical bodies. Therefore our connection link to Heaven, our country of origin, is our redeemed human spirit. Why is this important? Because the kingdom principles (Bible standards/laws) that we are to follow have a Heavenly origin just like our human spirits. Therefore, since we originated from Heaven we should adhere to the principles of Heaven. Heavenly principles will produce Heavenly results and wordly principles will produce wordly results. Heavenly results are God's results and God's results are His willed or intended outcomes.
So God's system is established: His principles lead to His intended outcomes or results and His outcomes are the best outcomes. Therefore, His believers should live for and to His outcomes or results. In the mouth of a committed kingdom citizen it would sound something like this:
"Father God in Heaven, I recognize that my life, my purpose, and all I'm to be and do originates from you. I submit to your will (plans and processes) and willed outcomes (results) for my life and through my life to others. As I now set my heart to obey you and follow your heavenly principles, your willed outcomes (results) will be executed to your glory. Help me to hear and adhere to you forever. In Jesus' name, Amen."
So if anyone is really interested in being all that God wants them to be or having all that God wants them to have, then praying a prayer as such is a must.
Now, with the spiritual stage being set for this discussion, what exactly is God's or Heaven's attitude about race relations among believers? First of all we must understand that God is not against or for any one race in particular. He created all of the races and loves them all equally. In other words, God loves every human equally. No more, no less! His love is all-inclusive- universally and comprehensively. There's nothing a human can do to increase His love for them or decrease His love for them. If we review the creation account of mankind in Genesis 1:26-27 we'll quickly find that ALL mankind, that is every race or nationality, was created in His image. For all races were represented in the first man, Adam. Now after all these ages certainly God would not reduce the value on His own image, especially after going through the trouble [so to speak] of creating us in it. Besides, John 3:16 tells us that God was moved with such love for those created in His image (mankind) that He gave His only Son for them. So God is certainly not pro-white and against the other races. Nor is He pro-black and against the other races. He's equally for all because He created all. This idea is actually fairly familiar to us humans. Just think about how a parent that has multiple children loves them equally. Unless they were born at the same time, each child physically looks different, acts different, and has differing personalities and temperaments. Yet, it is no question that that parent loves each of them because they birthed them. If this be true with humans and their children how much more with God and His offspring?
In part II let's review each scripture shown above individually...
Showing posts with label Righteousness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Righteousness. Show all posts
March 13, 2011
August 12, 2009
His Blood Remains: Communion - Part I
In I John 1:9 the Word declares that, "If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Here John is addressing the believers of his day- those who had already confessed Christ as their Lord and saviour. He is expressing to them that God earnestly desires to forgive and cleanse them from sins committed- even after salvation. God's love, faithfulness, and integrity is exemplified in his willingness to do such. But why? Why is forgiveness and cleansing still so important to God even after a person is saved?
The answer is simply this - communion (e.g. fellowship). God has always wanted to have perfect communion and fellowship with his crowning creation- MANKIND (Gen. 3:8).
However, for believers- sin interrupts this communion and breaks the fellowship. Of course for the non-believer- no relationship, communion, or fellowship even exists.
You see, God doesn't want anything to hinder or interrupt his communion with you. During intimate communion with you he can clearly speak His agenda, instruction, direction, wisdom, and prayer answers directly to your spirit.
"To him, prolonged hindered communion with you means a hindered agenda through you."
Therefore, sin- the cause of the interruption, must be addressed for full communion and fellowship to be restored. The believer's part is confession or the acknowledgment of the interruption. Note that the scripture says, "IF" we confess... It is our responsibility to get the ball rolling with our mouth. God will take it from there.
As mentioned earlier God responds to the acknowledged interruption as such: to forgive (send away) sin and cleanse (remove guilt and shame). God gladly does this because the blood of Christ remains on the mercy seat in heaven. If sin exists anywhere then blood must exists for its removal (Heb. 9:11-13, 22).
Fellowship, commune, and bask in God's presence today and everyday. Besides, this is suppose to be the norm for the believer. [I encourage everyone to check out Elton Taylor Jr's blog on "In GOD's Presence at http://fromtheheartofaworshipper.blogspot.com/."]
Finally, when we pray lets remember to acknowledge any known and unknown (unconscious) interruptions. (Ps. 19:12 AMP).
In His Service,
DsW
Here John is addressing the believers of his day- those who had already confessed Christ as their Lord and saviour. He is expressing to them that God earnestly desires to forgive and cleanse them from sins committed- even after salvation. God's love, faithfulness, and integrity is exemplified in his willingness to do such. But why? Why is forgiveness and cleansing still so important to God even after a person is saved?
The answer is simply this - communion (e.g. fellowship). God has always wanted to have perfect communion and fellowship with his crowning creation- MANKIND (Gen. 3:8).
However, for believers- sin interrupts this communion and breaks the fellowship. Of course for the non-believer- no relationship, communion, or fellowship even exists.
You see, God doesn't want anything to hinder or interrupt his communion with you. During intimate communion with you he can clearly speak His agenda, instruction, direction, wisdom, and prayer answers directly to your spirit.
"To him, prolonged hindered communion with you means a hindered agenda through you."
Therefore, sin- the cause of the interruption, must be addressed for full communion and fellowship to be restored. The believer's part is confession or the acknowledgment of the interruption. Note that the scripture says, "IF" we confess... It is our responsibility to get the ball rolling with our mouth. God will take it from there.
As mentioned earlier God responds to the acknowledged interruption as such: to forgive (send away) sin and cleanse (remove guilt and shame). God gladly does this because the blood of Christ remains on the mercy seat in heaven. If sin exists anywhere then blood must exists for its removal (Heb. 9:11-13, 22).
Fellowship, commune, and bask in God's presence today and everyday. Besides, this is suppose to be the norm for the believer. [I encourage everyone to check out Elton Taylor Jr's blog on "In GOD's Presence at http://fromtheheartofaworshipper.blogspot.com/."]
Finally, when we pray lets remember to acknowledge any known and unknown (unconscious) interruptions. (Ps. 19:12 AMP).
In His Service,
DsW
June 18, 2009
Kingdom Gym: "Proper Exercise"
Are you getting enough proper exercise?
The apostle Paul said:
Acts 24:16 - And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
I Timothy 4:7-8 - But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
To exercise means to practice or perform a similar action repetitiously for the purpose of training and discipline. Some of the basic objectives for exercising include: the development of a habit, a strength, a skill, or adjustment of body mass. Scripturally speaking- exercise in the Greek is the word 'gymnasia', which is where we get our English words gym and gymnastics from. The central idea of the word is to exert one's energy in a certain direction.
As citizens of the Kingdom of God we’ve all been called into the gym of life so to speak. We’ve been commissioned by God to literally ‘work out’/exercise/bring out/express - what He has 'worked' (deposited) and is working in us. Notice Paul’s commendation to the Philippian church:
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).
Well, when we were born-again we received again God's nature. So His express nature resides in each of us, specifically inside our re-created spirits (spirit man). Praise God- we possess all that He is! Therefore what comes forth out of us should resemble His nature, right? Yes! But wait, with the fall of man (I Cor. 15:22) and the conception of the sin-nature/flesh/old man (which is 100% counter-God) we have some opposition to contend with (Gal 5:16-17).
Now for those of you that exercise (or used to) - you know that exercising is not always easy. It is sometimes called resistance training when weights are involved. Well, both our flesh and spirit man desire exercise (to be used). So which should get the work out? Now remember, as mentioned earlier - exercising a thing will cause it to develop and grow stronger. So if we exercise our flesh it will grow stronger and if we exercise our spirit man it will grow stronger.
Note Hebrews 5:14:
"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (mature), even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." For maturity sake our spirit man needs exercise. Self-examination will reveal to us where we need the most spiritual exercise.
Even God exercises. Take a look:
"But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment (justice), and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD" (Jer. 9:24).
Blessed regards,
DraperW
P.S. Everyone, check out Min. Josh Harvey's blog "Kill That Old Man" at revelatoryword.blogspot.com (The Sword of The Spirit) as a companion blog to this one.
The apostle Paul said:
Acts 24:16 - And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
I Timothy 4:7-8 - But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
To exercise means to practice or perform a similar action repetitiously for the purpose of training and discipline. Some of the basic objectives for exercising include: the development of a habit, a strength, a skill, or adjustment of body mass. Scripturally speaking- exercise in the Greek is the word 'gymnasia', which is where we get our English words gym and gymnastics from. The central idea of the word is to exert one's energy in a certain direction.
As citizens of the Kingdom of God we’ve all been called into the gym of life so to speak. We’ve been commissioned by God to literally ‘work out’/exercise/bring out/express - what He has 'worked' (deposited) and is working in us. Notice Paul’s commendation to the Philippian church:
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12-13).
Well, when we were born-again we received again God's nature. So His express nature resides in each of us, specifically inside our re-created spirits (spirit man). Praise God- we possess all that He is! Therefore what comes forth out of us should resemble His nature, right? Yes! But wait, with the fall of man (I Cor. 15:22) and the conception of the sin-nature/flesh/old man (which is 100% counter-God) we have some opposition to contend with (Gal 5:16-17).
Now for those of you that exercise (or used to) - you know that exercising is not always easy. It is sometimes called resistance training when weights are involved. Well, both our flesh and spirit man desire exercise (to be used). So which should get the work out? Now remember, as mentioned earlier - exercising a thing will cause it to develop and grow stronger. So if we exercise our flesh it will grow stronger and if we exercise our spirit man it will grow stronger.
Simply put - the one that gets the most exercise becomes the strongest!How do we exercise our spirit man then? Well, exercise involves repetitive actions so lets see what James (the 1/2 brother of Jesus) can tell us. James 1:22 says "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only... So hearing the Word, then doing the Word is exercise for our spirit man. Now we see that in order for our spiritual exercise to be labeled as 'proper exercise' it must be our spirit man that gets the work out. When our flesh gets the work out - it is 'improper exercise'. Either flesh or spirit- we're always exercising something, but those that exercise know that improper exercise can be more harmful than no exercise. Folks, it is safe to say that our flesh deserves death- not exercise!
Note Hebrews 5:14:
"But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age (mature), even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." For maturity sake our spirit man needs exercise. Self-examination will reveal to us where we need the most spiritual exercise.
Even God exercises. Take a look:
"But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment (justice), and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD" (Jer. 9:24).
Blessed regards,
DraperW
P.S. Everyone, check out Min. Josh Harvey's blog "Kill That Old Man" at revelatoryword.blogspot.com (The Sword of The Spirit) as a companion blog to this one.
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