Something that's quite fascinating to me is how there's many many preachers, teachers, and pastors who are putting out sermons that seem to be actively explaining how wrong other churches are, and when you ask them what the other church is doing right they usually respond with something like "Well God can use them, but..." or "Well they're going after God but..." then they rattle off reasons like how much they've corrupted the word of God, how silly it is that they go and post the same thing over and over. Paul saw these disputes and many divisions such as these in his own church, but it's talked about the most in the first letter to the church residing within Corinth. His concerns were that "This division is basically pointless, who are you following, Paul, Apollos or Yeshua?" The next thing he says is "put down your divisiveness and walk in love for one another." Stop worrying about your worthless disagreements, and contradicting what Yeshua told his disciples the world would know HIM by! Do we want people to know the Anointed King, and His Kingdom or not?
This is a troubling concept for me. This is a concept that has frequently brought me to my knees, has brought me to tears actively arguing with God about the state of His church. As Yeshua says "if they are not for me, they are against me." He is the one who is going to be doing the winnowing, the harvest is coming, and you should really know by now whether you're a weed, or a wheat plant. Such things are of an eternal nature. This is why it is so important to know who you are. Who Yeshua is, and what the Gospel really means. Obviously the first step to answering this question would be to go back to the Bible, as people who may not even be Christian one of the most widely used verses is taken immediately out of context of John 3, where Yeshua is explaining to Nicodemus, a pharisee who served on the Sanhedrin who was severely confused about this heavenly, and earthly stuff that he had almost never heard, and certainly never heard about in his tradition built from mans ideas, that he didn't necessarily have a frame of reference for it. Yeshua didn't talk about the subject of "that God gave His only begotten son to save the sins of many, that whosoever should believe in him should be saved" but that this act was called "new birth" into the world of the Spirit. The primary pronouncement was actually that God was ushering in a new king, and this kingdom would be taking place both in the spiritual and in the natural, so those who were "born again" would actually be born again into the Spirit. Some have called it simply "dimension", and while this may be a somewhat accurate phrase, Paul talks about us walking as citizens in heaven. Now if it were Yeshua explaining this He would probably say something like "Do you not know that you are literally seated with me?" It would be quite the realization for us as a church to suddenly know that we are literally living in Heaven, while we are here on earth. While the government of Heaven is completely perfect, it's near impossible to imagine. It's a good thing we have a God of the impossible though. To answer tough questions like "how do we even follow Matthew 5-7?" It's super important that we realize what kind of bias we've been bred with. Thus far this is how I'm ordering my interests, from most important to least important. While philosophically it's important to me, I will make no claim that I am currently living this way, but hope to be there soon.
1. God
2. The people around me
3. The church (maybe I should count this as 2.)
4. Killing my bias
So God, what doctrine am I believing that is completely contrary to what you say in your word? What part of the spirit am I actively quenching? How have I not completely understood that I am actively walking the streets of Heaven now, and am still actively working as a representative of your Kingdom and Glory? How have I grieved you and your Holy Spirit? - This is my prayer, for me and for the church. At least right now.
Thank you for reading!!
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