Kingdom Ready

Introduction

Some Christian churches subscribe to the doctrine that the Old and New Testaments are completely separate – i.e., that there is no relationship whatsoever, between the two testaments. So, according to this belief, the information that Jesus and the apostles gave us does not appear anywhere in the Old Testament. In other words, the statements made by Jesus and the apostles were completely “brand new” – with no corresponding statements in the Old Testament.

That doctrine, in turn, has influenced many Christians to basically “ignore” the Old Testament. After all, if the concepts expressed by Jesus and the apostles only exist in the New Testament, then there is no sense in trying to find any correlating information in the Old Testament.

In the last two article I wrote I talked about feeling the emotion, pain, and feelings of other. Also how the root of this stemmed from Jesus and his ministry. I would like to relate more as to what kind of affect Jesus should have on us especially with his departure from Earth. Yet Jesus still has an ever growing connection to mankind. It seems that the question is always, are God and Jesus present, or is it because we just allow them to exist simply in our minds? Are they physically present? How real is the presents of Yahweh (GOD) and the roll and presences of Yahushua (Messiah) Jesus our Lord and Savior? I ask is the weight that we put on knowledge sacrificing our actual spirituality? Is the weight that is put on analyzing the scripture, with our own minds drowning or at least quenching the spirit with in us? The verses below present an interesting view. Is the Love of God present in our lives, which includes our Love for God, and our belief in His son(Or Faith In), our belief in who he was and what was his mission was will directly affects our purpose and mission in life, and most important our status to the coming Kingdom.

Webster’s dictionary definition of the word Sacrifice
“a: destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else b: something given up or lost the sacrifices made by parents”

The interesting part of this definition is the the word surrender. We know that Jesus sacrificed his very soul for everyone whether they wanted it or knew it, yet he give and sacrificed his own soul anyway. Yes, he really did it without anybody really knowing what he was doing for them. So are we to sacrifice our souls for Jesus? Well, yes in a sense, on a cross like him? No, we are to surrender our souls in the sense that we surrender our wills, as did the apostles.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one
another John 13:34 & 35(NASB)

The words of Jesus are very explicit in John chapter 13 so we must ask ourselves some big questions.
1) How did Jesus Love?
2) Did Jesus show his Love to his followers?
3) Did he restrict his Love simply to his follows?
4) When we see the Cross do we see LOVE?

Question one How did Jesus Love?

By Charles Hunting 

This article was originally published in the August 2000 issue of Focus on the Kingdom.

By Charles Hunting 

This article was originally published in the July 2000 issue of Focus on the Kingdom.  It was recently posted on the Focus on the Kingdom blog.  It is part one of a two-part series.

From my experience, many churches tend to “downplay” the Old Testament. In other words, many churches do not “pay much attention” to the Old Testament – instead, they focus almost exclusively on the New Testament.

There are many reasons why churches do this; but one of the common reasons is that churches believe the following idea:

“Everything that Jesus taught us was brand new. In other words, all of the statements that Jesus made cannot be found anywhere in the Old Testament. Therefore, Christians should not really “pay attention” to the Old Testament – because all of the information there is obsolete.”

The seeming discrepancy between the announcement of the Kingdom and the fact that it did not appear is, as mentioned, one of the major reasons for the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. Similarly, the long delay since the announcement of the Kingdom has caused some to question the validity of that announcement. But it is not necessary to redefine the Kingdom in order to solve these discrepancies. The new light he shed concerning the Mysteries of the Kingdom and the New Covenant provides the solution. The kingdom is “present” in a preliminary, preparatory phase for a time, prior to its establishment, and certain aspects are previewed. During that time, the King is identified, and the news of the New Covenant which he made available is proclaimed. Those individuals who are heirs of the inheritance experience a foretaste of Kingdom power as they grow and receive training and preparation for their roles in ruling with Jesus the Messiah. It is in that proleptic sense that any reference to a present kingdom must be understood.

Ever since Jesus Christ’s first coming, the period of anticipation and preparation for the Kingdom has been in effect. While the Kingdom has not begun yet, it is “present” in the sense that the New Covenant has been ratified, the good news and the promises of the Kingdom are proclaimed, and the power and authority of the Kingdom are seen in a foretaste.

There are a few verses which are often taken to mean that the Kingdom had indeed arrived, but in a different form than foretold by the Prophets. Perhaps no verse is more frequently used this way than Luke 17:21. It is often thought that the idea of an earthly kingdom was carnal and spiritually immature, and that Jesus was correcting that wrong thinking when he said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” But let’s look at where he said that.

There is now a schedule for new blog posts, with a different writer each day of the week.  From this point on I will be posting once a week, on Mondays.  Today I will finish the article I started, and continue with another one next week. (Please note I added another passage of Scripture to Part 1 which I had missed before.)