GOSPEL TEACHINGS
KINGDOM FOCUS, by Robert Sebring
Do not let others mislead you with traditions passed on by former generations of church goers that would be contrary to God's word. Seek God's truth through His word for yourself today and apply it to your life. Keep a watchful eye out for the liberty and freedom to walk with humility and quiet dignity, but without the sting of guilt and condemnation of the past being hung over your head. This does not come from the Lord.
“Legalism” is rampant in the church today, and many are leaving the church in record numbers discouraged, broken, and defeated. Jesus's shed blood cleansed all of us of our sins, past, present, and future, for those born-again believers who accepted Jesus, as Lord and Savior. We all have “feet of clay” and fall short of the glory of God based on our own human performance. By accepting God's covenant grace and mercy, we should strive to lead exemplary lives with a “consistency of character”, but only through the Lordship of Jesus Christ and through His nature and likeness.
Do not burden yourselves with the expectations of others and “legalistic” practices found in many churches today. Do not tie a burdensome yoke around your neck, that Jesus Himself destroyed once and for all on your behalf. Flee any church that teaches and practices this type of mind-control that leaves Christians feeling vulnerable, controlled, victimized, and manipulated. God calls each of us through His Son, Jesus Christ, to live out our lives of salvation with true definition and clarity that is only found through Jesus and His living word.
Today's Christian groups do not actually define who we are in Jesus. Church leaders do not determine our gifts, talents, and abilities. Monetary wealth does not empower or elevate us to a higher level of importance in the body of Christ through our charitable giving. We obtain this freely through the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ; as He wills and predetermines our path and our unique placement within God's kingdom. We cannot earn it, buy it, or perform it as a right of passage or inheritance. It is not church based, it is “Christ” centered and established only. You must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to find real truth and real liberty. It is not for sale and cannot be earned by your own strength or powers of persuasion. Jesus paid for everything on the Cross for us.
By faith only, we become joint heirs through Jesus Christ with Him and His shed blood atonement at Calvary. God already set before us, His thoughts and plans over each of our lives, if we take the time to carefully seek God's face and purpose on matters of life we envelope, and not the man or woman that is next to us. “Let us esteem one another, higher than ourselves”, the Bible declares. “Every perfect gift comes from above, with no shadow or turning”, says the Lord.
True leadership in God's kingdom is the ability to be an overcomer first, then to be tested and proven by God to now “serve” and have a “spirit of servitude”. Some leaders want to “be served”, with the absence of trials and tribulations, but this is contrary to God's protocol of faithful believers in His church body today; “the least shall be first, and the first shall be last”, sayeth the Lord.
The greatest among you, shall be a willing servant for hurting humanity openly for God; and find himself also to be impartial to man's societal reputation and interpretation of worldly success, to heap praises upon himself or from others around him. God declares a man's outward reputation of no value, our works “as filthy rags”; where man himself is sometimes stripped of worldly prestige; so that a man can better serve, be equipped and bring glory unto the Father, when that focus cannot compete with His Son's own glorious and remarkable reflection.This type of man or woman with a servant's heart, a heart of humility, can then bring honor unto God, and not to himself, not drawing attention away from the Creator, but by revealing the grace and mercy and agape love that was founded by God's loving characteristics and traits He freely gave to His Son, Jesus Christ.
Everything at the end of the day will point upwards to Jesus Christ and the Cross. Not the Cross in of itself, but what Jesus volunteered and did by hanging on the Cross. The Cross is symbolic for God's demarcation line. It is God's proverbial line in the sand drawn before us. To reach out to God, He gave us His Son, Jesus, there hanging lifeless on the Cross. Many ministers find themselves trying to unearth something new or something fresh when their stale theology reaches a dead end in their lives or in their ministry. They never fully discovered the revelation that Jesus is first and foremost, the central theme, the one and only root source, the very keys, to unlock the mystery and revelation truth of God's own heart for mankind. There is no path to God, outside of Jesus. There is no way to God first, by sidestepping Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. Jesus Himself declares, “I am the vine, and ye are the branches”.
Do not let others mislead you with traditions passed on by former generations of church goers that would be contrary to God's word. Seek God's truth through His word for yourself today and apply it to your life. Keep a watchful eye out for the liberty and freedom to walk with humility and quiet dignity, but without the sting of guilt and condemnation of the past being hung over your head. This does not come from the Lord.
“Legalism” is rampant in the church today, and many are leaving the church in record numbers discouraged, broken, and defeated. Jesus's shed blood cleansed all of us of our sins, past, present, and future, for those born-again believers who accepted Jesus, as Lord and Savior. We all have “feet of clay” and fall short of the glory of God based on our own human performance. By accepting God's covenant grace and mercy, we should strive to lead exemplary lives with a “consistency of character”, but only through the Lordship of Jesus Christ and through His nature and likeness.
Do not burden yourselves with the expectations of others and “legalistic” practices found in many churches today. Do not tie a burdensome yoke around your neck, that Jesus Himself destroyed once and for all on your behalf. Flee any church that teaches and practices this type of mind-control that leaves Christians feeling vulnerable, controlled, victimized, and manipulated. God calls each of us through His Son, Jesus Christ, to live out our lives of salvation with true definition and clarity that is only found through Jesus and His living word.
Today's Christian groups do not actually define who we are in Jesus. Church leaders do not determine our gifts, talents, and abilities. Monetary wealth does not empower or elevate us to a higher level of importance in the body of Christ through our charitable giving. We obtain this freely through the Holy Spirit, in Jesus Christ; as He wills and predetermines our path and our unique placement within God's kingdom. We cannot earn it, buy it, or perform it as a right of passage or inheritance. It is not church based, it is “Christ” centered and established only. You must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ to find real truth and real liberty. It is not for sale and cannot be earned by your own strength or powers of persuasion. Jesus paid for everything on the Cross for us.
By faith only, we become joint heirs through Jesus Christ with Him and His shed blood atonement at Calvary. God already set before us, His thoughts and plans over each of our lives, if we take the time to carefully seek God's face and purpose on matters of life we envelope, and not the man or woman that is next to us. “Let us esteem one another, higher than ourselves”, the Bible declares. “Every perfect gift comes from above, with no shadow or turning”, says the Lord.
True leadership in God's kingdom is the ability to be an overcomer first, then to be tested and proven by God to now “serve” and have a “spirit of servitude”. Some leaders want to “be served”, with the absence of trials and tribulations, but this is contrary to God's protocol of faithful believers in His church body today; “the least shall be first, and the first shall be last”, sayeth the Lord.
The greatest among you, shall be a willing servant for hurting humanity openly for God; and find himself also to be impartial to man's societal reputation and interpretation of worldly success, to heap praises upon himself or from others around him. God declares a man's outward reputation of no value, our works “as filthy rags”; where man himself is sometimes stripped of worldly prestige; so that a man can better serve, be equipped and bring glory unto the Father, when that focus cannot compete with His Son's own glorious and remarkable reflection.This type of man or woman with a servant's heart, a heart of humility, can then bring honor unto God, and not to himself, not drawing attention away from the Creator, but by revealing the grace and mercy and agape love that was founded by God's loving characteristics and traits He freely gave to His Son, Jesus Christ.
Everything at the end of the day will point upwards to Jesus Christ and the Cross. Not the Cross in of itself, but what Jesus volunteered and did by hanging on the Cross. The Cross is symbolic for God's demarcation line. It is God's proverbial line in the sand drawn before us. To reach out to God, He gave us His Son, Jesus, there hanging lifeless on the Cross. Many ministers find themselves trying to unearth something new or something fresh when their stale theology reaches a dead end in their lives or in their ministry. They never fully discovered the revelation that Jesus is first and foremost, the central theme, the one and only root source, the very keys, to unlock the mystery and revelation truth of God's own heart for mankind. There is no path to God, outside of Jesus. There is no way to God first, by sidestepping Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the bread of life. Jesus Himself declares, “I am the vine, and ye are the branches”.