Seek First The Kingdom of God no. 14

“Who will separate us from the love of the Messiah? Trouble? Hardship? Persecution? Hunger? Poverty? Danger? War? As the Tanakh puts it, ‘For your sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are superconquerors, through the one who has loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers, neither what exists nor what is coming, neither powers above nor powers below, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which comes to us through the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord” (Romans (Rom) 8:35-39). Talk about some good news. Nothing can separate me from the love of Jesus. Nothing.

So, I better start living out His Kingdom. And that is going to mean a lot more loving and a lot more forgiving. I have been praying for more patience lately and God has been working on that. I have to be patient with chaotic people that try to bring their chaos and disorder into my organized life. Love takes a lot of patience and at times I really am lacking in patience. BUT when I am, I just consider how patient God has been with me. I am not the easiest personality for folks to tolerate. And I consider just how much God has had to tolerate from me as well as my family and my friends, let alone strangers and enemies. I can be a lot.

Forgiveness and love are radical ideas in a world that is saturated with vengeance and division. BUT if I keep seeking His Kingdom, if I keep seeking His love and forgiveness and grace and mercy, “Keep asking, and it will be given to you; keep seeking, and you will find; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps asking receives; he who keeps seeking finds; and to him who keeps knocking, the door will be opened” (Mattityahu (Mat) 7:7-8). So, I won’t stop seeking. There is a risk of being content in where I am. Sure, I am in a lot better position than I was last year, last month, yesterday in my walk with Him. And I am content with what He gives for me to handle. BUT I am always seeking more while still being content that this may be it. Everything He gives is a gift that I can do nothing to deserve BUT that doesn’t mean I am not thankful and I don’t use the gift.

I think far too often we get used to a way of living. And Jesus called me to never get used to what He asks because He should always be asking for more. And that is my experience. I don’t want to learn one more thing BUT He always has something more to teach. And if I am seeking, then my life should always be moving toward Him. As Jim likes to say, “We don’t drift toward Him.” And that is true. If I am not constantly working to get near, then my natural tendency is to drift away. I pray that you seek His Kingdom today and that you want more out of His walk with you.

Seek first His Kingdom which rests on the foundation of love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #NotMyWayYHWH

Seek First The Kingdom of God no. 13

“The beginning of the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark (Mrk) 1:1). Last year, I made a commitment to read The Bible from cover to cover. And that meant reading several versions to read everything that is in the majority of Bibles today. I succeeded in that reading last year and read several different translations. And one thing that really stood out was the way it differs from the way I was raised to think about The Bible. I was raised to think that God’s good news was all about me and my salvation. It was about saving me. BUT after careful consideration, I think that is a rather selfish way to look at what God was doing through both Jesus and the Spirit.

What is the Good News? That is really an essential question to solidify what your testimony and understanding of God are all about. The Good News really is a framework for seeing the world and yourself within the world and your relationship to God. And I think there can be a problem when you are bombarded with biblical Good News and church good news. When your idea of the Good News is that you are important then there is a self-centered aspect of The Bible that makes me feel like I am the protagonist in the story. I get a first person perspective of my importance to the events and the action. BUT The Bible is mainly third person accounts of what other folks did. Sure, there are some second person epistles imploring folks of what to do BUT the bulk of the writing is by a narrator that is observing the action. That narrator stands aloof and mostly reports the events with little bias.

So, after reading The Bible several times over the past nearly two years in several translations, I am rather certain the Good News is more about what God did through Jesus and the Spirit than it is about me.

Jesus was out preaching the Good News before I was born. He was preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God a long time before any of us were born, “After Yochanan had been arrested, Yeshua came into the Galil proclaiming the Good News from God: ‘The time has come, God’s Kingdom is near! Turn to God from your sins and believe the Good News’” (Mark (Mrk) 1:14-15). In order to find the Kingdom of God I need to repent or turn from my sins and believe the Good News. Not my good news, BUT the Good News. I need to believe the Good News. I am not the Good News. The Good News is not about me. The Good News is about Him. So, the Good News isn’t about me. Isaiah talks about good news way before Jesus arrives physically on the scene, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, proclaiming shalom , bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation and saying to Tziyon, ‘Your God is King’” (Yesha 'yahu (Isa) 52:7)! Isaiah announces salvation and that God is King. That sounds like Good News. The Good News is going to have to be heard and it is going to cause me problems, “But you, watch yourselves! They will hand you over to the local Sanhedrin s, you will be beaten up in synagogues, and on my account you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. Indeed, the Good News has to be proclaimed first to all the Goyim . Now when they arrest you and bring you to trial, don’t worry beforehand about what to say. Rather, say whatever is given you when the time comes; for it will not be just you speaking, but the Ruach HaKodesh . Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death; and everyone will hate you because of me. But whoever holds out till the end will be delivered” (Mark (Mrk) 13:9-13). I need to tell everyone the Good News. And Paul tells the Good News, “As for us, we are bringing you the Good News that what God promised to the fathers, he has fulfilled for us the children in raising up Yeshua, as indeed it is written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ And as for his raising him up from the dead, to return to decay no more, he said, ‘I will give the holy and trustworthy things of David to you.’ This is explained elsewhere: ‘You will not let your Holy One see decay.’ For David did indeed serve God’s purposes in his own generation; but after that, he died, was buried with his fathers and did see decay. However, the one God raised up did not see decay. Therefore, brothers, let it be known to you that through this man is proclaimed forgiveness of sins! That is, God clears everyone who puts his trust in this man, even in regard to all the things concerning which you could not be cleared by the Torah of Moshe. Watch out, then, so that this word found in the Prophets may not happen to you: ‘You mockers! Look, and marvel, and die! For in your own time, I am doing a work that you simply will not believe, even if someone explains it to you’” (Acts of Emissaries of Yeshua (Act) 13:32-41). So go out and spread His Good News.

Seek first His Kingdom which rests on the foundation of love.

Grace and Shalom to your home. The Kingdom of God is now!

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #NotMyWayYHWH