The kingdom of Heaven is not something one might acquire by doing something; it is a kingdom that is given to God's children by inheritance; I agree with the scriptures, I have no other choice but to agree; an inheritance is only given to children; I wouldn't leave my estate to someone I don't know, would you? I didn't think so; even if all you had was a motorcycle that was not completely paid off, an electric guitar with no amp and a couple of guns; they belong in my estate, and no one else is going to get it when I'm gone except my children; that is what testaments are for, to designate the heirs.
Maybe I should write a will; it should be fairly simple, it would read something like "to my daughters I leave my guns, my watches and my guitars; to my grand kids I leave my bibles"; end of statement.
What makes me a child of God? His adoption; I was adopted into the family of God and that simple fact places me in a very privileged position in the kingdom; I'm an heir of all things with Christ. Whether I believe it or not is another matter, but that is what the bible says; specifically in Ephesians chapter one. I'm still stuck in chapter one, I've been stuck there for quite a while now, and I really don't want to get unstuck. I think about it almost every day.
Paul is very clear in his letter to the Romans; I have been adopted and the Spirit bears witness to it; I know in my heart that I am a child of God; there is an internal witness from God Himself that testifies that I belong in the family: Rom 8:15-18 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
My will is that my children get everything I presently have, which is not much, but that is what it is; I'm not leaving an inheritance to my children, whatever the amount of possessions it amounts to, because they have been good or bad; my love for them has no measure that I can think of, and that is what causes me to want to give them everything I have; it is not based on their actions, or on how they lived their lives, it is based on my love for them.
Does not God see it the same way? It actually goes the other way around, I see it as God sees it; what motivates God to give me an inheritance is His love for Christ; I am in Christ and therefore God the Father loves me just as He loves Jesus; He couldn't love me less than that, it would be against His nature; it would minimize Christ's worthiness.
Mat 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
God the Father of Lights, has chosen me before the foundation of the world that I should be holy and without blame before Him; and back then in eternity He prepared an inheritance for me; how am I going to receive this inheritance? The Kingdom? He says that I'm already glorified, Romans 8:30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. So technically speaking, I have already received the kingdom; now this is comforting to me; I hope it is for you also.
So following the same kind of reasoning; (you absolutely have to use your mind for this; think and follow the argument that God makes in your favor) we have been placed right smack in the center of the kingdom of God; we were there before the foundation of the world; and now as we have become aware of Christ dwelling in us, we are placed into conscious awareness of this fabulous inheritance that Jesus has earned for us. Remember, the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, we were also chosen before the foundation of the world; it was a reality back then, and it is a reality now for us in this plane of existence.
The reason why so many people struggle with life is because there is a lack of understanding of what the bible teaches regarding conversion and justification by faith; there is no doubt in my mind that that is the reason; and that leads to a deeper lack of understanding of our position in the kingdom and our inheritance in Christ.
The first thing that people are so confused about, (I would venture to say that they are not confused but deceived, and this is obvious to me because I was there at one point in my life) is the event of being born again; the new birth is completely misunderstood because the teachers themselves do not understand it; and so in this frame of mind they teach new and old converts alike, that it is in their power to become children of God; when the truth is that the bible teaches that the decision is not up to us but up to God.
If you continue to believe that it was you who made a decision to become a Christian, then it is obvious that it is you who needs to keep on working to stay one. If your salvation is predicated on your ability to make decisions and take actions, then your sanctification must remain in your power; I know, I'm kicking the dead horse again; but I constantly think about these things, and I do think about these things because of my sanity, and for the sake of the sanity of those whom I really love, namely my daughters and my brothers.
Once I shared with a couple of brothers that being born of the Spirit does not depend on us, and they looked at me as if I was speaking Chinese; one of them actually tried to argue with me; but I kept on giving him scriptures and his tongue got twisted. He was very sincere though; and he was sincerely wrong.
This doctrine of the new birth was given to the children of Israel even before Jesus came to speak of it, way before; in fact the reason why Jesus came to this earth was to accomplish the work that would enable us to become children of God by regeneration; He said it Himself when talking with Nicodemus in John chapter three; He came to save those who believe.
I have a tendency of repeating myself; I said it before numerous times, and I guess one more time is not really necessary for anyone who reads, but it is for me; I need to be constantly reminded that it was God who saved me, and that I did not have anything to do with it. It is a good thing to hear, to read it, again, and again, and again; I think; and the reason is very simple, if I forget that it was God who did the saving; I tend, by nature, to take it upon myself to make sure I am saved, everyday I struggle with this; it is a natural tendency of the human heart to assume that we need to do something to be accepted before God; but nothing can be farther from the truth.
The truth of the matter is that I did not do anything to be acceptable before God Almighty; is not that the truth? If you don't think that is accurate, that it is truthful, maybe it is because you form part of the deceived that I had mentioned before. But if you are a student of the word then you for sure know what Jesus meant when He said: "the flesh profits nothing, it is the Spirit who gives life"; but if you know and struggle with those words, it might be pride that prevents you from really appropriating it, and then again, it might just be that your understanding is foggy because of the wrong doctrines that have been ingrained into your mind by others. The truth always comes to light for those who belong to God, and He knows who they are.
The main question in my mind these days, pertains to the execution, or the performance, of good works; I think a lot about this lately. The more I think about it, the more I give up trying to understand how everything works, I am not a theologian, I'm just a regular dude who thinks a lot; maybe that is my problem, that I think too much; but doesn't it make you think? The fact that God says sometimes that your good works will be rewarded? And at the same time, that works are not getting you any access to eternal life?
It does me. It really makes me think about these things. I already wrote a couple of posts about this topic, I think it was two, who cares; but here I am writing about this again; do you see my obsession? God rewards your good works as if they had earned you something; when in reality it is because of His indulgence that He sees them as good; for the sake of Christ; even when your works are tainted with imperfection and sin (it can be no other way, when you read in Isaiah that all our works are as filthy rags before Him, what does that mean?); He purposefully overlooks and forgets that you are not perfect; and in His abundant mercy accepts them as worthy of a reward.
I thought about it and I really have only about two choices; I either say, as some do, "let the teachers worry about those things, I'm just happy I'm in", or I can say, as I often do: "I need to understand this, my life depends on it, maybe I'm not in"; do you see my dilemma?
It's not that I'm doubting my salvation (I'm not even struggling with it); but then I read things like this: Mat 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'; and it makes me wonder who are these people; who is Jesus talking about?
That is Jesus speaking; who is He speaking to? Me and you, that is obvious; or you can say "He is speaking to the Jews, that doesn't apply to me"; can you really say that? I don't really think you can say that; if it is true that He is speaking to the Jews, then the whole book is for the Jews only; but if He is speaking to the Jews and you and I, then you really have to think hard about His words; and about the rest of the bible for that matter.
What does Jesus mean when He says "I never knew you"; is this the kind of knowledge that is referred to when we meet someone? Or when we say "I know the president of the US", do you really know the president? Or do you know 'about' him, you don't really know him do you? If you do, let me know, I would like to hang out with you more often; or at least send you a burrito wrapped in a red bow.
But really, what does Jesus mean? Think about it, and for you to really get a truthful answer you have to go to the source of truth, which is the bible, I don't know of any other source of reliable information; or any other source of absolute truth.
So what does the bible say about knowing, the way Jesus uses this term? He is talking about an intimate knowledge, the kind of knowledge that you might have with your wife, or with someone who is your intimate best friend; He is not saying that He did not know these people in the sense of knowing who they were, but He did not know them intimately as He knows you and I, the sheep of His fold. Check this out: John 10:14-16 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
If we affirm that God is omniscient; and we affirm and believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh -(by the way, He said that He is God in the flesh, in fact that is the main reason why they crucified Him)-and therefore He knows all things and every person who has ever lived or will live; and then we hear Him say "I never knew you"; He is obviously talking about a different way of knowing; isn't He?
Those verses in John chapter ten describe the kind of knowing that Jesus is talking about in Matthew; as you can see, Jesus knows His own; He chose them and He chose to know them in the way He is knowing you and I, and He chose not to know those of whom He says "I never knew you"; He can make that kind of choice, He is God.
If you have pets, maybe dogs; you know that your pet knows your voice; (no, I'm not going to compare us with dogs anymore, don't worry, it's just an example to illustrate what I'm trying to say); and even if your dog was in the middle of a crowd of canines, you would be able to tell which one is yours; all you have to do is call his or her name, and you would know which dog is yours.
I had a dog (actually I had many dogs, but this one was very special) when I was growing up whose name was Duche; for il duce, if you don't speak Italian that's ok, me neither; but anyway, I think it means "leader"; I loved this dog; we all loved Duche, by the way, you pronounce it as "doochay', not doosh. My brother and I stole him from the litter when the mom wasn't looking; she had given birth to about six puppies in the middle of a vacant lot; between the weeds and the bushes.
We saw her coming out of the lot one day as we were walking to the supermarket; and we knew she had just given birth; so we watched and waited patiently for her to be gone looking for food, we actually waited for a couple of weeks until they all got bigger, in the meantime we brought the mom some food, leftovers from home, almost everyday, so she could feed her pups. One day we went into the bushes; there they were, they were cute and hungry, so one of our friends got one, and we got one; we called him Duche right away since my father had told us the story about his Saint Bernard called Duce (Duche), and my friend not knowing any other names called his 'Puche'; I'm telling the truth; so they grew up together since our friend was our neighbor, Duche and Puche; can you imagine that?
We loved our dogs. I guess my mom got tired of him one day, maybe she got tired of cleaning after him, I really don't know the reason, I just don't remember; but mom got rid of my dog, well it wasn't really mine, it belong to the whole family, it was our dog; she called the pound and they came to pick him up while I was at school. When I came back home, the first thing I used to do was to look for Duche, I really loved that dog; and guess what, he was gone; my mom explained the reason, but it didn't matter, I cried for hours, I was heart broken.
The pound was at the other side of Mexico City, we lived at the north side, actually out of the city, in the suburbs; and the pound was at the south end, on the road to the mountains, the road to La Marquesa, on the way to Toluca; it is maybe about 20 or 30 miles away; I can't remember how far exactly, but it was very far, at least for a dog. City names in Mexico are weird; there are towns called for example: Apatzingan, or Patzcuaro or Tolantongo; or how about this one, Parangaricutirimucuaro; now that is a funny name, anyway....
About a month and a half went by; I was actually getting used to the idea of not having Duche by my side; but I still missed him, I went everywhere with him, or the other way around; he went everywhere with me, anyway; one day, as I walked to play racket ball, I heard the sound of scratching behind me, the kind of sound dogs make when they run on concrete streets; I turned around and to my unforgettable surprise, it was Duche, he saw me walking and recognized me from far away, and from behind!! He was actually running and jumped on me as I turned around; man, I was so happy, I was in tears, I couldn't believe he was back; he had escaped, or the pound guys just dropped him off in the mountains or on some other part of the city, I really don't know how he got away, but he did; he looked awful; he was super skinny, his muscles were gone down to the bones, and had cuts in his ears, as if he had gotten into more than one fight with other dogs; and he really smelled like crap, almost like a dead rat. I could see a smile on his dog face; I think he also shed a few tears.
It took him a month and a half to get back home, and he made it; think about it; you would get lost in Mexico City being a human; imagine how hard it would be for a dog to cross a city of 18 million people; Mexico City was massive back then, it must be about 28 million by now. Man, I loved that dog. I will never forget the feeling of gratefulness I felt; I thanked God for giving me my dog back; I knew then God was real; like I said, I cried a lot of tears that day; what a great feeling.
I was so excited about it that I didn't even think about taking him home, I went on my way to play ball; when I finally brought him home, my mom broke down in tears when she saw him; 'he is meant to stay here forever', she said, or something like that; I fed him and gave him a bath, ; and then he slept for a couple of days; he got up to eat and went back to sleep, he was exhausted. Did I mention that I loved that dog? I did.
Duche was a super smart dog; and extremely obedient; I didn't have to raise my voice to him, he was just told to sit down, and he would sit down. I could dangle a piece of meat right before his nose and he would not even try to smell it; until I gave the order, he would gently open his mouth and take it from my hand; he was awesome.
I had to go to middle school in the city; the name of the school was Secundaria Federal #66 and then had the name of a woman who I think was a teacher; I think it was Ida Appendini Dagasso, or something like that, it was a government school; I had to wear a military style uniform, I hated it because I had to wear a tie, and a hat similar to a beret. All the girls wore a blue sweater, white blouse and a pink, blue or scarlet skirt, depending on their grade; I liked that; so many legs to see.
My dad dropped me off in the morning on his way to work; and when I got off, I took three different bus routes to get home; I really don't know how I got my diploma since I was gone most of the time running around in the city. When the subway opened the first line I was there in the middle of the inauguration; the president was there in the Chapultepec station; it was a big deal for the Mexicans to have a subway. Everyone rode for free that day, so I had to be there; soon I became an expert metro rider; I could go everywhere for free; but that's another story.
The trains were electric; imported from France; all the cars were red. They look a lot like the trolley in San Diego but a lot more trick. I guess the French called their train "the metrain" for metro-train, or something like that; so everybody called the subway "el metro"; it is still called the same but now it goes everywhere in the city; I really don't know how big the routes are now but they must be huge; I remember that when they were expanding the tunnels, they found a bunch of Aztec ruins in the middle of the city, you can still see them now since they preserved all of them, "for the pueblo".
Chapultepec is a forest, it is a public park; and it is located in the middle of the city; the zoo was famous for its large variety of animals and the entrance was free; in fact all the museums were free. There is a castle in the forest, on top of a mount; and it used to be the dwelling place for Maximiliano and Carlota, the emperor of Mexico and his wife; they turned the castle into a natural history museum; it was awesome, one of my favorite places to go. The castle eventually became a military school; the school then became famous due to the heroic acts of the young cadets that defended the city during the French invasion; these young boys became national heroes;
"Niños Héroes de Chapultepec". There is also a lake in the park; you can rent a rowing boat to hang out, it was actually very cool. I'm getting side-tracked....
Anyway; one day when I came home from school; I found Duche on the front yard of one of my neighbor's house; he was laying on his side, trying to run, moving his legs real fast; he was foaming at the mouth; someone had fed him rat poison; Puche died the same day; as well as Blackie, and Batman, and Oso; all the gang's dogs were murdered that day. I ran home to tell my mom and my brother, he came out with me to look at him, but we couldn't do anything; he died right in front of our eyes; it makes me want to cry even now; it was a horrible way to die for such a cool dog. He was about 6 years old; I think I was about 14 or 15; it was a sad day; my brother and I buried him in the hills; I was crying, but he was very angry; I will never forget that.
Okay; back to the point. That is the way Jesus knows His sheep. We hear His voice and we follow; we proskuneo; we worship, just as a dog that licks his master's hand, we bow down to the King, He alone is worthy; and He knows me. I hear His voice and I follow, just like the sheep that I am. He always leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake, and He absolutely restores my soul.
The glorious walk of a child of God is a walk of faith; through trials and tribulations; through all kinds of temptation; through all fleshly opposition; through all the deceitfulness of the heart; through the valley of the shadow of death; through all these we will conquer; we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us; and now we are God's delight. How can that be? This is the mystery of Christ; Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Where sin abounds, grace abounds more; I understand this but I don't take it lightly; a true believer never finds a license to sin in the abundance of God's grace, it cannot be; it is actually offensive to even think that in view of the extent of His love. I heard people say that kind of thing; as if enjoying the liberty with which Christ has set us free would give way to the works of the flesh; it is a contradiction; it is blasphemous.
I don't really see any other reason to perform good works, except being pleasing to God by shining His glory back to Him; and to obtain a reward in the process; that is glorious, and the way I see it, it is life abundant; that is where the pleasure of life is. Is there any other reason why we are exhorted to make up for ourselves treasures in heaven, but for the glory of YHWH manifested in His Son and His children? I really don't see a different reason.
I lose perspective all the time; just as much as anyone else, I think, but the good thing is that He always brings me back to the place where I need to be: abundant grace, and abundant mercy, and abundant life. The gospel is what brings me back to this place; it has to if I understand it correctly; if I don't, I place myself under a burden of performance; a burden that has never been there for me to carry. That is exactly what happens to some of my brothers and sisters; they are constantly disappointed in themselves; never worthy of any blessings; they have to be earned, worked for; but that is a lie.
Every time I feel like a failure, it's not God who condemns me; there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus; and ignoring what God says, or not believing or understanding it, will always drive me away from the cross. It is at the cross where see our inability, our insufficiency to perform, so it is a good place to be everyday; maybe that is what Jesus meant when He said to pick up our cross; yeah I know that is not what He meant; I'm just saying; I need to be reminded of His cross, not mine; ok forget about it.....our sufficiency is from God.
Sometimes I miss my dog......
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