2014/12/31

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another." 

These are words spoken by Jesus, written in the gospel of John, words Jesus was telling His disciples while dining with them at the last supper before being crucified. The reality of the laying down one's life for his friends was to be fulfilled by the literal laying down of His life at His crucifixion. Jesus was commanding His disciples to follow this example, "that you love one another, just as I have loved you."

This is the only passage in the gospel of John where Jesus addresses His disciples as 'friends.' However, he says, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." If I turn that phrase into negative terms, he's saying, 'You are not my friends if you don't do what I command you.' So Jesus is not negating being enslaved to Him, because His commandment is clearly to be obeyed and followed. By saying, "No longer do I call you slaves," and saying, "I have called you friends," Jesus is speaking of those being drawn closer to Himself. By telling His disciples that the crucifixion He is soon to face is the laying down His life for His friends, He is telling His friends what the Master is doing, saying "for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." 

"You did not choose Me but I chose you," Jesus is telling you that it is not by your free will that you are disciples or 'friends,' but by the sovereign will of His Father, He chose "and appointed you that you you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain". The image of bearing fruit came up earlier in the conversation, where Jesus Introduces a metaphor saying, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser". When telling of his relationship with His disciples, He later states, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." 

Finally, Jesus reiterates His words, "This I command you, that you love one another." We must call Jesus 'Master' if we are to obey His commands. In this way, we are enslaved to Him, because to be truly His, our free will cannot be thought to exist apart from abiding in Him. However, as Christ draws us closer to Himself, making known His Father's will, we abide by His command to 'love one another,' restoring our free will unto the salvation of Jesus Christ, that we understand His Father's will of salvation for the saints,  so that whatever we ask of the Father in the name of Jesus Christ the Father may give to us.

2014/12/30

The so-called 'season of singleness' is a myth. A better epithet for the period of time of a person's singleness is a 'season of waiting' or even perhaps a 'season of misunderstanding'.

The idea of embracing your singleness as a virtue is a foolish idea unless you are planning to be single for the rest of your life. It would be like holding to the virtue of purity before marriage, yet planning to only live in purity for a portion of your unmarried life instead of for the whole duration. If you plan to be married, start planning to be married. If you plan to be single, you're contradicting yourself to even consider the future possibility of marriage.

For those who plan to be married, start planning and be patient. As long as we live in the realm of time, there will always be a season of waiting. This period of time may be long, or it may be short. Take full advantage of your 'season of waiting' so that you can properly plan for marriage. For men, if you can earn favour among men, do so. If you can put away salary for a future date of taking care of a wife and children, do so. For women, if you can develop skills that would enable you to be a benefit for your future husband and children, do so. Find someone to marry, and don't delay. Because delaying is the denial of the responsibility you embraced by considering marriage.

Don't be fooled. Marriage is a necessary step for those who will consider it. But don't consider marriage to be a replacement for the riches of glory that is to be revealed at the joining of Christ to His bride. Marriage can point to these riches. But so can suffering, disease and death. If you consider your period of waiting to bring hardship upon you, you should consider that being married will also bring hardship upon you. Live for the glory of God, and eagerly wait to be joined to Him.

There are many who consider to be joined to a partner in sexual union. These people are called by God for marriage. There are a select few who don't make these considerations. These people are called to singleness. Whatever God calls you to, embrace and fulfill your calling immediately, because you are called by the God of salvation for His purpose in the world.

Modern Dating

The modern dating relationship is not something that I adhere to. If a woman wants to find out my intentions, she can read the Bible. Everything else she needs to know about me can be known by observing and interacting with me in a way that does not require a dating relationship. If my intention is to marry her, I will make that known to her. The reason why I have delayed marriage is because I have only had of a partial understanding of the Bible concerning marriage. It is not because I have trivialized dating.

2014/12/28

Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. 

Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord! 

Worshiping the Lord of hosts, the almighty God, is an outworking of our drawing near to Him. Our worship is to be organized and officiated, yet it is to be an act of the free will unto Christ's salvation, that all the actions resemble the hearts of those who are acting them out and reflecting them in the congregation of saints.

We can sing, shout, make noise with instruments and proclaim His Word to the nations, that every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall give praise to God. We are to resemble the order of heaven, by which the only thing we know by witness is the One who is to be worshiped⎯Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Everything else, we wait in active anticipation.

Where God's Word is proclaimed, some who gather in this age will fall away. We worship in the age of Christ's sanctifying of His bride, being prepared to join the Groom for eternity. Some will harden their hearts and not enter into His perfection. Those people will be eternally damned in their subjection to the glory of God.

O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God
And a great King above all gods,
In whose hand are the depths of the earth,
The peaks of the mountains are His also.
The sea is His, for it was He who made it,
And His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down,
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
As in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
“When your fathers tested Me,
They tried Me, though they had seen My work.
“For forty years I loathed that generation,
And said they are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not know My ways.
“Therefore I swore in My anger,
Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

2014/12/27

When Jesus appeared to His disciples in His resurrected form, He told them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

All authority has been given to Jesus, who was from the Father, and was accompanied by the Holy Spirit from the beginning. But it is the name of Jesus that authority has been granted, by the works of grace presented in the completion of His gospel story. While still breathing, Jesus said, "It is finished!" He then died and was buried, but He was raised up on the third day and ascended to be at the right hand of the Father.

By the authority given to Him by the Father, Jesus told His disciples to go make disciples of all nations. His authority is handed down from heaven to those who receive His gospel. He commands His authority to be handed down to those of all nations, through the disciples He handed down His authority to, calling all nations to Himself, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit⎯the Godhead, in completion, immersing the saints being drawn to Himself.

He instructs His disciples, the eyewitnesses of His ministry, to teach others to observe all that He commanded them. The final gospel scriptures reveal many of these commands including the great commandments from the book of Deuteronomy: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might;" and from the book of Leviticus, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

While these commandments are a summary of the law that was handed down by God centuries earlier, Jesus says, "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This is a promise that exists beyond the law that was handed down, that Jesus is present with us to the end of the age. The complete gospel story is handed down to those Jesus calls to Himself for the completion of His bride which is to be revealed at the end of the age⎯His second coming. His completion is revealed for our completion unto Him. Hallelujah!

2014/12/23

Oh, how I must be restored to a life of prayer⎯times of prayer spent alone, so that I will not fall into temptation. For many have come to tempt me; some of them have caused me to misstep, but my path is to be restored unto the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jesus was led into the wilderness for forty days without a bite to eat to spend this time alone in prayer. He was tempted by Satan, who offered the kingdoms of the world to be granted into His dominion, but He did not misstep; He remained true unto His Father.

The apostle Paul, upon his conversion, did not immediately go to Jerusalem to congregate with the other apostles. Instead He spent three years in Arabia before finally going to Jerusalem.

When I was converted to Christianity at fifteen years of age, I did not even join a church for a full year, but remained true to the faith, prayerfully considering my hope in the Father.

I am not advocating a Christianity that is walked with God without other believers. I was associated with other believers in the first year of my conversion, but in my alone time, my faith was sealed as being tested and true.

What good is a disciple of Christ who easily falls into temptation because he doesn't have a firm foundation of faith? He is surely going to lead others astray, isn't he? As Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, immediately prior to His betrayal, He ordered the disciples to pray so that they would not fall into temptation. Not realizing the magnitude of what was to take place, the disciples were drawn to sleep.

I don't want to fall asleep in the faith, I want to be faithful in my times spent alone. I thank God that He has drawn me to awake from my slumber, so that I may be tested with temptation in order to stand firm as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

2014/12/22

There is much sorrow to be had. Sorrow for a world gone astray; sorrow for the blind who love their blindness; sorrow for the church becoming like the world, blaspheming the name of Jesus Christ.

The hand of the Lord will draw the church unto Himself, naming the names worthy of the calling of Christ, to become His unadulterated bride. O, how many will fall away, especially those who gather to the house of God who never obeyed His commands. The Lord will say to these, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." Oh, how I long for the season where God will separate the wheat from the tares, that the church will once again be named by the calling of Christ.

So, I will explore the practice of being sorrowful. Not for the sake of piety, but for the love of the church, so I will be lifted when the church is lifted from its slumber. I have no hope to be awakened with the church from its slumber without sharing in the sorrow of Christ displayed on the cross for His beloved.

Because the grace of God is sufficient to the sufferings of Christ. Therefore, through sorrow, I can freely rejoice in thankfulness and worship of the living God who rose from the dead. Oh how sorrowful the cross of Christ, that we can be lifted to join in the sufferings of Christ⎯the true works of the gospel!

I wish I could explain my joy, for it is in gratitude that I rejoice! Because I know that suffering in obedience to Christ is the assurance of my salvation, that His grace is sufficient for me to obey His commands to the end, that my name be written among those, who are the church and the bride, in the Book of Life!

2014/12/15

I know I can set boundaries with a woman who initiates a relationship, that I would confidently limit the relationship to a friendship. I know I can wait for the right woman to take the role of being the initiator of an exclusive relationship, because my starting and end goal for a decisive relationship with a woman is marriage.

In the meantime, I will take on the responsibility of brotherhood for all the women and men. With the women, I can still initiate as a brother, to participate in family activities amongst the brethren. If the numbers of the church body continue to be more numerous among females, then there is more responsibility for the men that remain to be faithful to the word of God.

Women can be faithful to the word of God as well. The fact that the women are outnumbering the men may signify the true works of faith among women, that they are not gathering themselves with the disobedient, but standing firm in the faith of Jesus Christ. These women have confidence in the faithfulness of their Father in heaven, who knows what is best for all who are His.

2014/12/14

Men are also to win favour for women, that women are confronted by the grace of the gospel, the same way as for the men. However, as a single man, there are natural boundaries that I must not overstep in order to generate the fullness of the gospel of Christ amongst the whole body, women and men alike.

Men are by nature strong and overbearing when compared to women. The more I grow into being a man, the more I realize it is not proper conduct to approach a woman directly. It is better to approach a woman by first considering the men in her life. A married women is best approached through her husband. A single woman is best approached through her father. Also, if a woman has brothers that she grew up with, I am to consider them as well. I am not saying that I won't talk to a woman directly, I am saying that there are things I should consider when I am talking to woman, that I am to talk to a woman with the full inclusion of the men in her life.

Above all, I am to approach the Father, The Lord of heaven and earth, who created all women as daughters in His kingdom, so that all my confidence will be in Christ, who knows what is best for all who are His.

It seems that there are periods of time where there are few men who respond to the coming of the kingdom of Christ. Often, the first to respond to the breaking in of the kingdom are the women. Jesus, in His resurrected body, first appeared to women who did not perish at His crucifixion and burial. When their eyes were opened to see that it was Jesus, they immediately believed and worshiped. Later, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, not everyone who saw Him believed. In time, all the remaining disciples became believers.

So my goal is to make believers out of men. Women can join as believers and even befriend me, but I am to approach them with a complete consideration of their Father who is in heaven, who cherishes and protects these women like any of the true men in their lives. And perhaps one day, God will permit me to cherish and protect one of His daughters as my wife. But regardless of what may or may not take place, the kingdom of God is at hand.

"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

2014/12/13

If I am to win favour for men, I am to submit wholly to the gospel of Christ and proclaim it. Submission to the gospel without the proclamation of the gospel is not true submission. Proclaiming the gospel without true submission to all the ways of the gospel is not the true proclamation of gospel. The favour I am to gather is the eternal life of Christ.

How am I to labour in the kingdom of God? Do I serve men with my hands? Do I serve men with my lips? The Bible is consistent to the idea of sacrificing my whole body as Christ sacrificed His body to fit the purpose of His Father. If the gospel is best demonstrated with my hands, then let it be so. If my hands need to be cut off to best demonstrate the gospel, then let it be so. But I need to be aware of the objective of serving God, that the sacrifice I am called to is for the freedom of men from the bondage of Satan. 

I am not to mutilate myself and call it suffering for purpose of Christ. Suffering is only to take place in obedience to the commandments of God. Any suffering will be in vain unless I obey the words that God has given to His people as commandments, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself,” that the there is a daily renewal, in living these commandments, by the Holy Spirit. However, I find these commandments more difficult to walk through than even self-mutilation.

Where the advice of the world would say, "get a good job, own a house, get married, have a healthy family" and so on, these good things cannot be the only way to identify with God's favour. In fact, these are all temporal things of the world, where even the most Godless person could sustain. The favour of God could help us, too, sustain these things for a time, but it doesn't provide any guarantees, because His favour is identified by that of which is eternal.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; these are fruits of the Holy Spirit and a few of the things we can identify as being sustained for eternity by the God who showed us love: demonstrated by the sacrifice of the Father, grace: demonstrated by the obedience of His Son, and power: demonstrated by the labour of His Holy Spirit.

2014/12/11

If I am to gather favour from God for men, what does that favour look like? It doesn't look like dollars and cents, and it doesn't look like a building. It doesn't even look like a pretty woman. A man who gathers favour from God may deal with such things, but there are many who have such things who do not have the favour of God.

The true blessings from God are the eternal blessings that He lavishes on us by the Holy Spirit through the gift of His Son. These blessings are not achieved by works, however the true works of Christ point to these blessings that are founded on grace. So, let not the works of Christ be in vain, achieving a temporary blessing that is no blessing at all by eternal means.

Gathering favour from God is simply receiving His grace, the grace the enables a man to achieve the true works of the gospel, so that the grace of God can be known throughout the world. This is the true grace of God, that a man is awakened from his slumber, that his works can be counted for eternal glory. What kind of works are these?

In the scriptures, Paul writes, "Each man must remain in the condition in which he was called." The calling of Christ is not being enabled to become a man of religiously defined works, (as Paul was addressing those who named marriage to be among these works,) but to be transformed by the works of grace to enable a man's work to continue to be pruned according to the gospel, so that the fruits of the Holy Spirit would become evident. So, if I am called as a single man, I will remain as a single man, now serving Christ. If I am pruned to bear new fruit as a married man, then I will receive this blessing and remain as a servant of Christ.

All in all, the favour I receive from God is for the saints, men and women alike, that the transforming work of the gospel will bear fruit for all nations. I will remain in the condition in which I was called, because His grace has given me a new opportunity to be a single man who is to receive God's favour to bless men and women who are called of God.

2014/12/10

It is better to give than it is to receive. A man's spiritually potency is measured by what he gives from what he has been given, rather than what he can store up for self-accreditation. God doesn't see a man's riches, He sees a man's faithfulness, for God's faithful Son gave His life on the cross to provide a way for the faithless to become faithful through His name.

A man has no excuse to be counted among the faithless in his words and deeds. He has no reason to complain about a life that doesn't add up to anything honourable. He has no reason to withhold himself from the calling of Christ; the calling to be a follower of Christ's lead no matter the cost. What can I say about such a man who is single and selfish, one who is waiting for the day he is married to be accredited as a man of sacrifice?

Such a man will never be truly selfless. A man who stores up for himself riches to better present himself on a future day is a despicable man. A man who spends his singleness to gratify and entertain himself until he chooses to take on the burden of marriage is no man at all. He is denying his duties as a single man in waiting to be honoured for his duties as a married man. After all, it is honourable for a man to love his wife and children.

A man who saves money for a house, but also spends a good sum of his money on entertainment, impressing his peers, and dating women for his own pleasure is not a man who is preparing his future household, even if he gathers enough to buy a house. A man should instead glorify God in all His deeds, serving men and women, gathering favour from God for men, that his words and deeds would be accredited to the name of Jesus Christ. Such a man will attract the right kind of woman, one who is not fooled by the pretentiousness of this world, but is fit to serve her husband and nurture her children according to the Holy Spirit.

So how do I prepare for the future? By following the lead of Christ, no matter the cost; by faithfully giving from what I have been given. If I have been given an opportunity to own a house, it is a house that belongs to God; a dwelling that He was faithful to provide for His servant. A house says nothing about my potency as a man, rather it is accredited to God's faithfulness, who, through Him, I have received honour. So I will be faithful to Him in all He has blessed me with, even if His favour doesn't attract a woman or give me any comfort in this life. I know it is better to give than it is to receive.

2014/12/08

It would seem that I am a man without a household to head. One would assume that a man who doesn't have a wife and children doesn't have a home that he is responsible for leading. Because of the nature of the steps a man is to take to embrace the responsibilities of being a husband and father, I would conclude that my current responsibilities are futile when compared to that of a family man.

But I am still responsible for being as I am: a man who is wholly devoted to God. Since it is a bare-minimum requirement for a man of God to care for his workmanship in the home, it would seem that my chores are less as a single man. But this is only true to a degree. There is still much to be faithful to.

Instead of taking care of a wife, I have to take care of all the women I'm available to by a mutual singleness. It is my responsibility not to play with a woman's heart, or to lead her as a man who unwilling to take full responsibility for her. I also have to take care of myself as a man, that my own body is pure and spotless⎯without blemish; the same way I would care for a wife.

Instead of raising children, I have to raise all who acknowledge their weakness in my sight, that they become nurtured according to the word of God. It is my responsibility to the weak, that they not be taught in the falsehood of thinking they have a need for pity, but in the truth of their absolute need for God, who has shown them grace. It is my responsibility to reveal Christ, as God who died on a cross, who, in weakness, revealed the weakness of those who claim to be strong. Because Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

It would seem that my current household, being as a single man, is far more exclusive to my body, however, I am far more capable to reach the bigger body of Christ in the vastness of His kingdom. I want to explore this vastness to a greater degree by enslaving my body to the works of God. And, one day, my natural body may increase in fruit, and the spreading of God's vast kingdom will become a deeper work.

2014/12/07

The Kingdom of God has far exceeded what is defined by blood relations. The descendants from the seed of Abraham were congregated to receive the promise of God that came into existence by a virgin birth. Jesus Christ died without any offspring from His seed to consecrate His followers as His true blood-relatives, so that men and women of all descendants can be joined to Him, being renewed in the lineage of Jesus as partakers in His body and His blood by the Holy Spirit.

But not everyone will hear the word of God and be saved. If the people heard the gospel Jesus was preaching, He wouldn't have been crucified. There were divisions upon hearing His word, and ultimately God saw it necessary for Jesus to suffer death on a cross, bearing the image of God's condemning judgment for the world upon His Son, so that the world may be saved from the wrath of God through His Son. But even to this day, there are many who hear this gospel who do not receive it.

Therefore, the infiltration of Christ by His Holy Spirit can divide a household. Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

A unified household, with all its members being followers of Jesus, will bring glory to Christ in the all the ways of His unity, because Christ is not divided. But a household divided by the name of Jesus will also bring glory to Christ in ways that are unfathomable to man. There is a purpose to God relating to the people of this age, though they will not all be saved.

Who is to know the depth of the ways of the Lord, or fathom His glory. A man who is a follower of Christ is to lead His household in the ways of the Lord, but there are no guarantees of those members coming to faith. This man can be obedient to the word of God until death, yet have all his blood-descendants die as sons of disobedience. But this man's fruit still may grow far beyond the nation of his seed to a new generation of partakers in the body and blood of Christ. This is the true power of the blood.

2014/12/06

Honour God. Honour His Son. Honour His Spirit. "A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household." "Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you."

In this day and age, it is honourable for a man to love his wife and children above all things. Perhaps it is considered honourable because we have become more aware of the tragedy of fatherlessness in our world. The security of a father's love for his family may have become a more rare occurrence in recent decades, accompanied with the fact that we are realizing the emotional ramifications of our father's participation or lack of participation in a person's formative years. However, bestowing honour upon a father's prioritization of his family may be signifying the depravity of the role of a father in this generation.

For a worshiper of Christ, it should be a minimum requirement that a man should love his wife and children. A man's wife is joined to the man, as the two are one flesh. A man doesn't neglect his own body, does he? Nor does he fail to nurture what is produced from his own work, does he? He doesn't need to be congratulated for taking care of his own, it should be expected as a part of his nature.

But Oh! how the men or this generation have failed to even honour what is the primary extension of their own body. This triggers me to wonder: what have the men of this generation spent their time and energy pursuing that they would consider it worthwhile to destroy their own body for? They must be doing something.

They have surely built their household in a world of make-believe. Some make-believe worlds exists in the mind of a man, never to take form in the world. Some make-believe worlds take their form in this world, and become the only measurement a man has for himself. Either way, he has neglected what is real in his life for something that is counterfeit to his true self.

But the kingdom of God presents another dimension to how we are to consider ourselves as men of our household. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves. We are even called to love our enemy. How can we properly love our neighbour and our enemy if we deny our own household? The household is an extension of the man, that if a man neglects his own household, he is surely unfit to love his neighbour as himself, because he has neglected himself. Therefore, he is completely unfit for God's kingdom.

God will bestow honour upon those who keep His commandments. Even if a man doesn't receive honour from his own household, he can nurture his own household so that it can grow to honour the commandments of God, that their days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord gives them.