May 2, 2020 OUR PROTOCOL AS BELIEVERS
1 Peter 3:8-12 “To sum up, let all be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. For, ‘Let him means to love life and see good days refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. And let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.’”
The life we live should flow out of our relationship with our Father; every word God has spoken and the life that Jesus demonstrated is to be the bedrock, the foundation of our life. We should not see ourselves as being separate from God, but as being joined to Him and made one with Him. God has a kingdom, a very real kingdom, and in His word, we discover what it is like to live in His kingdom. The kingdom of God is not limited to heaven; the awesome news for believers is that we can experience His kingdom here on earth. When the disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, He responded in what is known as the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 6:9-13. In this prayer, in the first sentence, He tells His followers to pray “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” If we think that experiencing His kingdom is reserved for when we get to heaven, we are mistaken. As believers, it is possible for us to find ourselves living according to the kingdom of this world-thinking like the world and responding to situations like those of the world respond. We must remember what John 17:16 tells us: “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” As often said, we are in the world, but not of the world. There is a great contrast in the two kingdoms. Unlike the kingdom of the world, in God’s kingdom the norm is giving, loving, blessing, patience, kindness, forgiveness, humility, serving, kindness, bearing one another’s burdens, speaking words of encouragement, speaking the truth, looking out for the welfare of others-and the list goes on. 1 Timothy 4:15 tells us “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.” We have the opportunity to be ‘practicing and immersing’ ourselves in kingdom life-daily we can live with our focus being the kingdom of God and how we can be expressions of it. The amazing thing is that as we live according to the ‘protocol’ of God’s kingdom, we find an inner peace and joy and fulfilment that cannot be found living according to the world. It is God’s desire and He has made it possible for us be living-walking-talking members of His kingdom. We must move from the view that ‘we are just sinners who will go to heaven someday,’ and adopt the view of life that God has for us. Not to see ourselves as God sees us and not walk in what He has made available to us certainly grieves Him; Ephesians 4:30 reminds us that we can grieve Him. At the start of each day, let us acknowledge and set our mind and our spirit on the fact that God has transferred us to His kingdom and has equipped us to live according to His kingdom; we cannot live simultaneously in His kingdom and the kingdom of the world. May we walk in the light of His kingdom, of His love, and His provision for us.
John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Colossians 1:11-14 …. strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks unto the Father, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.”
Blessings, Buddy
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