Smallest Seed

Servants and Tenants in the Kingdom I don't know if you've noticed it. But in one Kingdom parable, Jesus let us look closer into some realities in God's Kingdom. Matthew 21 tells us of a story about a landowner, tenants, servants and a vineyard. The vineyard was left by the owner to tenants who had to give him his share of the fruit. The owners sent his servants to collect it for him. I know this is about how Israel rebelled against God in the Old Testament no matter how many prophets God sent them to repent. Then last of all, he sent his Son Jesus whom they killed. But this story can have lots of other insights for the church. After all, the Christian church is very much a part of God's chosen people through Christ. We are no longer aliens and strangers but fellow citizens in the new spiritual Israel. So, in the Kingdom, there are servants and tenants. Tenants work the vineyard while servants are sent to collect the owner's fruit. But in the story, the t

Images above from Dreamstime and Flickr. Salt and Light Few things are important in the Kingdom---like being salt and light. On these two depends your effectiveness in the Kingdom. You may look so good and effective in ministry, but if you lose your saltiness and don't shine properly as light, you're nothing in the Kingdom. In fact, being salt and light of the world is more important than any church "ministry" or activity. Being salt and light is what keeps us from ending up like the Pharisees and religious law teachers---salt that had lost its saltiness and light that was kept under the bed or a bowl. They were experts when it came to the Word of God but they never lived it out. They lacked character results. They lacked fruit. If you live out the Word, you live the Beatitude Life. As long as the Beatitudes is seen in you, you are salt and light. You are effective in the Kingdom. Salt Salt is good as long as it keeps its saltiness. "Saltiness"

Image from Ray Downing. Pharisee Debacle Jesus said our righteousness should surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees and law teachers. If not, we will "certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." You see, this is a very serious thing. Make sure you do not fall into the Pharisee Debacle. What made them fail? Simple---their lives were outside the Beatitudes. Yes, they were experts of the law---very bible-based, as it were---and yet you couldn't see how their lives and characters fit into the standards of the Kingdom. The law should result to the Beatitudes, but didn't happen with them. It's so important it needs repeating---fulfillment of the law resulted into the Beatitude Life. Jesus clarified that he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. So, Christ is the model of someone who has fulfilled the law. In the bible, you see all the Beatitude qualities in him---poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seriously after righteousness, peacemaker, etc

Image from American Magazine. LIFE and Character Right from the start of Jesus' ministry, he made clear what the Kingdom really is---it's producing fruit. And by "producing fruit," it's like how trees produce them. Trees do not work hard or use effort to bear fruit. They just stand there and wait for God to do everything for it. John 15 says we produce fruit by remaining connected to the Vine---by remaining in Christ. It's really all that easy. Remaining in Christ turns your life upside down and strangely different from the lives of other people, very different from the world, in fact. It's radically, eerily and even "frighteningly" so different that a lot of people get scared and turn away from it, even church people (or especially church people and their leaders). Jesus enumerated the Kingdom virtues on a mountainside one day. Beatitudes Kingdom is life. It's not a religious organization or a particular theology or belief or

Image from  buildingiq. Kingdom Dynamics Very few things matter in the Kingdom, one of which is fruit . John the baptizer said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance," as he preached, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is near!" Positions, titles, degrees, importance, achievements do not matter even one bit. It's fruit of repentance, proof that you have really radically changed. He saw Pharisees and Sadducees trooping to where he baptized at the Jordan river, and he called them "brood of vipers." They probably thought their positions, titles and accomplishments would give them special treatment and place in John's ministry. But John didn't spare them from his tirade. Imagine their shock. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Only Fruit Matters If they had come to church today they'd pr

Image from Entrepreneur's Online Paper. Starting in Simplicity and Meekness JESUS talked of nothing but the Father and his Kingdom. The goal is for believers to be transferred to the kingdom and live there permanently as they also live in the world at the same time. The priority is living in the kingdom by its principles---in its culture, dimensions, realities, practices and mindset. The kingdom life, in short. Not denominational manuals, policies and doctrines. What most Christians know are only these things---how to function and operate in their denominations---but they are complete strangers when it comes to God's kingdom. After you get saved, most churches take you to their own kingdoms. Their own little empires. But if you seriously follow Jesus, he will take you to God's kingdom. So, how well do you know God's kingdom? Supernatural Kingdom Among other things, the kingdom of God is about supernatural power, which you very rarely see (if any) in church

Image from Scoopnest. I used to be among them---terribly dreadful of being small. We hated being pastors of a small church. Aren't they all like that today? They all want to be big. And they concocted up some tales about displeasing God when we remain small. This means God is pleased only with big churches---in fact, with anything big---big income, big building, big crusades, big attendance, big crowds, big everything. We were duped. But not anymore. The least is the greatest and the greatest is the least. Now, this doesn't mean big is bad. It just means being least does not displease God. In fact, the least is greatest in his eyes---meaning, the meek, lowly, the poor in spirit, and those who know that no achievement or success is due to their ability. It's all God's grace, so no reason to take credit and boast. It's possible to be great in people's eyes and also great in God's eyes, if the principles above are true in your life. But you seldom see

Image from Blogger. Theologians put it this way. Theology is "rational discussion respecting the deity," according to St. Augustine. Richard Hooker said it's "the science of things divine." A.H. Strong explained that it's actually "the Science of God and of the relations between God and the universe." One time I read in a book somewhere that it is logic, reasoning, philosophy, science and acumen rolled into one. I've read other definitions of theology---funny, they don't mention anything about the Holy Spirit, particularly how he alone enables enlightenment about Scriptures and God. It's all about "science" and "rational" thinking or reasoning. No wonder every so-called theologian I have talked to do not understand (or do not believe) the spiritual realms. They often treat it like some superstition or voodoo. They can't imagine how you can interpret Scriptures without human theology, the kind you get fro

Image from iStock. Your full potentials---this is what GOD wants you to get. Don't just get saved by grace; be transformed by grace, too. This is NOT an option. This normally happens during genuine regeneration in Christ. And I mean, you radically transformed and turned into something out of this world. Something this world has never yet seen---like how Jesus was transfigured on a high mountain. And mind you, the Greek word used in the New Testament for transformed and transfigure is the same: metamorphoo . It's also the same with the term metamorphosis . And here we picture out an ugly caterpillar enclosed in a cocoon to undergo radical transformation, turning the ugly caterpillar into a completely different creature. A completely different beautiful creature! Unless You Cease Unless this happens to you, you can never access your full God-given potentials. How wonderful are these potentials? The Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing what you can be---a "foreta