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Showing posts from January 6, 2019

Gospel of the Kingdom 4: REPENT!

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Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 3 DepositPhotos Repent for the Kingdom is Near The pressing message of the Gospel of the Kingdom is REPENT! It was then and it will be in these last days. John the baptist preached it (Matt.3.2) as did Jesus (Matt.417). It's the urgency, the top agenda, in the Book of Revelation as angels warn churches in the last days. To the Ephesus church, God says repent and do the things you did at first (2.5). To the Pergamum church, he says repent and do away with the Nicolaitan's and Balaam's teachings (2.14-16). To the church in Thyatira, he says repent or suffer with Jezebel (2.22). To the Sardis church he says repent from dead works (3.3). Finally, to the Laodicean church he says be earnest and repent of lukewarmness (3.19). All on repentance. Only Smyrna and Philadelphia are spared. Thus, it's easy to see if you're actually building God's Kingdom on earth or just building your own empire. If you're not preachi

Gospel of the Kingdom 3: Growing Your Ministry in the Kingdom

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Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 2 Lynda.Com How to Grow Your Ministry This is the perennial problem of pastors---how to grow their ministry. They seek high and low, far and wide for this. They worry about it endlessly, not understanding that growth belongs to God alone. He decides this, not us. Our job is to share the Gospel of the Kingdom, period. I've seen pastors make target goals for their membership. They plan to hit this much by year's end or after 3 or 5 years. It's foolish. A 5-year old kid cannot target to grow taller by 5 inches at the end of the year. God decides this. If he wills that you grow to 5 feet 8 inches when you're 16, then you will. Others take growth pills and gain height artificially. Okay, but be ready for the side effects---like an elongated head perhaps. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. [1 Corin. 3.7] Growth is God's department (in fact, everything

Gospel of the Kingdom 2: The Kingdom of Jesus

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DepositPhotos Here's Gospel of the Kingdom 1 Jesus Introduces the Kingdom So, after a long, long time, God sent his Son to reveal and get everything straight. Nobody knew exactly what God was up to and what He and His Kingdom was really like. Well, the prophets and righteous men of old had vague ideas about it. In fact, Jesus said, " many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."  Not even angels had a good grasped of it all ( " Even angels long to look into these things," says   1 Pet.1.12), though they've been in heaven since time immemorial. But when Jesus came, he showed what it was all about. This is the Kingdom, showing it by his life and ministry. And the idea is to bring down this Kingdom on earth. Second to salvation, this is why we are saved by grace. "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Remember? Church shoul

Gospel of the Kingdom 1: The One Thing Important

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normansennema The Only Thing Important in Ministry Jesus came for only one thing. Over the years, as man's churches put a lot of useless add-ons to faith and ministry, this one thing has been blurred and relegated to the far sides---to the backdrop. Sometimes, they even kick it out of the picture for good. But it remains the single most important thing---Jesus Christ came to preach the good news of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the Kingdom. "I must proclaim the good news (Gospel) of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” [Luke 4.43] The Gospel of the Kingdom. Examining the Gospel (and the Scriptures in general) we find that this Gospel is all about living in the Kingdom NOW through the LIFE of Jesus in us, how to live and operate in it, how to build it on earth, and how to be in its very heart---which is the heart and life of God. That's why we start by becoming his children, being wholly transferred from the kingdom of da