HEAVENLY SOLUTIONS

"You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem." HEBREWS 12:22 All the prophets pointed to Jerusalem as the place where the Messiah would rule and reign. On the surface this seems self-evident. The trouble with this is that the nature of the Kingdom is spiritual, and so the location of the Kingdom is likewise spiritual. A spiritual kingdom is not going to have an earthly capital. Neither will it have an earthly temple, an earthly priesthood, or an earthly King. It will be in the earth, but it will not rise up from the earth. Earthly problems cannot be solved with earthly solutions. Earthly problems require Heavenly solutions. The fact that John saw the New Jerusalem coming down out of Heaven and settling upon the earth shows that this is something established by God Himself, quite beyond the command and control of man. Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/the-irresistible-kingdom.html

SO WALK IN HIM

"As you received Christ Jesus the Lord [the Narrow Gate], so walk in Him [the Narrow Path]." COLOSSIANS 2:6 ESV We come to the Lord admitting that we cannot save ourselves, and He does the saving. That is the Gate. Now we come to the Lord every day, admitting that we cannot enter the Kingdom, and He does what it takes to conform us into His image. That is the Path. Hence, I have no secret for the Christian Life, but Christ. I have no key, but Christ. I have no method, but Christ. I have no formula, but Christ. I have no technique, but Christ. I have no life, but Christ - for it is no longer I who lives, it is Christ Who lives in me (Galatians 2:20). In Him, through Him, because of Him, and by Him we may enter the Kingdom. Source: "Embrace the Cross" by Chip Brogden http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/embrace-the-cross.html

ALL THINGS SUBDUED TO HIMSELF

"He is able even to subdue all things to Himself." PHILIPPIANS 3:21 What a mighty God we serve! Exactly how the Lord goes about bringing all things into submission unto Himself is... how can we describe it? It is an art. It is a science. There is a process at work in this universe. Do you see it? It is a process through which the Lord is continually refining, purging, molding, chastening, disciplining, judging, and conforming all things. This process is working itself out on every level, from galaxies, to nations, to the innermost recesses of the souls of men, right down to the very last disciple and sinner. Throw yourself onto the Rock and be broken; or wait for it to fall on you and be ground into powder (Luke 20:18, Daniel 2:34,35). Either way, sooner or later, the Rock wins, for "He MUST increase, but I MUST decrease" (John 3:30). Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/the-irresistible-kingdom.html

free indeed

"The Truth shall make you free." JOHN 8:32 The Cross must be embraced and taken up daily as a principle of living. This is the practical application of taking up the Cross. If we ever lay down the Cross and attempt anything in our own power then we will be defeated. But as we continually reckon ourselves "dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ" (Romans 6:11) then what is true in principle eventually becomes true in our experience: sin begins to lose its power to control us, and we begin to see that we do have a choice. We will begin to see that we are no longer slaves to sin, but "if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Source: "Embrace the Cross" by Chip Brogden http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/embrace-the-cross.html

HE WILL BE IN YOU

"You know Him; for He dwells with you, and will be in you." JOHN 14:17 Just as Testimony follows Revelation, so Life follows Light. We simply know what to do because He Himself is doing it through us. If we have put on the Lord Jesus then we need not look to the past, or to the future. We need not look up to the heavens, or down upon the earth. We need not look outward at all, for the Kingdom of God is within us. The One Who said, "I am with you, and will be in you" has now taken up residence within all who believe. Source: "Lord of All" by Chip Brogden http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/lord-of-all.html

hunger for righteousness

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." MATTHEW 5:6 To hunger and thirst for righteousness is to look forward to the promise of new heavens and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13): to long for it, to desire it, to pine for it, to seek it, to prepare for it and to keep praying for it until it arrives. It implies that we are not content with things just the way they are, and we are not satisfied to just let things go along as they always have. We hate sin, we hate the effects of sin upon this earth, and we mourn the consequences of man's inhumanity to man and rebellion towards God; but we have hope for a better day, a better life, a better world where Righteousness Himself is living among us. Until such time, we are hungry and thirsty for more of what we have only just begun to taste.

Christ in Context

Posted by miltrodriguez in Christ, Christian Life, Church Life But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak of His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16: 13 – 15 One of the results of the fall is that our minds now have a strong tendency to taking ideas, concepts, and even persons, and then chopping them up and pulling them out of their proper context. For example, we have done this with Jesus Christ Himself. The Segmented Christ We have taken Christ and chopped Him up into little pieces. I have written about this previously in an article called The Holistic Church. We take a slice out of Christ and then make it everything. We have done this with just about every aspect of the person and work of Christ. For example, we have taken evangelism, gifts, healing, miracles, social action, deliverance, love, peace, joy and many other aspects of Him and taken them out of their proper context (Christ Himself) and then blown them up to be everything. Yet our glorious Christ is all of these things and so much more! But that is what the fallen, un-renewed mind does. So our revelation and life experience must shift to the whole Christ so that we can express the fullness of Christ. But what is the context of Christ Himself? Seeing Christ in His Environment This is moving to another mountain altogether. It all begins with “seeing,” that is, revelation of this Christ within His context. Seeing all of the aspects of Christ as all parts of the whole Christ is one thing (and it is wonderful), but what about seeing the context of this Christ Himself? Did you know that Christ has His own context, His own environment that He lives in all the time? Do you realize that we have done the same “splicing” of Christ out of His context as we have done with the many aspects of Christ? So exactly what is the context for the Son of God? It’s simple; the context for Christ is God Himself! What is His environment? Where does He live? He lives inside of the Father through the Holy Spirit (See Jn. 17). In other words, the context for Christ is the Triune God or Godhead. That’s His native habitat. He came from and went back to God (Father, Son, Spirit). He never has nor will He ever live “one solitary life”! He is not a lone individual. Even while on the earth, He was living in, by, through, and to His Community – the Triune God. He lives in the glorious context of Community life. His life doesn’t even make sense outside of the fellowship of the Father and the Spirit. Just read the gospel of John and you will see this very clearly, that is, if you are really looking. The One Dimensional Christ You could say that seeing Christ the way that we normally see Him is like seeing Him one-dimensionally. People are really into 3D movies nowadays. Why? Because now, instead of just watching the film with height and width, you can actually see depth! What a difference depth makes. I personally dislike those funky glasses. We have been viewing Christ one-dimensionally. Yet He is really a three-dimensional Lord. He is one with the Father and Spirit. Three dimensions? Well, actually much more . . . three Persons! Yet each one of these Persons is unlimited in Their vastness. And the three unique and unlimited Ones are even greater than that because of Their oneness. The oneness of God is not just a doctrine or theology, but it is an actual life that has been lived out for eternity. Jesus called this life – eternal life (Jn. 17:3). This is the life of oneness, the life of eternal fellowship, the life of community. If you will sit down one day and read through the gospel of John chapters fourteen through seventeen, you will see it more clearly. The Son is part of the fellowship or community. We could call this community the divine fellowship. When he became a man and lived on this earth he was still living in and by this divine community. He told us that He lived by the life of His Father (Jn. 6:57). At His baptism the Father spoke from heaven and the Spirit descended as a dove. He cast out demons by the Spirit. The words He spoke came from the Father. The three divine Persons of the Trinity were working in tandem the whole time. Three Dimensional Church Life Now this divine fellowship and community that is shared within the Godhead has everything to do with us as believers. The Lord didn’t just share these things with the disciples to give them some new radical theology. Even though as Jews they didn’t even believe in a Triune God! What He was sharing in these chapters of John’s gospel was the actual foundation of the eternal life that He was giving them. This life would soon be in them and they would learn to live by this life. This eternal life is nothing less than the very same life that energizes the community of the Godhead. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ” (Jn. 17:3). “That which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 Jn. 1:3). This life, this community life, is not only the model for the church. It is also the very life by which the church lives. This fellowship within the Triune God is the life by which He wants to live in and through the believers. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). And we are in Him. We are not in Him just as some kind of ethereal vague theory. We are in Him so that we can fellowship (actually participate) in that life. We are in Him so we can fellowship but also so we can express. He wants us, as the corporate body of Christ, to express the actual community life within God Himself! He wants that life to be our lifestyle. Our Context Just as Christ has a context in the life of the Triune God, so do we. Our context as believers is Christ Himself. And that context is corporate to the core. We all are in Christ by the Spirit and Christ is in the Father. And the Father is in the Son. Isn’t that a wonderful place to be?

Your Agenda in Prayer

"Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
MATTHEW 6:10

The chief objective of prayer is to bring us into cooperation with
the Father so that we are harmonious with Him - with respect to our
love relationship as well as our working relationship. Much time
and effort in prayer is spent trying to get God involved with OUR
agenda, with OUR plans, with OUR goals, with OUR cause, with OUR
needs, real or imagined. But after all, who is the Master? Who is
the servant? Whose will are we seeking anyway: ours, or His?

If our agenda is not harmonious with His then our agenda has to go.
Most of our prayers are simply too small, too narrow-minded, and
too constricted. We do not see anything beyond our present
surroundings. We have not seen the big picture. We do not have a
heavenly perspective. So to begin with we must empty ourselves of
all preconceived ideas and seek the Lord's Will and the Lord's
Kingdom when we pray, for this truly honors the Father.

Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden

The Great Movement of God

"That in all things He may have the preeminence."
COLOSSIANS 1:18

The unavoidable, inevitable conclusion is that Christ will have the
preeminence - not just in some things, but in all things. To
achieve this, He works one-on-one with His disciples. He then
gathers all His disciples together into a spiritual family where
they grow and learn together. This spiritual family then invites
the rest of the world to join them in giving Christ the preeminence
in all things, so that "God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians
15:28).

At the risk of over-simplifying the process, that is the essence of
this great movement of God. The point must be reiterated that Jesus
is the atoning sacrifice for all sins: "not for ours only but also
for the whole world" (1 John 2:2) and He has sent His
representatives into "all the world" to "preach the Gospel to every
creature" (Mark 16:15).


Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden

Two Immutable Spiritual Laws

"The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free
from the Law of Sin and Death."
ROMANS 8:2


Two laws are mentioned in this passage of Scripture: the Law of
Life, and the Law of Sin and Death. We who are in Christ Jesus have
been delivered from the Law of Sin and Death and are under a new
law, which is the Law of Life. The difference between a theoretical
walk with Christ and a practical walk with Christ hinges upon being
able to differentiate between the Law of Life and the Law of Death.
In the Garden the choice was between the Knowledge of Good and Evil
(Law of Death) or the Tree of Life (Law of Life).

We must make the same choice today. Christians are much exercised
in trying to discern between good and evil, right and wrong, Spirit
and flesh. It seems the more we try to figure this out the more
frustrated we become. Instead, God would have us come to the Tree
of Life. This Life will instruct us in all things, including what
is right and what is wrong, yet it is deeper than mere knowledge.


Source: "Lord of All" by Chip Brogden

Clothed with Christ

"He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and
His clothes became as white as the light."
MATTHEW 17:2

To be clothed with the Lord Jesus is to be transfigured. For too
long we who claim a heavenly calling, a heavenly citizenship, and a
heavenly birth have lived as earthly men. What light we have is
hidden beneath a bushel; there is no glory that surrounds us. We
are not talking about an outward display, or something fleshly, but
a Light and a Life which demonstrates the presence of Christ. "In
Him was Life - and the Life was the Light of men" (John 1:4).

Source: "Lord of All" by Chip Brogden

A Simple Discernment

"It is the truth concerning Jesus
that inspires all prophecy."
REVELATION 19:10 (Knox)

The prophetic word is given to point us to Jesus. Everything the
Holy Spirit would speak, reveal, teach, and show us is towards this
same end, which is CHRIST.

We do not need to mull over every dream, vision, word, prophecy,
trying to exegete its hidden meaning, struggling to extract some
spiritual significance where none exists. If what we see and hear
does not point us to Jesus then it is not prophetic and should be
discarded. This simple test will keep us from distraction.

Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden

Overcoming Tribulation

"[Paul and Barnabas] returned... strengthening the souls of the
disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, 'We
must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.'"
ACTS 14:22


Our idea of overcoming is to avoid tribulation, not pass through
it. We certainly do not connect entering the Kingdom with going
through tribulation. We think having the victory means eliminating
all tribulation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In order to enter the Kingdom there must be an increase of Christ
and a decrease of Self. This is an ongoing process, and by it we
judge how far along the Path we have progressed.

But how is Self decreased? The answer is in our circumstances and
trials. They are sufficient to decrease us. We need not do anything
but wait for them to come, and see them as our opportunity to have
Self decreased and Christ increased.

Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden

United In His Resurrection

"If we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection."
ROMANS 6:5

It is impossible for us to take up the Cross and not be
resurrected. I am almost afraid to make it so plain lest we fail to
appreciate its mystery, but it is all there in the Scriptures. We
cannot ascend until we have first descended.

Can we embrace the Cross, and love the hands that nail us to it,
and hold nothing against the One Who put us there? Can we commit
our spirit into His hands and give up Self, looking beyond the
present suffering to see the joy that is set before us? This is the
way of the Overcomers.

Source: "Embrace the Cross" by Chip Brogden

Only in the Beloved

"No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven,
that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven."
JOHN 3:13

No one has ascended because no one can ascend. Rest assured that if
it were possible, someone would have done it! But just as we cannot
make ourselves acceptable to God on the basis of anything we have
done, so too we cannot ascend and seat ourselves at the right hand
of God. We are accepted only in the Beloved; we are saved only in
the Beloved; and only in the Beloved can we be raised from the
dead, ascend and be seated in the heavenlies.

Source: "Embrace the Cross" by Chip Brogden

ALL THINGS PUT UNDER HIM

"We do not yet see all things put under Him.
But we see Jesus... for Whom are all things and
by Whom are all things."
HEBREWS 2:8-10

Do we see it yet? Not in its fullness, no. We have a little here,
and a little there. Where this has already happened, where we
actually see and experience Christ having the preeminence, it is
called the Kingdom of God. It is not a visible thing, but an
invisible thing, for Jesus said the Kingdom is not seen, but is
within you.

Eventually the Kingdom of God will swallow up the entire Creation
and Christ will have the preeminence in all things. Why? Because
all things are for Him, and all things were by Him.

Source: "The Irresistible Kingdom" by Chip Brogden

Submit, Then Resist

"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore
submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
JAMES 4:6,7


So many times we try to resist, but we are defeated. Why? Simply
because we attempt to resist the devil before we have first
submitted ourselves to God. There is a proper order that must be
observed without fail.

First, we must understand the principle of God resisting the proud
but giving grace to the humble. This is the foundation of
everything we do. Second, the word "therefore" signifies that those
who learn this principle will act upon it accordingly. If they
understand the truth just stated, they will submit "therefore" to
God. Third, as a result of their submitting to God, they will find
the devil flees whenever and wherever they offer him resistance.

The word "flee" means "to run away in terror." How wonderful! How
delicious to see the devil running from us in terror, instead of
the other way around!

Source: "Embrace the Cross" by Chip Brogden

INHERITING THE EARTH

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."
MATTHEW 5:5

The idea of the meek inheriting the earth is found throughout the
Book of Psalms. When someone is poor in spirit and mourns over his
own sins and the sins of others, pride and arrogance are
eliminated. A person who knows he is no better than the rest will
not be easily lifted up above his brothers and sisters. But this
meekness does not imply lack of power, or spineless passivity. It
is power, but it is power under the control of love and without the
poison of self-interest and self-seeking.

To have power, and to use that power only for the good and
well-being of others, is meekness. Jesus perfectly demonstrates how
power that operates through meekness cannot be quenched, whereas
temporal power and people who play politics always come to a bad
end.

A Spiritual Symphony

"I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one."
JOHN 17:23

When a symphony performs, each musician has something different to
contribute. The title of each piece of music is the same, but there
are many different parts that make up that one piece. A musician
may be an extremely talented soloist, but playing in harmony with
others requires a great deal of practice, preparation and group
rehearsal. It also requires each musician to submit to the
direction of the conductor. If that means playing "second fiddle"
then so be it. Working together takes time and patience - two
things that most people do not have an abundance of.

I trust you can see that even in this simple illustration, pride,
egotism, and an unwillingness to work with others disqualifies even
the greatest musicians from becoming viable members of a symphony.
Christ, the Master Conductor, seeks a spiritual harmony among all
His disciples: "that they all may be one... that they also may be one
in Us" (John 17:21).

beginning and Ending in HIM

"'I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End,' says the Lord, 'Who is and
Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty.'"
REVELATION 1:8

Jesus is the Alpha from Whom all things in God are initiated, and
Jesus is the Omega unto Whom all things of God find their purpose,
their meaning, and their reason for being. Everything begins in
Christ, and everything ends in Christ. He is the Beginning as well
as the End.

Real spiritual growth occurs when we realize that God has only one
goal for us, and that is the full, mature, complete, and
experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ. To the extent that we
discard "things" and become focused wholly on Christ, to that
extent we will make progress.