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and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will |
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INVITATION
FROM GOD
BY KEITH WINTEROWD God Gave Us An Invitation Through Jesus I really enjoy studying and
have found some amazing things recently. My interests
are the teachings and sayings of Jesus
the Nazarene who said he came from God, whom he calls
the Father.
He said that he has a message
for all mankind from his Father, who is the God of
creation. God also stated that Jesus is the
only approved spokesman for him and no one else is. He
announced this from the heavens on
several occasions as witnessed by many people.
If that is true, and I think
that it is, then I really need to pay attention to him
and read his sayings seriously. Doing that is called
listening to him and that is the only way to take him,
seriously. Our everlasting life depends on it.
There are only two paths. Those who follow Jesus only
and those who do not follow Jesus only.
Simple, is it not.
The fact is that I have made a
decision to listen to Jesus and follow him in all my
affairs. May the peace of Jesus be with you as
you also pursue him.
Whatever I say is just me
talking. The true, real authority is Jesus. Let us read
the red print that we can find in the first four
books of the New Testament of the Bible. In these four
books we find the only authentic words of Jesus.
Let us listen to him by reading his sayings there. The
Old Testament and the four Gospels
point to Jesus and he speaks to us telling us to follow
him and his words home to the Father. Gospel
means 'good news.'
So then the ultimate expression
of God on earth is his Son, Jesus Christ.
Everything hinges on whether we
believe him or do not believe him. If he really is the
sole spokesman for God then the only
rational thing to do is to pay close attention to what
Jesus has to say to us.
A Summary of What Happened
Some of the people that lived
with Jesus on the earth and those that followed him long
ago, testified that they discovered
Jesus to be the long awaited anointed one of God that
was promised from ages past. They were looking
for the one who was called the Messiah, a Hebrew term
which means 'the anointed'. The Greek
expression for 'anointed' is Christ. Messiah and Christ
mean the same thing. They are not last names.
The early students were
convinced that the words of Jesus were the actual words
from the Father who sent the words to us
through his Son. He was called Jesus the Nazarene. Some
of his followers wrote about him and
recorded his words as written in the four gospels.
We can discover the same words
today by reading the good news of the kingdom of God
that was written down by those early
followers of Jesus. Today we may read the words of Jesus
that were later transcribed and
aggregated as the gospels.
Jesus was a real human being
who lived approximately thirty three years. He was an
itinerant preacher who preached in a
circuit around Galilee and Judea in Palestine. He also
healed and cast out demons. He called twelve
men to follow him and had several followers. He spoke in
illustrative language and performed signs
and powerful works that attracted crowds far and wide.
The main thrust of his message was the
kingdom of God.
Jesus said: The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God is at hand;
YOU people repent, and believe the good news. Mark
1:15
Jesus was extremely
controversial among the church people and politicians of
the day. These powerful men were envious of
Jesus and his popularity with the crowds that gathered
to hear him. The Devil was also envious and
this played into his hands. This was the second time
that Satan came to try to take control of
Jesus.
The scene the Devil set up was
a conspiracy to kill Jesus. The Devil really did not
want to kill Jesus but he did want to
cause Jesus to fear his death so much that he would
yield to the preservation of his earth life rather
than the Father's will. Satan's plan was carried out
through the local power brokers, the church and state
officials. They became, so to speak, the Devils
henchmen.
The Devil did not understand
that Jesus was hating his life as he had preached. All
the offers Satan could make would be rejected.
He was sure the offer to come down off of the crooked
shaped torture stake would be
immediately accepted by Jesus. However, Jesus had ransom
in mind for all of those people who would
follow him in God's saving harvest. They are called the
of children of the resurrection to everlasting
life, and the children of light. God's children.
Satan hoped Jesus would
renounce his position and fail at God's plan of bringing
the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. The
Adversary thought God would destroy his kingdom of fear
in which he was prince. He ruled and
reigned over earth through man's love of his own life
and the fear of losing it through death. He of course
ruled with an iron fist and the whole inhabited earth
was dominated by him as earth bound and
fear ridden prisoners.
Jesus was conspired against by
the minions of the Devil. He was accused of sedition,
tax evasion and inciting the populous
against the establishment. He was also accused of saying
he was a god and being the Son of God. Jesus
was jailed, tried and sentenced to be killed by the
religious and political officials. Jesus was
put to death near Jerusalem and buried in a boulder
sealed rock-mass tomb. Jesus was resurrected
to life later by means of the glory of the Father
our God, after spending three nights and three
days among the dead ones in the heart of the earth.
Much later his followers
discovered that he is the king of the kingdom of God
that had come at the exact moment of his death. He
was given some vinegar wine to drink, which is a product
of the vine, just before he died while
being tortured on the tree at Calvary. He was given all
power on earth and in the heavens because of what
he had accomplished. Most of his followers had run away
from him because of the fear of the
losing their lives. They had not yet understood Jesus
words about the hatred of ones own life on
earth to gain everlasting life with the Father in the
heavens. However, Jesus had not done that to show
us the Way at that point in time.
Through Jesus all those people
who would follow him, had been ransomed from the
imprisonment to the addiction to life on
earth and and its corollary the fear because of that
love of life. He did this also, to show us through his
own fearless death that our fearless death like his, is
the mediator of the hatred of our earth life to
everlasting life with the Father. We ourselves must do
the same if we want to attain to everlasting
life with the Father. God wants us to love him beyond
our own self centered love. He wants us to
love our fellowman just as the Father loves us. We are
to love them as our own self. Our enemies
are our neighbors also.
Jesus said:
You must love the Lord
your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. This
is the first and great commandment.
And the second [is] like it:
You must love your neighbor as yourself. Matt 22:37-39
It took awhile for the sayings,
events and scriptures to come to light for the the
disciples. Prior to his ascension the Master opened
their minds to the scriptures and recalled to the minds
of his disciples certain events that
related to fulfilling those sayings. These very
disciples committed these sayings to mind as Jesus
expanded their understanding.
Later, after the ascension of
Jesus to the Father, the holy spirit was sent to guide
his students. These students laid down in
writing all the words Jesus gave to them to pass on to
us under the protective urgings of the holy
spirit. The spirit of God caused them to become able to
remember and record the activities as
well as the critical sayings from the Father that were
brought to us through his Son, Jesus.
The holy spirit guides us into
all the truth that God wants us to know at this time, by
reading his words and sayings. We have
those precious words aggregated in what is known now as
the gospels.
The people that listened to,
believed, followed and grasped a vision of Jesus'
sayings were called disciples which means students.
Jesus also calls us the same, but has amended our
student status to sister and
brother. We who follow him only have the same Father and
God and live in union with him.
They called him Jesus, master
and teacher or rabbi, which is Hebrew for teacher. We
are not to be called by titles. We can call
each other brother or sister. Real simple. His early
students carried the good news of the kingdom
everywhere. We are encouraged to do the same. Apparently
the good news of the kingdom has not
been spread to all the inhabited earth yet.
Jesus said: And this gospel of the kingdom will be
preached in all the world for a witness to all
nations; and then the end will come.
Our web sites are a tremendous
way of sending out the Jesus message of the kingdom of
God to all the inhabited earth.
Jesus ascended to the right
hand of power with the Father in heaven. He was given
all power in heaven and on earth. The
kingdom has come because God's will is being done now,
on the earth as his will is being done in
the heavens. God's will started being done when Jesus
came to earth to show us the way of doing God's
will. Before his coming God's will had not been done.
That is why God sent Jesus, to show us the
way.
We are doing God's will by
listening to and doing the sayings of Jesus his Son. We
become God's children by doing that. His
words are spirit and life and we live off of those
words. They are our nourishment. They change us. We
become born from above by means of them. These words are
the mediator now. Following and
obeying those words is the same as following Jesus and
are the mediators to everlasting life
with the Father.
Before Jesus came God's will
had not been known. All those who followed God's
commands before him were called servants.
After Jesus came God has been birthing children from
above through the seed of his words given by
Jesus to us. Those ones who take in those words and obey
them are his children and become heirs
of the kingdom of everlasting life in the heavenlies
with the Father.
Jesus told us our primary
purpose is to love the LORD our God with all of our
whole being and secondly to love our neighbors
as ourselves as we show mercy and forgiveness. We are to
love our enemies and pray for our
tormentors. God's will is that he wants us to come home
to him on his terms and meet him there at
God's Day of Resurrection to everlasting life with him.
We are to call only him, our
Father.
Jesus said: Call no man on earth your
Father.
Jesus condensed and simplified
the Old Mosaic Law. He modified them and made them a
tougher set of rules and commandments.
God had Jesus bring them to us. These are recorded in
the sermon on the mount and the
sermon on the plain. This is the new law that Jesus has
told us to obey as his essential
commandments. These may be found in Matthew 5: 2f and Luke 6: 20f.
And this good news of the
kingdom must be preached in all the inhabited earth
for a witness to all nations; and
then the end will come. Matt 24:14
Jesus said that.
So we do need to spread the good news that the Kingdom of God has come. It is an ongoing thing right now; because, God's will is being done on earth right now, like it is being done in the heavens. Jesus started doing God's will over 2000 years ago and there has been a progression of brother's and sister's who have been doing the same thing by following Jesus sayings since then. There is not a massive number of us, however, we are doing God's will and God's kingdom is happening right now under our noses. It is not so much as to be observed as Jesus told us. The kingdom is more perceived than anything, by those who listen to him. We follow Jesus words only and
that gets it done. We are inviting you to do the same.
We individually follow his sayings. The gathering of
believers will be at the Day of Resurrection to
everlasting life with the Father. That is where the
gates of hell are not. That is where the called out ones
will gather. We will meet together in the presence of
the Father our God in his glory, in peace living in
everlasting life at home at last.
Some Foundation Statements
of Jesus From the Father
And Jesus answering said:
You must love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul and with your whole strength and with your whole mind; and, you must love your neighbor as yourself. Luke 10:27 Jesus very plainly stated:
He who loves his life
loses it, and he who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life.
Then said Jesus to his
disciples:
If any one will come after
me, let him disown himself and pick up his cross and
follow me.
He further added:
For whoever wants to save
his life will lose it: and, whoever wants to lose
his life for my sake will find it. Matt
16:24 - 25
These are the principles we live by. We have his word
for it not ours. Jesus said it, we believe it and that settles it. Jesus invites us to
take up our own cross daily and follow his way home to
the Father. No other way will cut
it.
That's a tough invitation; but
if we want his way of life that is what it takes to get
in.
God's Witness From the
Heavens and an Invitation To Listen
This is my Son, the beloved,
whom I have approved; listen to him. Mt.17:5
PEACE BE TO YOU AND TO YOUR
HOUSE
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