Daily book quote from "The Kingdom;

    "Although God had no more prophets; although He did not speak; He was certainly present and in control of preparing the world and His covenant nation for the coming of Jesus who would teach and preach of the true kingdom of God that is “near you” and “in you” and is “to come!”

    The prophetic silence came to an end when John the Baptist appeared on the scene. Although John appears in the four Gospels of the New Testament, he was in fact the last of the Old Testament prophets. His death and the initiation of Jesus’ ministry marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. From this point forward the Kingdom of God would be preached and taught. Jesus came to reconnect us with the Father and his glorious Kingdom…the connecting link is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what connects us (the physical) with the Kingdom of God (spiritual). Jesus said that He was “the Way” “the door” “the gate” “no one comes to the Father except through me” he said. So you could put this all together and say that; You must be “born again” in order to “see” much less understand or “enter” the Kingdom of Heaven…When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit…the Holy Spirit is given to “convict; guide; teach; comfort; give understanding; give power to; and connect our spirit with God’s will and purpose for us. All of the Gospels help us to discover these facts! All of the Epistle letters of Paul help us to understand God’s expectations and how to live as “kingdom people”. The problem is that many people get stuck in the door! The purpose of both the Gospels and the Epistles are to prepare us for Revelation!"

Daily book Quote from "The Kingdom"

Malachi  ( I’m going to give you most of this one…it’s that important!)

    It is nearly impossible to look at the Book of Malachi and not talk about tithing. But, what this book is really about is “attitude.” The question to be asked is; “What was the people’s attitude toward God?” The reason is because their attitude toward God would be reflected in their responsibilities toward the temple, or in today’s case; the church and toward one another. This in turn would either promote or hinder the development of the Kingdom of God. You could say that this is God’s way of leading us into the New Testament that would be all about the church and Kingdom people. So, let’s look at some verses to begin with and see what their attitude was;

Read - 1:6-8…  (Where is the honor?  Where is the respect?) To describe their attitude in a word I would say - “Contempt.”)

How did they show contempt?  What do blind, crippled, and diseased animals represent? What does God expect?

Read verse 13-14 They were thinking “What a burden.”  Should God accept their offering and bless them?  What do you think?  (One thing we need to remember is that we are talking about attitude.)

Read 2:1-9 …He turns his attention to the priests; (Who would he be talking to today?)

Another problem is found in verse 11 – this is the problem Ezra and Nehemiah had to deal with.

Also - 13-16…God hates divorce, but is divorce the unforgivable sin? (No)

Author Comment - In Matthew 5:31-32 Jesus said: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. ‘But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.” So, define “marital unfaithfulness”… I believe it encompasses a lot of things. If one fails to uphold any part of the marriage vow, it is unfaithfulness. The first part of the vow is: “I take you ______ to be my wedded (wife or husband). I promise to love, honor…etc. Now if you go to 1^st Corinthians 13 you can read about God’s definition of love…If you love someone you do not abuse them physically or verbally; you do not dishonor nor disrespect them. If you do, you have broken the first promise of the marriage covenant. To me it is marital unfaithfulness.

Jump to 3:14-15  “It is futile” - In other words, we do what we think is right, but there is no blessing; it seems things just get worse. Not only that but the rich get richer and the world calls them “blessed” and “prosperous” and even though they challenge God, they seem to escape …it’s an attitude of injustice.

 Go to 1:10  and  2:1-2  and  3:8-9  … ( “under a curse” )  I don’t know about you, but that bothers me!  I don’t like to think of being under a curse; especially by God!  Again, remember we are talking about attitudes.

Question; How many think that God is just kidding, raise your hand?

Daily book quote from "The Kingdom"

    Now, about 12 years later, Nehemiah comes on the scene. Nehemiah is the one God uses to lead His people to rebuild the walls around the city. There are several principles we can learn from this book. Principles that are relevant to us even today. These principles may be applied to the church as well as to the individual. Lets read and discuss the lessons to be found in the way Nehemiah handled the situation;  recognizing also that these can be applied to just about any area of life including: finances; relationships; work; health; weight; church; and so on.

1.    Read 1:1-4…. Recognizing the problem.

2.    Read 1:5-7…. Confession

3.    Read 2:1-5…Vision (of the way things are and a desire to change it.)

4.    Read 2:10….. Opposition. (From several areas.)

5.    Read 2:11-16 … Preparation or Examination of what needs to be done.

6.    Read 2:17-19 … New Vision of how things could be, and calling upon others for help. 

      (Not everyone is on board!)

7.    Read 2:20 … Recognizing where the power and provision comes from. (This is not something we can do alone or something we can fake.)