The one who set the standard

With the writings on this site and some of our others sites, like Stepping Toes, the Brethren in Christ and our ecclesia site, we would love to bring more people to come to know Who took care of all the beautiful things we can see around us and what promises where given to humankind.

With the postings you shall be able to find on this site and on the above mentioned, we do hope you and many other readers coming along here, shall come to see what a beautiful message is given to humankind.
In the past many men of God told about the wonders which came and still shall come onto the people who are willing to recognise their Creator.

On this and the other mentioned pages we do hope to give an idea of the many promises which also can become a reality for us. All of us can find a hope which is set before all of us. We only should be willing to come to see it and believe those things which have been told in the past.


Once you begin to appreciate the Hope God sets before us in His Word, you want to know how to lay hold of it. You realize as you read more, that He sets a standard for men to follow which you have not begun to reach. If you really want to please God, you will feel the need, like those men in Jerusalem, to have your conscience made clean. The way God has prescribed for us is to be baptised into the Lord Jesus, symbolically washing away in the waters our old life, and starting again as if we were newly born, members of God's holy people. Then, the New Testament insists, we shall be heirs of those promises of the Kingdom of God:

 "For in Christ Jesus", writes Paul, "you are all sons of God, through faith" (Galatians 3:26). 

Imagine that! What a privilege, to be called sons and daughters of God!

"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3: 27-29).

All that Jesus inherits -- the land, the throne, the blessing-all will be ours. How exciting and moving it is, to think what God offers us. It is as if we are being introduced already to the new covenant God will make with His people. God's law is written on our heart, our sins are washed away, and we are enrolled for a place in that age when war and famine, sin and sorrow will be banished for ever from the earth. 

Paul uses another figure in Romans 11. He says we Gentile believers are like sprigs of a wild olive tree that have been picked up by God the gardener and grafted into the stem of the olive tree of Israel. We share the rich sap that keeps the life flowing, and we will be there in the time of harvest.

"I want you to understand this mystery brethren",

he says, as he explains the long gap between the two Comings:

"a hardening has come upon part of Israel".

He means that only a minority of the Jewish people accepted the good news Jesus and the apostles brought; the hearts of the rest were too hard for the good seed of the Kingdom to grow.
But Israel's hardness of heart is not for ever.

 "Until the full number of the Gentiles come in", he continues, "and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written"

  
-- and he quotes from one of the 'Messiah' passages in Isaiah -- 

"the Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them",

 he adds, repeating the passage we read from Jeremiah 33,

 "when I take away their sins" (Romans 11:24-27). 

Notice the time period-when the full number of the Gentiles has come in. It has not come in yet. God is still calling us to come into His family. But one day, soon, perhaps very soon, the door will be shut. The Lord Jesus will be here with power to rule over the nations, and bring men to judgement for despising God's laws. 

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To whom do we want to be enslaved

Be enslaved to Christ

Name tags of two of . Created by Saaby. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In our search to come some where or to accomplish something it can well be that we do try to find solutions in human organisations. We try to clinch to those who seem to have the power to make everything work better.

Perhaps we are blinded and do not notice the reality behind the curtain. We want to believe those organisations would be able to create what we are not (yet) able to do, and we show them are weakness, but by doing that we also give them the assurance they can go ahead and take charge over us.

By putting our hopes and aspirations on those human constructions we perhaps forget to see the real man behind it all, or the man in whom we should better trust more.  Though we may try to follow Jesus not seeing any advancement around us, in this world, the danger looks around the corner that we go and clinch more to those human organisations instead of trusting in the cornerstone of the Church and in his Father, Who calls those Who He wants to be with Him.

But by not having patience enough, we do think human people could bring a solution. Normally they could help, yes. Normally people should help to continue missionary work, and getting people to come together to share the Word of God. In this world we do often forget that it is ruled not by Christ yet and not by God but by the powers of this world, where so many are being tempted to have a taste of such power.

Getting doors slammed against our face, undergoing several trials, it is up to us to get up after falling and to try to continue our way, in the name of Christ, and not in the name of such or such organisation. Our hope and our eyes should not be on those worldly organisations nor on worldly-things but on the spiritual and on the powers which are above all human power.

Hopefully we have found that answer and are among those who “followed him”, making our lives count in some meaningful ways, according to our abilities, in the way we follow him.

A last thought: “whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19). Let us be enslaved to Christ; remember, it is not possible to be only half committed....

Each of us has to make the choice to whom we wanted to be connected and in which way we want to be united. We should find each other in love to be willing to be united under Christ willing to grow as a part of his body, and to become one in spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17; 12:27; Ephesians 5:30)

As son and daughters we should give each other the outstretched hand of peace and co-operation, with the aim to help each other to become one in Christ (Galatians 3:26, 28)

It is in Christ we should be willing to grow, giving ourself up as a volunteer to become a tool in  God’s workmanship ‐‐ His handiwork ‐‐ born anew in Christ to do his work (Ephesians 2:10) Hand in hand with brethren and sisters in Christ we should feel connected, not being slaves of this world or bounded by handcuffs to one particular organisation here on earth, but as free fellow citizens with the rest of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19)


In case we do have to be enslaved to somebody, or have to be a prisoner of, than it should be Jesus  Christ, the Nazarene man who liberated us from all chains. (Ephesians 3:1, 4:1)

As children of God we should come to see who is our brother and who is our sister,  and accept them with their own peculiarities, living under a new law, not made by man from  worldly organisations, but by a Supreme Being. A higher law and a more glorious dispensation.  By faith we receive it and should embrace it,  no longer walking after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Everything we do should not be for our own glory or for the glory of one particular worldly organisation. We should be a product of the Spirit and this Holy Spirit, the Power of God should find a welcoming place in our hearts. We should be willing to give ourselves so that the Holy Spirit can abide in us and that we are offering ourselves for His glory and no longer for our own.  (1 John 5:4)

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