Kingdom Life, Means a Service Life

The other day I was doing my daily scripture reading. During that time a scripture popped out to me. I would like to share that with you today.

Heb 1:14 ESV  Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

That word "serve" really got to me. It got me thinking about service. I hope that I too can get you to think about service for a minute too. In this verse the Author is talking about the angels of God. He says that they are sent to "serve" those outside of the faith. To serve those who will “inherit salvation.” Isn’t that exactly what Jesus came to do too? Take a moment to think on the life of Jesus.....

This verse came to mind when I thought of Him and His work for us!

Mar 10:45 ESV  For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

That is what He came to do! Jesus came to serve!!! WOW! Chew on that for a moment... As you think on this, let me just show another example of service:

2Co 12:15a ESV  I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls…

This is just a very small picture of both Paul and Jesus life service. Though both of these verses show a clear picture that both Jesus and Paul's heart was to serve! You see Jesus was the first example. The first fruit into this new life. Jesus showed the way through a life of service, being obedient even through death! Paul (and the others) also saw and imitated this very same laying-down a life-in-service!

I showed Heb_1:14, Mar_10:45, & 2Co_12:15 to make the point that in the kingdom of God, service is a must! To simply say "I am a Christian" and go on about your day with nothing to show for it, is not a life in the kingdom. At all levels God has called His creations to serve, the Angels, His people, His Son (Jesus), and His adopted sons & daughters...

How do we walk in a life of service?... This verse again says it all, and can never be said to much:

Mat 22:37-40 ESV  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38)  This is the great and first commandment. (39)  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40)  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

To love God, and to Love others will lead us into the appropriate actions to take in service! Living a kingdom life is not one of passiveness, but one of activeness!

If you cannot look at your life right now, and say "yes, I am in a life service..." (however that may look) then I would strongly encourage you to evaluate your walk with God! If it was fitting for God to ordain His angels, His Son, and those who carried the "new church" into world, then why would He NOT call you to service? The answer is He has called you!

You have been called to a life in Christ! In that life of Christ is one that ministers the gospel of the good news of Jesus' finished work on the cross! Be it through words or deeds! We are also called to labor and work with our hands to move the kingdom forward!... This life of service through faith in Jesus is the hallmarking trademark of a Christian!

Not that there is anything wrong with wearing a cross, or putting a "Jesus fish" on your car, or even getting "Godly" tattoo, to show that you are a "Christian." But what good do those things do? I mean really does adding all the more "Jesus" appeal to our life make a bit of difference? If we want people to know that we are Christians, then we should act like one, and live a life of service, a life of love, and a life willing to lay it down! If we want people to know our moral values should we hang another poster? Or should we live a gospel life, of service? I am sure you get the idea now J…

We are called to be in the world, but not to "look" like the world. And the only way to not look like the world is to live a life of biblical obedience, to live a life of service for those in the faith, and those "who will inherit salvation" through Jesus Christ!

With that let me ask you two questions:

If you are serving right now, how are you doing it?

If you are not walking in service then what is God laying on your heart to do?

Your Brother in Christ

Grace and Peace be with you

Nate Cook, Setting Captives Free Team Member

www.SettingCaptivesFree.com

And Jesus said to me:

Eze 3:10b-11a  "...Receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears, and go, get to the captives..."

The Greatest Creation of God!

The other day my wife with her parents took the kids to the zoo. During my morning prayer I was led to pray for them and their time there. I asked that the Lord create in my family a joy to view some of His workmanship, and that it would lead them to lift up praise. I mean how cool is it to go and see a bug that looks like God hand painted a design on it? Or to see a Lion, and the shear strength of that beast? It was during this kind prayer that I was brought to what is an even greater creation than that of animals... I am sure you to have already thought of it... “We” are a greater creation then the animals. Why is that?... It is because we were made in the image of God!

When God made all creation He never said "Let us make them in Our image..." to anything except for when He made man. If we are made in the image of God then what should our response be to people in general be? That is a something I want to look at for a just a minute. If we are the image of God, then what does it mean, or what does it matter how we treat other people? This goes for both treating people good, and bad. Consider when we defile our body, and, or others, then we are defiling the image of God. You name the defilement, be it sexual sins (even in our mind towards others), gluttony, lying, etc... These actions are a direct insult to God, because He made us in His image. Or even look at it like this. If we hold unforgiveness towards others, it is like we are holding unforgiveness towards God. Jesus came to us, and became our full measure of sin. He became our defilement towards God, taking on the full punishment and wrath of God for us. Then He says "I forgive them." In such an act of love towards us, this should lead us to the same act towards others. Remember what Jesus said here:

Mat 25:40 NKJV  And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'

Why did Jesus say this? Because all men were created in the image of God! To take this even farther Jesus came in the likeness of men, being the Son of God, and being the Image of the Invisible God. He being God, the visible image of God, made in the likeness of God, and in the likeness of man, He brought the two together. Even the creation of man was a foreshadowing of Christ to come! Therefore however we treat men is in affect how we treat God Himself!

Even with this in mind there is still another part of the creation that points to Christ. What is an even greater creation than when God created man (in His image)? That is the new creation of man through Christ Jesus. Just as Jesus fulfilled the foreshadowing when God created man, He was the first born in the new life! To capture this let us look at a few verses, as they say it best!

Col 1:15-20 NKJV  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  (16)  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  (17)  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  (18)  And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.  (19)  For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,  (20)  and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Rev 1:5 NKJV  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

2Co 5:16-19 NKJV  Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.  (17)  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  (18)  Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,  (19)  that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Jas 1:18 NKJV  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

To bring this to a close, I said all of this because what greater praise should we give then that of a man turning from his old ways and tuning to Christ Jesus! When we see the freeing work of Christ being worked in men we are seeing firsthand the power and greatest work of GOD!!! This work that we are granted to see is an even greater work than that of the creation of the world and the creation of Man! This work proves that our God is not dead, but a live and active today!

I pray that you are blessed in your daily ministry to others! Be encourage in your pursuit to lead others to Him! For you are the hands and feet of a God who is doing a mighty work in the men you look after! In this let us lift up praise!

Your Brother in Christ

Grace and Peace be with you

Nate Cook, Setting Captives Free Team Member

www.SettingCaptivesFree.com

And Jesus said to me:

Eze 3:10b-11a  "...Receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears, and go, get to the captives..."

A Picture of the Crucifixion story, Jesus & Barabbas

The other day I was in a time of worship and cleaning the house (my wife would be so happy J), when a worship song came on. It talked about the freeing power of Christ. How He came to set us free, that He took our place while we get to walk free of the charges against us. It was at that time that the Holy Spirit brought to mind Barabbas and Jesus. Let us take a quick look at that part of the crucifixion story:

Luk 23:18-25 NKJV  And they all cried out at once, saying, "Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas"— (19)  who had been thrown into prison for a certain rebellion made in the city, and for murder.  (20)  Pilate, therefore, wishing to release Jesus, again called out to them.  (21)  But they shouted, saying, "Crucify Him, crucify Him!"  (22)  Then he said to them the third time, "Why, what evil has He done? I have found no reason for death in Him. I will therefore chastise Him and let Him go."  (23)  But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.  (24)  So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested.  (25)  And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will.

Isn't that a great picture of what Jesus has done for us? Isn't that a picture of how the world treats Him? In fact isn't that how many "Christians" treat Him too?

Think for a minute just who you once were, or are today. We were all "Barabbas" at one time in our lives. We were guilty of our crimes. We have all lied, cheated, committed sexual immorality, etc... You and I both know that the list could go on. The fact remains we have all done wrong, and we are all deserving of punishment! Though through Christ we are set free from our wrongs! The picture of Barabbas and Jesus is a perfect picture of what Jesus has done for us all! We stood there guilty as one could be, and Jesus innocent as could be (through His actions!) says "Wait! I'll take his place!" He says this as he is walking up the stairs to stand in front of the accusing crowd. When He gets to the top, standing next to us, the guilty, He turns and says to us "I have taken your place, you may now go free! Go and sin no more!" He traded His perfection for our imperfection! He became our sin and we became sinless! What did we have to do in this transaction? Nothing but believe that what He said and did was the truth! Jesus did the work!... What a wonderful word picture we have in Jesus, and Barabbas, one that clearly shows the trading of guilt, for glory! This is a clear picture of this:

Rom 5:7-9 NKJV  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  (8)  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (9)  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

On the flip side of the Jesus and Barabbas’ story we have the crowd. Who we too once were. And at times even still could be! How many times have you seen, and been a part of the crowd? The ones who stood there and said "give us that one!" picking the vileness of the world to be your, all the while you point to Jesus saying "to death, to hell with that!" How many times has this happened? How many times can we see this happening even now? You can pick any issue in today’s society and put the "Barabbas" banner over it. You will see the world, "Christians", religious leaders saying "Give us that! Release to us the right to do ___." All the while the release of that (whatever it may be) means the death of Christ! To have the "world" given to us means to have Christ crucified! This is a perfect example of what James wrote here:

Jas 4:4 NKJV  Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Even so, when we come to our senses, even us in the crowd who has become "Barabbas" again, Jesus still says "I forgive you!" and "You are set free! Now go and sin no more!" How do we get there, when we were the ones in the crowd? The same way we came to Christ the first time, repentance!" We turn from the world, and turn to Jesus! We make Him our focal point! Just like Paul said:

1Co 2:2 NKJV  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And

Gal 6:14 NKJV  But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

That’s what this picture of Jesus and Barabbas is all about. It shows the redemptive work of Jesus and His finished work on the cross!

Let us today make our boast not in the world or the things of this world. Let us boast not in ourselves, but in Jesus and the cross! For we once were Barabbas, but are not freed captives! And it was all done through the work of Christ, and Him crucified!

Your Brother in Christ

Grace and Peace be with you

Nate Cook, Setting Captives Free Team Member

www.SettingCaptivesFree.com

And Jesus said to me:

Eze 3:10b-11a  "...Receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears, and go, get to the captives..."

What you obey is what you love most!

Recently I have been feeling the Lord speak to be about obedience. To be honest that is a funny thing for the Lord to speak to you about. None the less He is J. With that I would like to explore together what the Lord has been putting on my heart. I have not worked this out to its fullest, but here is where the Lord has me.

It begins with this: 

Joh 14:15 NKJV  "If you love Me, keep My commandments.

The other day in prayer time this verse came to my mind. Where I ended up going with this was: "Our love can be defined by what we obey." Think about this for a minute. If we say "I love my wife, kids, mother, sister, etc..." Then we show it. I know for me there are things in my life I no longer do because my wife doesn't like it. Or I refrain from things because my wife asks me to. I do it because I love her. I do it because it is more important for me to please her then to please myself. Another example are my kids. Oh how often they drive me crazy with their youthful disobedience. My kids are 3, and 1 years old. So the growing and teach is in full swing J... My son will often say "daddy I'm sorry for___" I reply with "If you are sorry then you will not do it (___) again, and will listen to me." What I am looking for is his obedience. I don’t lay these things out for him to obey, just to be obedient, I lay things before him so that he will be safe, learn, be respectful, etc... They are for his edification.... Well these things worked on my heart. It made me think about our Father in Heaven. He doesn't lay rules out for us to obey, just to obey. No, they are for our edification! just look at one example here:

Joh 15:10-11 NKJV  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  (11)  "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

This brought me to think about us and our growth in Him. To keep it short, we know we have two warring things in us. our flesh, and our spirit. We all get tempted, it may still be sexual sins, or others, but the fact remains that we are all tempted. When those temptation are there in our life it is an opportunity for us to show our love. Or at least for us to see what we love most. You see when we follow the lust of our flesh (whatever that may be) we are feeding our flesh. We are obeying it! Remember what we love is what we obey! Though when we overcome that temptation (in Christ) we feed the spirit, and we walk in life! Jas_1:12. We know the great example of that Paul preached to us in Romans:

Rom 6:16 NKJV  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

I encourage you all to go back and read all of Romans Chapter 6! That alone is enough to get ones attention! Though we see here in verse 16 that what we obey is what we love, and will soon become its slave! For us to begin walking out of the bondage of sin we must fall upon Christ and His finished work on the cross! There we will see that in new life in Him we must get up and walk! We must be active in Him! We must obey Him! That is how we show Him that we love Him!... So what did He command that we do? LOVE!!! Love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind! to put Him first, to be abandoned to Him! To set aside all the world has to offer, and make Him first! that is a chose we have!... remember what you are obeying is what you love most!!!

Paul also gives a great word here:

2Co 10:6 NKJV  and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Disobedience to what? That disobedience he talks about is when we obey the flesh, walk in its lusts, and its desires! When we walk in those things we inevitably walk in sin! Jas_1:14-15. Then we are in direct disobedience to Jesus! Why? Because we are obeying the lust of the flesh, and loving our self more than Him! There in those times we are showing that our love is more in us, and our desires then on, and in Him! That is a hard truth, but its truth. Though with 2Co_10:6 in mind we see that we punish our disobedience when what is done? When our obedience if full filled! You see when we walk actively in Jesus and the things that He commanded us to do, we punish (put to the cross) that which we were disobedient in! What we obey is what we love!... Here is where it all comes down to, here is what Jesus commanded:

Mat 22:37-40 NKJV  Jesus said to him, 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'  (38)  This is the first and great commandment.  (39)  And the second is like it: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'  (40)  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

And in a more pointed focus:

Joh 15:12,17 NKJV  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you...(17) These things I command you, that you love one another.

Let me encourage you to take some time this week to think about how our Lord Jesus has loved you. Then think about how you might walk in obedience to loving Him back and others!

When we do this we are proclaiming to ourselves, and others that our love is no longer in us, or in this world! But that our love is firmly grounded in Jesus and His finished work on the cross! For there is no other way that we can love others or Him, if He had not loved us first!!! Let us close with these few verses:

1Jn 4:7-11 NKJV  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  (8)  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  (9)  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  (10)  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  (11)  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

How great is that! When we love others it proves the fact that we love God, and that we are born of Him! (v.7) If this is not happening in our lives, the us question our relationship with Him. Are we in right standing with Him? Are we born of Him? Do we really know God? (v.8). For He loved us, and manifested this Love for us in Jesus and His finished work on the cross!!! He became a servant to all! He became an offering for our sins! He pored Himself out for us! (v.9). So we love Him and others because He first loved us, and showed us the example of true love! (v.10). So we should love Him and love others!!!

These things are the biblical example of walking in obedience... an obedience that punished our fleshly disobedience! Walking in love, takes our flesh to the cross (daily)! Jesus was, and is our example! let us follow Him!

How have you been walking in love towards Him and others?

If not then how can you start walking in obedience in love to Him and others?

Your Brother in Christ

Grace and Peace be with you

Nate Cook, Setting Captives Free Team Member

www.SettingCaptivesFree.com

And Jesus said to me:

Eze 3:10b-11a  "...Receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears, and go, get to the captives..."