Worth to check out guys!! The album is so amazing and very Christ-centered!

To buy: www.rayncomusic.com

(No I am not getting any money promoting this )

The idea of ‘Helping God building His Kingdom’ is false and it isn’t biblical at all. His Kingdom is not a building where you can see or touch or a place that you go to!

Jesus says in Luke 17:20-21 “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus was talking about Him living in us and not in the building or in something you can see or touch but it’s IN YOU!

Apostle Paul puts it in Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Now here comes the questions, What are these three things?

1. What is Righteousness? Jesus is our Righteousness. Paul says in 1 Cor 1:30 that ‘It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.’
2. What is Peace? Jesus is the Prince of Peace. In Isaiah 9:6 ‘Jesus is our Prince of Peace.
3. What is Joy? Paul talks about be full of Joy in the Lord (Phil 4:4), that real Joy can only be experienced in Christ.

Kingdom of God is all about JESUS CHRIST and not about building Church Institutions (unless you live under the Old Covenant).

Shalom

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That’s My King! from Albert Martin on Vimeo.

3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Thank you Jesus!!! we have now become the good soil because of what Jesus has done on our behalf! The seed (the message of the Kingdom which is the Gospel of God’s Grace) that has been planted in us is producing a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times that was sown. I mean talking about a success rate, that is very successful, don’t you think? If you are an investor, wouldn’t you be looking for something that in return will bring you big profit? What amazing is that, Gos as the Investor, He has invested Jesus in us and we are now one with Him! That in itself is GLORIOUS – let’s forget about how much fruits will Jesus bear through us! Think about it, we are one with Him! What Jesus is so are we in this world (I John 4:17) – How can we not be a Master in bearing fruits for God has planted His best Fruit Bearer in us and we are made one in Him? oh man…. this is too good! Praise God!

NOW watch this, God has chosen us (that is you and me and millions other believers in this world) and knowing FULLY that Jesus will do the perfect job through us! In other words, we only have 1 OPTION and 1 OPTION ONLY which is to let the Best Fruit Bearer to bear fruits through us whether that is going to be sixty or thirty times or more… The point is, we cannot even run away from NOT bearing fruit anymore. I hope this brings excitement to your bones! – because it gives us a sense of peace and the best thing is that it has got nothing to do with our works and our obedience! In Christ – You are a Master in bearing fruits! I am sorry to tell you that – there is nothing you can do about it

Imagine that you are on a taxi ride in a foreign country and you are going somewhere that you have never been before, the worst thing you can do is to swap your place with the taxi driver. Why? Because you would be LOST! Relax and trust the taxi driver and once you have reached the destination, then do what you are led to do. So many times, we force believers to bear fruits or we try SO HARD to bear fruits by our will power and our own strength. Let’s relax and let the taxi driver drives you to the right destination that God has prepared for you! – For this Taxi Driver knows where He is going because He was before the beginning of the world (Behold I speak in parables – )

Thank God we have been made a new creation in Christ! and we are NO LONGER the ‘rocky places’,  We NO LONGER have ’shallow soil’, We now have been deeply rooted in Christ, We NO LONGER put our trust on the worldly things for We (that is you) all have been established in the God’s Grace.

Let’s see what Jesus said about the parable:

Matthew 13:18-23

18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When people hear the message about the kingdom and do not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their hearts. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to people who hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to people who hear the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to people who hear the word and understand it. They produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

I believe that the key is to be established in God’s Grace and be only that! We do not want to be tossed around by circumstances or by old-testament teachings that bring guilt and condemnation which do not produce a crop but produce death!

Shalom

Stay blessed

The word blameless means free of guilt or not subject to blame

For God to call us holy and blameless is just mind-blowing and yet this our new reality in Christ!! Thank God you all believe in this new reality! Now, God no longer sees us as unrighteous or unholy or full of disobedience instead He sees us as the opposite! Hallelujah! I could seriously end the sentence here and smile for the rest of the day!

2 Corinthians 5:17 says ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

No longer we call our self a sinner anymore for our old things have passes away and all things have become new!! A believer is not a sinner anymore but they are the righteousness of God in Christ! Once we believe in Jesus, our old sinful nature has been buried in Christ on the cross and now we have inherited the nature of Christ in us! Amen …

2 Corinthians 5:21 says ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

For Christians, calling themselves a sinner is like telling a Lion, a Cat. A lion might act like a cat, speak like a cat, jump like a cat, tamed like a cat, and have the same behaviour like normal cats, but the lion’s true identity has not and cannot be changed! One day that lion will wake up to himself and realize that he is a lion and not a ca and yes he could kill you! His actions will be determined by his true nature which is the nature of lion (wild and untamed).

The same with us, if we believe that we are still a sinner, then our actions will be determined by what we believe and because of that we are trapped in sin. Although we try our best to not to sin, we often end up breaking our own laws and boundaries. The truth is that our identity has not changed, we still are the righteousness of God in Christ! Let’s stop trying to not sin (let’s be righteousness -conscious) and start living in your NEW righteousness nature and thank God you are the living proof of this new reality and can testify to this truth in your life. Your New nature is bearing fruits wherever you go for you have become the branches on a GOOD vine tree.

John 15:5 says ⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Let’s start watching what Jesus is doing in your life and see Him bearing fruits in and through you!

God bless

1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

We are REJOICING for we are in HIM! Hallelujah! Problems and troubles may come but let’s REJOICE for we are in HIM! Amen!

In this letter, you could see that Paul never got tired of the Gospel! Some of you who have been greatly impacted by the Gospel of God’s Grace will agree with me on this one. Talking about how to become an effective evangelist… I think we could learn a lot from Paul ’s life, for He only has one message and that message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. As humans, we often come up with different type of methods and steps which so often bring more failures than success. Praise God that He would never think you as a failure but He always lifts you up and gives you the better solution! Don’t you love that about God? For He only blesses.

Let’s look at Paul, what makes Paul so passionate and does not seem to get tired of the Gospel? And NO!! the answer is not Paul’s obedience to the Law although He called himself the Pharisee of the Pharisees and NO, it is not Paul’s zealousness towards the Law, but the answer is because Paul BELIEVES the GOSPEL for the Gospel only testifies the goodness of Christ and who we are in Him! Paul understood this and this has become the turning point of Paul’s repentance and has turned Paul’s life upside down. Paul was probably the worst sinner  there was as He prosecuted the church and was involved in killing those who believes in the Way. But by God’s Grace, Paul’s been radically changed and completely set free and become the most exciting, vibrant, and passionate preacher of God’s Grace for He got the revelation from Jesus Himself! What a revelation he must have received!

Verse 1 ends with ‘it is a safeguard for you’ – Paul believes that teaching the Gospel is more important than teaching anything else! Paul is so convinced that the Gospel is the only message that saves, because it only focuses on Christ alone and because of this reason, Paul spent His whole-life ministry for it. Such simple message yet is the most powerful message that God could ever come up with!

1 Corinthians 1:18-19 says”

18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

It is the ultimate plan of God to send Jesus on earth and have Him crucified on the cross.

Then Paul goes on…

2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

Paul must have been quite ticked off with what is going on in Philippi for there are teachers that teach the Law. What do dogs and mutilators of the flesh represent? Paul used the word dogs to represent those teachers who teach Salvation by works and mutilators of the flesh means Circumcision as a requirement for Salvation. So there have been teachers who tried to teach that you must be circumcised to be saved. Circumcision of the flesh does not just mean that you are circumcised physically but it also represents your self-righteousness as a way of saying ‘I am qualified based on what I have done’.

Paul testifies that we are the circumcision for we worship the Spirit of God who glory is in Christ Jesus. Paul did not put the confidence in the flesh but in Jesus alone. This can be seen in what Paul wrote in verse 4-6, for He compared himself with those false teachers and Paul basically wrote that he has better “qualifications” based on works – Paul is “qualified” but He made no boasting to any of THEM! He could have easily boasted His self-righteousness and His achievements for He himself is a Jew, zealous for the Law, He was circumscribed on the 8th day, and based on legalistic righteousness, He was blameless!

If you think about it, IF the Gospel is about your obedience to the Law and your zealousness towards the Law, then WHY Paul never did once teach such teaching?  IF the Gospel is TOO simple then WHY Paul never stops talking about it? Not even death threats and beatings scared him.

Let’s read verse 7 – 11

7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul called those things that he is ‘mastered’ at – a LOSS! Imagine when you are a Jew who deep down in your heart you believe that you are required to follow the Law for that is how Salvation can be attained. But Paul considered that as a LOSS? That must be really hard to accept for most of Jews! The same thing goes for us, NEVER ONCE think that our obedience and our zealousness will make us more righteous or will make us more blessed. Because that is the message that Paul tried to get across!

The teachings (Salvation by works and Circumcision of the flesh) that these dogs (false teachers) taught you , I consider them all as a LOSS compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord! AMEN!

He did not just stop there, the word rubbish in verse 8 there actually means dog dung (a.k.a dog poo). Paul compared His zealousness and His Law keeping as dog dung (a.k.a dog poo) He basically says believing in Christ is the ULTIMATE! There is nothing greater than that! To God believing in HIS SON is such a big deal.

Let’s have our confidence and believe in the Gospel alone.

Shalom