Kingdom Upside Down

The kingdom of Jesus Christ is all about others. Jesus said the key to being great in His kingdom, is to become a servant to others. Morgan Cryar http://www.premierrecords.com/ said it well in his song Kingdom Upside Down hence the name of this post to my blog. This has been one of my favorite songs since the mid 1980s. Many people have espoused service to others, but the service that Jesus honors is that which is done simply because it should be done, or because it is done in His Name. We must ask ourselves, "Am I doing this to get a reward, to be recognized, or just because it needs to be done?" Those who serve to get recognition, have their reward when the get the recognition. Those who serve to bring glory to Christ, or to receive honor only from Christ, will get their reward when they meet Him face to face. We all have the potential to be pigs (people who look out for their own interests first). But we also all have the potential to look out for others first. The world tells us to look out for number one (meaning ourselves), but Jesus says to look out for others first. Matthew 6:33 says to "Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you." This means that God will take care of us, and meet our needs, if we will put Him, and His Kingdom (serving others) as the priority in our lives.

The Divinity of Christ

Many people have undertaken to prove, or disprove the Divinity of Christ Jesus. I do not happen to believe there is any room for, nor justification for any doubt that Jesus is God Almighty in human flesh. Some of the reasons for this is the Old Testament clearly declares that God Himself would be the Savior of the world(meaning all men). The New Testament provides ample proof (to those who have ears to hear) that Jesus (the Christ)is indeed the Savior of the world. One parallel passage in particular is the correlation between Isaiah Chapter 6, which describes how the prophet Isaiah saw the LORD GOD; and the Gospel of John chapter 12: verses 36 - 41 which clearly identifies Christ Jesus as the one seen by, and described by the same prophet Isaiah. Another passage, 1st Epistle of Peter, talks about the Spirit of Christ speaking thru the many prophets of old about the sufferings of Christ. If it is the Spirit of Christ, and the Old Testament says it is the Spirit of God, we again MUST agree that these are ONE AND THE SAME !

The challenge

I believe that the hardest thing and the difference between Christianity and all other religions, is that in Christianity, we do good not to earn anything, but to express our gratitude to God for His mercy and forgiveness. Other religions teach that you do good to gain better "karma," or better "placement in heaven," or some other reward or appeasement for our deity, to make us more acceptable to him.

Those who know Jesus Christ however, understand that we cannot DO ANYTHING to improve our standing with God. We must simply accept the gift. Even within Christian circles, we hear such things as, "He is such a good man." or "He does so much for the less fortunate." But these things are ancillary. The issue is What do you do with the Cross of Jesus Christ?

As stated by Oswald Chambers in his daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest, he makes the observation that to think God has forgiven us because of His love, is a great mistake. God cannot forgive out of love for us. He can only forgive because of the great price paid by His own son Jesus Christ -- His very life blood, shed on the cross.