Kingdom Truth: Volume Seventeen

Our entrance into the rest of God, into the land of promise, depends on our successful transition from a self-centered soul in an animal body into a spirit in untroubled union with God in a spiritual body. Love, joy, and peace are possible only when our relationships with God and people have been touched by the Lord.
Relationships are made right as through Christ we are changed from a living soul into a life-giving spirit. The relationships that are not filled with Christ are temporary. The relationships that will survive for eternity are those established by and in Christ as we are fitted into our place in the Body of Christ.
God does not divide the world into Christians and non-Christians but into the wheat and the tares, the righteous and the wicked. There are wheat and tares within the churches as well as in the world. In the day in which we are living the Lord Jesus has begun the work of removing from His Church, His Kingdom, that which is not of His righteous Nature.
The Church is to be without spot, wrinkle, blemish of any kind. When, where, and how will such cleansing take place? Are we entering now into the removing from the Kingdom of God of those things that offend, and then of those who practice lawlessness?
Perhaps because of the widespread practice of deductive reasoning in the interpretation of the New Testament we tend to select one aspect of Divine truth and reject the other. One glaring example of this slicing up of truth is today's stress on grace and faith to the virtual exclusion of the vital role in the Christian redemption played by righteous, holy, obedient behavior.
As we are willing to approach the New Testament without wearing the glasses of preconceived axioms we notice from the Gospels to Revelation that righteous, holy, obedient behavior is emphasized to a far greater extent than is true of grace and faith.
God is calling in our day for a return to righteous, holy, obedient living, but many believers are not going to repent until they understand the necessity for righteous behavior. The Apostle Paul, in the second chapter of the Book of Galatians, presents the scriptural resolution to the seeming contradiction of the conflict, in the Divine program of redemption, between the roles of faith and godly behavior.
Both the Old Testament and the New Testament Scriptures teach us by statement and example that God will allow us to be exposed to trials, and also, if we meet His conditions, that He will protect us so we are not harmed spiritually, so we are never separated from His love. Our responsibility is to carefully guard and obey the word of Christ’s patience.
The idea of patience is that of steadfast endurance while we are under pressure, continuing to abide in Christ and to do His will until release and joy are brought to us. The Kingdom of God and patience go together.
We Christians are to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit with patience. We possess our souls as we wait patiently for the Lord. Christ carefully watches over each person who carefully watches over the word of His patience and promises to guard him during the hour of temptation.