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Or a state of being. Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect..... Now that not only sounds to me in the here and now but heaven in the here and now.
That’s the journey. The presence of God will be infinitely better.
That’s the journey. The presence of God will be infinitely better.
This is what he says about our journey...... I've commanded you, haven't I? Be strong and courageous. Don't be fearful or discouraged, because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
If you do not graduate, then you will always be drinking the milk in elementary school, ever learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Some are still in kindergarten claiming they know it all already.
We have been told to worship in truth, which is God's word.
We have been told to worship God and serve Him.
We have been told to use God's word.
We have been told to remain in His word that apart from it we cannot bear fruit.
But some say to forget about it.
Who do you obey? Man or God.
"Genuine worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for it is just such worshipers the Father seeks for God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
"Worship God alone, Him alone shall you serve."
" Speak the truth to one another, judge righteously, and let honesty and peace be at your gates. "
"The man who comes to me hears my word and uses it."
"If you abide in me and my word remains in you...."
This is what he says about our journey...... I've commanded you, haven't I? Be strong and courageous. Don't be fearful or discouraged, because the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
I pray you start soon to do this instead of insisting you are the son of God or whatever the game is you are playing at believing that his serving him.
That is the big confusion, Gentiles are only grafted through the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not Judah.
Christians just don't get this, they either become Ephraim,or they are nobody speaking about a covenant that doesn't exist for them, they don't understand that the covenant is only for Judah and the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and if they want an inheritance in Israel, they must repent as Ephraim MUST repent from his division from Judah, from the disrespect for the commandments, Sabbaths and feasts or he isn't Ephraim, a Gentile is a lost sheep, and that sheep cannot be found if he isn't found and gathered to Judah in Israel.
Jesus directed His parables to the Pharisees who were clueless in their pride. As stated before I grew up in traditional denominational thinking and at least once a year would get a sermon on the lost sheep. The sermon always centered on 99 sheep dwelling in safety while the shepard came back with the one sheep rejoicing all 100 were now safe. This is NOT what Jesus meant or what the book says if you look closely.
The Parable of the Lost Sheep
15 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who DO NOT NEED TO REPENT.
We see the 99 sheep LEFT in open country and are LOST without a shepard......these will wander off in every direction and fall victim to various predators etc. This was a picture of national Israel who rejected their King and had no idea they were lost like the sheep. The ONE sheep knew he was in trouble without the shepard and was saved, again a picture of national Israel in blindness. So we now see a shepard with ONE sheep left who rejoices that it needed Him, just as the angels of heaven rejoice when one of us discovers we desperately need a Savior and come to Christ in FAITH today.........we can see in verse 7 the smug Pharisees saw no reason to repent, nor did they know the parable was about them and national Israel.
I think this is a misreading. It would be helpful to know that this is the second of three separate parables Christ told, one after another, all with a common thread.
The first parable is about the widow who lost a coin. She searched high and low for it, sweeping her house. When she finally found it, she and her neighbors rejoiced.
The second parable is indeed about the sheep.
The third parable is about the Prodigal Son. Mind you, in that parable, the son isn't truly repentant. Instead, after wasting the family fortune and living immorally, he finally comes home to his family only after he concocts his plea to his father. If you read the text carefully, the prodigal son is not depicted in a favorable light, even when he chooses to return. Yet, when his father sees him, he rushes out to his son. There are no words of apology offered. It is just nothing less that the father's joy at seeing his son return.
Mind you, atonement and repentance for wrongs is always important. But in those three parables, repentance does not figure into the teaching. A coin has no thought whatsoever. A sheep is not a sapient creature, and certainly does not have knowledge of good and evil. And the son does not repent to his father.
Instead, all three of those parables speak to how God is constantly searching us out, ready to redeem us, and clasp us to him. The nature of those three parables is about God's boundless love and how, no matter what, he seeks to save us.
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