It seems reasonable that what God designed and purposed in the beginning, He will secure in reality at the end. So I am praying toward and expecting a triumphant Church to appear out of the chaos around us.
Think back over the last 6 seasons of God's history in the earth. we saw a progression of God setting up each season to move closer to His special creation, man. He longs for union and fellowship with His creation.
1.The Garden of Eden - He established a Lordship/love relationship with Adam and Eve. He lost it when they dis-connected through rebellion. The judgement for rebellion was carried symbolically through animal blood. God re-establishes the relationship.
2.Abrahamic Covenant - The everlasting covenant of grace was made with Abraham, Father of the Hebrew people and our faith. Gal.3:26-29 God pledged that He Himself would pay the penalty for rebellion and do for us what we could never do. Animal blood was still the substitute for man's life.
3.Tabernacle Worship - Moses was given God's laws for righteousness. This was never intended to make us righteous in God's sight. It has always been by God's grace that man has a relationship with his creator. The Law was given to prove to the people that man can never bring himself or society to meet God's requirements. God Himself is the only hope for man experiencing what he was created to enjoy - love, peace and happiness expressed in a love relationship with a sovereign Creator.
God also gave Moses a highly developed and symbolic system of worship with strict measures to protect the rebellions people from the holy God who is passionate about moving closer to those He loves. God moved into the midst of their encampment. It has become clear that animal sacrifice pictures a better sacrifice to come. They were headed for the land of Caanan to become a nation, under the government of David and God in partnership, in Jerusalem, City of Peace. We are to reign in life by Christ Jesus.
4.Davidic worship - David enjoyed an intimacy of friendship with this holy God that was rare up until then. I think God was demonstrating with David what He longs to enjoy from every spirit-born individual. He longs for our attention and our affection, not our duty and our performance. Those things will flow out of a healthy relationship with Jesus. We were created to draw our greatest pleasure from Him. The Psalms reflect David's heart and how he played life openly before God. Our hearts long for intimacy without shame. We must find the Secret Place of the Most High God as David did.
5.Jesus, as God come in flesh, launches the Kingdom of God and a new closeness to His human creation. After bearing our grief and debt in His own body on the cross, He moves right in to the midst of each individual who will open their heart to Him and love Him with gratitude. He removes the shame that causes us to hide, opens our heart so we can become a new breed of humanity on the earth. (New Creations in Christ)
6.The Church, the Redeemed of God, learning to walk in step with the Spirit of God. We are indwelt by God Himself! WOW! Can you believe it? Can God get any closer? Christ was the incarnation of God. Each lover of God is an incarnation of Christ.
Listen to what Jesus told the disciples just before He left them to carry on with all He had trained them to do:
"Don't you believe that I am united with the Father, and the Father united with Me? What I am telling you I am not saying on my own initiative. The Father living in me is doing His own works. Because I live, you too will live. When that day comes, you will know that I am united with my Father, and you with me, and I with you. Yes, indeed whoever trusts in me will also do the works I do! Indeed, he will do greater ones, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask for in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." John 14
Ponder this in your heart.
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