 ETERNAL PURPOSE AND DESTINY SERIES
Part One – Prayer
Prayer can mean different things to different people especially depending on who or what they are praying to. Consider that Christians and Jews pray to God the Creator of all. Islam prays to Allah, Buddhists pray to Buddha, Hindus pray to Hare Krishna, and the biblical records tell us that the Egyptians as well as all other nations of the earth chose to worship the sun, moon, stars, animals or other parts of the creation including objects they made with their own hands. The list goes on and on and we cannot leave out the atheists who deny the existence of God or the new age humanists who have made themselves their own god or even the Satanists who have made Satan their god. All human religions are only afterthoughts to the one God of all creation and His universal domain. Colossians 1:17 reads: And He is before all things and by Him all things consist. No doubt good and evil exist. Since God is the creator of good and Satan (a creation of God) rebelled, forfeited his first estate and is now become the arch-enemy of God and His kingdom by deceiving humans with evil. Therefore, it only stands to reason that as Christians we must acquire understanding of our eternal purpose and destiny as ordained by God our Creator. How else can this be achieved accept by searching His written words and communing with God in prayer? Let us now take a deeper look into the subject of prayer as related to our eternal purpose and destiny. 1. Eternal Purpose: (2 Timothy 2:12) Rulership Training. 2. Eternal Destiny: (1 Corinthians 6:2, Rev. 2:26, 3:21) Heaven and Earth. Paul Bilheimmer, in his book “Destined for the Throne” wrote: …We are here to learn the true law of love to become Kings, Priests and Rulers in the Kingdom to come. Seldom has such great truth been said in so few words. Therefore, if leadership by love is our purpose and the Kingdom of God and our part in the Kingdom of Heaven to come is our destiny then prayer is the vehicle to bring forth his purpose and destiny. Prayer has many purposes but one main objective spiritually speaking. And what is it? Prayer is communication with God; its use is to cultivate your relationship with Him and to bring your spirit, soul and body into full submission and communion with the God of all Creation. What happens when we pray? We receive guidance, direction, provision, humility, forgiveness of sins, gifts of the Spirit, miracles and so much more and we offer to Him praise and thanksgiving because He is Lord of all. I am reminded of the message in our new song “I Can Pray” which talks about interceding for others in our prayers…. “You may not be a preacher, or a singer, or a Sunday school teacher, but you can pray for those who will not listen to what you have to say to them or sing to them or preach to them. It does not matter whether you have a certain gift or not..we all can pray.” And the truth of the matter is that prayer is the most important thing for our lives yet, we often spend too little time in prayer. This leads to the main point of another aspect of prayer in light of eternal purpose and destiny…called spiritual warfare, which I will write more about in part two of this series. Til next time remember, our time here on earth is for training for rulership by learning the law of love so that we may be qualified to rule and reign with Christ in the day that His eternal kingdom appears with His coming. Therefore, let us learn to commune with Him in seasons of prayer and become disciplined, instructed, selfless, chosen vessels for His service in this present age and prepared for our eternal destiny. Food For Thought, Jerry Kelso May 2007 4th Series
4th of the series "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth"
Feel free to send comments or questions that you have about the Bible. 2 Timothy 2:15: Study to shew ourselves approved unto God; a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. Thus, far we have touched on the hermeneutics of face value, context and collaborating scriptures. This issue will be the fourth which is known as the historical context. This is probably the most important point because it is the time factor and can change the meaning to a passage or passages because of God's gradual revelation. This does not do away with eternal truths throughout the Holy word but can alter the way they are enacted or carried out. From Genesis to Revelation there are many different historical settings. Since God gave gradual revelation to man about his redemptive plan after Adam and Eve sinned we can clearly see certain divisions between the beginning of the old and new testament. In the garden Adam and Eve were perfect until they were cast out of the garden. From Adam to Noah's flood is known as the antediluvian age; (Genesis 3-8). Romans 2 records how men will be judged before God. Those without the written law will be judged according to their conscience to whatever is contained in the written law. Those under the written law will be judged by whether or not they were doers of the Mosaic law. The new covenant believers are judged by the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ which was the fulfillment of the redemptive plan in the spiritual aspect. Genesis 3:15 was the first prophecy about the Messiah and his redeeming the world of sin as far as paying the price for sin as the sinless sacrifice. Cultures are different and the Bible basically divides up people in the categories of gentiles, the Jewish nation, and the church of God. Gentiles were without a covenant unlike the Jewish nation who brought the Messiah to the world. The church (Jew and gentile into one body alike) now propagate the gospel since Israel's rejection of Christ. When they come back to God in the tribulation they will become the head of the nations in the kingdom age. The nature of cultures should be understood by the categories of gentiles, the Jewish nation, and the church. The gentiles were basically referred to as heathen nations. the Jewish nations were and are God's chosen people despite rejecting Jesus. The church as one new man, the new creation and Jew and gentile in one body. These cultures will be judged by how they responded to what revelation they had of God. Last, but not least are the two most common school of thoughts concerning the gradual revelation of God. These are Dispensational and Covenant Theology. 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 talks about stewardship of the mysteries of God. In Ephesians 3:2; Paul mentions the dispensation of the grace of God, and Colossians 1:25, the dispensation of God. Covenant Theology differs and divides into just two actual covenants which dispensationalist believe in too which would be the old covenant (works) according to the Mosaic ethic and the new covenant (grace) according to the death, burial, and resurrection. Both must agree on gradual revelation because of how the Jews, gentiles and the church will be judged. It is both beneficial to understand the covenants and how men were to be faithful to God in different eras. There are eternal covenants of what God promised; i.e.: he gave the rainbow as a promise of no more worldwide flood to wipe man out, whereas, his covenant with Israel though eternal is conditioned by obedience. We must understand how the dispensations or periods of stewardship time and the covenants correlate to each other. One must know who is speaking to whom and know what the revelation is they had in that age. For example, if Jesus the Messiah is talking to the Jews under the mosaic law it will have a different meaning than if you're trying to interpret it as Jesus talking to the church. You will be reading into that context that may not be in there to begin with. This is how much of false doctrine is started. The bottom line for understanding the historical record is: 1. Through the cultures of 3 categories or classes of people: Jews, gentiles, and the church. 2. Through dispensations or stewardships of being faithful to whatever revelation man was or is given, Also, the covenants of God to man. 3. It also important to know the customs and times and phrases and idioms and etc. are according to old and new testament times as well as some Hebraic and some Greek words due to the King James version is a 16th century language. This is another whole subject to itself. Until next time I pray that your soul will be nourished by this month's "Food For Thought". Jerry Kelso Third Series
Third of a series on "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth". Feel free to send comments or questions that you have about the Bible.
II Timothy 2:15 Study to Shew ourselves approved unto God a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. This series is about helping Christians to exhort challenge, and contend for faith and the word of God. God’s word and prayer are the two greatest tools we have in our Christian relationship. They both go hand in hand and become a great weapon against Satan when used and understood properly. We touched on some hermenentical points last time which means the art of interpretation. I mentioned four of these known as 1. Face value. 2. Context. 3. Collaborating scriptures and 4. Historical context. 1, 3 and 4 you can look back at last months article though they are pretty much self explanatory. Using 1, 3 and 4 in 1 Corinthians 15:1-32 I will focus on #2 which is context. The whole book of 1 Corinthians is basically talking to a church who is blasted with carnality stemming from the city of Corinth who had much idolatry. So when it came to church doctrine, Paul had a tough time with discipling many of them. Baptism became a vice; there was wisdom of men versus the power of God and the preaching of His holy word. Since they were carnal, their works could not be built on the right foundation of the apostles, prophets and of course Jesus Christ. That was just the first three chapters. There were many other things of which I will let you read on your own. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-32 it is about the physical resurrection and how the death, burial, and resurrection is our gospel by which we’ve received and been given and are saved. Now Verse 31 is the phrase “I Die Daily” and this is in the context of this passage and we must find the context in order to understand this phrase. The historical fact is Paul is talking to people who didn’t believe in the physical resurrection. Verse 12 brings this out. Verse 14-32 reels off all these reasons why there has to be a physical such as: if there’s no resurrection our preaching and faith is in vain and we are false witnesses and those who have died have perished for good. Verse 23-28 maps out the restoration of the kingdom and God being all in all and for this to happen there must be a physical resurrection. Verse 29 talks about baptism for the dead which was an old Jewish ritual, but the point was if you baptize for the dead what purpose is there if you don’t believe in the physical resurrection. Verse 30 and 31 are talking about Paul and his fellow Christians putting their life on the line for the cause of Christ and if there was no physical resurrection then all they did for Christ was ridiculous and they might as well eat, drink and be merry. This is the overall point Paul was trying to get across and that was putting their lives on the line for the cause of Christ had purpose and the physical resurrection was a necessity for their purpose. To collaborate scriptures to reconcile this point and understand more in death about the phrase “I Die Daily” we can read II Corinthians 4:10: Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Just like God’s word and power go hand in hand, so do his death and resurrection. This spiritual and physical hope and reality makes me hunger and thirst for God’s holiness. ‘Til Next Time… Jerry Kelso Second Series
Second of a series on "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth". Feel free to send comments or questions that you have about the Bible.
2 Timothy 2:15: Study to shew ourselves approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. In 2 Timothy 2:15 the first key word is the first word; study. Most people will read but not study and therefore their comprehension goes to the wayside. Others think that God didn't give us the Bible to confuse us, (which he didn't), but they believe most everything should be understood as one reads it. The problem with this is that people's point of reference to passage's may vary due to what level of understanding they may have. This level of understanding may come from many different things but mainly from preachers, teachers, friends etc. with certain or different theological positions. No matter how much you know or don't know about the Bible everone uses what's called Hermeneutics. This means the art of interpretation. This has been made a dirty word by some but it's very important in "Rightly dividing the word of truth". There are many but I will just state four of the most important heremeneutical rules: 1. Face Value-plain statement of truth, self explanatory, ie.: John 3:16 (For God so loved the whole world). 2. Context-reading a passage or passages to be able to understand the main point, ie: (the story of the Prodigal and the phrase "I Die Daily"). 3. Collaborating scriptures ie: (Matthew 3:11 with Acts 1:8, 2:4. (Prophecy of Spirit baptism by Jesus fulfilled in Acts 2:4). 4. Historical Record-who, what, where, and whens of the customs and times. ie: (Throughout both old and new testaments with the Israelites, God's chosen people and the church Christ's body just to name a couple. I pray these will be of help to those who may not have known these or understood them clearly or maybe they thought they weren't necessarily that important. And for those who already knew and understood them may it be a real refreshing and encouragement to stay focused on understanding the word. My goal is to encourage people to study the word and enjoy it. This can be accomplished by learning to rightly divide the word of God's truth. Remember God gave us capacity to think and reason understand and comprehend. At the same time God also expects us to pray for the Holy Spirit to help us in the search for truth;(John 16:13). Jesus feeds those who are hungry for righteousness. Have a Blessed Month, Jerry Kelso "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth"
This will be a series on the "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth". Feel free to send comments or suggestions that you may have about the bible to jerrykelso@dovebrothersquartet.com .
II Timothy 2:15: Study to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. On the road I meet some very interesting and unique people to talk with. I love to engage in conversation those who not only love the Lord but love His word as well. The Psalmist David said, "Come and let us reason". Jude echoes the sentiment, "To earnestly contend for the faith which was delivered unto the saints in the form of exhortation". Paul told the Corinthians to be saying the same thing so there wouldn't be any divisions among them. As Christians, we are to exhort, challenge, and contend for the word of God. Sadly, many people will not engage because they have turned into arguments in the past. Others do not know enough to engage and many are afraid that what they believe will turn out to be wrong. We should not be afraid to exhort, challege, and contend for the faith. But in order to do this, we must study to show ourselves approved unto God so we can understand how to rightly divide the word of truth in it's proper perspective. My prayer is that you'll take the time if you haven't already, have patience as sometimes you may have to read a whole chapter, book or books etc. Last but not least, have an open mind to what the context of the scriptures say, because dogmas of creeds and denominations are not always scriptural. Until next time this is Jerry Kelso with "Food For Thought" 
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