Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Luke 22:24-30

The Church of God consists of its members (Isaiah 65:85) and it’s head is always Christ.  It is founded and supported by first our Chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20), and then by its foundation and pillars (Galatians 2:9).  It comprises the body and is the Lord’s temple.  It is built to house Him, and we are merely it’s building blocks.

The one with the primary glory is obviously the Cornerstone.  Yet, while the remaining portions of the temple are with varying degrees of glory, recognition, and importance structurally, they are all required.  The temple is begun with it’s corner, and not completed without it’s Capstone (Zechariah 4:7).

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Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Hebrews 10:38 KJV

In the beginning, God created man and placed him in Eden.  He was assigned the job of subduing the Earth.  After the fall, things changed, and things were changed.  God told the man, “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19).

It was by the sweat of the brow that Adam was told that he would eat his food after the tree of the knowledge of good and evil had been eaten.  It would be with thorns and thistles and hardship all the days of his life.  And in the end, as God has originally warned him, he would die (Genesis 2:17).

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He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

Psalm 103:7

Whenever you first meet a person, all you can ever see at the outset is their outside.  You can see their works, how they present themselves, and where they choose to be located, things like that.  You can see how they permit access or do not to their life.  We know from experience that there is a whole inner world inside, but we do not see that at the beginning.

From the outside, all one could see was a white-linen fence with one gate.  To a person who was not standing at an altitude, you could see the smoke rising from within, and smell something of the incense from the holy place, but the inner workings were unknown.

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That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.

Matthew 13:1-2

The crowds came to Jesus.  Thousands had heard of the miracles following this man.  This man, who was God, had the wisdom of the Eternity within His heart, and He chose to take a moment to go out to the lake.  Perhaps He went out to pray in a quiet place, or possibly to rest for a moment, but, whatever the reason, the crowds surrounded Him until He was pressed on every side.  While the masses swelled, He entered a boat and taught them, while the people came.

Everyone wants the miraculous, the signs, wonders, and miracles, but who wants the reason behind them?  We want the power, but who wants the man?  We want the demonstration, but who wants the price he paid?

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Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:1-2

Paul lists 6 things in Hebrews 6:1-2 that he lists as essential doctrines for the church for progressing further into spiritual things.  Without these pieces, we cannot build successfully in the Spirit what God would have for His house.  Each piece is important, and often builds on one another, until the whole foundation is laid.  It is only after the foundations, the fundamentals are secured in a living and active way that the whole house can be properly built up.

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She said to herself, If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.

Matthew 9:21

This a woman at the end of her rope, she had tried everything else.  She had done everything imaginable.  But, she had arrived at a plan.  She knew the Healer was nearby and, though it was breaking the law, she decided to press through the possible consequences of the stigma and her own shame and pain and touch the one she knew could heal her.

It was her faith that healed her, Jesus said.  Other times, it was Jesus’ faith, and the power of God present to heal, but for her, it was her faith that drew upon that anointing within the Lord.  It wasn’t His will that healed her, but hers!  Jesus, well aware of the Spirit within Him, according to other accounts, was able to feel the strength of that virtue departing from Him, but, it was her belief, if she only touched, that made it come forth.  And for this, He commended her.

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Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Matthew 7:6

The Scriptures are sufficient for the Christian life.  They show the way of Salvation, Jesus Christ, and they instruct in righteousness, fully equipping the man of God for every work of service.  The Scriptures are not the sum total of everything knowable about God of course, for Jesus Himself said that He had much more that He wanted to share that He couldn’t, because it would be too much for His disciples (John 16:12).  The Holy Spirit is here to guide us into all truth.  But, when that comes, the object is not necessarily to write a new book about it.

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For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:8

You cannot have the Kingdom without a laid down life.  How many have heard this testimony, or had it themselves.  At the end of your rope, when you can’t take it anymore, maybe things were very grim, and God showed up in awesome ways.  The break-through of insight and revelation comes, the out-pouring of necessary power comes in like a flood, and He demonstrates Himself as the Lord of the Breakthrough (2 Samuel 5:20).  How many have had this experience of God showing up as their deliverer, only to wonder where He is the next moment?  To be overwhelmed with His goodness, only to be found back at the point of desparation, or worse, gross error or compromise from not realizing you had continued on without Him and missed a turn.

Or, perhaps a little more rare in this generation, how about standing up for what is right, and feeling the pressure, only to have the Father demonstrate His ability to deliver in the midst of persectuion?  Realizing that not everyone appears to come through such tests–having God deliver them with such power.  Whether visible or not quite so dramatic, do we know the experience where He shows up so that His Kingdom is vindicated?  Yet, the next day, to be in the same predicament as the day before?

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Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.

Mark 11:23

Faith preaching gets a bad name these days.  Somewhere along the line, in the culture of today, in a large degree the church in the West, the church has taken up the concept of a supernatural faith as almost a negative thing.  It is not a surprise, really, for the carnal mind will always be at war against true spirituality.  And hence faith, because faith does not align with the carnal intellect but with the spirit of a man, seems peculiar.

Jesus’ words are clear, however.  The disciples were rebuked time and again for their unbelief, their lack of faith.  This word, unbelief, is simply anti-faith.  It is the same word, unbelief, doubt, lack of faith, that is simply the Greek word for faith (some form of the word “pistis”) with the prefix “a-”  attached.  Where all the variants of the words translated “faith”, “believe”, or “trust” all come from the same Greek word.  The Greek word for unbelief, transliterated into English, is “apistis”.

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Genesis 1:1-2

God spoke, and there was light.  His Word entered creation, and light was over the vast expanse of the deep.  God approved of this light, and as He separated light from dark, there was day and night.  The first day.

God created the skies, and the lands beneath.  His Word set the boundaries for the sea, so that it might only come so far.  His Word called forth, and it came into being.

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