He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23

When we think of the journey towards perfection, we must be advised what Jesus intended.  Today, many have rightly understood the principles of spiritual warfare, the tactics of the enemy, and the authority of the believer.  Using our authority, we can pull down strongholds and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). But, one should consider another aspect of Jesus’ victory, that of His rest.  That is, this is a rest that it is said the children of Israel failed to enter into.  We should endeavor, therefore, not to lay hold of it. Read more…

Imagine, for a moment, that Jesus was like us, approaching Christianity as we know it today.

Suppose, for instance, He, the King and creator of the universe, was standing in front of the religious leaders of His day with the mindset we see in the church today.  Perhaps he might approach leaders of a “different denomination” with some cordiality, trying to find some “common ground” so that they could see a little more “on the same level”.

Perhaps He might have, to use popular expression, tried to scale the mountain of the religion in His day to try to disciple His nation.

But, from the text, Jesus didn’t do any of that.

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Superlative: [O]f the highest kind, quality, or order; surpassing all else or others; supreme; extreme: superlative wisdom.

via Dictionary.com

It is almost a wrong label to call the Kingdom superlative.  It is Beyond that.  John the Baptist was the superlative of human attainment.  A life of solitude, of extreme separateness and consecration to the Lord was his.  Jesus gave the man this testimony, and the comparison to the Kingdom.

Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matthew 11:11

John was a man, a prophet, of the Old Covenant, under the law and order of Moses.  He signified the demarcation point between Old an New Covenants.  As the Law came through Moses, and Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ, the exchange between the two marked the transition from the age of the Old Testament and the coming of the Messianic Age.

The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

Luke 16:16

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There is only one way to walk consistently in the power of God, and that is focus.  What a man beholds, he sees that thing, and it is magnified in his imagination.

If a man set gaze upon it, he can possess it, though it is costly.

Consider the following:

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7

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