Going in and out of God's grace, favor, Kingdom and the like.
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I believe it pertains to His 1000 year reign also. Could you elaborate on "disqualified from the Kingdom" please?
From my studies, I see it as......All believers will enter the Kingdom but not all will inherit the kingdom.
I see the Kingdom As His theocracy and believers are appointed to their positions according to their deeds while on earth. Some, as interns(probably studying bible doctrine because they neglected it on earth), some as lords and some as kings. King of kings and Lord of lords. All believers IN the kingdom, yet with distinct roles.
I am curious if I overlooked anything. Would love your input!
From my studies, I see it as......All believers will enter the Kingdom but not all will inherit the kingdom.
I see the Kingdom As His theocracy and believers are appointed to their positions according to their deeds while on earth. Some, as interns(probably studying bible doctrine because they neglected it on earth), some as lords and some as kings. King of kings and Lord of lords. All believers IN the kingdom, yet with distinct roles.
I am curious if I overlooked anything. Would love your input!
I agree with your understanding as far as placement in the Kingdom according to works done on earth. What does it mean to be disqualified? The parable of the talents is a pointer. Two servants did well and were rewarded. One was worthless and lazy and lost everything. He was a servant. He had a talent according to his ability. As he did nothing with it, he was thrown into "outer darkness".
The wise and foolish virgins is another helpful parable. The women were all virgins and all were waiting for the bridegroom. Some were diligent and maintained their oil supplies. The others were careless. They all fell asleep, a euphemism for death. "Virgin" means that they were believers. Yet the foolish were shut out of the great feast.
Exactly what it means for believers is not clear to me. However, I can imagine the great distress that a believer would have when they realised that their lives on earth were wasted. This relates to the teaching of the salvation of the soul. We must lose in order to gain. Lord Jesus talks about losing our lives to gain life. We are born with a natural life in the realm of the soul. Lord Jesus came that we might have spiritual life that is found only in Him. The "soul-life" is Greek "psuche", spiritual life is Greek "zoe". Lord Jesus asks us to exchange the life of the soul for the life of the Spirit, new life for old so to speak.
Not all are willing to let go of the old. It is a process. I kidded myself that I was willing to let go of the old 100%. Then God put his finger on some selfish desires, likes and dislikes. Then it was, "I am willing to let go of everything except....."
God wants to bring us to a place where the only thing that matters is His will. The Kingdom of God is where Satan is thrown out and God's will is being done. When we are truly committed to the will of God, and that has been tested, we are of use to the Kingdom of God. Abraham was God's friend, yet he was tested. We need to be in a place where even God's gifts to us are surrendered. It's hard to let go at times. I've had many tests and trials because I was stubborn and independent. I'm still God's "work in progress". But I am not the same person that I was 50 years ago.
The difference between a Kingdom believer and one who misses out is consecration. We can no more change ourselves than fly to the moon. If we will hand ourselves over to Jesus, He will begin to do what we cannot. It won't be comfortable, especially at first. Before a building can be constructed, the existing building has to go. However, Jesus is always with us. I've been lower than a snake's belly, but Jesus brought me through.
We get one life to set our course for eternity. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose". The man who said that was killed for preaching the gospel. Don't be afraid of failure. God shows us what the Christian life is not before we can see what it is. Failure should lead us to greater dependence on Jesus. And that's what it's all about.
The wise and foolish virgins is another helpful parable. The women were all virgins and all were waiting for the bridegroom. Some were diligent and maintained their oil supplies. The others were careless. They all fell asleep, a euphemism for death. "Virgin" means that they were believers. Yet the foolish were shut out of the great feast.
Exactly what it means for believers is not clear to me. However, I can imagine the great distress that a believer would have when they realised that their lives on earth were wasted. This relates to the teaching of the salvation of the soul. We must lose in order to gain. Lord Jesus talks about losing our lives to gain life. We are born with a natural life in the realm of the soul. Lord Jesus came that we might have spiritual life that is found only in Him. The "soul-life" is Greek "psuche", spiritual life is Greek "zoe". Lord Jesus asks us to exchange the life of the soul for the life of the Spirit, new life for old so to speak.
Not all are willing to let go of the old. It is a process. I kidded myself that I was willing to let go of the old 100%. Then God put his finger on some selfish desires, likes and dislikes. Then it was, "I am willing to let go of everything except....."
God wants to bring us to a place where the only thing that matters is His will. The Kingdom of God is where Satan is thrown out and God's will is being done. When we are truly committed to the will of God, and that has been tested, we are of use to the Kingdom of God. Abraham was God's friend, yet he was tested. We need to be in a place where even God's gifts to us are surrendered. It's hard to let go at times. I've had many tests and trials because I was stubborn and independent. I'm still God's "work in progress". But I am not the same person that I was 50 years ago.
The difference between a Kingdom believer and one who misses out is consecration. We can no more change ourselves than fly to the moon. If we will hand ourselves over to Jesus, He will begin to do what we cannot. It won't be comfortable, especially at first. Before a building can be constructed, the existing building has to go. However, Jesus is always with us. I've been lower than a snake's belly, but Jesus brought me through.
We get one life to set our course for eternity. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose". The man who said that was killed for preaching the gospel. Don't be afraid of failure. God shows us what the Christian life is not before we can see what it is. Failure should lead us to greater dependence on Jesus. And that's what it's all about.
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Thank you for your wonderful and I believe biblical response. This brought me back to Job. No matter what life tosses at us, use The Lords problem solving devices. And He will bless us for it........Not quite ready to experience what Job did though! Thanks again brother. It's very nice to hear from someone who is in the same mind set.
Thank you. About 3 years ago, I had pancreatitis. I would not wish it on my worst enemy. The medical profession says that only the pain of childbirth is worse. Yet all through the ordeal, I was full of joy and peace. My body? Not so much. I know now that it really is possible to sweat drops of blood. I witnessed to one of the doctors. She is from a Christian home, but not a believer (not then anyway). My now wife managed to visit (it was during COVID). She prayed, out loud, while the doctor was here. I began to recover that moment. The doctor told me that she had seen that prayer answered before her eyes. You can gauge how ill you are from the number of people who poke and prod, stick in needles and such. Another doctor told me off because I was not taking the illness seriously. 30% of sufferers in my age group do not recover. As the Bible says, "But God..........." I know why I went through the ordeal. I also know that a few people, including a couple of Christian nurses, were encouraged. And I learned a lot about God's power to keep us while enduring a trial. No glory to me, all glory to Jesus. And no, I don't ever want to go through anything like it again!
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