THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS
By John Gavazzoni
As we are being prepared to rule and reign with Him, we are often reminded by scripture that we shall reign with Him if we suffer WITH Him (II Tim. 2:12), that is, in the Spirit of Christ, we suffer in the way that He suffered, willingly and obediently, permitting the attack knowing that it is the way to the throne. How quick we are to call upon the God of power and authority to come and deliver us from our hardships. We do not pause to consider that there is a season of whatever duration where Christ in us will, with majestic sovereignty, yield to the hardship awaiting in faith the precise moment of the Father's choosing to deliver us. This is the kingdom in action. It's action does not begin with deliverance, it is in force even before the deliverance. This dimension of our walk with God plays itself out not only in the very obvious high-profile times of testing but also in the everyday relationships with those around us and particularly those closest to us. We are often the object of the anger that issues forth from the hurt of those with whom we rub elbows everyday as they give vent to their frustration that God has left them with unfilled hearts. We are always dealing with one another out of a need to have our needs met and we either passively or aggressively take out our resentments toward God on one another.
Recently, as I became aware once again of this syndrome, I suddenly understood the marvelous opportunity in all of those instances of human interplay, to not refuse the violence directed at me but to patiently endure it with Christ and bear, with Him, the sin that is a result of alienation from His love. You know, dear saint, that you are called upon to bear the sins of others in union with Him and that this is the kingdom of God in action. In each of the moments that seem to be the antithesis of kingdom ruling we are actually being prepared to enter the next level of ruling with Him.
"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence .....". From its annunciation to its manifestation, it is the nature of the kingdom and the nature of those who make up that kingdom to permit assault. The verse goes on to say, "....and violent men take it by force." We, with violence in our hearts, take matters into our own hands because it seems obvious to us that things are out of control and we must act to save the situation. And though we do it in the guise of prayer and affirmations of kingdom authority we are actually seizing the kingdom by force for our purposes and to make God do our bidding. Those who would be co-deliverers with Christ will know both how to yield and how to attack. We must yield to the Father as it pleases Him to bruise us and when we are perfected by the things that we suffer we will be able to go to the attack mode in our perfected priesthood and exercise the kind of authority and power against which the gates of hell shall not prevail and to declare deliverance to the captives of sin and Hades.
The sister passage in Lk 16:16 tells us that "everyone is forcing his way into it" (the kingdom). God's way into His kingdom is by rebirth and that by grace, but in the same sense that Jesus spoke of the thief and robber who enters the sheepfold, not through the door as the true shepherd does, but by climbing up some other way (interesting choice of words by the Lord, "climbing up," self exertion and assertion for it's own purposes of theft). So there is a sense in which, paradoxically, though one can only truly enter the kingdom by being born from above there are those who enter the kingdom in its present appearance by their own force and for their own thieving gain.
Historically, in the Church's expression of the kingdom, we have the classic example of Emperor Constantine forcing his way into the kingdom, in spite of what some may claim, to seize it for His own purposes and to mix it with heathen religion so as to give himself a firmer base of rule by attempting to unite two forces; the spiritual power of the early church and the superstitious needs of pagan subjects of the Roman Empire. In so forcing himself into the kingdom, to the degree that he was successful, the organism ceased really to be the kingdom and became the spiritual hybrid that still exists today in Christianity. The high priest who asserted the necessity of crucifying Christ did so in order to save the Jewish nation and did so with prophecy on his lips (Jn. 11:50-51). Judas forced his way into the kingdom for his own purposes by arranging for our Lord's capture (doing the work of the kingdom at each step) and in all, the kingdom of God ruled and does rule today even as it permitted and permits such acts of perfidy.
May the Lord bless us with the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death.
Excerpts from SEIZING THE KINGDOM
The Black Youth for Social Innovation (BYSI) program, is helping to address a disparity in mentorship opportunities available to Black youth. The program is made up of 10 students, along with their mentors and it continues to grow.
The program's Midpoint Symposium, was held at the Timms Centre for the Arts, on July 22 and brought together mentors, mentees, educators and community leaders, to showcase their collaborative efforts. Young leaders who are making significant change in Edmonton were recognized at the event.
Linda Hoang presents her weekly update on where to go, what to see & do, where to eat, etc., etc. in her latest Lindork's Lists
Community Leagues in Edmonton are opposed to the reapplication of a Camrose Casino to relocate to the Summerside area. The initial application was rejected by Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) in 2022. The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) has raised concerns about the impact on gaming revenues for its community leagues.
Edmonton charities currently wait an average of 23 months to host an event and earn an average of $41,500. In comparison Camrose charities currently wait an average of 41 months to host an event and earn an average of $6,100. I think these comparisons suggest its safe to surmise that it all about the $$$$.#
On Thursday, Arts, Culture and Status of Women Minister Tanya Fir on behalf of the Alberta Government announced that the former Royal Alberta Museum (Ram) would be demoloished. The old building was built in 1965 and closed in 2015.
The estimated cost of demolishing the old building would be $22 million - $48 million and the cost of “deferred maintenance on the structure is estimated to be $75 million.” Officials said Alberta Infrastructure currently “absorbs over $700,000 in operating and maintenance costs annually” for the vacant building. The old museum will be demolished while Government House and the Carriage House will remain standing at the site. The Alberta government has posted a survey on its website that Albertans can fill out to provide their thoughts on what the new green space should look like. People have until Aug. 30 to fill out the survey.
The cost to repurpose the building for another use would have been at least $150 million, including the deferred maintenance cost.
Woodvale is an active community, and you can keep up to activities by checking the Woodvale Community League Newsletter.
This year marks the 48th anniversary of Edmonton's Heritage Days Festival, which is the world's largest three-day multiculturalism celebration. Due to the renovations at Hawrelak Park, this year's festival has for the second time been relocated to the Edmonton Exhibition Lands and Borden Parks. There will be 69 pavilions participating at the festival — an increase from the 64 that participated in 2023. Attendees to this year's festival can expect a variety of upgrades to beat the heat, new pavilions and transit options.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and the Stony Plain Road Business Association (SPRBA) are calling on the mayor and city council to provide financial assistance to businesses that have been impacted by projects that are disruptive to their operations. The two groups say 25 businesses have been forced to close due to ongoing construction.
In a double whammy, in addition to the losses incurred due to construction, the same businesses have faced the 8.9% average property tax increase approved by City Council and said to be needed to pay for additional services Edmontonians rely on every day. What a slap in the face!
NOW
By Lloyd Ellefson
The fulfillment of the spiritual realities in Christ as revealed in the scriptures, has to come to us today - in the NOW - not yesterday, nor tomorrow! NOW is the day of salvation! It's not tomorrow; for yesterday's tomorrow is today. When tomorrow comes, it's today; it's NOW! Yesterday is past; tomorrow is not here. We live in the NOW. We are living in whatever sense of being we have NOW. It has to change NOW by the enlightenment of Christ - not tomorrow. Christ comes to us as the mind of the Spirit. He is a teacher; He is an anointing that teaches us things that the natural man cannot see, for man cannot see beyond the veil.
Jesus does not come tomorrow; He comes today. If we expect Him in the days, months or years to come, this time will never come, for He can only come to us today, in the now. As long as people predict that Jesus will come physically in the sky some day, it will always be a future event; it will never come, because that is not the way He comes. He comes IN THE NOW. The rapture, tribulation and millenium are not coming in the sense in which they are generally understood and preached. No rapture, tribulation, nor millenium will come tomorrow. They come in Christ and are fulfilled in Him because HE is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Christ is the sum of all things!
Though man would like to extol his accomplishments or offices, it is not good for him to do this. He gives himself credit for his achievements. He may think he has become a little better by receiving the Holy Spirit, or by becoming a preacher, etc. This culminates in labelling himself as pastor, teacher, evangelist, etc. If he is legalistic, he will proclaim his do's and don'ts, his virtues, his constant prayer life, and his readiness for Jesus to come and rapture him away. However this is not good. Eventually our inner integrity will deny it, because every man in his inner being knows (and he has to know), that he has failed God and will do so again. He also needs a hope for the future.
Jesus Christ is NOW! This undoes the whole system of rationalization. When we receive and retain the things of Christ in our own nature, they remain in mortality. If the realities in the Bible only come into our realm of reason, they do not come into life; they do not produce life, nor do they last. Christians will not live that way; they live by the Christ who is their life! He is their life NOW, because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If we receive Him as our life, the change to become like Him begins by the fact of Him being here NOW.
HIS LIFE, MY RANSOM
By Ray Prinzing
“Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for man.” (Matt. 20: 28)
We are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (Peter 1:19). It is also written, “for the life of the flesh is in the blood…” (Lev. 17:11). It was HIS LIFE which was poured out for us, and it is age-abiding, sufficient for our needs this very day.
An example of being a ransom is found in Acts 7:35, where we read, “This Moses whom they refused say, Who made thee a ruler and judge? The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer.” The word “deliverer” is the same Greek word in this case which is translated RANSOM.
How was Moses a ransom for Israel in Egypt? Did Moses pay a price to Egypt for Israel’s redemption? Did he promise anything in return for allowing Israel to leave? No! Moses paid Egypt exactly nothing. It was his own life which he poured out for Israel, it was the freely giving of his life for Israel which led them up out of Egypt, as God through Moses made a way.
When Jesus Christ became our ransom, He didn’t have to take an offering to God, and say, “Here, God, is a price for the people.” Nor, did He go to the Devil, and say, Here, Devil, is a ransom-price, now you let creation go.” Never! He poured out His life and freely gave it to the people. We are the ones who are receiving the ransom, and receiving of His life, we are able to get up and leave the filth of the old world behind, and walk in the higher realms of His life.
In the natural, we pay the kidnapper the ransom money, but God does it the other way around, He gives of His life to us who are in bondage, and then we have the resources, the strength to arise and return to Father’s house. We cannot do it on our own, we are weak and helpless but when He gives of His life, and fills us with His strength, then THROUGH HIM we are able to return.
A ransom He came for me, His life He freely gave,
Poured out, and yes, effective, too, triumphant o’er the grave.
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A LIVING SACRIFICE
By Des Walter
Paul challenges us, “I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your BODIES a LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY ACCEPTABLE UNTO GOD which is your Spiritual WORSHIP.” Rom 12:1. Here is the same test that Abraham faced on Mount Moriah. This challenge follows the chapter concerning the grafting in of the Gentiles to become partakers of the root and fatness of the Olive tree. Finally he states the basis for this challenge to present our bodies thus :
“FOR FROM HIM AND THROUGH HIM AND TO HIM ARE ALL THINGS, FOR ALL THINGS ORIGINATE WITH HIM AND COME FROM HIM, AND ALL THINGS LIVE THROUGH HIM, AND ALL THINGS CENTER IN AND TEND TO CONSUMMATE AND TO END IN HIM. TO HIM BE GLORY FOREVER AMEN. "Rom 11:36.
Paul uses the word “THEREFORE” which means, in view of what I have just said, I want you to present your bodies. What exactly does this mean to us today? OUR BODY was made to be a receptacle to contain the divine image and likeness. According to Paul everything found its origin in God, and everything depends upon God for its existence, and finally everything finds its fulfillment and consummation by returning to God.
The presenting of our Bodies to God as a living sacrifice is an acknowledgement of our origin and the purpose of our being. However it goes far beyond this. Most Christians are looking for immortality for this physical body. Did Abraham want his natural son to LIVE FOREVER, NO! If immortalizing Isaac’s physical life was all that he desired then Abraham could never have birthed the CHRIST through Isaac his seed. BUT Abraham saw beyond the physical and so was willing to sacrifice his natural son Isaac as a LIVING SACRIFICE, because the reality of his existence in Abraham’s understanding was not the physical body he had, BUT THE CHRIST he represented.
In exactly the same way we must see ourselves not from the point of view of our physical BODY fulfilling God’s will and purpose, but by the SPIRIT to see our INCORPORATION in the CHRIST BODY. So as we present our bodies to God as a LIVING SACRIFICE it is HOLY and ACCEPTABLE unto the Lord. This is OUR “Mount of Olives” experience, where Christ himself was drawn by the Father to present HIS body as a LIVING SACRIFICE. In the spiritual “suffering” of that offering he sweat as it were great drops of blood. In terms of REALITY it was there, alone, while the disciples were sleeping, that the real SPIRITUAL sacrifice was made and not at Calvary. Jesus had warned the disciples to pray that they enter not into temptation. This is the testing to ascertain the quality of their integrity or their commitment to Christ.
The disciples were not yet ready for such a test as the NATURAL still dominated the Spiritual, and Jesus knew that. The fact that they slept through that ONE vital experience showed they still needed a spiritual awakening. The cross was the physical outworking of a completed SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE.
Christians today have so majored on the PHYSICAL SUFFERINGS AND THE LITERAL CROSS on which the body of Jesus died, that the true SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE that brings LIFE TO MANKIND has been largely ignored. That Spiritual sacrifice was THE OFFERING OF THE BODY OF JESUS AS THE WILL OF GOD, ONCE FOR ALL, BY WHICH OFFERING WE ARE SANCTIFIED. Heb 10:10.
Beloved it is not the wooden cross or the DEAD BODY that hung upon it that gives LIFE TO THE WORLD. It is what that cross represents in putting to death the OLD MAN in that Spiritual sacrifice that Christ made on behalf of all mankind. In 2 Cor 4:18 Paul states , “The things that are SEEN (physical) are only temporary, BUT THE THINGS THAT ARE UNSEEN spiritual) THESE ARE ETERNAL. (The REALITIES).”
The bread and the wine are just symbols being visible and physical, which DO REPRESENT a SPIRITUAL REALITY. But understand it is not the SYMBOLS that minister LIFE but the REALITY they represent. The Body and BLOOD of Christ is the SPIRIT AND SUBSTANCE OF HIS BEING, which we must EAT or assimilate into our being so that it becomes what we are. Jesus said, if we “EAT” his flesh and drink his blood it would imparts to us EVERLASTING LIFE, being a quality of LIFE enjoyed by Jesus Christ on this earth. Spirituality, is the ability to see into the REALITY OF THINGS, no longer considering the VISIBLE to be the REALITY
Excerpts from THE WILL And PURPOSE Of GOD
THE KINGDOM GOSPEL & GOOD SOIL
By Stacy R. Wood, Jr.
"What was sown on good soil is the man of the noble and good heart, who hears, accepts, and understands the Word. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times the amount of seed sown." (Mt. 13:23, Mk. 4:20, Lu. 8:15).
Let us take a look at the seed as it falls into the fertile ground of a noble and good heart. This area of the field speaks of the spiritual mind that God gives to his chosen. In First Corinthians 2:9-16 we read, "It is written: 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.' However God revealed it to us through his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. This is because they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."
It is the Christ mind that gives exclusive consideration and acceptance to the Word of the kingdom. This is where the seed finds the room to root deeply within the personal life and understanding of the hearer. The union that takes place between the Christ seed and the Christ mind generates more than just a hearing of kingdom dogma. This joining takes two distinctly different things, the Word of life and the regenerated soul of mankind and produces a new creation man.
The experience produces a doer of the kingdom Word. If what he receives is truly the revealed Word of the kingdom, it produces the faith necessary to bring forth The Substance of the seed. The seed deposited in the good soil of the hearer and cultivated with true expectation will bring forth the convicting evidence of the invisible kingdom. There is a response needed when we hear and truly understand the Word that God discloses concerning his kingdom. The commitment to walk it out, by putting into action all we know to be correct, rests within us. Remember. "To whom much is given, of him shall much be required." (Lu. 12:48).
The purpose of the seed planted within the life of the hearer is to bring forth kingdom fruit to the glory of the Father for all the earth to see. In the process of growing to maturity, changes and transformations continually occur in the recipient's heart and character. The death and bare earthen carnality of the first Adam can never inherit the kingdom of God. The seed works within the earth swallowing up death while transforming it into victory and life. Hallelujah!
What Must We Do to Give Formation to Our Salvation? Let us become aware of our accountability to the implanted Word of the kingdom that is able to save the soul. The apostle Paul wrote to the Church saying, "Continue to give form to your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who enables you to will and to act according to his good purpose." By this he meant we are to cultivate and advance the life of the seed by willing and functioning out of God's energizing. We are to endeavor earnestly to press on to full maturity and salvation, with godly reverence, awe and trembling. Doing all we know to stand righteously, taking serious thought of what we hear, putting no confidence in human capability. Becoming watchful as to the temptations that come because of the Word, while avoiding all that discredits godliness and scandalizes the name of Christ Jesus (Phil 2:17-13).
We must consider that we cannot accomplish any of this in our own strength. It is the seed of promise that is all the while effectually at work in us. It creates and makes the power and desire of God, that is necessary to overcome the flesh and grow up into maturity, active within us. It is the seed of Christ that produces the fruit of the kingdom. The ability is in the seed and not in ourselves. It is Christ in us that will enable us to accomplish the good pleasure, satisfaction and delight of the Father. There is more to seeing a seed grow to a mature fruit bearing stage than just getting it into the ground. It is also necessary to cultivate, fertilize and irrigate the ground that holds the seed. It is God who accomplishes all these necessary things within our lives in their proper seasons. We only need to respond to him and walk faithfully in that which he entrusts to us.
What Is The Fruit of The Kingdom Seed? This glorious fruit of the kingdom is but one fruit, yet its expression is multifaceted. The fruit of the kingdom and the fruit of the Spirit are the same. The fruit that qualifies the seed of God's kingdom is love. Love that is Gentle, yet disciplines to bring forth the best from every son. Love so full of joy that it produces the Lord's strength in times of weakness and doubt. Love that superabounds in peace that passes all understanding. Love with transcending patience that takes full possession of the soul. Love that teems and runs over with kindness that manifests in mercy. Love so generously filled with goodness that it demonstrates by overcoming evil. Love so devoutly steadfast it results in the possession of great authority. Love so genuinely meek that it allows one to find the true rest of God and complete satisfaction with life's circumstances. Love that is principled in self-control resulting in a new creation man who becomes renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Love that excels in righteousness that proves the wisdom of peace in those that make peace. Love that moves in truth and reality revealing the fullness of Deity within the life of the believer.