Former location of "The Kingdom of the Heavens" blog, written by an incurable fool who is trying to become a holy fool!
Jesus called Himself the whole vine—which includes each of the branches—not just the root or the trunk of the vine. Thus, we are one with Him as the branch is one with the vine. We are each a part of Him, just as he is the life of each of us…. if we live in Christ and His words live in us, anything we ask will be done for us, because the Father is glorified when we bear fruit.
All of our questions about the oneness of the Church, as a present reality, are answered if we truly recognize Christ as its Head… However, our choice for or against the truth does not affect the reality that Christ died to make us one with Himself and with each other. His work is done, and our oneness is a present, completed truth that should influence all of our conduct.
This post will draw no conclusions, but will simply briefly raise a question: is the Church acting in oneness one of the conditions that must be met before the Lord returns? This question arises from two independent lines of scriptures. First, in Matthew 24:14 (NASB), Jesus stated that “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole…
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He has shown us the way into a new life, a life beyond death, a life that is at peace with God. We must receive his life and follow him, living in the Spirit as he did. That is all. No “merit” is involved. God doesn’t look at our “merit.” Jesus doesn’t save us by giving us his “merit;” he saves us by giving us himself. This is the key to freedom.
Eternity is not defined by time. Time is defined by eternity, and the Eternal One who created it and has an existence outside of it. God brought time, as a creative process, into his Creation out of eternity. God’s eternity, watching over all time, renders time itself a creative process, a process his children can trust to work ultimately for our good. The time that has gone before us, our own time on Earth, and the time after us to Jesus’ coming, all of history, are all a part of the same creative process that started when God created the heavens and the earth. History in its completion is an aspect of Creation and a manifestation of God.