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Kingdom Connections

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Let It Out Clip Nov 2009

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Eddie James at the Ramp Singing Psalms 27

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Jesus is more then a Rebound

To love Jesus is to be in a relationship with him. To keep his commandments. To love Jesus is to know that he comes first before anything else. That he is the one you don't just have to be with but the God you want to be with. The only God you choose to love.

You want to be so wrapped up in him that the thought of departing from him seems worse then death. At least when you are dead you feel nothing. The bible says you are asleep. But to know that you were in a relationship with Jesus and then to know you no longer have that privilege to be with him, is so terrible. Because you are aware of what you have lost and the pain that comes with that, the memory of what you have lost, will always be with you.

Its why sometimes when a relationship fails is is hard to see that person walking around everyday knowing you were once with them. Every time you see them smile, you know that once upon a time you were the reason they were happy. Once upon a time you were the one they turned to for help. You were the one they talked to on the phone or would share a joke with. To be so close to them then for whatever reason, the friendship or relationship has failed and to know you cannot have that again can be unbearable. To know your the reason it has failed can be hard to take. And it can be a long time before the hurt goes away and the wound of the heart is healed.

But as it says in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

He will not and cannot change because he is love. Its just his nature to love. He can do nothing else but love. And he came down from heaven to die for us all and rise again that we may have the opportunity to love him, to receive salvation and be with him forever.

Jesus will never say he is too tired to talk, or too busy to spend time with. We can communicate to him at any time.

I do not need to have a mobile, blackberry, computer or any other communication device or some assistance to speak to him. I can just pray and I know he is listening and will answer my prayers. His love is awesome. He will always be faithful and never let us down.

The question is then, if Jesus is so faithful to me, do I value that faithfulness to be faithful to him too??

I can have faith in someone yet be unfaithful. I can believe that a person called my mum gave birth to me but that does not automatically mean that I can love them or not hurt them. There are many cases of people who have given birth to children yet they have no love or respect for them. They just send a card to them on their birthday or just come around once every few months but there can be no relationship if you do not know them. There are parents who are have the title of parents but do not honour that title.

How many times do we hear stories of dads who are not there for their children or mums not there for their children. Not everyone that gives birth to a child can be called a mother if the relationship that involves love is not there.

Yet God loves us to adopt us as his own and treat us as his own children. And his love is manifested that he died for us on the cross, while we were yet sinners, while our righteousness were as filthy rags. Not one of us can call ourselves good. We all have lied and done something wrong. We were born sinners yet Jesus Christ made us now to be able to call ourselves the children of God, where we cry Abba father.

But when we come to Jesus. Do we sometimes know or value what he has one for us to put aside everything we used to be, to love him totally?? To fully commit ourselves to him? Do we still think about who we used to be in the world or even who or what we used to love? Have we really transformed ourselves by the renewing of our mind to forget the things of the past and move on to knowing that we have the best thing, the most treasured relationship we could ever have and ever be in, which is a relationship with Jesus?

Or do we just treat him like a rebound??? And do we really still have in our hearts a love for something else or someone????

What is a rebound?

A rebound relationship can be described as being in another relationship while still grieving over a past relationship. You can end a long term relationship and then quickly start a new one but you may still be in love with the person you were with. You may not fully be over the person you have separated from. You may get into a new relationship to try and deceive yourself in to thinking you are over the old relationship and you were in or to hide the fact that you need to face the pain of the break up of an old relationship by jumping into another relationship. You may with someone to make another partner jealous or to try and get over them quickly. To cover up the pain. A person might with another person to get rid of the pain then move on to someone else or until their ex takes them back.

You can start something new to try and cause yourself to be distracted and not feel or face the consequences of something that has happened to you. You throw yourself into something or someone else to get over what yo lost or what you did to mask the lost of something or someone you cared about.

What some people do, is to throw themselves into a another relationship to get the same warmth comfort security love they did have. They will quickly choose to be with someone to get the attention they crave or to not be alone.

They will choose to be with someone they may not have considered before yet because that person the new prospect or admirer, shows them such love and respect that they will be with them.

Some people in the world will get into another relationship quickly to prove to an old boyfriend or girlfriend that they can cope or live without them. We have all seen those comic examples on TV of the ex coming around the corner and the person who has been dumped or broken up from them, quickly kissing or drawing closer to the person they are with so as to be seen that they have got over the ex. Then as soon as the ex has gone, they draw away from the person they are with.

Do we as Christians do that??

In church we can be seen to be so holy to be so in love with Jesus, speaking in tongues crying or jumping for joy and doing cart wheels up and down the aisle to make people think we are in such a great relationship with Jesus.

Then on Monday we act as if we do not even know who Jesus is, at work, school, university, even to people who we meet throughout the week. And when we see a person form our church during the week we pretend to be doing good when we were doing something wrong.

Some people may have come to Jesus to run away from something or someone, to need a lift to feel loved by people in church or as a means to escape.

We can come to Jesus for healing for deliverance for strength for genuine help. But will we remain with him when we get what we need and Jesus answers our prayers??

That is the crux of a rebound relationship. ITS ALL ABOUT YOU.

In a rebound relationship you are in it for yourself. Your motivation is not the other person its all about YOU and being seen by others and not by the person you are with. A relationship involves two people walking in agreement together. Its about loving each other. I sacrifice myself, my needs to make someone else happy.YOU want to show someone else you are over them, YOU want to feel loved and comforted in a rebound relationship that YOU can get away from the pain of a failed relationship or something that has gone wrong in the world, that YOU can show people your not weak and can cope on your own, that YOU can be saved and that YOU can feel happy and joyful in side.

But what about JESUS???

Jesus is more then someone who you can be with for a time temporarily until something else comes along. He can give you eternal joy, eternal peace, eternal life. Jesus will not just heal you from something temporary he can give you life and life more abundantly. Jesus can make you whole. Jesus can wash away the tears from your eyes and can strengthen you in your time of need. He can be there with you in the storm of your life and in the serenity of you mind. In your happiest moment he can take you even higher and no matter how far you fall, he can pick you up again. When everyone is against you he is there on your side. And he perfects you from within to be stronger then you are and to have hope that you have a life waiting for you even after you die.

And what does he require in return?? That you love him and love others. Not too hard is it??

But when our minds can not comprehend the value of the relationship we are in, we begin to think of the relationships we had in the past.

Like the children of Israel, who in the wilderness always wanted to go back to Egypt even after God heard their cries when they were in bondage, when they were slaves and he saved them. He parted the red sea to help them escape from their enemies and fed them in the wilderness when they were hungry and quenched there thirst when they were thirsty. But as soon as trouble arose they wanted to go back to their past lives. They did not realise that God had called them to be a holy people to be his people and to be their God and to bring them to a land that they would be free. They did no sacrifices to him in 40 years they wandered in the wilderness. They did not love God and only knew him through Moses. To them God was a means to an end. No relationship just going through the motions until something better came along. God was their rebound. They wanted something from God but not God himself.

They wanted to rebound to an image of freedom. But it was really a reality of slavery they were going back to. And sometimes we as Christians when the going gets tough and we feel we cannot handle the pressure, We want to go back to our old lives to backslide and forget Jesus is the way to eternal life to a spiritual land, to heaven. And where we are going is better then what we have left.

Even in the time of the Judges, every time the people were in trouble they went to cry for help from God. But they treated God as their safety blanket their rebound and when they were saved and the judge who God would use to save them, died, they would go back to their true love. The sins of the nations around them to serve idols, to worship false gods.

Jesus is a great saviour, the only saviour who could save us from our sins and through out every generation up to his return, if we believe in the love he showed us to die for us and to bring us back into a right relationship with himself, then we must start to value the relationship we have with him and recognize his mercy his grace and the life he wants to give us. We have to know his love is the only love there is and his love for us is our eternal hope that he will fulfil his promise to give us eternal life, to return and to save us.

Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth. Have the mind to not rebound from Jesus but to rebound to him and he will always be found by you to love you with an everlasting love that is deeper then the deepest ocean and higher then the highest mountain. He is worthy of our love, our time and our commitment and dedication. To do right, to do good to live holy and to make him our entire life. There is no life without him. His relationship is the best relationship to be in.

Jesus is my rebound???

No, he is my eternal life.

Next up: God is no respector of persons. But is the Church a respector of the world today??

Coming soon.

By Jonathan Samms

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The Mustard Seed Equation

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The Beauty Of The Chase Part 3

Know we have established the make up of God by looking at the make up of man we can delve deeper into "The Beauty Of The Chase".

Losing whats most precious to you. While I was in primary school we used to sing this song called "Magic Penny" or something along those lines and one line of the chorus still sticks with me today it says "Love something if you give it away give it away love is something if you give it away you ending up having more". Let's look at a Biblical example of someone not willing to give something away because of its worth.

Remember when the Prophet Samuel was looking to anoint a new King over Israel he found himself at the house of Jesse. Jesse presented his seven sons to the prophet simply based upon their outward appearance or what he considered to be good King material but decided to leave David out tending to the sheep. What we can learn from this account in that sometimes in our Christian walk we are willing to give away assets to God that WE feel may please him but often hold on back the things most precious. So we may offer God our finances but not offer him our time or we offer him our families but not offer our jobs.
God simply requires the heart of his children. I have heard many preachers and teachers say that David was insignificant in the eye of his father I would beg to offer a different perspective. I believe that Jesse knew that David was important thus why he was reluctant to call him to Samuel, back then sheep were a form of finances and riches, the more sheep you had the more you were considered wealthy. Jesse knew that if he lost his most precious possession David, his income or livelihood would be at risk remember David would fight and kill bears and lions just to protect his fathers flock in today's corporate world managers would call that an invaluable asset someone willing to lose their life over a job! In our case our most precious possession is our hearts we are often reluctant to give it away because we feel that we may be short changed, we feel the value of our heart cannot be matched and we are afraid to give it away to someone who claims they care for it. The lesson we can learn from Jesse that although we are afraid to give away something precious God will always reward it with something better. Once David had become King, Jesse had no reason to want for anything because he was related to royalty so are we joint heirs with Christ.

Give God Your Heart

Part 4 we will look at characters and the differences in chasing God and being lethargic in your relationship!

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Jesus Come to My "RESCUE"

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The Beauty Of The Chase Part 2

1 God, who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also made the worlds . 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person , and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Hebrews 1 1v3
(Literally as I typed this scripture into this blog God was just reflecting his oneness to me even more his so awesome :D)

This scripture simply states that Jesus Christ was the express notice the word express not duplicate or carbon copy, but express in other words meaning he was the precise image of God.

15 Who(Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in Heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created by him and form him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 1v15v17

This scripture also states that Jesus Christ is the image of the God that revealed himself in shadows or forms and types was all wrapped up in Christ. The scripture further backs the point that by him (Jesus) all things were created. Lets jump back to Genesis 1 In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth. Jesus Christ was God manifested in the flesh. St John 1v1-4 and numerous other scriptures point out this evidence, I slowly digress from my original point which was man was made in the image of God. Jesus Christ is the visible form in which we can recognise God. Hebrews tells us that he can be touched by the feelings of our infirmities, Matthew tells us that Jesus was tempted by the devil, the gospel of John tells us that Jesus wept.

If we were in the image of God and Jesus was the God-Man we should see that we as humans are made up of three components. Body, Soul, Spirit. In the beginning God created man that the spirit would govern the soul of a man and that the soul would govern the body.

If this is a bit confusing allow me to break it down. St John states that God is a spirit and we are products of God so we have spirit. The soul can be translated into three smaller compartments and these are the mind, will and emotion. Remember when Jesus prayed in the garden he subjected his will to the Father, remember that Jesus wept(an emotion) and remember when Jesus was being tempted he controlled his mind. These make what we call the Soul or Heart and finally the body. The body is a outward shell to protect to contain soul and spirit, thus why we repeat ashes to ashes dust to dust because that's what the body is. But in the garden of Eden once man ate from the tree God's original make up for man was corrupted leading us in a desperate need of a saviour........

Part 3 Coming Soon we look at the price of preciousness and start to look at the role and character of David and other characters, follow as we go deep into "The Beauty Of The Chase"

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The Real World Cup!!!

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The Ramp Damon Thompson - Covenant with God

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Eddie James - Free to Run/Freedom Medley part 1

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"Revelation Song" - Gateway Worship, Song led by Kari Jobe

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"I AM" by Eddie James

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The Beauty Of The Chase Part 1

1 To the chief Musician. A contemplation of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for oh, O God 2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalms 42 v 1-2

And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony and said, I
have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which fulfill all my will

Acts 13v22

I had a small thought just on my way to work and on my way their I was just lead into worship and songs were constantly being dropped into my spirit. The songs were mainly focused on our wanting of God and how desperately we actually need need him in our lives, so I questioned God and asked why did he drop these thoughts and songs into my spirit it was simply put

"The Beauty Of The Chase"

If we were to look at the word "chase" what synonyms would come to mind? If you have answers like hunt,race, go after, pursue, track down and tail we seem to be on the same page. These English words can only help describe the original content of the translation we have above. If we understand the concept of chasing the revelation will become more apparent.

In the case of David, when Luke recorded the book of Acts we see that he is expressing Paul's sermon or message of exhortation to the saints in Antioch we can assume that this was a Jewish audience as Paul felt it necessary to start from the story of Exodus right up to John the Baptist and from John it leads unto the death,burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In verse 21 Paul talks of the children of Israel wanting to be like other nations and have a physical King little did they acknowledge that they had a King living and dwelling amongst them known as Jehovah or Yahweh.

The reason why I believe that Paul mentioned that David was a man after God's own heart to help show the difference in characters between Saul and David. One king has been chosen by his outward appearance, his charisma, his charm, his looks and his popularity. David had all the above traits as Saul, notice why God told Samuel not to look on their outward appearance or the status, we know begin to learn that David was chosen because he chased after the heart of God............

The Bible states in Genesis that man was made in the image of God. The image? What does that exactly mean lets take a look at some scriptures.

Part 2 Coming Soon..........

We take a look at the scriptures that help us understand the "imago dei" the Image of God and why we are chosen to look and be like him. We take a closer look into some of the characters of the Bible who portray God's characteristics and more in the life of David.

Be blessed and encouraged and invite people along to the blog to read,share and comment on the growing work of publications by Kingdom Connections!

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The Beauty Of The Chase Series

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Grateful

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YPJ-Hold your peace pt. 2

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YPJ "Hold your peace"

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Fear: an unholy sanctification

Fear.........

The enemy put a thought into Eves head that led her to sin.

She disobeyed Gods commandment and led Adam to do the same. From then on their eyes were opened and they had knowledge of good and evil.

When Adam heard God walking in the cool of the day they hid themselves. When God called out for them, Adam answered that they hid themselves because they were naked.

The devil gave us the spirit of fear. It did not come from God. God gave us the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.

What knowledge does is make us be aware of what we can do and achieve but also of what can hurt or harm us.

Adam and Eve knew they were naked from the knowledge that they had, from eating of the forbidden fruit. From the knowledge came fear.

But it was not a fear of disobeying God. It was a fear of what they looked like and who they were. They sewed aprons together to cover their nakedness. All that time the knowledge to obey God was not retained in their minds but they were now going by their own understanding.

Adam did not say he hid because he was afraid of the punishment of what he had done, but because he was naked. It was about him and not about God. Fear makes us think about our selves and not about God.

Many in church do not fear God. It leads them to take lightly the penalty of disobeying God. It leads some to go back into the world or take on worldliness and bring it into the church. They are led to forget about God. They no longer reverence him. He becomes last in the list of priorities in life, making us forget that without him there is no life, just death.

From fear comes jealousy, hatred, pain strife torment. All the things that are not of God. In Gods love there is no torment.

1st John chapter 4 verse 18 "There is no fear in love;but perfect love casteth out fear:because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

Fear separates us from God because we no longer trust that God can save us or deliver us. We even forget about God altogether. When you do not trust God you are led to trust in things that cannot help or sustain and will not last like money, the cares of this world.

We begin to love things that we can find no comfort in. Things that make us yearn to feel safe and secure but are short term and quickly spent out. Gods love is strength in a time of trouble. It satisfies and comforts. It gives you warmth and identity. A place to call home. Knowing that someone loves you brings happiness and contentment. You know someone is always there for you.

The cares of this world, what we think is good and not Gods goodness, leads to more fear and you find yourself going deeper into ruin. You can love money. But the fear is that you will never have enough. The more bills you pay, the more stress you find yourself in having to find more money to pay the bills. Even if you find yourself mega rich you will find that the joy is not in money. You will still yearn to have substance to your life. You will desire a goal. Something to give your life meaning. Money cannot say I love you. Being rich and being alone is the worse thing that you can have in this life. setting your heart on money makes you deny yourself the happiness of being content with what you have. It stops you from relying on God to provide what you need. You will value money more then God and loosing that money, the FEAR of loosing that money, leads to covetousness which is not of God.

1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves though with many sorrows"

You have erred from the faith because you are afraid of loosing what you have instead of the greatest fear of loosing God in your life.

The enemy made Eve love and desire something not of God. And it led to her and Adam being thrown out of the garden of Eden and their relationship with God. Sin separated them.

The devil planted into us his thoughts his desires. The worst thing he did was give us an option.

Soemthing else to consider. An option that led us away from God.

You cannot love God and yet be in torment. If you love God, you are in him and he in you. There is no relationship with God if you are afraid. The perfect love of God casts out fear. If you love God your filled with his spirit and will be led by him into all truth. When you know the truth of something then you do not have to fear. All Adam and Eve knew was God. Until the enemy came and gave them something else to know. But what they knew made them afraid and so they hid themselves from God. The lie made them inherit fear. Faith in Jesus breaks that fear and re-establishes a relationship with God. Faith in Jesus sets us free from sin and being afraid. Faith in his promise of eternal life which can only be found in Jesus.

Do we in the church hide ourselves away from doing the work of the great commission? Are we afraid of change if we save the souls of people not of the same skin colour or from a different background? Are we afraid of change? Has the church programme, the routine of service, become our veil which we hide behind?? Is it our apron that Adam and Eve used to cover their nakedness what we use today to hide from God in the house of God??

Luke chapter 24 verse 47 "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

When we are afraid to tell people about the gospel of Christ because of fear of what they might do or say then we are letting the enemy win and control us. We are being separated from God and doing his work, obeying his commandments. We cannot say we love God and yet not follow his commandments so fear separates us from loving God.

When we are afraid in church to go to the altar for deliverance we are letting the enemy win. Fear of passing exams, fear of failing, fear of not being good enough, fear of loneliness, fear to change, fear to step out, fear to declare our love for God, to speak in tongues, fear to live to the glory of God. Is fear killing our relationship with God??

Fear of David becoming king led Saul to jealousy and rage and hatred. Fear made Peter deny Jesus three times. Fear made The ten spies come back with an evil report about the land that God had promised them. (Numbers chapter 13) They were afraid of the people in the land. How big they were and how huge they looked and how they looked compared to them. But Caleb and Joshua had faith in God.

Fear delays our blessing and leads us to separate ourselves from God. How can he can help us in our lives to find happiness and peace if we are afraid to believe he can do it?? Trusting in God, having good courage and knowing God through faith is the way to overcome fear. In Jesus we have power over death itself. We have the promise of eternal life. We do not have to be afraid of death. It has no hold on us.

We have inherited it. But because of Jesus we do not have to live by it. For if you love God you cast out fear. And in the presence of God there is no fear but eternal peace.

Fear bound us, but now by grace we can bind it and be free. In Jesus we have liberty.