having the proper perspective is key to understanding some of the toughest questions
in life unfortunately we don't get personal angelic visits each time we have a situation we
don't understand truthfully there are many things in life that we may never fully understand in this
world but god has given us clues in his word that reveal his heart and his strategy for life
as you are discovering more about yeshua you'll start to see that in the light of what he did
and what he said much of your worldview will change in one of his defining statements he said
i am the light of the world the one who follows me will no longer walk in darkness
but will have the light of life have you ever felt that you're stumbling along in life
lacking purpose or vision without proper vision things just don't make sense you lose motivation
and purpose and without proper spiritual vision even serving god can be reduced to
simply cold and impersonal religious acts as we read the bible in the context of yeshua's words
we start to piece together some of these key vision points that help us shape this view
one of the first vision points that yeshua makes clear is that god's desires to have a relationship
with man he wants us to have more than a religion and the second point is a view towards the future
of a kingdom coming that puts all of our struggles and the hard questions of
this life in perspective but first what's the relationship that god designed to have with us
consider the cry of the prophets in the tanach isaiah says of israel for your husband is your
maker adonaitesva'ot is his name the prophet hosea also speaks of god's heart for his
people when he says on that day says adonai you will call me ishi my husband no longer
will you call me ba'ali my master many times throughout scripture you see the same theme
he's not a cold master or a disconnected god he's our husband our love and our god
religion many times paints a distant god disconnected and cold but the truth is he's
the lover of our soul who desires to be intimately connected with us on a daily basis take a look for
yourself in the torah and the prophets and see how he's pursued his people throughout the ages
but think about it what can we give god does he want our money to do good deeds by earning
our way to him no way he can manifest anything he wishes he can turn the seas to gold if he'd like
the scripture says the earth is the lord's and the fullness of it maybe he wants us to perfectly
perform mitzvot and religious rituals of course not if he wanted perfection he could have left out
free will and just made us do it and honestly if we won't do the work he's called us to do he could
easily raise up others in our place so what can we give to god that he couldn't make or do himself
our faith and love is really all he wants of us to get to the core of it all god wants us to give our
lives to him and to live in relationship with him and for him each day this would
also naturally lead to our obeying him and living the way he declared as the right way in the bible
in the book of matthew a man came to yeshua and asked a critical question
he said rabbi which of the mitzvot in the torah is the most important he told him you are to love
adonai your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength this
is the greatest and most important mitzvah and a second is similar to it you are to love
your neighbor as yourself all of the torah and the prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot
the teaching of yeshua was not to destroy the commandments but to fulfill them by writing
them on our hearts so that with the help of the holy spirit we obey god from the heart it is what
we want to do not what we are forced to do god's target of transformation centers around our hearts
we need him to fix our heart so that we honor him through our love and enter into a deep personal
relationship with our creator and because we have this relationship with god his love
will flow to others through us in fact yeshua is changing the world one heart at a time now what's
this kingdom thing we're talking about let's start with where the idea of a kingdom comes from
we need to start with the bible of course god's desire to be a king over his chosen people began
with the exodus when he led his people out of bondage and gave the torah at mount sinai
fast forward past moses and joshua to the time of the prophet samuel israel asked for a king from
his own people rejecting samuel's leadership but god knowing their heart said to samuel
these people have not rejected you samuel they've rejected me as their king
the same theme repeats over and over throughout the scriptures that the people all did what was
right in their own eyes instead of what was right with god god did give israel a king with soul
but king saul disobeyed god and quickly went down a dangerous path for himself and israel
israel had some good kings like david and others were bad and some flat out evil and
led israel on the wrong path but we also see a promise god made to david about sending a king
the ultimate anointed called the messiah to sit on david's throne forevermore and he would be a
great king who loves his people and would bring everlasting peace and order to a broken world
god promised david he will build a house for my name and i will establish his royal throne forever
we also understand that the kingdom of god includes a spiritual realm as well as a
physical one after all the god of the universe is the ruler over all things that which we can
see and what we cannot we would therefore expect the messiah to reign over the kingdom of israel
and to rule spiritually in the hearts of those who embrace him as the king of their lives
too often we focus on the physical kingdom and forget about the spiritual one day the
spiritual and physical kingdoms will be united when yeshua sits on the future davidic throne
but for now we wait in hope for the fulfillment of the many kingdom promises we read about in
the bible and enjoy the spiritual aspects of the kingdom brought in by yeshua at his first coming
and is available to all who give their lives to him the jewish leaders who literally saw
and heard yeshua at his first coming probably over emphasized the coming physical kingdom
and did not grasp the importance of personally submitting their hearts to the king and living
lives in obedience to his will in fact many expected yeshua to take the throne kick out herod
and the romans and lead the people into victory over all their mortal enemies but god's number one
enemy was not rome nor any of the kingdoms of this world though one day even the nations of the world
will meet yeshua and well be judged especially for the way they treated him and his chosen people
god's number one enemy is our sin sin manifested in our personal rebellion separates us from him
as isaiah the prophet said all of us like sheep have gone astray
each of us has turned to his own way but the lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him
god's prime objective has been to bring us back into the relationship with him
that he first designed when we are the rulers over our lives doing whatever we want we lead
a lifestyle that leads us away from god our true and only ruler we're left empty get angry and lack
purpose and meaning in our lives instead of looking to god we step on others steal
or manipulate to get what we want james stated it well where do wars and fights come from among you
do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members you lust and do not have
you murder and covet and cannot obtain you fight and war yet you do not have because you do not ask
so here we see the battle lines drawn the kingdom of this world versus the kingdom of god
the kingdom of the world trusts in the might of sword wealth and political power while the kingdom
of god trusts in a god who alone is the true king of israel and ruler of the world the kingdom of
the world advances by exercising my power to control my world while the kingdom of god grows
by our turning over control to god the kingdom of the world focuses on outward behavior
while the kingdom of god transforms lives from the inside out the kingdom of the world is rooted in
advancing our self-interests while the kingdom of god is centered exclusively on carrying out
god's will even if it requires sacrificing our own self-interests the kingdom of god is
centered on people living for the messiah yeshua and bringing his love ethics and light to a broken
and dark world the kingdom of the world is a tit-for-tat kingdom its motto is an eye for an
eye a tooth for a tooth it carries the sword and revenge for every injustice but in god's kingdom
he leads by example yeshua came to serve heal and save and even in the face of rejection persecution
and unbelief he laid down his life to save us and bring us back into relationship with him in his
example we aren't ever to return evil for evil or violence with violence we are rather to manifest
the unique kingdom of messiah by returning evil with good far from seeking retaliation we seek the
well-being of our enemy and finally the kingdoms of this world fight earthly battles over land
sea and air the battles of the kingdom of god are not against enemies of flesh and blood it
is rather against rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers of this present darkness
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places
yeshua will return someday soon and his earthly kingdom and all the prophecies about his reigning
as king will come to pass but at this time he wants to rule our hearts the great rabbi soul
of tassis wrote in his letter to the corinthians for our trouble light and momentary is producing
for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison as we look not at what can be seen but
at what cannot be seen for what can be seen is temporary but what cannot be seen is eternal some
perspective on what saul considered to be light and momentary trouble was being stoned shipwrecked
beaten and then shackled in prison hungry cold and disowned by his friends and family
it might seem that saul was a bit insane to have that perspective but when we compare our life to
the weight of the eternal kingdom of god it is only a raindrop in the ocean if you knew that
you had to endure walking over a bed of coals or a two-minute swim in the arctic ocean but at the
other side of that challenge you'd be receiving a 10 million dollar prize the addict plunge
or the red hot coals would seem to be a walk in the park because you were looking to that
reward but it's actually much better than that you will for sure encounter trials as a follower
of yeshua but following him has huge blessings and rewards in this life not just the one to come
it's easy to see how this can change your life perspective when bad things happen when
you aren't getting what you think you need perspective is key yeshua's teachings are
the lens and the light that we will be using to understand the bible in the coming weeks
the more that we learn from him the more we discover about life god and the future to come
you