From Covenant to Kingdom

God of creation approached a man whom He had made and initiated a Covenant with Him. Offered life and blessing, protection, inheritance, sons and honour IF he would participate in the Covenant. This is an image of what Jesus reclaimed for humanity through the work he did on the cross. Yes that was His work, to obey His Father, He went to the cross. No one forced Him, He gave up His life that we might have life and experience it to the full.

In the same way that Abraham entered into Covenant with God through blood sacrifice, we enter the Kingdom through Jesus' blood, through his love demonstrated at the cross.

In the Kingdom of which Jesus spoke, there is a people rising up, reclaiming the covenant relationship we have with The Father. There is life and power and freedom in the Kingdom IF we will participate through surrender. Paul wrote, I want to know Him and the Power of the resurrection... My only goal this year, this ONE THING I do, forgetting what is behind I press on ... to become one with Him so that I can experience the power of the Kingdom in me.

The Barbarian Way E. R. McManus

Because Jesus did not suffer and die so that we could build for ourselves havens but so that we might expand the Kingdom of His love. Because invisible kingdoms are at war for the hearts and lives of every human being that walks on the face of the earth. And times of war require barbarians who are willing to risk life itself for the freedom of others. The irony of course is that barbarians are driven away in times of peace. They only disrupt our communities, traditions and sensibilities. It is only in the most desperate of times - times of war and conflict that these outcasts are welcome or even invited to return.

Jephthah, the son of a harlot was despised by his people and dispelled from his tribe. Those who chose to join him were considered a band of worthless men, yet his story reminds us that the very ones who are unwanted and driven from among us are the ones we most need to lead in times of war. Barbarians can be counted as worthless when all is safe and secure but dangerous times suddenly make them invaluable. We live in such times and we are not ready for the great challenges that are set before us. We have not been prepared to take on any great quest, to battle any great enemy or even to pursue the great dream for which we have been born.

Instead, Christianity has become our Shawshank and our redemption will only come if we find the courage to escape the prison we have created for ourselves. Risking everything to live free is our only hope - humanities only hope. Jesus has been lost in a religion bearing His name. People are being lost because they cannot reconcile Jesus' association with Christianity. Christianity has become docile, domesticated, civilized. We have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes, dreams and souls of a humanity without God. It is time to hear the barbarian call, to form a barbarian tribe, and to unleash the barbarian revolt. Let the invasion begin.