{"id":12847,"date":"2022-03-06T00:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T00:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=12847"},"modified":"2022-03-06T00:23:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-06T00:23:00","slug":"one-human-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/12847\/one-human-condition\/","title":{"rendered":"One Human Condition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">One Human Condition<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">by: Pastor John Clark, Sr.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">There are no political divisions in the kingdom of God, and the life of every believer who walks in the Spirit reflects this truth, for he refrains from engaging in earthly political partisanships.\u00a0 Being citizens of a heavenly country, believers are \u201cambassadors for Christ\u201d, operating in this foreign land.\u00a0 They are \u201cforeigners\u201d and \u201cpilgrims\u201d temporarily living on this dying planet.\u00a0 This world is not the believer\u2019s home, and those who act as if it is, those who pursue its benefits and pleasures, \u201cpierce themselves through with many sorrows\u201d (1Tim. 6:10).\u00a0 Jesus commanded his followers to \u201cturn the other cheek\u201d, and he was the perfect example of doing so.\u00a0 While on trial for his life, he explained to Pontius Pilate, \u201cIf my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight\u201d (Jn. 18:).\u00a0 We are not here to improve earthly conditions for humans; that is for human governments to strive to do.\u00a0 God\u2019s saints are here, just as Jesus said he was, only to bear witness to the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">No purely human condition exists in the kingdom of God.\u00a0 That is why earthly socio-political partisanships are contrary to the Spirit.\u00a0 The life of godliness is neither conservative nor liberal, neither free-market nor communistic.\u00a0 God\u2019s way is simply not of this world, in any respect.\u00a0 We find God\u2019s men and women serving Him on earth as kings and queens sitting on thrones (David, Esther), and we find them serving Him as fugitives, running from authorities (David, Elijah).\u00a0 We find them on earth as slaves (Eleazar, Onesimus), and we find them as slave-masters (Abraham, Philemon).\u00a0 We find them among the richest people in the world, and we find them living in caves, wandering about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, maltreated (Heb. 11:37\u201338).\u00a0 We find them on earth as Jew and as Gentile, as male and as female, as young and as old, as educated and as uneducated.\u00a0 We find them sick, (Elisha died of a sickness) and we find them healthy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">But in God\u2019s kingdom, all human conditions are irrelevant.\u00a0 Paul touched on this when he wrote to the Galatians that in Christ, \u201cthere is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor freeman, nor male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus\u201d (Gal. 3:28).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">There is only one purely earthly condition that is promised to all believers, at all times, in all places, only one earthly condition commonly experienced by all who have ever believed and served the true God: persecution.\u00a0 Paul left his young prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Timothy, with no illusions; he warned him plainly that \u201call who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.\u201d\u00a0 This admonition mirrors that of Jesus himself, who warned Paul as a young man when he first was called, of all things he would suffer for the sake of the gospel (Acts 9:16).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Peter exhorted the saints not to be discouraged when they obeyed Christ and suffered for it:\u00a0\u201cBeloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is coming to try you, as though a strange thing is happening to you.\u00a0 On the contrary, rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ\u2019s sufferings, so that you may also rejoice and be glad at the revelation of his glory.\u00a0 If you are being reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.\u00a0 On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified\u201d (1Pet. 4:12\u201314).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">We who believe are promised but one thing on this wicked planet, that is, we will be misunderstood and unwanted by all who belong to this world.\u00a0 Nevertheless, our sure hope of eternal life and peace overrides all the hurt that this world can inflict upon us.\u00a0 That precious hope has sustained millions of hurting saints through the ages as it did Paul: \u201cI consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us\u201d (Rom. 8:18).\u00a0 So, hang in there, fellow sojourner.\u00a0 How things are in this world is not how things will always be.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One Human Condition by: Pastor John Clark, Sr. There are no political divisions in the kingdom of God, and the life of every believer who walks in the Spirit reflects this truth, for he refrains from engaging in earthly political partisanships.\u00a0 Being citizens of a heavenly country, believers are \u201cambassadors for Christ\u201d, operating in this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-netmail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12847\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}