The Expression Bible

(The Expression Bible: Most study Bibles and Commentaries are based in observation of external evidence and information, as it relates to the written word of God from the outside looking in, as the name denotes, commenting about it, which is good as a study aid. However, this requires back and forth reading of the scripture and the notes. This new version attempts to integrate the study into the reading of the scripture, while keeping it separate from the scripture at the same time in its layout to avoid confusion. It is also designed to study from the inside looking out, in that, it does not comment about it, but expresses itself in the first person, as though the author was offering the expression themselves increasing readability. Then along with that internal expression, I am also integrating at times external evidences and observations, into the text of the Expression, not the actual scripture. The goal here then is to have an easier flow of the scripture text and the study text combined. This is not designed to appeal to theologians or detail oriented readers, who want to know the source of every expression. Rather it is to give the reader the benefit of the resource of theology, in an integrated, easy to read format. In other words, it is for them, who want to take the medicine, not those trying to learn how to decipher the writing on the prescription or be able to write prescriptions. It is written for the patients, not the doctors or even the pharmacists.) 

Divisions in the Church

3:1 So,
> In light of what God had meant you to be by now, and in spite of this wonderful estate that God has given in you, in reflecting back to what I just told you about our spiritual insight. You still need to be dealt with outside of that realm of thinking at first, until your minds actually becomes awakened and sensitive to it and it is a living state in you. It is as though you have received the written word of God, but it is just collecting dust on the shelf, and you never consult it to see what God is saying. This is how I see it playing out in you, religious people on the outside, but not on the inside. Nothing at all like the fire of holiness in you, driving you further into investigation, beyond that which you already know.
brothers and sisters,
> And as close as you are to my heart, in that you are my family in every way, adopted both in its heavenly meaning and earthly form. That is my only kind words that I can offer to you in this situation, the rest is going to be more like a scolding then a pep talk or voice of encouragement driving you on in a race. This is what you appear to me to be more like, acting out as spectators in this, than runners.
I could not
> I was prevented by circumstances beyond my control, because of the fact that you yourselves lack self-control, as to how I engage you. I am essentially being blocked from that which I should be doing for your benefit and growth, directly as a result of you, intended or not, those are the circumstances that exist. I therefore have no power of spiritual truth to come into your midst with power, to tell you to run the race, but rather a weakened state in your delicate condition, which has left vulnerable to disease, as it were. You are more like wounded and malnourished soldiers in need of rescue, then that of a finely honed and tight knit unit, who took their training serious. You took it all for granted and are now paying the price in your lack of performance or longevity or staying power. While others have advanced, you are still in training, tending to the wounds you received in training, not in battle. You got lost in the drills that were meant to train you, you were defeated before you ever engaged the enemy, and friendly fire took you out among your infighting.
speak
> So for me to address you as people ready for their mission in the church, of which I should be engaging you in a deep discussion of the tactics to be employed in you. Instead, I am speaking about having to redo your initial training from the beginning. As a unit, you have failed to watch each others backs, in fact just the opposite, you ran out on each other and became you own worst enemy in your first assignment of the church.
to you
> The source of the problem being, that which is in that state which exists among you, which is not able to bear much responsibility, in that it would have been no gain for me to bring you into the fuller efforts of the church. Because you have fallen behind in your own slothful methods and attitudes concerning the mission, in what you have taken upon yourselves at this point. You are bogged down in our own operations, so how can you be of value to others.
as
> I am unable to give you your next lesson, in a manner that would reflect your advancement in your Christians walk. Because you have yet to learn the basics of what is required of you.
spiritual people,
> I want to talk to your new creation in you, in that divine language and discourse that I had just taught you all about, but you quench the work of the Holy Spirit in you and grieve his heart by not even trying to hear him in you. You are still deaf in that regard, as to what you are listening to the Spirit of God say to you. When God speaks in the church to you, you treat it as though it was no more than show and tell, with each pitted against one another, for God.
but
> In fact, I am sounding as if I am contradicting myself in the teaching of having spiritual insight, having stated what power we receive from it, and here I am with you in this dilemma, where it is not active in you for the purpose of spiritual growth. As you have misused the gifts of God among you, not for his glory, but for yours. The power is their present among you, but you are using it to watch television, rather than to power the tools for church building.
instead
> I am almost still preaching the gospel of the cross to you, because you do not yet know its meaning in you, as the full reality of its call. I feel more like I am redoing a church plant in you, rather than challenging you and taking you into to an even deeper knowledge of God.
as people
> Your position before me is more like those I call to come to Christ in repentance, then that of those I am teaching deep things to as learning disciples of our Lord. Your state is that degeneration among you, because you are worse than when I left you. Which now as a body of believers, you are becoming disjointed from the rest of the church, and that only leaves one fate in you, spiritual death, as to what you are in relevance to the rest of Christ body that is thriving around you.
of the
> Because you did not get it right the first time, it is like you have not received the Holy Spirit yet in the areas of self-discipline, even though you have the Holy Spirit, you have not allowed him to affect your thinking and be your controlling interest in you. Your thought process is that which you have always used in any business transaction with each other, rather than that of a close knit family. Because you are not seeking the Holy Spirit, but relying on old habits and methods to do Gods work among you. You are only coming together to receive from each other in fellowship, rather than to contribute, which is the real meaning of fellowship.
flesh,
> Though it would appear you are still in need of regeneration, you’re not, you are simply not taking your church life seriously enough. You have all these spiritual gifts, yet they are being used only for entertainment among you, not to reveal the serious labors you need to undertake in building a church body for the cross. You are approaching life the same old way that never worked before without Christ, and trying to apply it in the church, but it will never work in the church either, because it is the wrong source of power that the church operates under. You are trying to infuse the church with power, thru the ways and means of the world, and not the ways and means of God. You are interrupting God according the ways that man thinks, instead of interrupting the ways of man, according to the way that God thinks.
as infants
> You are treating this all as mere child’s play, without any intention of growing out of its immaturity in you. Because of that, I have to teach you all over again the simple-minded things, in how to just get along by instituting the Spirit in you. You apparently let my prior teaching go in one ear and out the other, which proves my prior comment of one man not knowing what another is thinking. You led me to believe that you took my advice in the operation of the church and attitude toward God. I was sure when I left you that you were going to be a powerful church for the kingdom of Christ, but you have let me down in that respect.
in Christ.
> So far as you relationship to Jesus is concerned, you are content in your position with him, to only know him as an acquaintance and not an intimate love in your life. This nothing more than puppy love and playing church, it is like children’s playhouse for you, that which you put on and take off the in the role of it, as it is convenient in you to do. It is not deeply rooted in you, as I had supposed it was and as it should have remained.

3:2 I
> The conclusion that I have reached concerning you, in light my previous work in you, is to reprove you. So as to once again help you find shame in yourselves before the cross, for the way you have acted. To return you to the very beginning of your salvation, and start all over again, without the trust I once showed in you to do it right automatically on your own.
fed you
> Both the way that I first taught you, and what I taught, was correct for that time. It was designed to get you setup for what was coming, and allow you the liberty of grace in you, to have its way in you. I assumed your enthusiasm for the cross was more than skin deep; that the nourishment I gave you would loose its flavor and its ability to fill you, leaving you with greater desires for your mission in life and ready to move on.
milk,
> I gave you the very basics that you needed to quickly gain growth in you, to a point of preparing you to being able be ready for opportunities of greater essence, once they came along. What I taught you, was the first spiritual truths upon which our salvation is based, along with the instruction of what is a church and its function during the church age. It being a very well thought out process by God, for us to function and mature in as ambassador of Christ on earth. Which leaves open the question, how do you fulfill that position, if you are not engaging the Holy Spirit in maturing you to answer the hard questions of both doctrine and life problems? How does your ambassadorship represent Christ, when it is all about who you are as one group pitted against another?
not
> I did not try to overload you in the beginning with what was more than you were able to handle. I new that every parent must at some point let go and let their children become fellow adults with them at your own pace, and that was my plan for you. To bring you to the point of self-sufficiency in Christ, and then allow you to forage for those truths, in your own adventure with him, in that discovery process.
solid food,
> The more mature teachings of God, take us from just keeping our shoes on the right feet, and gets us into a stance of running offensive missions in the earth. Projecting ourselves beyond ourselves, in the Holy Spirit of Gods ministry here on earth, the milk of Gods word is like the stretching exercise before the race, not the race. That means you are able to do more than just exist in showing up, but that you are able to carry the load of responsibility in your preaching, teaching and ministry. To just exist for the purpose of Sunday worship, is a church that is dying from the inside out. You will never survive in the long run, on the meager spiritual teachings, and feel good sermons that do not challenge you to do anything. You have to graduate and move up in your spiritual studies, just as you would with reading, writing and arithmetic in regular school. Advancing the process of learning, by adding to what you were previously taught. The process is the same, except the spiritual benefits reflect their source in the Holy Spirit, and the fruits of God being produced thru you, not the worlds.
for you
> At that time, you were what you were supposed to be, new Christians, doing and being what was expected of you. I had no big plans for you right then, beyond a solid foundation in Christ that I left you in. I did not lay on you the harshness of the law, because I new it was to heavy for you, even though it was my desire to see you coming to grips with its truth and virtue in you.
were not
> Because in every new church, you have to first allow the foundation to settle into its base, so it is able to bear more weight, but that was not yet your state at the time, you were newly formed and not ready for the weight of Gods laboring in you. The time of testing and pruning you was not yet your state, you were in the rooting stage of setting fundamental beliefs, which is fine and as it is with every new church..
yet ready.
> To carry that thought now into the spiritual meaning of it, you were still unable to digest the meaning of the hard to accept teachings of God, because they are by design, unacceptable to man. You needed to be prepared for the shock to your system that they would present to you, when you realized how much more unfathomable is God and how awe-inspiring are his ways, that you were still unaware of. God cannot either unload onto you the depths of your sin that need be brought under the rule of his Spirit, nor for you to see the fullness of his glory. Even as Moses hid in the clef of the rock from the consuming power of Gods glory, we must hide ourselves in the clef of Jesus, who is our rock of protection before God. But you are not trying to hide in Christ; you are out in the open, exposed to the danger of Gods wrath, as not seeking him in the truth of his sons cross of shame, as ones coming to the Father in the protection of being hid is Jesus.
In fact,
> The hard truth about you now is, that little has changed from that which you were in the basics of the wisdom of God that I first gave to you. And not only is that true, but the state of your church now completely off its foundation, in that; Christ is not the foundation that the teaching of your church is resting on. It is now based in the precepts and principles of the world around you, in that you are mimicking them and their image, rather than Christ. You have adopted the ways of the world and its culture into the midst of the church, which are incompatible with spiritual growth, because spiritual growth shuns them.
you are
> I left you with the foundation of Christ, but you have moved off from it because you did not like its location, it was not a lush place of comfort for you, so you began to build somewhere else. An experiment with designs of your own creation, just as man always does, trying to make God in your image, rather then yourselves in his. You began to promote ideology as something to know, rather than the simple designs of the cross as being sufficient among you to know. God made the cross a place of shame, but you tried to make it a point of pride in to be known thru you as place of renown and prestige.
still
> And there you sit among the rubble of a crumbling church, that is uninhabitable for the glory of God, who only comes and establishes his church upon Christ. God does not alter is plan, just because we want it another way, we must adjust to him, not the other way around or he will take away the cross from among you, as your banner to carry and give it to another more serious minded group. Your banner with God is not a right, but a privilege, a gift to allow living as you should before God. You do not make his banner go before you, God must place it there on you behalf, because it is high and lifted up out of our reach, and we are simple acknowledgments of it. When we lift the banner high in our praise, we are merely declaring where it is in our recognizing it as an observation, not where we are causing it to be.
not ready,
> I gave you the chance you needed to succeed, but you did not take it from me in the original form of encouragement, so I will have to come to you in my only recourse left, discipline. So if that is how you want it, then that is how I will treat you, scolding and talking down to you, rather than engaging you with the deep wonderful things of God, at eye to eye level, that I would have preferred.

3:3 for
> There is a definable reason for the way that you are acting, the evidence is all around you, but you cannot see it, because you are part of the problem. It is that conflict of being so engrossed in the issues as your focal point that the issues become who you are as a people. But you cannot sense or perceive them because of the tunnel vision by which you view all things thru, which is in relation first to the issues that you deem desirable, instead of the message-of-the-cross.
you are
> The sense among you, is that there are things of your prior life that you simply do not want to let go of, call them creature comforts, esthetics, social acceptability, family ties or ethnic culture. Whatever they are, they are being used by the devil to trip you up, and it is working. You are applying the ways of the world to the cross and letting that define who you are, instead of the cross to the ways of the world and letting the message-of-the-cross, become that definition of you. You are being ruled by emotions, rather than the absolutes of Christ’s doctrines.
still
> Because of that, until you break your ties with them and consider them as something bad, as defined by God, instead of something good as defined by the world. Your perspective in life will always be corrupted towards the ways of the world, instead of the ways of God. You have every reason in the world to like the things of the world as eye pleasing to you, but no reason in the spiritual view of them, to give them any credence or place among you, they have no spiritual usage and are the baggage of life you should have discarded.
influenced by
> Therefore, you will be moving towards the world and away from God in all that you do in practicing them, it is a reflection of what you treasure most in life, coming out from you and affecting your thinking even in the church. It means you are being drawn to a reference point that is not the cross and that it has controlling interest over you in your thought process. That you are under the influence of an external power that is not in league with God, but against him, and you’re bringing that to church with you.
the flesh.
> You have allowed yourselves to be subject to the mind of man, and the sin nature that is pressing you to stay in it for temporary rewards that it provides you. You are seeking its instant gratification, over the timing and patience of virtue in Gods Holy Spirit, working things out in you for that which is future in you, not just the present. Your flesh has no future, it is dying as we speak and worthless to God in your service to him, you need to think of it as past tense, of its relevance in you and in its relationship to God.
For
> The premise of my argument for this, is in the very way that you have organized and setup the operations of your local church. When they are compared to the message-of-the-cross, they do not hold any weight to be measured against the cross, as having relevance in the time you have to live. In that, these are temporal stakes you have put down that will shift with time, within the ways of man, without foundation or security in the future, only Christ holds your future securely, so he must be central to your thinking.
since
> Because that fact is evidenced in you that it is not Christ, and that among the church as being an acceptable estate with you. The fact that it is so acceptable among you alone, proves it is not from God and that you have completely bought into this concept as a whole lifestyle.
there is
> As a result of that, it is producing the expected results that one sees among non-Christians, things that you once embraced and expressed repentance over, but now have embraced them again as acceptable in you before God. You are taking back up you old ways and making them as acceptable living in you, making a place for them as a substitute for godly character.
still
> These then are some of the things that I see you are using to try to establish the church and say it is of Gods work in you, but it is not. These are all based in power struggles amidst you as a means to an end, thru the efforts of man and the viewpoint of the world, which you were supposed to come out of.
Jealousy,
> You display the envy of everyone else in you, in your desires of wanting to be first and to be the more prominent among you. You use these emotions as your base of operations in the church; it is like a competition among you without rewards, because it dishonors God. You internalize everything others do as a threat against you, instead of adding what they accomplish to your future prospects of a healthy church, just because you did not do it first and get credit for it. You are not glad for others success, only angry that you did not get yours.
Strife, (added to net bible text)
> Instead of coming together under the cross of agreement, you fight about things unrelated to the cross as the major points in your life. But which are really the disposable things, as what they should be in your view of them. You come together, only to bicker and debate about who is right and prove others wrong. You live only to fight with and point out the faults of others in the church, but where is Christ in that? We all stand alone before Christ for that which we do on earth in his name, so what does the name of another have to do with Christ and your service to him, nothing at all! You think doctrines of men define you, but what happens when you are wrong, as I am pointing out that you are now in your beliefs. Will you abandon Christ as the multitude of disciples did, when what they found out that what they thought they knew about Jesus was all wrong. When he told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood to be one of his followers, and it was too hard a saying for them, so unacceptable to them, they left him. Will you do the same every time hard sayings come upon you, or will you follow Christ, as only the twelve disciples did?
and dissension
> You are taking sides and claiming rights of moral correctness, based in human analogy of them. These are human in origin among you, from beginning to end, without out ever exposing there ideologies to the test of the message-of-the-cross and how they glorify our Lord. That is because they were formed by the ideologues or dreamers among you for their own benefit, without the foundation of Christ. Which you must reject as a whole, not taking one side or another, but as a whole practice among you, you must put down those who seek prominence among you. Ending the establishment of factions and cliques to be the backbone of which you are, based on those who wish to be something among you, which does promote the message-of-the-cross. The church is designed by God to embrace repentant sinners and reject those who deviate from that statue of grace at work in us, and try to replace it with a social structure with men as it hierarchy. We should take in sinners, and put out from us the self-righteous and self-seeking among us. Sinners do not threaten the health of the church, God designed us for them, and it is those who think themselves above the fray of the cross, which wound Christ anew among us. So our divisions should be against them, not with them in siding against each other. Giving the sinners the help up and opportunity they need to grow mature and find sanctification in the Lord. Opportunist will always show up in a gathering for their own deeds, like wolves for the kill, what ever their motives reject them, not the cross, so that you do not just to pamper them in the church.
among you,
> Therefore, each has his own predictions and promises among you to lead you astray with, to suit that which is of interest in them, not as it relates to the cross, but in views of the world that you are allowing to exist in you. It is that process of elimination that you have established in you, which treats them at the top, as the most notable and important. At the expense of the little guy or repentant sinner who must pay homage to them or risk excommunication from your group, that is the error in you.
are you not
> If that is the case- and it is, my speech then is an argument against you, and not that of praise, but shame for what you have become, in light of what you were originally given by the Holy Spirit, thru my instructions. You have stated this to me in your own actions or operation, I have not even had to dig these things up, you do them openly and they are obvious to anyone who meets or knows you, which is why I know about them. The problem is that after I left you, you did not hold yourselves accountable to the message-of-the-cross. You just went along with the old ways of trying to do God one better, in adapting new church to you old lifestyle, instead of bringing your old lifestyle in line with the new church, and coming up short in it, as what will always be the case.
influenced by
> The calling card of your churches, is one of preference of one over another, that is what you teach your children and those who encounter your church doctrine. That there is more than one rule or authority in the church, that Christ is not of only one voice, but that he has many faces, that contradict each other. At least that is the picture that you have painted of him, but you did not get that idea from us apostles, because we all speak with one voice in support of the cross. You are not seeking the internal power of the Holy Spirit, in influencing you with wisdom from God. Rather you are setting up worldly standards that you are familiar with already, rather then taking on the more disciplined learning process of God in you.
the flesh
> Which means that what you have done is nothing more than instill sin among you as an operating base, which is a stain of disgrace among you, yet you wear it as a badge of honor, as though it were something to be proud of. You plot the downfall of others, rather than building them up in Christ, as members of his church. A version of that old saying comes into mind here, "Christians need no an enemy, when they have fellow Christians like you to do them in". And this Just because you have setup notables among you, who do not have the cross as their only cause in them, is this true.
and behaving like
> Babies also, care only for their own needs, because that is all they are able to do, they contribute nothing at first, but consume everything, from food, too time and even sleep from others. That is their nature at that time, which is the way it is for them at that time, but we expect more from them over time, including the end of childish behavior. This is what I expected to have taken its course in you, but it never happened, instead you took up with the agenda of men and became nothing for the future of Gods church in you.
ordinary people?
> You became a me generation church, among a me generation world, all you have done is take your worldly ways and made the cross an ornament of it, a necklace to wear for show and no more. You missed your first opportunity with God to promote the cross and instead chose to have been in the church relevant to man, but irrelevant to God. I’ll repeat this concept one more time; if you are important on earth with man, you are not in heaven, if man cannot live without you, God can!

3:4 For
> The next thing I need you to observe, is the way that we premise our observation of what we do, to reveal what is motivating it every time we act on anything in the church. Because the way we do anything, is the way we do everything.
whenever
> So long as you are using faulty test among you to arrange your church life, you will receive faulty answers and live in the effects of them. Which means it is a recycling method of failure, based in the same mistakes of your past. This is how you discern the truth among you, by comparing everything to the message-of-the-cross, this is a solid test that never need be altered, and it is an absolute authenticator every time you employ it. But that is not what you are doing, you are using manipulations and power struggles to shape your churches. Setting aside the cross as a secondary issue, almost as though you think you are doing the cross a favor in superceding it. But that is wrong, the cross must supersede you and your message every time, the cross is what favors you, you can only live under its banner, or you are covering it up for something more meaningful to you.
someone says,
> When one break ranks with the whole church that was planted in the message-of-the-cross, as I did among you, with the intention of dividing yourself from the original group. Not for the purpose of church growth in conjunction with the first, as though you were sent out from them with blessing, but rather with hearts of rebellion against the first. When we quote ourselves and not the gospel for our beliefs, it is a red flag of warning that we are stating nothing more then our own opinion of what we think, without qualifing it or validating it against the cross, as having its base in Gods word. I am not talking about being able to recall every verse by memory, but by having based your thinking on the very basics of the cross of Jesus love, that came to us in a message of shame thru Jesus. As I consider you now, I do not recognize in you the pure message-of-the-cross, but some other message made up among men. Just listen to yourselves talk and how you say with boasting that you are a divided church, and think that is something to be proud of. Don’t you even recognize failure in your midst, that it is something shameful and not a thing of honor? Displaying your brand of individualism, over unity within the church, as though it were a positive trait in you. Sounding off against others and throwing your weight around, rather than in favor of the message alone. All because you want your say in things, in rejection of established authorities in the church
"I am
> What you are saying is that, it is all about "I" and what "I" want. Lifting your opinion then up to a level of notoriety, being as one promoting division as it seems fit, making yourself one who is the right in making judgments of another. As though your voicing in on it, carries with it the seal of approval by siding with a group of dissenters, against the message-of-the-cross.
with Paul,"
> Taking sides with someone of name and rank, that you take on as representing you, or where you assume their identifying traits as yours. Signing on to them, so you do not have to think for yourselves if you are on message, claiming that you just believe whatever Paul believes. Being assimilated in the mindset of someone you even idolize, not for the message-of-the-cross, but for human dignity reasoning, with no merit to them.
or "I am
> In the same way as before, making yourself a part of this process of dissent by being a picker, having your allegiance as that which is negotiable among men of prominence. Allowing yourselves an easy out if the going gets too tough in one church, you just hop over to another. You’re allegiance is for sale, to whom ever placates to your whims and desires, because if they were not present in you, you could not be moved away from the message-of-the-cross.
with Apollos,"
> Pitting one leader against another, you play politics with your voice in the church, with your vote, saying Apollo’s is your man to follow over Paul. Stating in essence you are making style choices, which are the basis for what it is most important in your Christian walk. You are picking out your church like you pick out your furniture for your home. Solely based on esthetics and posturing in the community, as to what others will say about you. You are not promoting the cross, but using church to make statements about yourselves as a reflection of you, not the message-of-the-cross. Don’t you see the error of that, having been saved from that mindset; you are using your salvation to establish your past in the church, in what should be your place of refuge against it.
are you not
> Having acted in this way, you have testified against yourselves in your own actions, proving that you have got the whole Christians message all wrong in you. From the beginning to the end, you have misread the entire message-of-the-cross and what it means in you. Which leaves the church door open, not for repentant sinners, but for socialites, who have no stake in the message-of-the-cross, they even despise it, for its shameful impression of accusing them.
typical people?
> Which means that your whole approach to life is the same way as before, you are missing the point of God being God and not man, you are relying on inborn instincts of the sinful flesh and not the newborn instincts of the Holy Spirit. So that outwardly there is no difference between you and the non-Christians, that Gods power will have a lasting effect in your community for his glory among you.

3:5 What is
> Where are his motivations and the source of his teachings, in relation to him as a person. What substantiates and validates him to be known in the church, do you think that this is just some new human religion based on fallen men. We may be ordained church leaders, but we are not founding Fathers, that is God alone, we know that, and so should you. What manner of men are Apollo’s and myself, that anyone should pay us any homage, especially in light of our preaching, which is meant to bring to shame all those who hear us, thru those words we bring to people in the message-of-the-cross. So in accordance with that, what is there to boast in about us, when we stand against what you are doing?
Apollos,
> The manner of man that Apollo’s is, without the message-of-the-cross, is an eloquent speaker, without a cause. Apollo’s without Christ is a good storyteller and nothing more, and he knows that. Apollo’s loves the message-of-the-cross, not the standing ovations that men may give him because of his Speaking abilities.
really?
> When this all boils down and Apollo’s is dead and gone, he wants you to remember the message-of-the-cross. Does it matter with God that Apollo’s is profitable among you? Yes! Is Apollo’s and his speaking abilities the message that God intended? No! We are willing instruments and tools in the hand of God and that is all we desire to be.
Or what is
> In the same way, who was I before I became a Christian that now I should be somebody? I have my own struggles with my sin nature in me, which I do not need to be thought of as some deity. What is there that consist in me that is of any significance among men or God? Jesus told me he would show me how much I would have to suffer for the message-of-the-cross. So where do you get from that that I am someone great, if Christ is promoting my suffering for the gospel? How you can then assume greatness is intended for me, is beyond me, when my suffering is predestined.
Paul?
> I even had a different name back then as Saul, so where is there a throne for Paul in what I am in Christ vision for me on earth. How is my suffering something for you to glory in, are you that sadistic, that my shame of sin is your glory, no thank you! Christ shame on the cross I will glory in, because he was without sin, and took mine upon him, but that is the only shame I will take glory in.
Servants
> We are attendants who wait upon the tables of believers, buss boys who are sold out to Christ. He is our sole purpose to be alive for, because we know the message-of-the-cross, is all that there is, that has real power and substance to it. We did not come to take control, but to point out who was in control, in fact, we have no control in and of our own selves. We believe in grassroots work from the bottom up, not in elite parties of nobility, dictating Christ to us as a power tool for their own devises.
through whom
> We were avenues and ambassadors of what was made known to us by Jesus, in order to bring it out to others knowledge. Messengers on a mission, sent by our master to be servants to you of the gospels message-of-the-cross. There was nothing inherent in us, which was trustworthy for you to believe, it was the Spirit of God, as we spoke that convinced you to believe in the message-of-the-cross that we preached. That is the proper focus point of reference for all of us, not, you to us, then us to God, we are not high-priest, that is Jesus only and him alone.
you came
> That mission that we took upon ourselves was you, which when we won you over, we did not take you as spoils of war, you are not our inferiors, and despite our leadership roles in the church, we served you. We are trusting in God, in the very same way that you should be, for all our resources to be ministers of him, for him only. If you see us as servants of Christ, then imitate how we live, not with how you are living now, do not honor us with words prominence or stature among men, but with imitations of us servant hood as our legacy of flattery.
to believe,
> Even though we were the ones who gave to you the message-of-the-cross, which is your salvation, borne out of our mission in you. We claim no rights of prominence over you, nor will we accept any such claim of us. We brought you to the cross to trust in Christ, not in us, both then and now, that is our purpose in ministry. As should be the purpose of every leader in the church, if he is ordained by Christ that will be his message also.
and each
> Yet Apollo’s an I do not seek independence from one another, but wait and serve each other with hope in each other. We are banking on the others spiritual gift to complete our work together. We do not use our position to separate us from the message-of-the-cross, but to unite us in it, so take our lead in this.
of us
> What we gave up in ourselves, we did with Christ in mind, not for the position that we were in, but for the better part of the church to be as one in Christ. We chose to follow the principle, that Jesus must increase, and we must decrease, so that God will be glorified and then we will exist in that glory with him.
in the
> Our motivations were not in the job seeking market, we could both do better elsewhere with our educated backgrounds. We also do not take credit for what we did not do in our own power, we were given gifts, and that was our resource to labor in Christ church.
ministry
> We were given a chance to perform in something that was greater than ourselves, and we recognized the importance of it, and the opportunity was to be more than we ourselves could have ever come to know on our own, or in league of all humanity. It was then thru the spiritual gift that we labored in among you, which was not our power, but Gods alone.
the Lord
> We had over us, the master and creator of us, offering us to be right in the middle of what he was doing, and by his grace, we were smart enough to take our stake with him.
gave us.
> This venture that we are in, is what is defining what and how we live to it. We are not wrapping it around us like a robe of honor, but as a cross of shame, that saved us from those robes of honor that men make for themselves.

3:6 I planted,
> You see it was a joint effort in us, orchestrated by God, where I came to you first and began the church plant among you. I set up leaders and taught you the fundamentals of salvation. The idea behind what I am telling you is like the way that you view the growth of any garden fruit of vegetable, it is meant to denote the process of time, and mans interaction with the natural work of God in the earth. In the spiritual sense of it, I came and planted in you Gods word, which took seed and grew to new life thru the Holy Spirit of grace, which was conceived in you to make you born again.
Apollo’s watered,
> Then when Apollo’s came to you, he did more among you, so that you would increase in understanding by his reinforcing what I had taught to you already. He fed you with the milk of Gods word also, as though watering your souls with the Spiritual food of you new birth. His watering method was his Spirit of edification to you, encouraging you with inspired words of God. As the Holy Spirit worked in him to give him the right words of God to speak, the same Holy Spirit gave in you, the voice of reason in those words to hear with.
but God
> It was neither me or Apollo’s though that had the power to give you understanding, only God is able to make his truth acceptable to any of us. Only God is behind his power of grace to make the message-of-the-cross effectual in us.
caused it
> God was the cause and effect, as the active ingredient or actuator that enabled this to happen, according to his will to see it happen. Apollo’s and myself was inert in the mix of this; we were fillers, which could have been any one of you under Gods will to do it thru you.
to grow.
> Apollo’s and myself made a deposit in you, but it was God who paid the interest to increase the value of what we did. He did so to bring you up into his confidence and insight, as an inheritance of him in you for your future with him. This is just the beginning of what he wants to pay into you, but first you need to realize that if you do not know who it is that is your real provider, your inheritance will be cutoff. The breadth or extent of your inheritance is tied into your desires for Gods will, according to his definition of it, and not humanities definition of God and his will.

3:7 So
> Having stated this then, we can rationalize our relationship with God and make a statement concerning our place in what he is doing thru us on earth, without blowing that position out of proportion from what it actually is. We should be able to make practical observations of all leaders, acknowledging them for their faithfulness in leading others for Gods glory, but no more. The scripture teaches us that the laborer in Gods work is only worthy of his wages, not of a kingdom unto themselves.
neither
> There is no claim to fame here for those of us who lead, despite our specialized spiritual gifts and social skills. Because any such claims are doing so by misleading that which is the message-of-the-cross, that some how we are endeavoring to be the main point of reference in your life and in the church.
the one
> In a more common sense of related thinking, a laborer who builds a product for use with the people, is a laborer, and nothing more. I Paul am not its designer, author, mathematician or its power source. I am its assembler, the one who brings all the pieces together to make it work according to the designer’s instructions, a hired servant and nothing more with a job to do.
who plants
> So bringing that picture back to myself in my relationship with you, what I did was initiate first contact with you, and do the assembly work of a congregation in your midst. I showed you the working parts of the body, as established by Christ for his church. This is my function in the body of Christ, to do church plants everywhere God sends me, by his design only and not according to human thinking.
counts
> So that which I do, so far as being the cause of anything, is only thru that first being an effect in me by the Holy Spirit. I am only like inert filler or supporting agent found in the mix, which does cause a reaction as the activator or adds to the process the inducing effective ingredient, which in this case, it being spiritual, is beyond all human ability. I am not meaningless to God; that is not my point, what I mean is that I am not the active ingredient that causes the effect or reaction in you of faith, in the message-of-the-cross. I am supporting the message, but I am not that message that I am brining to you. What I am teaching here is kind of like saying the antonym or opposite of "don’t kill the messenger" A notion we use to bring clarity to a situation and avoid unnecessary or unwarranted blame. Which would be interrupted in my point as; "don’t praise the messenger, as something more than a messenger", by making the messenger the message; you must see past them to the source of it.
for anything,
> We cannot change the end process of your faith, in and of ourselves, we are crucial only in the sense that Gods uses us to do his will by choice. We in our relationship with you are the aftereffect of God in you, not the cause of God in you. Slothful workers will gain little from God, this is true, but the diligent in God will see him acting for their benefit. What we want you to gain from us, is to have you replace our diligence in the message-of-the-cross, as something you apply to your lives. We do not want a place of adoration among you, beyond the remembering of our brotherly love that you owe us, in how we taught you to run the race with us.
nor the one
> In the same way, there is a laborer of another kind, someone who provides a service to them who received the product from the first ones efforts of installation. He does the follow-up maintenance to make sure that it is operating and that all the parts are securely in place. He trains them in the proper operation of that which was setup by the first, but for the same purpose and end goal, but different functions in that process of accomplishment.
who waters,
> In the spiritual sense, he checks the health of the living organism, which we are, to ensure it is nourished and properly supported to grow among the vineyard of God, which is his church people. Ensuring the moisture is there for it to draw on, when it comes into its own time, to be able to produce fruit after its own kind. Keeping in mind, our labor does not produce good fruit in and of itself, yes we till and irrigate the lands of our hearts together, to receive from God fruitful growth, but it is still God who generates that growth in us. We are external to the all the efforts that we do, but God is on the inside of us, and that is where the power of the Holy Spirit is the active ingredient in us.
but God
> The power of the results, lay in the creator of the people, as he exist thru people who are themselves, existing in the creator thru Christ, as their own place of hope that they desire to have in them. Because he is the designer of which I talked about, who has made the plans for us, and is able to institute them in us from the inside out, as compared to us leaders, who are only able to be on the outside of all things in a superficial manner only.
who causes
> God decides the development stages of the man and the use of it in him, as their place in the church. He advances us or prunes us back, in his power in you, so as to enable you to bear the purest fruit from him. These can feel like the best of times and the worst of times in us, if we are not aware of what he is doing in preparing us for his glory to be made known thru us. Yet they are all in the discretion of the Lord to do as he wills, God will bring us in and out of season as is best for us and the church as a whole. God will take you into the desert at times and only allow you to wonder there for what appears to be no apparent reason, to see if you will remain in him thru the good times and the bad. Or for the purpose to bring you into confession that you are not able to do it all on you own, to wear down your resistance to letting him be the Lord of your ministry. He will also then bring you out of it for the fuller ministry in you, after the time of testing is over, so that your mind is assured to be in Christ in and out of season, this is the pruning process of God at work in us.
the growth.
> When it is our time to be in season, he then institutes it and predestines it for us, so that we know what will occur thru us, has been order by him to be fruitful in us. We not only have the Holy Spirit empowering us, but the Angels of God aiding us in combat against the demons of the devil, which would thwart the kingdom of God in us. That is when you will begin to see the miracles appear and the providence of his power around you.

3:8 The one
> This puts the labors of the first one, into a state of dependency on that of the second one and vice-versa. Now pay attention here and get this concept, in context of what you are doing there in your church in Corinth by comparison. You are doing just the opposite, by saying not only are the leaders among you not dependant on each other, but harmful to each other, and that is because they are off message.
who plants
> What happens when this concept of codependency is not believed in by church leaders, if I did not make the first contact with you, to lay the ground work in you for good organization and proper assembly of the congregation? It would not be available for Apollo’s who is a finisher of construction, where I am a rougher. So in that state, he would just not come to you, as you are not prepared for him, because his is to labor as that of a finisher, according to Gods gift in him. If I do not do what I do, with the desire of Apollo’s or one like him behind to back me up, my labors will come to nothing and the church will die out by the Lords hand. Our Lord is gracious to us and longsuffering, but he will not tolerate fools who will not learn the proper order of gifts in his church.
and the one
> In combination then with the work that I laid down though, he is able to come after me to cultivate the growth in the right portion, as his spiritual gifts reveals as necessary in him. His insight into things is in seeing things thru a compatible, but different window of what is in need in you, then that which I see in you. What I mean is that he does not see the message-of-the-cross different from me, he sees you in a different relationship stage to that message than me. A leader like Apollo’s who would come after me, is not trying to alter the base that he finds built by me in Christ, but to keep you measured and plumb to that central message in a different way than me, but not new way that is diverse from the message-of-the-cross.
who waters
> Where I laid down work for durability, he looked for the proper flow lines that would aid in there being no lack of resources in you. So that each persons share in the body, would remain intact and properly fed thru right instruction of the word and the fellowship of contribution in each other.
are united,
> Our job descriptions are different, but the job itself is the same as that of building up the body of Christ from the ground up. So categorically, we are one person in the big picture of things, not two separate unrelated ongoing operations. Which is as I said, opposite of what it is that you are doing among yourselves. You have one group over here and another over there, building in opposition to one another, not in cooperation as that of a corporation, with diverse functions. You are acting as separate corporations, competing for the same territory, as though that were your mission, with all the spoils (or rewards) going to the victor, but it is not going to end that way.
but each
> You need to step back an see the big picture, the assignment of Christians is that of; we are down here as a single group, and God is up there, so far as positional speaking goes. Meaning the likeness between me and Apollo’s is similar in what we do in the physical realm of our nature, where that which Gods is doing though, is completely dissimilar in its nature from us, in the spiritual realm of his nature in us. So that we are seen as a single unit of people, in which it is God, who is diversely acting among us, not us diversely acting from one another, towards God.
will receive
> When we then have this properly set in us as I and Apollo’s do, we have possession with each other, in the same inheritance and of the same substance, but not according to how great we became, but according to how we served each other in the message-of-the-cross. If we labored in the cross, we both each have a benefit from each other, but if we worked against each other, we have no benefit. So only so far as we operated in union with the greater church body, is there benefit for us, otherwise, we have only the praise of men, and not the pleasure of God in us.
his reward
> However, it is based on the individuals labor and not the others, in that; their attitude in how they served, is as important as the servants action. If I served, Apollo’s with the intention of making him subservient to me, not as my Apostleship affords me, but as my personal desire of province would overtake him. Then I have served no one but myself and suffer loss. But, if I am in an attitude of serving Christ and the message-of-the-cross, then it is of no concern to me, if Apollo’s is praised or remember more than me, because my wage is in the kingdom of God to come, not in the praise of men. Because the position and gift of Apostle, is not meant for the praise of men, but to bring men to the praise of God. Both for men to find praise to God and to be acceptable in the use of it before God, as our gift is subject to us.
according to
> This after the manner of my contribution, not in the way that men remembered my name as something. It will be in me, a distribution of the inheritance that I lived for, in that; my inheritance is being determined by association to the message-of-the-cross, not in providence of my own name that I have built for myself. It is not in how I aided myself in the province I was over, but in how I aided in the message-of-the-cross, in that province of my care, as that of a caregiver, not a lord.
his work.
> So that my labors are in my staying on message as an individual, as aligned with Apollo’s in the message-of-the-cross and not my relevance, so far as my own state of province or dependency is concerned. Which means my reward is independent, yet it is based in my mission which is codependent, with my fellow servants, not those in my subservience or competitors, but partners in the message-of-the-cross.

3:9 We are
> What you need to know about church leaders is that we are in the church as a package deal, so to speak, I come with others around me such as Apollo’s. But more than that, we have the mind of Christ in what we are doing, in us. We ourselves are doing and acting as best we can, as Christ would if he were here in the flesh among us. By this then we are mimicking God in our work, at his request and with his permission to do so. Not as renegades of the world who are lose in the church, but bonded to it till the end, all for one God of glory in us, one God only for all of us. We do not know all that God is doing and therefore we are not enacting it on his behalf as powerbrokers on earth. Rather, what he does and reveals for us to take part in, that we do in concert with him, with its desire in us to do so. Are we witnesses for Christ, yes, do we through that witness effect those around us, yes, but not because we are something, but because God uses us to effect them, and see him thru us.
coworkers
> Another analogy is that, I’m much like a construction worker, and Apollo’s is a gardener. We both have our best intentions in each area to be a part of what God is doing. Knowing full well, that we are but a small piece of the work and labor that God himself is causing to happen on earth. Yet eager both of us, to do all that we can that God will allows us to do, not what we think is our place as we see it or what we think is right to do.
belonging
> Because we are contracted out by God to be in service to him, we are only in the hire of him as bit players at the most, as it relates to the greater scheme of things. The reason I am downplaying our positions though, is because you have in error, elevated the leadership in the church to something more than they really are, and you need this reality check in you, to bring you back in line. So whoever labors in the church is no more or less than someone hired on, and they are not indispensable in that position. Remember that Jesus said that even the rocks would cry out in praise to him, if man would not have. I am not contradicting our possession or inheritance in God, I am giving you a reality check to deflate your false pride and wisdom of what leadership is, which is human wisdom you are employing yourselves in, not that which God is employing in you.
to God.
> Leadership that is truly from God is sovereign by design, only knowable by God, and we look to God for instruction for us to do what he needs done, not what we want done for our benefit. It is in knowing that we are not going to do or want to do something for, God, but that he is able and willing to do something for us and thru us, for his own glory, not ours. However, once you understand that his glory is the only fertile ground for man to achieve in on an eternal basis, both here and in heaven, this becomes the desire of your heart, to which end only God proves that in you as a reality, I can only testify to its truth in me.
You are
> You have been claimed for Gods glory to be made known thru you as a resource of God, in that only he is able have yield thru you. Without him sending in the workers to clear the land, and make the ground in you fertile, there would be no knowledge of God in you. It is because God has set his sights on you, that there are things happening in your midst that would otherwise not occur. This does not lessen our responsibility to you; it merely improves the labors of man to have cause and effect because of God. Unless God quickens the heart of them that hear the message-of-the-cross, no salvation occurs, because salvation calls for a resurrection to take place in your Spirit, which is deceased from God. And because no man is capable of resurrection, Christ must revive us thru the power of the Holy Spirit.
God’s field,
> God has fixed himself in you and you are the area of people that God is cultivating in, he has impregnated you with his seed of life and is causing it to grow. You are like unto a vineyard that God is tilling and up-keeping thru the efforts of fellow Christian laborers. However, all the fruits grow in the power of the Lord, who is the life giver to the seed that man can only plant and wait upon.
God’s building.
> His architecture is seen in you, because God does not just reach down and turn on light switches in people, without there first being a witness to them that he is the light. In all that has taken place in you, God did so thru the faithful work of others in you. God is building his temple among the people, and therefore we are necessary by design. Revival occurs when God pours out his Spirit upon those seeking to be revived, not the obstinate in rebellion. It is when laborers step forward and preach the message-of-the-cross, and join with others in that cause, that he brings in them to add to the church thru the hearing of the word of God. Therefore, be wise fishers of men, determined in their efforts to preach the gospel, as God tells us where to throw our nets of prepared hearts for salvation.

3:10 According to
> There is a manner by which I was able to do, that which I did among you, it was not just by chance that I was able to be the way that I am. It is because I was given an ability, which is superior to my own natural ability, that I did not ignore, but put it to use. It was a case of taking serious that which was given to me, just as in the Parable of the talents that Jesus told to us. I am like the one given the most talents, in this case the gift of Apostle, and I went out and invested heavily with them among you.
the grace
> With it came a power that was the cause of that effect in me, it was not in me of myself, but because God gave me the resource of his talents to be effective, so that I was able to reach out with them and spend them in you. It was the favor of God towards me that afforded me this opportunity to be effective among you, and I took it on as my mission, as marching orders from God.
of God
> That which is in the nature of God to do, does not exist in the creation or nature of man, but only in God. It can not be found in any created thing, because it is in the sole possession of God himself. The power of Gods grace is part of his creation ability, in that; he is able to speak that which he wants into existence, and it is still present in him for all eternity to do so.
given
> As a sign of Gods promise in me, I was gifted to have an ability for the glory of God in the church. It was not without the burden of responsibility though; God gave it to me, for me to use it in laboring for him in this life. So it came both as a resource and a directive, and that is not a complicated concept, it is one we employ here on earth. It is only the nature of what is my resource is and its use for the message-of-the-cross, which is strange for man to know it.
to me,
> It is created in me- specifically for me- to produce in me- only that which God can do in me- and it is mine to spend according to my trust and faith in God. The resource are endless, and only my desire to use them and be used of God according to his will, limits that which I am able to produce from his grace in me. If I can grasp the concept of not trying to offer God what I want, based on what I find exciting from my human experiences or desires. However, when I find what is acceptable for me to be in him, then I am unlimited in my potential use of him.
like a
> With that knowledge and insight in hand, I was enabled and went to work with Godspeed in me, in you. I did not waste time in with meaningless discussions of those who are only dreamers among you, but went right to work with the message-of-the-cross in you. I did not seek your advice on how to build, but took my authority in hand and gave directives myself according to the message-of-the-cross. None of what I did was open for discussion among the people; you were joining in on a predestined operation, founded in the providence of God, end of discussion.
skilled
> I am honed and taught to that of a tradesman in the word of God, and in the application of the structure of his church body. I know it inside and out, what the vitals are and what the esthetics are that are all part of what God is intending in us. I know the strengths and I know that which is able to weaken it from its parts that I have made with God to exist in you. Our foundation is laid only in Christ on the message-of-the-cross, and so long as we build there we are secure.
master-builder
> Having this gifted ability in me, with which I am able to engineer with the skill of God, as he moves in me to do so. What I have done with it is nothing short of a miracle, I am involved in the design of that which will last an eternity and God is allowing me to do it for him, wow!. You see when you are an instrument in Gods hand for his cause, then it is literally God in power enacting thru you, building his new creation thru and in you.
I laid
> I made first contact with you and explained the message-of-the-cross, so that you could respond to Gods prompting in you to trust in him. As you did, I brought you into the church and found out your place in Christ body and installed you into that position, using my authority to do so. I explored who you were as a people, and what was needful in you, for you to become a living church in Jesus.
a foundation,
> I set up offices and made teachers of some and pastors, evangelist, prophets as needed among you to be self-sufficient as a church. I was like a choir director, showing each person what they were to do in harmony together and what you were supporting in their roles as both instruments of music and voices to sing with.
but
> Then in concert with me and with me knowing this ahead of time, a symphony director would come along after my student training and teach you the scores of music you were to play together. Some of you will never cease to play throughout the entire score of music, while others of you are there to accent the music only in intervals as needed, and when you do, you will have played the part God intended for you.
someone else
> This performance is in the hands of another believer who would take up where I left off, to train you in the specific mission that God has written for you to do for him. These new directors are the ones that God reveals the vision of himself for you to be, so that you can also be as predestined in you, to be in the image of his Son.
builds on it.
> What they will do, would be different in style than myself, but still based on the message-of-the-cross. They are not altering that message, but rather establishing your lifestyle, as the basis or foundation of it in you. They are setting up the surroundings on that first foundation of Christ for you to live in during the church age.
And each
> In addition to that, is the attitude and intention of those who do this, that they do not ignore the first work done in them by another in the message-of-the-cross. This is an area of much more than mutual respect; this is how we treat the temple of God. For in that we are his temple, to disparage or misuse each other, is to desecrate Gods Holy temple, which Jesus demonstrated his heart for, as in the earthly temple, he showed himself willing and able to defend it.
one
> In this, you should know full well, that you will be the one that is held accountable by God for that which you do. The work of the church is a serious calling throughout it, with both blessings for them who do well, and cursing for them who abuse the temple of God. Put this thought before you as that of the message-of-the-cross in whatever you do, so the cross is a blessing to you and not a curse.
must be
> So this is a warning, that there is great responsibility in this for all those who come into the presence of God in the church. This is not a game or just some social club for people to take lightly, but sacred work in the Holy presence of God. The lukewarm of heart towards his church or who are flip with the seriousness of the matter, are an offense to God, and will be dealt with by him.
careful
> Watch to not be sloppy or off message from that which the Apostles have first made known to you thru Gods word in them. Do not take matters into your own hands in setting different doctrines apart from what they gave you as the doctrines of Christ. Be diligent to the message-of-the-cross and not slothful in how you present it. It is not meant to be acceptable, but an offense to those who are in sin, to convict and save them thru its cause and effect of repentance.
how he
> Be sensitive in yourself, as to the manner in which you use the gift of God, so that it is not for your own good, but for the church and the message-of-the-cross. Do realty checks and have accountability built into the ministry you are in, so that it does not become about you, but stays on message. Do self-examinations and get check ups from them in your confidence, from those who are on message. Be willing to pay the price of and for your spiritual health checks, so that you are not crippled from neglect. There is a price to be paid for good physical heath, and so there is a price to be paid for good spiritual health.
builds.
> Construct only what is fit for Gods kingdom, and not for human desires. Disregard the pleas of human design and practical thinking of making Christ acceptable by watering down the message-of-the-cross, and making the foundation movable for the respect of men. Only the image of Christ is fit for the kingdom of God, everything else is idol building for man and sin before God. All idols will be torn down by Christ, and be sent into eternal destruction with them who choose false idols and saviors, over the Christ Jesus and his image in you. As with the mark of the beast, if you make in you a false savior, according to the image of the number of man, you will not escape Gods judgment of you.

3:11 For
> You need to understand the seriousness of what we do and the restrictive nature of what God is willing to do with his power thru us. Because it is the only premise of how God is willing to engage man, or what we know by definition as the will of God, which is here in what I am saying to you in this passage. It is not an open field of endeavor for you, the liberty of Gods grace is for a specific purpose and reason and is of non-effect else where. Your grace is an invitation to come into Gods presence, to be a part of his work for his glory, not for God to come into your presence when convenient to you, to be your religious version of a Jeanie in the bottle.
no one
> We Apostles are a dying breed, of which will soon be gone, our position is short lived in the church, in that; what we are needful to do, is only done once. Once that which we do is complete, we will become extinct and the power of God will not indwell other men to do the same again. This is an absolute and an unchangeable edict of God to have happen; it is the basis of the entire church to be assembled on.
can lay
> It requires the power of God to do it, and he is not going to provide it. This church that we are laying is ordained once-over, in that; it required the message-of-the-cross to have caused it at its beginning, which will never happen again. This is the only process God is making available to man for salvation, it is not only sufficient in its ability to save all of mankind that will come into it, but the only way to have access to God.
any foundation
> What any other might offer has no support structure that lives beyond themselves, and it dies with them. It all lacks the eternal creation of God behind it, to establish and sustain it outside of human existence. God’s, has a non-human support structure to it, which is beyond human construction. Others are no more than religious ideologies or fantasies of men without basis, Gods is the actual salvation of man.
other than
> Because of this reality, God is intentionally narrow-minded with his dealings with man, and the only thing acceptable to God is the message-of-the-cross. So it is impossible for man to setup or to even offer to God anything that is of human design. No similar in concept parallels or imitations of Christianity are acceptable to God, where you pick and choose the ideas from our doctrines, from which you then put the name Christians above the door, thinking that is real. It is not, playing dress-up before God is meaning less to him, where you claim to be with Christ with pictures and religious imagery, but then deny the power of Gods foundation, by setting up something other than the message-of-the-cross as the plan of salvation.
what is
> We Apostles are not lacking in our work, or in knowing that which is our directives from God to do. We have been appointed by God to set this church up in the way that he has designed it to be, it is not of our making, but of Gods. Are we a part of it? Yes, we make decisions, but that is by Gods design and he has given us both special spiritual powers and a unique one time authority by which to do it.
being laid,
> We have a plan of operation that is world wide, to setup churches everywhere, and as in this letter, we are writing the word of God concerning right doctrine, proper function, ethics, attitudes and motives for believers to follow after us in our footsteps. The Apostles are the foundation layers from which the church will rise up from, we are not the foundation itself, but are making it known as that which it is in truth and doctrine.
which is
> All that we establish is not elusive or hard to grasp, for they were all on display for us, we had God in human form for us to see it in. It consists in one single object lesson for us to understand from, the life of Jesus himself. He being our example of how to live in the church, but there is also at work here the providence of what Jesus did. Which are the details of redemption;
Where there was first Jesus as a testimony of Gods glory in the visible and moral aspects of his life.
Then examination of him by the word of God before the Jews, which purified him as being in Holiness according to Gods word, which authenticated him as truth, in that they had to lie to convict him.
Then rejection of him as being our salvation provision by man, but acceptance of his blood offering by God, for man, which was for atonement or payment in full for mans sins.
Then proclamation from Jesus that justification for man was available for God to use due to his redemption work, when he declared, "it is finished" and then died.
Then the display of his power over life and death, which occurred when Jesus took back his own life from the grave, after having surrendered it to death, giving authority to mans salvation. In which it is now available to us, by the rule of his grace alone, in that he had now become the master over all life and death.
Then reunification to the Father thru the giving of the Holy Spirit, and that is making our Spirit new and alive with him.
Jesus Christ.
> All this was Jesus among us as a witness of the Father in heaven, of what we should be like in the Fathers eyes, as what is acceptable to him. As I have stated, the efficacy or potency that is behind the church, lays in Gods support of it, without his support, all the plans of man are nothing more than the meaningless showmanship of men. They amount to nothing in the final judgment of man before God, regardless of there effects on man or their respect before man concerning those plans.

3:12 If
> As I have said, taking on the discipleship of others comes with serious responsibilities, and although it should not be shied away from. It should be entered into with a diligent mind that was weighed or counted the personal cost to you in the investment of your time, money and spiritual gift dependency, as a conviction of your dedication to discipleship first.
anyone
> This is not exclusive for just Apostles or pastors to do, every Christian is able to encourage others in the faith, it is part of our interdependent lifestyle in the body of Christ. In fact, it is you second responsibility in the Christian walk to engage other believers in the ministry of the church, the first being to know Christ for who he is in your relationship with him as the glory of the Father, which is the effective method of sanctification thru the Holy Spirits contact with you. The third being then the witness of Christ thru you in the world that you live in.
builds
> This then is what you must weigh carefully if you have made the decision to be engaged in church life, because activity alone does not mean right motives. You must decide what you are building first; it must be of the proper design to pass inspection, because it will be tested and it must meet Gods authenticity of it. It cannot represent your motivations; it must motivated by God and the message-of-the-cross.
on
> What you are doing in essence here, is superimposing beliefs and doctrines on others, you are going to make them take the shape of something other than that which they are. The thing is, when this is done in the name of Christianity, you are assuming the responsibility of doing so in Gods name and with his reputation at stake. Now, that is acceptable to God for you to do, and desirable of him for you to have that mind in you. Gods reputation can survive the scrutiny of mans ignorance or misinterpretations unscathed. But guard carefully that mind in you, that it is communion with the mind of Christ, that we saw as that of the Father in him as the intended glory.
the foundation
> It is not that God does not expect a fallen world to misuse his good intentions with man for evil purposes, he knows they will, but there will be a price to pay in the end if you do. As I have already said, the message-of-the-cross comes with both blessing for them who do it well, but also the risk of Gods curse if mistreated. This I speak to those who are believers in the church, not those who have not accepted the message-of-the-cross. The work of God in the church is not about gaining personal knowledge of the scripture, for personal gain among others in the church, but about giving it away for having increase in the message-of-the-cross.
with
> Here lies the quality of the workmanship and the personal investment you made in your life to the message-of-the-cross. Were you striving for quality or quantity in the formation of church members? Was it about the numbers and job security, or were you sincere in staying on message with making people over in Christ image and not yours.
gold,
> This is done in a process that is not only in the beliefs of yourself, but what manner of men do you expose the richness of God to in the inner confines of the church? Are they men of honor, charitable, trustworthy with the souls, lives and finances of others? What is the company you keep in the church, which will then be filtered out into the church? These things are not mere imagery, but the lives of real people at stake. You need to put the faces of those you know in the church in this concept, so that you do not misplace your intentions. It is what they and you represent as being only the finest intentions among you that matter, not if they are of the finest family’s in society, which is at stake here. This in the end is about the character of you and the people you serve with, which is to be the most valued among you.
silver,
> Take care in the fashion in which you do things, that they are refined and pure, with their intentions measured by the message-of-the-cross. Make sure that you and they are tested against the word of God, in that; it is flawless in truth, without any lies found in it. It always leads to God in the shape that it takes and what it represents among you. This is a people, that once they have purified their hearts to serve God thru the fire of his word, they then remain a cold working metal like silver, which need not be put back in the fire to be shaped and molded by God, their state is sufficient for his use. It remains impressionable at all times for use in the church as it is needed, in that; it is not just decorative, but is supporting people in discipleship too. "He trained us first, passed us like silver thru refining fires", and as "Gods words are pure, passing thru the furnace fire on earth in seven perfect times of purity".
precious stones,
> Be as priest for the people before God in your prayers, go before them in petition to God for their salvation and be as a symbol of Gods holiness in what you display of yourselves in the church. Be the light of Christ in the world as he reflects himself thru you, as that which is desirable and above the common stones or people on earth. Be the lasting effect on earth, that is past along to the newer generations that come along, even as are family heirlooms, be a precious memory reference for them that carries on.
wood,
> Consider your labors in others as a lasting legacy of you, and not just spent fuel for that which empowered you for a time. If you are simply using them to have gain in yourself, you are not fooling God in the least. It is a cheap investment of yourself in others and has no reward in it for you. Timber cost little and soon sets itself into decay; it has no lasting value before men, in that; it is as cheap and plentiful as your false intentions or motives.
hay,
> Even as houses whose hay roofs are sheltered in poverty, if churches are built with the same mindset, as to what they have been given to work with, because they have not sought and have no resources from the richness of God in them. You did not set out with the plans of Gods glory and in seeking his investment, you built it out of things that man has in the earth, without the needed intervention of God to make it so. So there is no refuge in what you build which is not already common among the people, so you have no message.
or straw,
> Instead of seeking only the finest from God, you forage among the rejected of the harvest. You have no sense in you that there is anything redeemable in that which you have in you. You have nothing to show for you efforts accept the leftovers that others have left to rot in the ground. You are not part of the churches functioning body, but little more than a taker from what others have done before you. You have contributed nothing to its growth, and so you have not gained or reaped its harvest in return.

3:13 each
> Once everything is completed in the church age, we will stand alone, so far as how we did as individuals, who worked well with others. When Christ judges the projects we were involved with, including ministries, work and relationships. There will be no taking into consideration, the context as a whole, so far as you getting or taking credit, for what the collective of Christians did. Rather, how each tended to what they were given to do in the collective of the church, which is what will be reviewed by Christ. I Paul, laid my foundation and yours in the right manner, but if you build in error on it, that is your problem with God, not mine, and you will get no credit for what I did before you. Neither will I be held accountable or suffer loss because of what you did, I will be independently accredit or discredited, as will you.
builder’s work
> The part you played in the message-of-the-cross, will be summarized and accounted for by Jesus. The details are all being preserved for future review and are threefold;
1) The thoughts of the heart, both in the intention to do it and your reaction to others acceptance or rejection of what you did.
2) Measured against the substance of what was done.
3) As they are set in alignment with what was intended for you to do.
So as you live your Christian life, stop and consider it against the message-of-the-cross, to see if it is set properly with that, as its foundation in what you are doing, for that is the will of God. Your attitude should always be your first right response, then using discernment, as to whether it is a labor that is fruitful for Gods glory, and then should this be your mission or another’s. The last, being one in which we must realize that we cannot do it all; neither does Christ want us to try. We need to be able to recognize that saying no to a ministry opportunity, is not disobedience to Christ, but saying yes can be. It cannot only be keeping you from Gods intended purpose, but preventing another from theirs.
will be
> All of what you do has but one destiny in it now that you are Christians, it will generate a picture puzzle from all the pieces and details in the way you lived your life, which will culminate into either of the image of Christ or an image of you. Then all of this will come into view and be played out, in front of a great audience in a grand display before the throne of Christ. Therefore, this is your only opportunity to become Christ like, once that day is here, it will be too late.
plainly seen,
> The light of Christ truth will be shined into what was the hearts intent of all of us, to see if they had been measured by faith by you, according to the will of God. This will reveal either all that is thought to be hidden and shameful by us, or will also reflect brightly and positively on that which is done in open glory for the Lord. Mind you though, what one person is able to do in faith to God, is not necessarily faith for another, and can even be sin. As faith is what is done out of a pure heart, with the right motivations, even if it is judged wrong by other’s for themselves to do. So Christ will judge it right, so long as it met the other two requirements that I laid out for you.
for
> The reason for this to be happening is, that it was prearranged for Christians in this way, so that all things could be settled out and the truth to be set right before all believers equally. The main reason here is to establish the truth, as it relates to church activity and to put an emphasis in us, for doing it right. Jesus wants us to be more than aware of a future reward from him; he wants us to seek it with the right passion in our hearts. He takes no pleasure in our loss of rewards, and would love nothing more then there is none. Jesus, after all he has done to save us, would love to shout the victory along with us, for us having lived victoriously in what he has done in us, without it being flawed or having loss from sin.
the Day
> This is an appointed time for Jesus to call into session what we know as the judgment seat of Christ. It is a one time event and will never be repeated, it will be used to determine that which we do for all eternity. This is a wonderful day of deliverance and justification for them that gave it their-all, just to know their creator and savior. This is where Jesus validates all that they stood for, when they took up their cross of shame with Christ, in the message-of-the-cross. This is not just justification from their sins, although that is the critical issue, but justification before all of creation that the way you lived in Christ, was right all along, you chose wisely in the Lord, and you are now going to reap from that which you sowed.
will make
> This is the time frame, where east meets west, where God allows our works to be judged, despite the sin nature of us that he completely rejects. This is what makes it so unique, that having so declared before man the worthlessness of their sins. God wanting so much to have favor among us, he is providing a way for what we did do after salvation, to be acknowledged among us, without the threat of losing our salvation.
it clear,
> The one thing that will stand out in this judgment of Christians works, will be the great divide between good and evil, that will be so apparent in that day, but which is not so readily discerned among us while on earth. The gulf of separation will be nothing less than astounding to us, as truth is so plainly revealed and established in our understanding of it, as is Christ’s nature of its perception, as we then become forever the mind of Christ in us.
because
> Do to the nature of this action, and how it will proceed, it has a cause and effect to it, that is at that time out of our control. We will be both witnesses to the truth of its testimony, as observers of its truth in us, and as we testify against ourselves in its truth in revealing our false deeds.
it will
> Christ will control the proceedings and determine the results of what occurs, he holds all the details and information of our entire Christian life, as Lord of it. It is because it is in his domain, that it will provide absolute justice to the proceedings and we will praise his judgment, even in our losses. We will praise his justice over the this judgment of us as being righteous and desirable, even if he does not praise our own labors and intentions, because it is done justly.
be revealed
> Knowledge of these events that were present in us on earth and our intentions of the heart that were in prior times hidden from others view, will be uncovered for all to see. From the faintest whisper in your heart of praise to God, to the most violent and depraved outrages of your thoughts will be shown publicly. Even as Christ was judged publicly on earth by unjust men and found guilty by them despite his innocent, yet was condemned anyway. Christ who is just, will judge the unworthy acts of Christians openly, and find profit in us anyway in our faith, even though we are guilty.
by fire.
> When ever the truth against something we did is revealed about us, we can feel the sting of its heat destroying our lie, just like heaping coals of fire on the head. Truth does this in a very real sense, in that; Gods truth consumes the lies of a fallen creation and purifies them from existing before him. Not in making them acceptable, but by eliminating them as a sponsor or what is acceptable, removing them from consideration of what will be allowed to exist before him, leaving holiness in its wake or aftermath of deceits funeral.
And
> As a result of this time of testing, the former things of the sin nature that we did as Christians will be done away with.
the fire
> The truth of God as it exist will then remain, not as man sees it, or as we supposed it to be out of error of judgment. It is Christ in his glorified presence that all things will be measured and compared to in reference to the message-of-the-cross. The truth of Christ is the fire of that test alone, and no escape will be found for not owning up to it or any good deeds go unnoticed for reward.
will test
> This then approves or disapproves what we supposed we did in the name of Christ. Did we do it so that he would increase and we would decrease as we should, or vice-versa? It will be subject to what we knew as the Holy Spirit testified in us and will testify again in Christ judgment of us. This will be a testing to find the positive in us though, that will be the goal, not to condemn us, but also to have a counterbalance to what we did in error to offset the reward if necessary, a true balance of justice.
what kind
> It will be to define truth, that is the goal here, so that it is established before all believers and all creation. That which we do is done either in truth or in a lie, there is no middle ground or gray area that we work in. It is a complete divide of truth and lies, which should be obvious in all that we do; if we have the mind of Christ at work in us.
of work
> The deeds you do, have their basis in the intentions of your heart, not in the substance of good deeds alone, though that is the right fruit of good intentions. However, we must always be aware that apparent good deeds can be done with ulterior motives being the driving force behind them. These good deeds will suffer loss in the judgment seat of Christ, in that they were not done with pure motives, but with a deceitful heart.
each
> So as before, the success or failure of a project or mission on earth, is not the pivot point of what is the focus of Christ’s judgment, but the motive behind what it is that you did and how you worked yourself, as working well with others. The accomplishment was truth and character in you, not the results of the labor, it was God who made your labor either succeed or fail according to his plans and designs for you, not you. As the scripture teaches, you can do nothing for Gods glory, except thru Christ Jesus who strengthens us to do so, he is the vine that is the source to which we are enabled and by which we produce good fruits or work.
has done.
> Then thru this is your accomplishment, either made valid or invalid, after it is determined that it passed the test of truth of Gods glory or was a lie in its motivation. If it passes that test, then the substance of what was done will be considered by Christ also for reward, including how it may have inspired others, but their labors will be for them to have gain in. Leaving behind a good legacy of you is profitable and is not going to go unnoticed by Christ.

3:14 If
> Now the good nature of what we do, then has a lasting effect not only on earth but in heaven also. Where we collect the eternal benefit of it, because on earth everything will eventually perish in Gods judgment of the earth, but God will not allow the good deeds perish with it for the believers.
what someone
> The intentions behind the labor, the reasoning of it in your mind and heart, are the materials by which we build the right doctrines and ministries with. It is not just the end results that determine its viability or durability, but the quality of the message you promote, as it relates to the message-of-the-cross.
has built
> The substance of what we do then describes what we thought about it, it will also be discernible on earth as a good work, or bearing good fruit in them that come after you. In time, ulterior motives are not only found out, but the lack of power thru Gods grace to overcome insurmountable odds, prove it to be a construction of error. God only intervenes for that which is done in faith to him, not in that which has scheme or hidden agenda to it, to conceal wrong motivations.
survives,
> When what you do remains in tact, it is because it endures the test of truth, not a relative truth, but the absolute truth that is found only in the knowledge and message-of-the-cross. That is because it was infused by God with his power and reputation to back it up, and not the simple strategies of man. It survives because it has as its nature Gods glory in it, and not the nature of man as its fundamental cause. Everything that man does requires someone to take up where he left off for any cause they do, and any break in that chain of events ends the cause. Whereas God, is the means and support the church and the message-of-the-cross, so it is incapable of breaking down in its effect, as is with man and therefore spans all generations to come in the work you do with his support.
he will
> This all then returns to the one who then did their part as directed, not one who went along for the ride on a human agenda. Good works are the fruit of true faith in God, to do thru us what we would not otherwise be able to do. So it is not what we do, so much as what we are willing to trust in God to do thru us. So God not only produces the good works in us, but then is going to compensate us for having been a part of what he did thru us, amazing.
receive
> Now the blessings of God will appear in us while we are on earth, but we will not truly come into possession of understanding, until it is thru the inheritance from God, in eternity. That is where the appreciation of it is made known in us, without anything which clouds our ability to understand the fullness of what we are now doing.
a reward.
> God will add to you, what are the resources of God only to give. The things that we seek in this world are insignificant to the glories of God that he has in reserve. Because such things are not currently in creation, but under construction at this time in heaven, they are being waited upon by us for that hope to come.

3:15 If
> The other side of this situation, is when that which is made known about your true intentions, is not that of true faith to God, but done out of motives of self-gratification and therefore a lie.
someone’s work
> Because when such is the case, God is not supporting the effort and it is nothing more than a house of cards, unable to stand the test of endurance and security. Remember that the focus of what I am teaching you is how someone among you underscores his leadership, and his how followers are complicit with them. Therefore, we are discussing the church body, which must represent the exact image of Christ in that process or it is not his church. If it takes on the image of a leader, or those of its followers, than it is not in the image of Christ and therefore, not a true Christian church. It is sad to think that someone’s entire life work could amount to nothing before Christ, just because they did not have the right motivations for what they did, by not comparing them persistently to the message-of-the-cross.
is burned up,
> The results will then be that it is consumed by the truth and revealed as deceit, in that; it is found to be meaningless to God. This is the only determination that matters, as our judgment of it is without merit, if God is not found as the source of it. This means the construct of what you did from the beginning is perishable as the very nature of its existence, because it was not of an eternal source in God, but based in the temporal power of man that can breakdown in his absence. Therefore, everything that is found to be based in the thinking of man and not founded on the message-of-the-cross is perishable when it is exposed to the truth of Christ.
he will
> So every Christian will also be individually found out that had not served God in their hearts, because they chose to rely on either the customs or intellect of man, to do what they would refer to as their ministry, but God does not. This then is in reference to their motive of performance, in what might otherwise be a noble work of others, that they have linked themselves to, but not done as with nobility in them.
suffer loss.
> It will be found out by them that it was all a waste of time, and amounts to less than nothing, or as I have said elsewhere, I count all things as loss, that are not for Christ alone. What could have been an opportunity to have gain for Christ is now gone forever, all you did was make garbage to be disposed of. The loss itself is permanent and not redeemable under the cross, because the cross was for reconciliation of the relationship to God, not to save bad works, which is actually sin. Sin is never itself redeemable, only we are saved from its consequence in us. So this takes away from us, what might have been a great reward from God in us, to a lesser role in heaven. Make no mistake about it; these are works before Christ, which are being judged by Christ for the purpose of promotion and demotion in heaven, not in getting us into heaven, just as to what estate we exist in heaven. Though the bad works shall be refuted by the truth and dismissed from our presence, their liability they cause in us shall remain for eternity and could cost us a promotion to a higher estate in Christ kingdom.
He himself
> This person then, in the worst case scenario, will have found salvation in Christ, but then did not construct his life and ministries according to the message-of-the-cross. He came to accept in him as Christ, the Lord over his salvation, but did not rise to the occasion of that of discipleship with Christ as Lord of his life. He compartmentalized God in his life as secondary to his own pursuits and desires, and thought Christ a second class citizen in his own kingdom, which Christ will not tolerate.
will be saved,
> Salvation here is not the topic of discussion, nor is this the judgment of the persons rightful access to eternal heaven, those issues were dealt with at the cross, when we came to accept that as the way, the truth and the life of salvation. Our subject of discussion here is that of the state of that eternal destiny, which is being too easily brushed over by you as not significant, after all, it is all heaven, right? Wrong! This is why you are still earthly minded and not heavenly discernable of these things. Because you will be in that eternal state, forever and you are giving that state away for a lesser state of what you perceive to be glory, from your earthly minded thinking. If you had heaven in mind in what you were doing, you would be trying to trade up to that eternal glory, with your might and strength going into the message-of-the-cross.
but only
> The reason this is not about our salvation, is that we have gotten out of the fiery trials of the truth, of what we deserve, by way of escape in Christ. In that, we are hidden from Gods judgment in the shroud of Christ blood covering of our sin, from causing a loss of salvation, which makes us non-combustible material, in the way of this metaphor. It is not us who is on trial for salvation, but the works we did after coming to know Christ as our savior, which did not receive that same protection, in that; we did not distinguish in us, the necessity of him also being our Lord of those deeds in us. We made those life choices ourselves apart from Christ, and will be then left defenseless in defending the truth of them on our own before Christ. So we Christians are being judged as insiders and non-Christians as outsiders, which is the perception way we need to look at this, knowing that both are in a different state of eternity. Christians having already having passed thru the judgment of eternal death while alive here on earth.
as through
> As a process of this testing then, being done as a method of comparison, we will see what we did in the light of Gods truth, as it really is before God, and that will be our measuring rod alone. Not the worldly perceptions we used on earth to set things up, but the standards in heaven as God actually is. A different mode and method that opposes and disposes of that which we did, as Christ sifts them out before creation as judge over us. The most amazing thing will be that we will actually applaud Christ in revealing our false deeds, for we will have the mind of Christ in us and will want nothing ourselves to do with that which is not of him. Now, trying to think that way now as we are, it does not seem plausible that we would want our sin so publicly revealed, due to the shame we presently feel about them. However, when we leave this body, none of those thoughts will go with us and we will glory only in the truth and not those sins of our past. It is only our sin nature, which makes us neither want to cover or hide our sins, but when we leave this body, that sin will be no more, nor any of its effects in us.
fire
> It is in that purifying seat of Christ judgment seat, which is meant to convey the true meaning of something we do, and that is the fire-of-truth, of Christ in the message-of-the-cross. This is not an actual fire I a speaking of here, it is a metaphor for "Truth", the truth of what were our motivations, in relationship to the message-of-the-cross. Because that is the only lasting and eternal motivation, that will pass the test of truth, everything else will be the cause of our missing out on a promotion in heaven from Christ, who is our true glory.

3:16 Do you
> Are you without the basic understanding of who you have become and what is the nature of who you are as a body of believers. This is what my foundation and building talk was about, who you are in the sovereign prosperity of God. You have much more as a possession in that simple state with God, than all the status and wealth of the world combined.
not know
> Consider this in the true light and meaning of it, so far as how it translates into you as that body, and what is your only course of action in knowing that. Once you come under its knowledge, it demands a proper response and admission of it as a church body. Because if you as that church, do not make that stand, it will never be made known, so far as a human expression is concerned, in that the world, who hates God and the church will never desire that on their own.
that you
> Concerning what that means to you and in you as a church body as a whole, in relation to the world, not just individually am I speaking here, but the whole body of Christ. For what is there more worthwhile for you strive for, but that which is heading away from this life, and towards that which saved you from its bondage over you, to have that as your focus of who you are as a people.
are God’s
> You yourself are now a possession under Gods sovereign control, he made you an offer, you accepted that offer, and now you must learn what that means. Which is in a word, responsibility, it means that you are not your own creation or are sovereign over yourselves as a body, but that you have been purchased by God to live Holy in faith to him. Your rights as that of a human race, are no more, you have no right but that which is of Gods glory to do. Do I contradict my teaching of liberty under grace, no, you simply misapplied it meaning, as that of it allowing you to sin, when what I meant was, that you were at liberty to establish the law without it harming you. In that, as the church embraces its judgments of them or as a result of your coming in direct contact and in violation of its statues, which are absolute, they can and will reprove you, but will not harm you. The law is your friend, and Gods grace, the power to do the law, without the fear of reprisal against you from God concerning your eternal security.
temple
> This is where God is making known his Holy presence on earth, in the church body, it is the edifice of his design, showing his glory, for his purpose, not ours. God’s temple is not for us, it is for him, we must stop seeing ourselves as that which God was created for, for our pleasure, which is a lie, and see ourselves as that which God created, with him as its central theme, not us. This is not a place of sanctuary, where God is allowed to meet with us; this is the place where we are allowed access to him. This is the Holy ground of God, to which we are allowed to come into without fear of destruction from our sin. It is not a neutral ground for God; he does not allow himself any unclean thing to exist in him. This is a spiritual temple made Holy by his presence there, which is not a willing accomplice as man is, of being subjective to sin. Your flesh is not the Temple; it is your new creation of a spiritual body, which is alive in you now, that God is at home in you thru the Holy Spirit.
and that
> This being the culmination of God acting upon a design that he made for us, to be among his people at the most personal of level, on a world wide and universal basis. Mind you, we do not become one with the Holy Spirit, although we are in direct contact and fellowship with him, there is a difference. Our purpose is to be for God, even if we do have the understanding that we are to him a special pleasure and a purpose for which he is in pursuit, even more then we are even able to comprehend in the flesh. It does not weaken Gods sovereignty, just because he is vulnerable to love, that is a strength in him that we as humans confuse as weakness, but it is not. If love being vulnerable was in the end a production of weakness, Christ could have not saved us thru it. This is all the more reason to speak of Gods love tenderly, with its deliberate seasoning of affect in us, without boast or conceit in us. Leading us to think God has then an obligation out of his desire for us, which controls his emotions, that is wrong. The actual responsibility that God took for us, was not an obligation to save us, his obligation was to condemn us, which he did. God took responsibility for us, because he could and because he was God, and it pleased him to save us for his own pleasure.
God’s Spirit
> The Holy Spirit is this presence of God in the church body, that directs the church body as one-united-front for God, not many little churches as you are supposing is acceptable to God, by which you are only deceiving yourselves in for your purpose. These churches that are not ordained and called out to be a mission by the Holy Spirit of God are not of the church, despite the words of man saying them to be so. If you are attempting to act as a distinct church, separate from the rest of the church, you are not ordained into Christ’s church.
lives
> But I think better things of you, because I was there and established you myself and know your calling in Christ. That Gods Holy Spirit inhabits who you are and that you need to be aware of his existence in you, as he being alive and effective in you. That you are able to live in that active existence of the Holy Spirit in you as a true church. This is not just a passive presence; it is resistant to the ways of the world, in the methods of God pressing against man. The Holy Spirit is moving against the world progressively to attain for God his greater glory, to be made known among his church. So the Holy Spirit is not just a shield for God, it is his offensive action on earth to do his will, which is hardly a passive state as we might think him to be. He is a comfort for us, and does not make us anxious for what we are to do, but neither is he passive or submissive to us.
in you?
> Which church you are by your position as a inheritance from God, the church is alive because the Holy Spirit has given you its breath of air to breathe in. Christ is its foundation, and the Holy Spirit is interrupting for the church, what are the designs of the Father for the church.

3:17 If
> On the other hand, not everyone who says religious things is intending right things for God and the message-of-the-cross. There are people whose goal among the church, is to divide and not unite believers in the church.
someone
> These are non-Christians that have taken up root in the physical external body of believers, but not in the internal spiritual church body of Christ which is directed by the Holy Spirit. They operate out of the worldly desires that they know, as they do not have spiritual discernment, and so they try to insert that worldly thinking into the church body. Mind you, this is not just external persecution, as was what I Paul had done myself, which is external action against the church that is here being discussed. What I am talking about are those who invade the inner confines and seek to infiltrate the spiritual domain of the thoughts and teaching of the Holy Spirit, of which there is but one message, and it is that which they try to make of no effect. Attempting to supplant or replace the work of the Holy Spirit, with that which they themselves are supporting or proposing among believers. Causing doubt to rise up and cancel the faith of believers, insinuating or leading us to believe that there are many truths, manners and messages from God; which is false.
destroys
> They interfere with proper church doctrine and operations by intentionally introducing rebellion against Gods prosperity of living in the spiritual domain, which we have in the persistent union, teaching and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. They are attempting to break the yoke of guidance and reliance on ones instruction from the Holy Spirit, choking out the source of spiritual insight and growth. So that they are not attempting to be an external opposition to the church, in which such actions are even obvious among the world and believers, but rather to invade like a spreading virus with intentional misleading information. In order to throw of course, the church body from knowing and recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit, to make it of no effect or the fire of his work in us. This is not simple immaturity or error on the believer’s part; this is non-believers, not wishing to investigate the truth of Gods doctrine, but rather supplanting it with their own. If you get to know them, they will have open disdain for the laws of God, and great affection for the vain ways and philosophies of man, and will only see the grace of God as an opportunity to sin, not to live rightly in the law.
God’s temple,
> They fight against the church body which has its domain in the presence of God. They are trying to fight with God in his arena, which is the place where here among the earth, God is revealing his Holy character. This disrupter is akin to the very character of the devil, which comes in among the church to wound and hurt, and presents himself before God as his enemy. However, this is the place of Gods Holy Spirit of presence, and is not up for debate, as to who shall rule there, God is sovereign over the Temple of his church body.
God will
> If they want a fight with God, if that is their desire, to do harm to Gods glory. To interfere in his sovereign power for that which he gave his son for, then they will pay the ultimate price themselves in place of his son paying the price for them. They will by Gods decree, not be pardoned from this sin against the work of the Holy Spirit in his Temple, this is the unpardonable sin against the work of the Holy Spirit, which blasphemes his holiness in the Temple of God.
destroy him.
> Not only when judgment day comes, but right now God will bring it back upon their own head; God will fight against them and win. The Temple of Gods church body will not be put down by any means, and those who seek its demise, will be themselves held accountable for it in the end. Which shows that God is not a passive sovereign God who is not engaged with his creation, but rather acting in providence over us at all times to assure his success in us.
For
> As I said before, this is not our Temple built with earthly materials, it belongs to God and is constructed of heavenly existing materials, as it were. Moreover, just as Jesus defended the Jewish Temple from greedy corruption; which had come into its midst to setup shop. So God will in the same manner, defend this which is made Holy by him in his presence. This spiritual Temple is not under the curse of God, as is the earth and all its inhabitants, in which all have a part in Gods common-judgment of earth. This came into them thru the curse that came out of the Garden of Eden, which is still in effect, making every deed of man subject to it. Except for those under grace, who have escaped its power of absolute destiny over them, from the same God who enforces that very curse. In that, God will as I will explain later, turn those trials into gold and glory of his making, as having power over his own curse. He does not make void the curse, it still is active, and he as sovereign holds to his decree of the curse, but than uses it to prove his glory, which we are now a part of. This then turns the curse from destructive in us, to that of prosperity, out of his power of grace and glory.
God’s temple
> So because it is not of human design or origin, it is not subject to the frailties and faults that destroy the works of man, which in the end return to the dust of the earth. Gods Temple is as eternal as that from which it came to men from, it is not a new creation of God, as it relates to his existence, but for our awareness, we are now perceptive of it in us as believers. Gods Temple as its basic essence is himself, and it is only the knowledge of it, where he presents himself to be new to them that are of his creation. It is the place where he decrees himself to be, as he takes possession of it as his sovereign control. Not for judgments sake, but for eternal prosperity in him, to exist without end, with him in his Holy state.
is holy,
> So his Temple is then made pure by Gods presence, not ours, ours is but the expression of Gods holiness in us, which is his cause and effect that we are having take place in us from our exposure to his truth, which came to us in the message-of-the-cross. So we are not the cause of Gods Holy presence in the church, God is the cause of his holiness being made known to us, for the sake of the church only, not for the sake of the sinful unbelievers. The only effect of it on unbelievers is that of it further establishing their own condemnation, from having been exposed to his visible church, but rejecting the power of him as being that which is in church body.
which is
> Now that outward and visible aspect of Gods Temple, or the construct of it as it is present in the church body. Is a demonstration of Gods power over even the fallen creation, that thru his being present in them, they are being altered from exposure to his message-of-the-cross. God is making his presence known thru his own, who have submitted themselves to his power over their present state, to find in him a new and different state that is not of this world, but of Gods.
what you are
> So you see then, that your new state in Christ, is subduing your old state that came out of the world. It is first an existence of a spiritual culture, which is isolated from the world, and second a physical presence of you church body, which is isolating itself from the influences of the world, as it exits in the world. The church is then denouncing the world as having failed, as a result of having found Gods Holy state active in them. Therefore, the world must be abandoned for a new state, which is not reliant on the world’s resources, but Gods, which is not available in the earthly creation of God, but only in him as a separate source of creation.

3:18 Guard
> You cannot put off the truth, and then expect to have peace with God concerning the issues of his church. You cannot delay the coming of Gods judgment, anymore than you can prevent the day or the night from covering the face of the earth. It is such false beliefs that lead men into destruction, in thinking that man has a separate destiny from that of Gods will. Of this, you should be fully astute in recognizing the symptoms of this type among you. That is, those who do not put their full faith in the message-of-the-cross, but rather would lean on their own understanding and perception of things.
against
> From this you must have your defense ready, so that these types do not gain prominence among you. If you allow even one person, who is high-minded to have a place of reputation among, they will succeed in putting away the humble-minded among you who preach the gospel. The elitist are the ones that should be put out from you as unacceptable, because they are not representing the foundation of Christ as the only sure resting place.
self-deception,
> If any of you fall into this pit or category of superhero thinking, they had better think again, there are no superheroes, only fools who did not know any better, as when to quit and admit they are wrong. Do not fall under the spell of your own ego, thinking yourself to be above all others. It is the world that has always been trying to create an image of man that says we can rise to the occasion, but that is all fluff and blowing smoke to cloud the mind of clear thinking individuals, those in the church who would like the truth, which is a truth the elitist do not know.
each of you.
> This is a broad warning I am giving to the whole world, not just true believers. That if you come into the church to take a place of fellowship, then you must meet the standards as set down by the message-of-the-cross, and come into its presence, not the church altering itself to accommodate you. You must take the image of Christ yourself as the banner that you lift up in the church, and not try to show your image as that which should be adorned or admired by others.
If someone
> Let them take this challenge and show themselves to be of God, do not just take them at their word, but look at their deeds to see if they are here for Christ and the message-of-the-cross, or as self-promoters who would lead you astray. If they seem to be looking for recognition in the pride of life, then you must challenge them with the cross of shame. To see if they will embrace the preaching of the pure gospel or if it sears them from its touch, as they try to put it down and remove it as the central theme of themselves.
among you
> When they show up in the church body, test them to see how they respond to the message-of-the-cross. Look to see if they distance themselves when the gospel is preached, as though ashamed of it, but show up to voice their opinion on things that of worldly interest, where they relate and can show themselves to have value among you.
thinks he
> If they are a self promoter, then this will reveal itself when they are exposed to the message-of-the-cross and see it as a secondary issue, which they believe only makes people feel bad and should not be so emphasized in the church. That shows carnal thoughts that are not of God, but of a worldly thinking man, who will turn the church away from the gospel.
is wise
> If they considers themselves to be something of an insightful person among men, it will show itself to be as something in them, which they feel is higher than the message-of-the-cross. If they trust in what they know, as that of it being a greater asset than the knowledge of Christ gospel, then they think that they themselves are greater than the church. Because they are supplanting the wisdom of God, for the wisdom of man, as a more dominate theme in the church.
in this age,
> In that; they always have a good argument for why we are a dominate species to be admired, at least as they see themselves to be. They put merit to the arguments of men, because it is inventive and subject to their interpretation as they see fit. It is always a truth that is pliable, which can be made into their image, and not one of absolutes concerning God, which requires that they set aside their thoughts for it.
let him
> Then make him prove that Christ is the right answer, do not allow them the opportunity to remain undefined in the absolutes of the message-of-the-cross. Pin them down on this subject, because that is the only reason or purpose for the church to exist. We are not here as a social club, just so that we can come together and acknowledge the personal achievements or attributes of one another, we are here only for the gospels message-of-the-cross, that restores us to know Gods glory.
become
> Cause him to take the shame of the message-of-the-cross upon himself, let him be approved in the church, not on his merits, but on the gospel of Christ as having dominance over him, as the object of his desire, and not just simple acknowledgement of it. The gospel should not be an extenuation of him, as though it were something of appropriate apparel, which he thinks is to be put on at times and taken off at other times, as he sees fit. Rather he should be found to be an extenuation of the gospels message-of-the-cross, in that it is in that, which he is subject to being called upon, as it is required of him by God, to which he is subject to teach and be made know from.
foolish
> Seeing as the message-of-the-cross is unacceptable to mankind, they must allow themselves to be disparaged by the world and rejected by the so called wisdom he brought with him. They must be willing to abandon the teachings of man for the teachings that we Apostles have set in you. They must align themselves with the unacceptable message-of-the-cross, which the world despises as foolishness. And they must do it publicly, so that it is common knowledge before them who will belittle them for their position in Christ.
so that
> In so doing, then you shall know the truth of him, as he is faced with the unacceptable message-of-the-cross, in the face of those his peers that will chide him for his beliefs. As this is the life of the true believer, one of rejection by the world, but acceptance by God, in the church.
he can
> If he does this than he has the Holy Spirit with him, because no one can desire the message-of-the-cross over them without the Holy Spirit. So in that, he confesses it to be the only truth, and proves he has Gods wisdom dwelling in him.
become wise.
> As the wisdom of God is only in the message-of-the-cross, it does come out of high-minded thinkers who study for their own prominence among men, but by accepting and acting upon the simplicity of Gods revealing of himself. There is a lowly estate of humility in the cross, where no man of worldly wisdom will go to find himself approved. The worldly man will find no satisfaction in the message of the cross, because it brings them down to lesser estate in their mind, than that which they desire to be.

3:19 For
> We must look as the premise of how God has set apart, that which is of him and that which is of man. How man seeks to persuade others to his own thinking, out of convenience to his own needs, and not on that which is based in absolute truth. It is this mode of thinking in man, that so upsets God, because they are not seeking truth, but that which is convenient for them, out of their pride for life and in direct indifference to him.
the wisdom
> In this they use the thinking of ones own thoughts as having merit in themselves, because they were invented by a culture that admires a self-made-man. Now, if they had some evidence of truth in what conclusions they reached, God would not be angry, because things are as they are and Jesus acknowledged those who chose wisely. But these concepts are but mere fantasies without factual merit to them, just men agreeing to agree on superstitions and false religions of their time.
of this age
> I say this not of this generation only, I’m just using them as my example, but rather every generation sees themselves as better than them that were before them, and some better than those of their own generation. So as Solomon basically said, "There is nothing new under the sun, all things are of old, repetitions of the same failures". So in every generation, all we have are men who are so full of themselves, so puffed up with false pride, that there is no room for God in their lives. For they themselves have occupied all that there is of them, and none of that is based on absolute truth or has learned the failed lessons of history.
is foolishness
> Their picture perfect opinions that they claim themselves capable of, only reveals that they themselves are willingly deceived by their own thinking. They are attempting to challenge God in a game of wits, where they make up endless theories that have no basis in fact, but are in fact, all fiction. They never offer a shred of evidence, only opinions, based on assumptions, based on wishful thinking.
with God.
> This being done in the sight of, and despite God having made himself known to them in truth. God is the judge of what has merit, and what is nothing more than make believe, it all must be approved by him, as having its base in him to be true, or it is dismissed by him as false, whether man approves it or not.
As it is written,
> In the book of Job, Eliphaz says the following and it is still as true today as it was back then.
"He catches
> He finds them out, despite their web of deceit, all their plans are obvious to God, he is not surprised by any of them, and so they simply fall into Gods judgment every time. God traps them in their own traps, because they are not all knowing as God is, he has them backtracking right into that which they meant to snare others with. Where God say’s, I caught you right in the midst of your trouble, and you are helpless and hopeless to get out of the mess you made for yourselves. One man says this, another says another thing in direct contradiction to the first, and that is their idea of the great wisdom of man.
the wise
> They think they can out smart God, but all they do is add greater confusion to the mix of humanity, which are already looking in all the wrong place for hope. They consider mans intellect as able to resolve this issues of time established failures, while they merely repeat the same mistakes of old. All man does is repackage the same lies that were prominent in the garden of Eden, which is that we need not take God at his absolute word, that there is some how wiggle room around it. That though, is the wisdom of man, that we need not seek God for the right answers and the absolute truth, but that we can come up with it on our own, and we will not surely die in trying to do so.
in their
> They employ a device of changing the subjects, to speak in countless alternatives to the truth, but never try to come face to face with absolutes that God has given mankind in the law. They keep it a relative to themselves, as the standard by which they judge things, not by the standard by which they will all be judged by God.
craftiness."
> They tried to out do God in his own creation, they thought they could actually trick God into doing their will, or corner him with their own wisdom, to where he would have no answer to them and become their subservient. But God just makes them eat their own words, and feel the shame of never being right. God plays their game against their own heads, but with eternal consequences that they will never escape from.

3:20 And again,
> Furthermore, just to reinforce the concept of what I am teaching you, as it not being something new, look at what King David says in the book of Psalms. This is but a continuation of mans battle with the truth of God, every since the first accepted lie of man in the Garden of Eden.
"The Lord
> He who is the master over all things, who created all things, and to whom all things must and will be held accountable to for that which they think and do. Simply because he is that which controls the existence of creation, it exists in him, not apart from him, and that person is in the deity of God, Christ out Lord.
knows
> What are his understandings, are the absolutes of knowledge that exist, there are no other possible answers, because Christ created both the questions and the answers that test the souls of men. Every thought of man, must begin with the creation of God thru Christ, and that is where man either finds unity with God or separation thru disobedience to his authority, in that they simply do not want Gods answer or truth in them. The questions that man ask, have no hope of salvation in them, because they are void of the truth that only God is able to reveal, which is hidden in him from us, until he puts in us the right questions to ask of him, we will always seek the wrong things or answers. As is said, if you do not ask the right questions, then you will always arrive at the wrong answer, so the questions and answers of man are incompatible unions or devices at finding truth, because they not begin with God as posing the conditions of the problem in them.
the thoughts
> The discussion of man by which they purpose what they do, in order to find their reasoning and agreement with each other among themselves, have a missing ingredient, which is the absolute word of God. If they do ever quote Gods word, it is with distorted meaning from its original intent, which was meant to discredit their very teachings. These people consider themselves the seeds of truth by which their cultures should exist and come after them in their philosophies. That is their plan, to be the quoted sources of truth for generations to come, regardless of their indecent acts towards God. If they are truly seeking the truth, the first thing they must do is acknowledge that the scripture denounces them and their thinking as evil, that there is no way around that fact, and that that then must be your first point of entry into truth. That the very essence of man is to go astray from truth, unless he first finds in revealed to him by the word of God, and then proceeds from there to reach its conclusion. In this, allowing the word of God to disprove your own thoughts, rejoicing in its finding out of it as a critical key to wisdom, and not rejecting God as having reproved you, but found and established in you a discipline to make his truth known in you. In addition, I say that this is discipline, in the manner of God correcting you, just as the scripture teaches us that he does as a loving father does his own son. Not in wounding us, but in his willingness not to let us stand by and go astray, but in taking the necessary time to instruct us in his righteous and acceptable ways. Therefore, God’s discipline of us is to give us good instruction of himself, not in the form punishment to wound, but in the discipline of refinement to a more Holy knowledge of God in the effort and investment, he is willing to make in us. Jesus has taken our wounds willing of himself from the hands of the Father, so that God will not have to wound us for our sins, but is able instead to correct us for the purpose of restoration.
of the
> The formation of these ideas then come out of their own misguided beliefs. They have a standard that is of themselves and not of God, in that they reject the notion of God, as the absolute authority by which man must be approved of in all things. They do not see God as a vital statistic in their thinking, which demonstrates the foolishness of them that they could even put God down as a category of separate distinction of thought, from that of his own creation and still arrive at something of value. As though man has any destiny that does not directly intersect at all with God, or has an end in him. When in truth, there can be no discovery of anything that is not originated by him, thru him and for him, not matter the resource or destiny that is under consideration.
wise,
> So to them, wisdom is whatever they happen to invent at any given time, to them if it sounds good and you can sell the idea to others, that is all that is needed to validate it in their own eyes. It is an origination out of their imaginations, not a revealed truth that is built upon out of the word of God. In fact, it seems the more it opposes the word of God, the more they are likely to pursue it as a point of interest, regardless of its consequences to humanity, and their own eternal judgment of their own souls. That is then the object of their thinking, opposition to whatever is right before God to do, and leaning to man as the dominate measure of what is right, humanity pegged on humanity, as its guide and always leading away from the truth of God as it really is.
that they
> But God, not willing to allow this to go unanswered, in order to demonstrate that it is by Gods hand, that he has found them in the false testimony of themselves and has passed judgment of them in it. Is declaring before man the truth and openly refuting the thinking of humanity as it is, and causing them to either fully embrace that which they are, or that which God is, by causing a great divide between the two. Placing the ways of man upon the pinnacle of high-mindedness, allowing others to view them at there very best, or at least in that which they suppose their human wisdom to be. And then God places himself, in a lowly estate in mans thinking, unattractive, undesirable and unacceptable as pegged by that same human wisdom by comparison of the two. To which it then can be found only in the message-of-the-cross, where man must fully abandon one for the other, for the eternal destiny that they bring upon them. Yet both arrive there by the decree of God, not man, in that; God created both destinies and decrees, man neither created nor decreed anything.
are futile."
> As a result of that, God has found mans so called wisdom; empty from of even the desire of truth, and having no prosperity in them coming from God. This in that alone, leaves them a bankrupt people, without any point or value to their ways. Therefore, man in his ways is on a meaningless venture before God, which will leave him in position with God, as that of dire-straits, without remedy in the Day of Judgment. Because God made the way to him so obliviously opposing the ways of man, that they will be unable to act or suppose they did not know. Rather, it will show that they did not care, and not just that in a general sense, but specifically, they did care or want the things of God.

3:21 So then,
> As a result of that, do not allow for the separation of people and what they supposedly say they have possession of over others. Those who think they are exclusive, or have more access, or more rights, do not have the backing of God. So they have nothing more than smoke and mirrors to deceive others with, there is no substance to what they think or say, nothing to back it up with, except your own fears and doubts for them to play off of. So if you take up with them, you are no more legit or being backed up on a firm foundation then they are.
no more
> Because of that being the case, put a stop to what has been going on amongst you after the manner of this kind of thinking. Moreover, do not put it off or delay your action on it, because it is unprofitable and dangerous to play such mind games in the church body, the overall church will survive, but yours may not.
boasting about
> In that they have no bragging rights in truth, and as they see it, there is no higher-consciences then that which they suppose themselves to exist in. The things that you and they suppose them to be are all false idols before God, and all of your own making. There is nothing special for you to take note of concerning them, for they are just as you and I, as far as them having anything more than a mortal nature to them. A good talker is nothing more than a good talker, it does not give them clout with God, only you have that as an individual child of his and in that you we are all equals.
mere mortals!
> And the prospects of them ever becoming deity are nil and none, because they are first and foremost, pointed in the wrong direction of where deity is. Which is in the lowly valleys of the message-of-the-cross, not up upon the high-rankings of position among men. These kinds of thoughts only show how wrong they are in leading you, when you compare what they say to the message-of-the-cross and how misguided they are in their own course of actions away from the cross. They are headed in the wrong direction and leading all of them who follow them there in that wrong direction, away from Gods communion in the Holy Spirit.
For
> And here then is the real truth and the premise of that, which is what you need to embed in your thinking as children of God, so that you do not think that Godly answers and morality come about from high education and having clout among men. If that were the case, if they were gaining morality from it, there would be no need for me to bring them into question and discredit their high-rankings among you. In that, if they were gaining morality from it, they would have not had anything to do with such high-minded thinking in themselves and the way they were leading you, in that, their thinking and godliness are incompatible.
everything
> The whole of who you are, is already in the inheritance of God, therefore, that which they make you think you lack, is not true. The fullness of God is also Gods desire for you, not all at once, but in training you thru life experiences to come into his perception and understanding of himself. Not the things of earth mind you, that is not the goal and is but clutter in our minds; it is God, who is the revelation, and it is too him, which he is affirming in us to be. God is giving and already has given all of himself for you to become predestined to the image of his son, and what more could you desire than that of being Christ like, if you have the right mind at work in you.
belongs
> All possession, is only in the power of God to give as an administrator of it, as no man has rule over God. Especially not these high-minded thinkers, and because you are also in the possession of God, you are already in the proper estate of these things that they claim to have. In other words, they are trespassing on your possession and claiming squatter’s rights, to which they have none. They are taking away from you, and then offering back to you, what was yours already. It is just that they are opportunist for what you have not yet picked up on concerning your estate with God. You have after all, have not moved into it and taken control of it, in that, you are on administrative leave, it is vacant and remains up for grabs from you because of this, but it is always yours by right, in Gods inheritance for you.
to you,
> And that possession has already been declared as belonging to all the church, not just a select few, you are all saints of God, not just them that receive that as a title, from an award ceremony that God never ordained or instructed us to perform on others. You are a corporate structure of individual relationships to God first, and then to each other. Not as they have formed it to be, where it is them first in leading you to your relationship too God, giving them preeminence over you, as your fellowship relates to them, instead of to God and each other.

3:22 whether
> Once again we need to always keep that horse before the cart, and know that the organization that God formed for you called the church, with its leadership structure, is for your benefit, not you for their benefit. Meaning that the leaders are there to serve you as ambassadors of Christ, and not there for you to serve them as ambassadors of themselves, in building them a church of worldly pursuits. Or as Jesus said, "the Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath".
Paul
> As an Apostle of Christ, I saw Jesus and came to know him after he was risen from the dead and glorified in his throne in heaven, where he appointed me Apostle. That gives me authority to establish church doctrine and plant the churches in the power of Christ. It does not give me the right to take tribute from those churches for my own comfort, in the form of servants to my own benefit, a wage is another matter, but that is not the point of my discussion.
or Apollo’s
> As an eloquent speaker, teacher and leader, Apollo’s is a leader whose charismatic presence is profound for humans to hear him speak and expound on the scripture. However, Apollo’s does not claim that to be a personal attribute that causes him to rise above others, it is a gift and a tool, not of his own making, but of Gods. That is the character of him, and that of a true leader ordained by God, in that, it is not about promoting themselves, but it is the message-of-the-cross, that they seek to make known.
or Cephas
> Peter, who as an Apostle, lived with Christ on a day to day basis, and was there during the suffering of him in the trial and crucifixion. If anyone has claim to fame, it is he, but he does not claim anything beyond what are his responsibilities as Apostle, that they require him to do in that office. Look at him as a model of leadership, in that all that he is successful in happens in the power of Gods grace thru him. I could recount the failures in his past, but it is not they which count us unworthy to lead, it is what Christ has chosen to do in and thru us, that defines who we are, and where we want to lead.
or the world
> Pertaining then to the desire of the decorations that life has to offer, the outward appearances of things that are material in nature. The abundance of the earth is not in the possession of man, but God, whether food, shelter or general environment. Governments are ordered by God for the promotion of the church, whether we can see Gods hand in every occasion or not, it is not always obvious to us. However, he proclaims that he controls governments for his righteous and glorious sake, in order to restrain evil. So far as the possibility of prosperity in the human sense goes in the earth, God has made it clear that he owns all wealth, or as he says; "For every animal of the forest is mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills." Therefore, his resource to do his will in the human sense, are limitless in their design for his use on you behalf.
or life
> In your existence, your relationships will have actual meaning to them and it will not be elusive or out of reach, so long as you understand that fellowship is an act of contributing to the lives of others thru yourselves in the church. That is where the provision is, that is, in adding to others, while allowing them the same privilege to invest of themselves in you. If you go to church with the intention of receiving, that is self-centered and you will enter into a vacant building with nothing to take home with you, it is only as you bring, that you receive the abundance and have access to it thru God in the church. It is not what they give you, which fills, completes or removes anxiety in your life, but God who quenches fear, and supplants it with his faith, for having followed thru in knowing him more in your life.
or death
> As Concerning your final destiny in the eternal spiritual realm, death is not to be dreaded among us as the end of it all, but the beginning of knowing God face to face. Your hope will see you thru the sorrow of separation from those on earth, for that which will come in the eternal realm. There will be no loss of things on earth, so far as possessions go, if you have laid up your treasures in heaven, as the right lifestyle in you. The concept of where you live as the main focus in you, that being not of this world, but that which is waiting for us absent this body, which suffers us many ills in life. You will sense that the letting go of what you had already given up, is not so hard to do. You will know that victory over the grave is not a battle that you must win, but one that Christ has already gained on your behalf.
or the present
> The things as they actually are, day to day things that we must all contend with, the events of your life, are being ordered by God to be a benefit for you, by glorifying him. When that occurs, you then become aware of his glory in it, which is the good soil for you to then grow in and become fruitful in life. Outside of Gods glory, is but barren desert and withering fruit, where you be stunted until you bury yourself in the glory of God, which he has revealed to you thru your living life on earth in knowing Christ as a living person of example for you, in anticipation of him intervening on your behalf. As "all things work together for good, for them who love God"
or the future.
> Then that which is yet to come in your desires and passions, whatever you are expecting or hoping for. God has placed them there as he has gone before you, to help you gain insight into what he wants for you to know. Even the objects that seem to be a deterrence for you, are there for a reason, either to build patience in waiting on the Lord, or to slow you down to see what he has waiting there for you already to take note of and learn as an attribute in you.
Everything
> So the whole of it, whatever fits into you and the message-of-the-cross that you have entered into agreement with, by the power of Gods grace over you. Is not something that you must labor for to attain it from God, but must merely apply the process of knowing God in your life encounters, and the access he has provided you to it all, already in Christ. You need not bargain with God for any of it; it is not a negotiation, but a revelation in you, that makes it known for you to have use of it in your life.
belongs
> It is all in your possession and need not be taken from another, you need not compete with another to have all of your gain with God. No other can have by right what God has ready for you, only you can prevent your acquisition of it, thru rebellion against Gods authority in you as an individual. Not even as a corporate position that the church takes in trying to acquire it from you, but only by you rescinding your rightful control over it, to that of another will you suffer its loss.
to you,
> In fact God designed things specifically for you, that which is yours in the church for you to contribute and partake of. Do not bring into the church the worldly aspects of partisan politics, as though that were the natural course of things in the church also. God is sovereign and provident in his rule, he does delegate his rule thru us, but he does not negotiate his absolute authority with anyone or share it with men.

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