The Vip Christian

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THE VIP CHRISTIAN

IN GOD’S EYES, YOU ARE A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON, AND A VERY IMPORTANT POSITION HAS BEEN RESERVED FOR YOU TO BE ENJOYED ACCORDING TO THE VISION, INTENT OF GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE.

BY ABRAHAM JOSEPH AJENIFUJA

“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” (Revelation 21:23, NKJV) PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW

The VIP Christian In God’s eyes, You are a Very Important Person, and a Very Important Position has been reserved for you to be enjoyed according to the Vision, Intent of God’s eternal Purpose for your life. by Abraham Ajenifuja

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 9781498471671

All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. The views expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the publisher.

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are taken from The English Standard Bible (ESV). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; The Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB). Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee; The King James Version (KJV); The New American Standard Bible (NASB). Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation; The New International Version (NIV). Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®; The New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson and The New Living Translation (NLT). Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I

Chapter 1 The ternalE Glory of God...... 37 Chapter 2 Jesus Christ Is the Glory of God...... 50 Chapter 3 Perfect Creation...... 81 Chapter 4 God Is VIP...... 101

Part II

Chapter 5 Man’s VIP Syndrome...... 153 Chapter 6 Our Innermost Desire...... 173 Chapter 7 Gospel of the Culture...... 188 Chapter 8 The Gospel of Jesus Christ...... 199

Part III

Chapter 9 Purpose of the Gospel...... 223 Chapter 10 Identity of the VIP Christian...... 257 Chapter 11 Fragrance of God...... 284 Chapter 12 Fragrance of the VIP Christian...... 300

Part IV

Chapter 13 Your VIP Prophecy...... 333 Chapter 14 VIP Need to Know...... 345 Chapter 15 National VIP Day of Christians...... 369 Chapter 16 Summary...... 385

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

braham Joseph Ajenifuja is formerly known as Lateef Lanre Ajenifuja was Aborn in Jos, Nigeria and immigrated to the US in 1984. He graduated from University of District of Columbia with a BS in accounting and later received Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification in 1990. Presently the vice president of Rod Miller Inc., where he has served the Lord for the past 30 years. Abraham is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Counseling at Liberty University. He is a member of Forcey Bible Church in Silver Spring, Maryland for the past 26 years where he has served in various capacities such as elder, Treasurer, Sunday School teacher; Prayer Warrior, Nursing Home minister, and Home group leader. He expanded the hospitality ministry by forming a team to establish the Forcey Café, a church ministry, to provide an environment in which the Gospel Love relationship can prosper. Abraham is a former board member of Washington Bible College and Capital Bible Seminary where he also had a brief tenure as the Chief Financial Officer during some of the most critical years before its closing. He is a man of passionate service to God, who takes his faith seriously and seeks to live it out in practical ways in his community. Abraham started and led a Bible studies at work, and a Children’s Bible Clubs in the home. He is a member of Pinnacle Forum, an organization that mobilizes Christian leaders to be “change agents” in their com- munities. He serves on the Parent Advisory Council to the Prince George’s County School Board in Maryland and along with his wife, he founded Adopt-a-School Ministry, which seeks to partner faith-based organizations with the public school.

vii PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW He resides in Maryland with his lovely wife Catherine and their six beautiful children: Kareem, Oluwakemi, Oluwakayode, Oluwaleke, Toluwalope, and Oluwatoyin. Abraham is a true champion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As an aspiring author, The VIP Christian is a demonstration of his inner passion of his love of God and to make Him known, “that all may know Him, the fellowship of His suffering and the power of His resurrection.

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:10-14, NLT.

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DEDICATION

hen I look back over the events of my life, I now see clearly that God has Walways been in my life, but I did not always know Him. However, I know that He loves me and has a purpose for my life to know Him and be saved through Jesus Christ. God sovereignly and providentially brought people into my life at specific times and in specific places in order to save and preserve my life so that I can know Him through Jesus Christ and make Him known. God worked out every detail of my life for my good and for His glory. O Lord, our God, how great Thou art!

That is why I am dedicating my life and this book to God: To God who alone is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent To the glorious brilliance of the Godhead To the beauty of His glory To the Sovereign Provident One To Him whose robe is the light and whose canopy is space To the One who is able to keep us from falling To the Potentate To God whom no one has seen or can see To God who, yet, has not hidden Himself from us To the Fountain of Glory To the Fountain of Love To the Fountain of Light To the Fountain of Indestructible Life

xvii PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW To the Fountain of Living To the Great Lover of our souls To Jesus Christ, our Great God and Savior To Him be ascribed worship, honor, and adoration from eternity to eternity.

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PART 1 PREVIEW PREVIEW PREVIEW

CHAPTER 1 THE ETERNAL GLORY OF GOD

The VIP Christian sees the eternal glory of God as the lens through which the world is to understand God and His economy. The VIP Christian sees all things in heaven and earth wrapped around and directed toward the eternal glory of God in Christ.

he eternal glory of God is God in His infinite and indescribable continual Tawesome self-existing manifestation of the beauty of His glory where God is in His Rest. The eternal glory of God is not a thing or one of the attributes of God. It is the description of God in the eternal display of the beauty of His glory. The eternal glory of God is in Christ but veiled so that we do not see Him fully manifested. Attempting to describe it, the eternal glory of God is God in His eternal state as the eternal, immutable, the Great I AM, all-holy, self-existing, self-sustaining, self-determining, self-fulfilling, self-revealing, all-sovereign, all-mighty, ever-present, all-provident God. Then there is the relational aspect of His glory that can be described as the all-loving, all-merciful, all-gracious, all-compassionate and all-forgiving God. There is insufficient vocabulary available to finite beings to describe the eternal glory of God as it is incomprehensible, unattainable, and unapproachable. It is a healthy way for us to describe God without losing our mind and being consumed in the process because it is impossible for the finite to fully describe the infinite God “whom no one has seen or can see.”

37 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW “He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever! Amen”. (1 Timothy 6:16, NLT)

Each of the attributes of God consists as part of all of the other attributes. For example, God’s attribute of omniscience is eternal, holy, powerful, immutable, and so on. We can try to understand God’s glory from the description of His glory in creation, His glory in His acts of history, and from what others have said, who have come in contact with Him, and His glory in Jesus Christ.

THE GREAT I AM God Himself is the Reason for Being. In Christ is life and the life is the Light of men. Life can only be understood, lived and enjoyed in and through Jesus Christ. God self-exists with vision, intent and purpose for His own good pleasure. God does not need the advice of mortal beings to determine what brings Him good pleasure. Let’s ask ourselves the same question “what brings us good pleasure? How we answer this question determines if we accept God for who He is. If we as mortal beings can freely think and have desire to go to college, chose a career, start a family, take vacation to some exotic beach, start a business, employ or fire an employee or reach out and scratch our backs because it makes us feel good, or do whatever we consider good in our own eyes, it is the height of human pride, arrogance and hypocrisy to deny God of His good pleasure. This is the point where everyone needs to stop and accept the fact that there is only One God and we are not. There is no God before Him and there will be no God any other time because He is Eternal.

“Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?

38 PREVIEWThe Eternal GloryPREVIEW Of God PREVIEW For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. Romans 11:33-36, NLT.

God’s good pleasure So what is God’s good pleasure? God’s good pleasure is what brings God glory. It is to Self-determine, to Self-create, to Self-sustain, and to Self-fulfill the things that are according to His nature. In order to understand God’s good pleasure or what glorifies God, we need to find out what is God’s nature. Many people do take their idea about God verbally from others, but have not taken the time to find out themselves. Perhaps the best thing is to listen to God describing Himself to Moses in Exodus 33.

“Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.” – Exodus 34:6-7, NLT

We see from the above verses that God is Love. The first thing God wants us to know about Him is that He is Love. Compassion, mercy and grace are ingredients with which to measure whether an action is Love or not. When God describes Himself as compassionate, merciful and slow to anger or gracious, God is describing Himself as Love. To be merciful and gracious pre-supposes that God has absolute Truth about His nature that we transgress against and He shows us compassion, mercy (not giving us what we deserve) and grace (giving us what we don’t deserve). What is the absolute Truth of God? It is holiness. God is perfect in all sense of perfection. God is Light

39 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW and in Him there is no darkness at all. He is the Father of Light of whom there is no variableness or shifting shadows.

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5, NKJV.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” – James 1:17, NIV.

A shadow is cast upon a matter when light cannot pass through it, due to blockage or interference with the light. The fact that God does not cast shadow means there nothing imperfect about Him. God is perfectly holy. Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1-5) and Apostle John on the Island of Patmos (Revelation 1:17) saw God and they felt as dead because of the consuming nature of God’s holiness. God’s holiness will consume any imperfection that come near to Him. That is why God relates with us in Love and first on the basis of mercy and does not give us what we deserve (Romans 3:23). When God gave Moses the instruction to construct the tabernacle, God specifically mentioned to Moses that He (God) will meet with Moses and speak with Him from above the Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:22a). We must learn and grow to know God’s love through His mercy and compassion. (Lamentation 3:22)

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” – Lamentation 3:22, KJV

Therefore, for God to have His good pleasure in our lives is to allow, or yield to God to accomplish and fulfill the purpose for which He created us according to His nature. It is to receive the Love of God into our lives through Jesus and to show the Love of God in Jesus to all people. God created the world in perfect love and perfect unity (more on this later), but that unity has been shattered. God’s good pleasure is to bring the unity back together through Jesus Christ, and to dwell in that unity.

40 PREVIEWThe Eternal GloryPREVIEW Of God PREVIEW Bringing the unity back together is God’s vision, intent and purpose for you and me, and will always be until Christ returns. God has chosen to bring everything back together through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (more will be discussed in the Gospel chapter).This brings God’s glory because it is according to His nature as Glorious. We bring glory to God to the extent that we co-labor with God in Jesus to reconcile us to Himself and the world around us to God the Father (2 Corinthians 5:20).

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20, NIV

Enjoy the hymn “Worthy is the LAMB” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSaTIHavkok&list=PLAimb- pQf8zH5Ofxn-SZeHO2HdjMw9LHJv&index=190

Enjoy the hymn “To God be the Glory” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV6z3TcYOBQ

God’s purpose from eternity to eternity is to glorify Himself by bringing all things in heaven and earth together (reconciled) under Christ. Everything God created will find their purpose and fulfillment in this process of reconciliation God is the Great I AM, which means God eternally self-exists, and self-determines, self-sustains, self-accomplishes, self-fulfills, self-glorifies Himself providentially and, therefore, sovereignly causes things to be, will be who He will be in order to reconcile the world to Himself. God will glorify Himself according to His good pleasure to the praise of the glory of His grace, which is also according to the conclusively determined counsel of the godhead of God (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit).

“He [God] made known to us the mystery of his will [Vision] according to his good pleasure [Intent], which he purposed in Christ [Purpose], to

41 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ [Vision].” (Ephesians 1:9–10, NIV)

Sin has separated us from God. God’s eternal vision, intent, and purpose (VIP) is to bring everything in heaven and earth together under the loving care, reign, and authority of the exalted Jesus Christ. What brings the most glory to God’s name is the fulfillment of His VIP, through Jesus Christ as theLAMB of God in the lives of those being called. In Jesus, God Loves and Accepts us in order to Make us holy and Blameless (LAMB). This is the Gospel, the Good News and we bring glory to God when we confess Jesus as Savior Lord and work out our salvation through His Gospel (Philippians 2:12-13).

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” – Philippians 2:12-13, NKJV.

Bringing the unity back together is God’s vision, intent and purpose for you and me, and will always be until Christ returns

AS THE GREAT I AM As the Great I AM, God is omnipotent (all powerful), omnipresent (everywhere present), and omniscient (all-knowing), and we exist in Him. In Him we live, breathe, and have our being (Acts 17:28). Psalm 139:1–18 describes how we cannot live outside of God’s presence. Because God is the Creator God, all things that were made exist because God created them; otherwise they would not exist (John 1:3). Because we exist in Him, He rains His general blessing that comes with creation on all of us. He causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust, but He courts a personal relationship with us individually through special, specific, personal revelation through Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and as the Lamb of God.

42 PREVIEWThe Eternal GloryPREVIEW Of God PREVIEW Therefore, as the GREAT I AM, God will be who He must be, causes events and circumstances in our lives to be what they need to be and for us to respond in love in order that God be able to accomplish in our lives what He has promised and fulfill His vision, intent and purpose for Himself. As the Great I AM, God is the self-determining God. God has His vision, intent, and purpose for each person; our VIP status was predetermined and preordained before the foundation of the earth (Jeremiah 1:5; 29:11). Because we live and breathe in Him and He sustains us, we must conclude that there is a direction of providence towards God, and all things that have their existence in Him will need to move in that direction or they are left behind. As the Great I AM, God is the self-sustaining God, and as we live and breathe in Him, we are being sustained in Him. God sustains us by the simple fact that He breathed His breath of life into us through Adam. Every single breath we take in and out is because God is sustaining us. Although sin entered the world through Adam, God’s breath sustains us every day. It is the common grace that God gives all of His creation. No living thing can boast about sustaining itself. Spiritually speaking, God sustains us in the work of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to do the work He called us to do in Christ. (Ephesians 2:10). As the Great I AM, God self-fulfills what He self-determines, and He does this in and through each person. What God determines for an individual has been preordained, and predestinated in that God provides the environment in which it will be fulfilled if we respond in humility, love, faith and obedience. That is the point of Romans 8:29, that “those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.”

“God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, NLT)

As the Great I AM, God glorifies Himself in His VIP, and He calls you and me to follow Him in our journey of life, to experience His awesomeness and to have fulfillment in life. Since God’s VIP is the direction of providence, it just makes good

43 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW sense to receive God’s invitation with love and humility and discover our purpose in life. The alternative will be like swimming against a powerful wave of the ocean. When we yield to God’s Spirit and lovingly follow His lead in our life, He will reveal more of Himself to us, and we will fall more and more in love with Him. God will birth and expand His vision into us as well as enable us with the power of His intention in order for us to sacrificially do things that Jesus would do. When we do this, God will be glorified in our lives. This is what God created us for, and it is in Him that we have fulfillment in life. That is the inspiration behind “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” hymn that Jesus Christ is our health and our salvation. (Neander, 1680).

God will be who He must be, causes events and circumstances in our lives to be what they need to be and for us to respond in love in order that God be able to accomplish in our lives what He has promised and fulfill His vision, intent and purpose for Himself.

God has the same vision, intent, and purpose for everyone—Jews and Gentiles. No matter who we are—black, white, or any other color; rich or poor and everyone in between; all people of all languages and cultures, young or older, male or female—God wants to reflect His glory through Jesus by giving us the new life of Christ; God wants to renew our minds to conform and transform us into the image of Jesus Christ by Loving us, Accepting us in order to Make us holy and Blameless in Christ (LAMB).

God’s glory, the direction of providence God’s eternal glory is the point of reference, the direction of providence and the final state of Rest, in which all human endeavor will find their rest. God has placed the quest for His Rest in the human fabric that we will always be restless until we have our rest in Him through Jesus Christ. The eternal glory of God is the answer to the eternity in the heart on man. “He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11b). We seek this Rest from birth and throughout life. We find this rest when we

44 PREVIEWThe Eternal GloryPREVIEW Of God PREVIEW are working in the will of God through Jesus Christ and manifesting His glory. When we are not, there is unrest in our being that affects our spirit, soul and body. The eternal glory of God is at the center of life for everything whether in heaven, on earth, underneath the earth, in all cosmos, and other created things whether known or unknown to humans. As the center around which all things in heaven and on earth revolve, the eternal glory of God is so powerful that it draws all things to Him, and they are sustained in Him. Jesus Christ is that center: the beginning, path, end – the Alpha and Omega because He encompasses all. In Colossians 1:15-20, the Bible describes why Jesus is the direction of providence. He is Supreme, the One who created the universe and holds it together. When we look at the stars, the heaven in its place, the sun and moon following their tracks, and the seas and the oceans maintaining their boundaries, we need to think of Jesus, the One who holds them together.

“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the

45 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.” Colossians 1:15-23, NLT.

In humanity, Jesus is the one who holds us together in our spirit, soul, and body as we travail in this world. He created everything that we need to live on this terrestrial ball. Since we are created for Him, and our fulfillment in life is in Him, He is always calling us into His eternal glory. Even unbelievers are held together by the word of His power with the intent that they also will come to know God through Jesus Christ.

God’s eternal glory is the direction of providence and the state of Rest, toward which all human endeavor will find their rest.

The eternal glory of God from the name indicates an unending glory. God is always in His eternal glory before the foundation of the earth (Psalm 90:2). God wants to reveal Himself by manifesting His glory in us. In Jesus, we see the veiled glory of God in human flesh. Through Christ in us, we are the hope of glory, and people are to see the reflection of His glory in our lives. God wants us to live in such a way (LAMB) – Loving (seeking their well-being) and Accepting (no matter who they are) people in order to Make them Holy (add value to their lives) and Blameless (protect their human dignity) that as we grow in relationship with Him through Jesus, we bring others along with us. It is the glory of God in us that draws people to God. In heaven, the glory of God is more fully manifested and eternal. There is no death experience in heaven because Satan would have been consigned to eternal damnation. The glory of God will continue to be manifested to the saints in an ever-beautiful, ever-majestic, unique brightness that even the seraphs have to cover their faces and feet in His presence (Isaiah 6:2).

There is a VIP Gap When we lose sight of the direction of providence, we self-inflict and create a “VIP Gap” in our Christian apologetics (living). The Gap is between what we do as

46 PREVIEWThe Eternal GloryPREVIEW Of God PREVIEW Christians and why we do it. Ask any Christian today why they do what they do and you will get many answer short of the fact that it is God’s vision, intent and purpose to reconcile the world to Himself through Jesus Christ. Many Christians cannot articulate why they are engaged in a particular activity of a ministry. It is good works, but we must know our reason for doing it. Our inability to explain or give the reason for why we do what we do takes away some steam from the eternal power behind God’s vision, intent and purpose. It makes our Gospel lukewarm or makes our Gospel a latte Gospel lacking the solid truth of the Word. It is a gap that must be bridged if the VIP Christian is to live a purposeful, fulfilling and joyful Christian life. Purpose without vision is a wandering purpose and life without God’s vision is a purposeless life. It will not be fulfilling because one does not know when the purpose is really hitting the mark. The VIP Gap is the reason for the tendency to veer into legalism, false gospel, burn-out, and joyless Christian life. We all need to go back to eternity with God through His Word and find out for ourselves the reason and meaning of what we do as Christians. If we do, we will find out that from eternity, God had a desire, His good pleasure to create, to reflect His glory in all His creation and especially those made in His own image through Jesus Christ as the LAMB of God (Ephesians 1:9-10) . We will find out that it is the Word who was with God in the beginning that creates new life; that it is the Word of promise that fulfills and sustains God’s promise; and it is the Word that takes us from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18) and from faith to faith (Romans 1:17) sanctifying, conforming and transforming us into the image of Christ. If God’s VIP is to be accomplished, we must bridge this gap. It speaks to effective discipleship. If we do and present the Gospel of Jesus Christ as God intended, nothing will be able to stop the Gospel from prospering in our lives and in our world (that is the world around us) - not sin, not death, not angels, principalities, powers, thrones, dominion, things past, things before, height of depth or any created being (Romans 8:38-39). Bridging this VIP Gap is like knowing the beginning from the end and it is a necessary ingredient needed to fully articulate why we do what we do and thereby giving the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15).

47 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW There was a time that I was seeking the reason why Christians do what they do. Even though I was a young believer, I was not satisfied with Christianity. There was a low level of restless curiosity on one part and misery on the other part operating within me for being a Christian that was begging to be discovered. Yes, I believed that I would go to heaven, but what about now. I cannot begin to explain the joy of discovering it. Even though it is a continuous discovery that comes with growth and maturity in Christ, I thank God for satisfying the curiosity for now. I believe it is part of God’s plan to make us curious about Him, and with love to draw us closer to Him. I believe this will continue through eternity. There will be no end to our joy and worship of God. I know and I am experiencing daily the joy and reason for being a follower of Jesus Christ. Why? Because I was once blind to it - the reason behind the joy that I see in some Christians. Fellow Christian, if you are not experiencing the joy of being a Christian, go back to eternity and re-discover it and you will find it in God’s VIP and the LAMB. Then take another look at your present situation and begin to walk with Him Loving and Accepting people, in order to Make them holy and Blameless and you will re-discover the joy of your salvation.

“Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.” 1 Peter 3:15, NLT.

Conclusion The eternal glory of God is the fullest manifestation of God in the Godhead. The fullest manifestation of His glory will be too much for us to behold on earth. God spared Moses, revealing only an aspect of His glory. Jesus veiled the totality of His glory while on earth. This writer believes that the eternal glory of God is God Himself living and active. It is God’s state of Rest in heaven and where all things in heaven and earth will find their rest. We will do well to always make the perspective of the eternal glory of God to be our gaze and focus every day. It is the point of reference,

48 PREVIEWThe Eternal GloryPREVIEW Of God PREVIEW direction of providence, and we should evaluate our life to see whether we are living in the direction of providence or not. It is too powerful to resist.

Check your VIP Status 1. God has described Himself as the “I AM.” Mention three attributes of God and describe how each relates with the others in God as the Great I AM. 2. What does eternal glory mean to you? 3. How would you describe God in reference to eternal glory? 4. What is your understanding of the “direction of providence,” and how does that apply to your life? 5. How would you describe the eternal glory of God with respect to our desti- nation in heaven?

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CHAPTER 2 JESUS CHRIST IS THE GLORY OF GOD

The VIP Christian delights in the mystery of godliness that God became man in Jesus. The VIP Christian delights in the deity of Christ and in Jesus as the glory of God.

In His Own Word an we imagine someone speaking audibly in a room, but the word is one place Cand the body is in another place in the room? In the secular use of the term “in his or her very own word”, the subject is being described as having said something or made a statement that can be relied upon and attributed to the person who spoke it. In order to have a meaningful dialogue, a person should know what he or she wants to say, the person should mean what is to be said, the person will intend to speak and the person will finally speak so others can hear with the intention that people rely on it. This is the beginning of meaningful dialogue. If we don’t know what we want to say, we should not speak. If we know what we want to say and don’t really mean it, we should not speak. This is because the words spoken cannot be separated from who spoke it and it is a reflection of the integrity of the heart. They are one and the same. The word will communicate either truth or falsity; life or death. It is through authentic dialogue that love relationship can be developed. A life giving word of integrity will enhance relationship better than a death giving word of deceit. The same is true with God.

50 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW One and the Same The best way to know a person is to know what the person say about himself and what the person has done. In an authentic person, both should be the same. There should be no difference. The person, the word spoken or the promise made is coming from the same person and cannot be separated. They are one and the same. As humans we do not always think through what we want to say, we do not always mean what we say, and when we speak, our words to do not always reflect our thoughts. We are not really being sincere thereby leaving people to rely on the wrong information. This is how we dialogue daily in all areas of the social structure. One can guess the kind of relationship that will develop with this kind of discourse. God is the Author of authentic communication through His very own Word. Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1). From the beginning when God spoke the world into being, He spoke through His Word that later became flesh in Jesus (John 1:14), the Son of God. God is love and relates with us in love, truth and grace. God communicates His love, truth and grace through His Word. God is not like a human that He should intend one thing and says another. God is Holy. He knows what He means, speaks what He means, and fulfills what He means through Jesus. God says in times past, He spoke His Word through the prophets, but since the Word became flesh in Jesus, God now speaks directly to us through Jesus Christ. If we want to know what God says about anything, we must go to the Source, the Bible. God speaks through His Word. God’s Word cannot be separated from God. The Word who became flesh in Jesus is the same Word that was with God in eternity, through whom God created the heavens and the earth and cannot be separated from God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Before Abraham was I AM” John 8:58. God’s Word was with Him and therefore God’s Word is God. God’s Word when heard and understood, gives life and Spirit. (John 6:46). The psalmist says that God has lifted His Word above His name. This can be understood in that it is through God’s Word that God reveals Himself. Whatever we understand about God’s name is first revealed by His Word. It is God’s Word that reveals God as God the Creator, Sustainer, Salvation, Provider, Healer, Peace.

51 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW God’s Word “is higher and exceeds all manifestation of Himself as subject of praise” (Jamieson, R, Fausset, .A.R, Brown, D, 2000).

Whatever we understand about God’s name is first revealed by His Word. It is God’s Word that reveals God as God the Creator, Sustainer, Salvation, Provider, Healer, Peace.

God is Spirit and no one has seen the form of God at any time, but the only Begotten of God, who came from His bosom, has made Him known. The term “who came from His bosom” means the Word is co-equal and co-eternal with God. The Word who was with God in eternity has now become flesh in God-Man Jesus through the incarnation. (John 1:1-3, 14) and has made God known. Jesus is God, the final expression of God (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is the Word of God and it is through the Word of God (Jesus) that we can know God, understand what He says and what He has done and develop personal relationship with Him. There is no other way to relate with God and be saved (Acts 4:12).

“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” – John 1:18, NKJV

God’s Word and His VIP We know God’s vision, intent and purpose, and our responsibility to be the living sacrifice that reconcile people to Him through Jesus Christ through His Word. Before time began, God had the Vision, Intent and Purpose (VIP), the good pleasure according to council of His will to express Himself and glorify His name in humans whom He will create. God will fill humans with His Holy Spirit, and give them freedom and liberty to fill the earth with the knowledge and glory of God. God knew that finite beings, given such freedom and liberty will choose to disobey and sin against God. Sin will enter the human race and it will seem that God will not be able to accomplish His VIP. But God will become God-Man in Jesus and will rescue, redeem and restore mankind to

52 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW Himself through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ on the cross. We know this to be true because God revealed His thoughts through His Word.

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” Ephesians 1:4-5, NLT

God expressed His desire through His Word so we can know, understand, rely on it and relate with Him. God expressed His desire, His promise by His very own spoken Word in creation (Spirit, Genesis 1:2), His Living Word in incarnation; (Luke 1:31), Redemptive Word (John 8:12, Acts 4:12) Resurrection (John 11:25), and His Written Word (the Bible, John 5:39, Hebrews 4:12). Jesus is the desire of God, the Word of God, the Promise of God and the One through whom God reveals Himself, His glory to the world. Jesus is the desire of all nations. We give God glory when we seek to understand and know who He is through Jesus Christ, the Word and glory of God. Jesus is the glory of God.

The Revelation of God From eternity and through time, God made a promise by His very own Word that proceeded from His mouth, that at the right time He would bring together all things in heaven and earth under the rule and care of Jesus. God would dwell amongst the people and He will reign forever in the New Jerusalem where there will be no sun because God is present and the Lamb will be the Light (Revelation 21:23). In fulfilling His promise, God first spoke creation into being by His very own Word. Let there be Light. In six days, God created the heavens, the earth and everything in it through Jesus, the Word and the glory of God. The psalmist declared that “the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1). Then after the fall of Adam and the entire human race, God fulfilled His redemptive promise by His very own

53 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW Word-when the Word took human form in the incarnation and dwelt amongst us. . .the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. . .(John 1:14).

“Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God Luke 1:24-35, NLT.

God’s Spirit and His VIP God’s Word gives us the knowledge of His VIP, (His will) while God’s Spirit is the power that enables us to express do it. Just as the Word of God is God and cannot be separated from God, the Holy Spirit of God cannot be separated from God’s Word - The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life – John 6:63 NLT. Through the Word, the Holy Spirit is God’s enablement through whom He accomplishes the vision, intent and purpose of God in the life of the Christian. In God’s economy in humanity, and though operating in different roles or functions, the Triune God will always be operating together as One in order to accomplish One Vision, One Intention and One Purpose that was ordained before the foundation of the world. In the incarnation, when the Word became flesh in Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit of God who conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb. When Mary asked the angel Gabriel “How can this happen since I am a virgin” The angel responded that ““The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God - Luke 1:34-35 NLT. We need the understanding that Jesus, as our example, even though He was and is God, in His humanity, He grew in knowledge, faith, obedience, stature of God and was filled with the Holy Spirit. Without the filling of the Holy Spirit Jesus could not have fulfilled the vision, intent and purpose of God for His life.

54 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.” Luke 2:52, NLT.

As God, the Spirit of God was in Jesus ready to empower Jesus to fulfill the imperative oracle of the Word. As Man, Jesus was always in the ready to obey posture to do the will of the Father. The operative term is “ready to…” in that God, who knows all things, searches the heart so that when faith is expressed in the Word, God gives access into His grace (Romans 5:1) and supplies the power that enables the expression of faith into obedience and good works. Faith in the Word of God (Jesus) and yielding to the Spirit of God in Jesus for good works are necessary to fulfill the vision, intent and purpose of God. As VIP Christians, we are to seek the knowledge of God’s Word, and since we love God, we are to express faith, obedience and good works, otherwise our faith is dead. Just as God is “ready to supply” and have His grace abound in us, our posture before God in humility should be “ready to obey”, meaning “ready to yield” to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, our faith will not be genuine as there will be no evidence of the good works of a VIP Christian – Loving and Accepting people in order to Make them holy (add value to their lives) and hold them blameless (protecting their human dignity). In regeneration, it is the Word of God that brings faith. . .Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). By hearing, God also gives us the understanding to believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead for our justification which makes us right with God. In believing with our heart, God moves by His Spirit, convinces and convicts and we confess that Jesus is Lord. God is glorified when a sinner comes to faith through the Word. In sanctification, it is the Word of God that perfects holiness in our lives. Since the Word is also Spirit and Life of God, when we hear the Word, the Spirit convicts us of any presenting sins. The scriptures describe the Word as sharper than any two edges sword and is able to go down to into the heart, to the division of soul and spirit, the joints and marrow and discern the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Because

55 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW we love God as followers of Jesus we are to respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and repent. In this way God sanctifies us by His Word. (John 17:17). God and His Word cannot be broken or separated from God. God’s Word is the Personhood of God Himself. Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is God in human flesh, the Word and the glory of God.

“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.” – Colossians 2:9, NLT

The Reason and Meaning of life Merriam-Webster defines meaning as “the thing one intends to convey especially by language” What God intend to convey first is the knowledge that He is God; the only True God, that He loves us, and that He has a vision, intent and purpose for our lives. God wants to gather all things in heaven and earth to Himself under the rule and care of Jesus Christ. Understanding what God says through His Word is what gives meaning to life. So, how did God convey the meaning of life to us? God conveys the meaning of life by His very own Word. The Word of God is God’s Reason for creating the heaven, the earth and everything in it, including us humans. In order words, life is meaningless if not reasoned and understood from God’s perspective. In order to give understanding of the Reason and Meaning of life, the Word became flesh and Reason (logic) and Meaning (purpose) came together in Jesus. God became flesh and dwelt amongst us in JESUS. It is through Jesus, the Word, (Logos) that we know, understand the meaning of life.

Let us reason together God calls us to Himself, because He has given each of us the ability to observe, and understand the meaning of life through the things He has made (Common Grace) and then to know Him through the Saving Grace of faith in Jesus Christ - He says Come now, and let us reason together (Isaiah 1:18a). If we take heed to listen to the Word, God will give us the understanding and meaning of life. The same

56 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW Word, (Reason and Logos of God) has taken human flesh to reconcile us to God by expressing God’s Love in practical ways. Practically, in Jesus, God Loves and Accepts us (just as we are) in order for God to cleanse us, Make us holy, add values to our lives and protect His image in us, our human dignity (LAMB). Jesus fulfills God’s vision, intent and purpose on the cross. When we draw close to God through the LAMB, God washes us in the blood of Jesus, keeps us clean by the sanctifying power of His Holy Spirit one person at a time and thereby building up the Body of Christ for Him to dwell in (Ephesians 20:21-22).

Jesus is the Glory of God. Jesus is the glory of God because He came and fulfilled what God wanted to do through Adam. Jesus came as the Second Adam to fulfill for us what was impossible for us through keeping the moral Law which is the Ten Commandments and its derivatives as interpreted and practiced in all cultures of the world. What Adam failed to do and what the Law could not do, Jesus did by representing the whole human race. Jesus took all our sins, past, present, future, and practically paid God’s just penalty for or sins by nailing it to the cross. . . He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-15) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). If we trace the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew 1:16 backwards to Matthew 1:1, it will cut through all boundaries that separate us today - ethnic, racial, socio-economic, and language. Jesus genealogy touched upon every aspect of the human race. It includes all people that the sin of Adam has affected - Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, kings and queens, people of ill-repute and good repute, male and female, older and younger, lame and blind, disease lepers and social outcastes. The fact is there is no pure race, no pure culture or color. The same blood runs through our veins and it is tainted by sin. We all need a Savior and Jesus is His name. Jesus glorified God in that He atoned for the sins of the human race. Jesus fulfilled all the laws and commandments that kept us from knowing and experiencing God. Jesus represented the human race before God as God’s LAMB of sacrifice for our sins. The glory of God is the manifestation of God. When God’s will

57 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW is being done in love, trusting in Him to supply all that is needed to fulfill His will, God is being glorified. Jesus is the glory of God because He is the Word of God, who became flesh and perfectly obeyed God all the way to the Cross (Philippians 2:5-11). No one will ever be able to manifest God’s glory as Jesus did. But to the extent that God’s VIPs are in loving obedience and trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit to enable, the Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossian 1:27) will be manifested.

The fact is there is no pure race, no pure culture or color. The same blood runs through our veins and it is tainted by sin.

The Beauty of God We have already said that the glory of God is God’s manifestation of Himself. God manifests Himself in places and times in order to display His beauty and draw us to Himself. Ask any man or woman, beauty is meant to be noticed and is in the eyes of the beholder. When we take time to think and ponder it, God’s beauty whether in creation, fall, redemption and restoration of man through Jesus is incomparably gloriously beautiful and meant to be beheld. God made us to respond to His beauty. Our heart, mind and soul is filled with ugliness of sin. We know True Beauty when we see it. We may want to suppress it, but God’s beauty cannot be hidden. God’s glory and beauty speaks to the eternity in our hearts and we respond to the call of God. It is while we are gazing and desiring to see more of the beauty that God gets our attention and courts us in a saving relationship. Jesus is that Glorious Beauty of God. Everything about Jesus is meant to be glorious and captivating. Humility, sacrifice, mercy, grace, compassion, forgiveness, and patience, are expressions of God’s beauty. The Beauty of Jesus is best seen and experienced in the life of the VIP Christian through the Fruit of the Spirit of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control (Galatians 5:22-23). Jesus in His incarnation, His life, miracles, fulfilling of the laws, His death, burial and resurrection displays the beautiful heart of God. Jesus expresses God beauty perfectly. Jesus is the Beauty and Glory of God in human flesh.

58 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14, NIV

The Promise and the Fulfillment of God’s purpose Jesus is the glory of God because He is not only the perfect expression of God, Jesus is also the perfect fulfillment of God’s purpose through His death, burial and resurrection. In His death, God took all the penalty of our sins, the result of our wages for God’s commandments we have all broken and placed them on Jesus (Isaiah 53, Ephesians 2:1-3, Colossians 2:12-15). By this, Jesus is the LAMB, the atoning sacrifice, the gift of God that paid the penalty of our sins on the Cross at Calvary. Through His blood all our sins are washed away and forgiven as far as east is from the west and will never be counted against us again (Ephesians 1:7). In His burial, our old self with the sin-mutant DNA, and the lust thereof (flesh, eyes, pride) was buried with Him. In His resurrection, we are raised together with Christ into a new person (Romans 6:8), partaker of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), a new life of a new vision, intent and purpose that is eternal and abundant in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17, John 10:10). When we take time to think about these, the Beauty of God in Christ will draw us to Him. Jesus is God’s very own Word, the Second Person of the Trinity, and the exact image of His being (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is the glory of God, the Son of God in Whom He is well pleased (Matthew 3:17). When Jesus came to earth through incarnation and virgin birth, though He was and is God, He did not arrogate, but was meek and humble with power and authority under control. To be meek and gentle like Jesus is beautiful. Jesus was obedient to death and death on the cross and willingly submitted to God in love for God because of the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2) – those who will be the heir of His salvation – you and me who are believing followers of Jesus Christ today and all those who will be believing followers of Jesus tomorrow. Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above all names so that at the name of Jesus, when read, spoken or sung, every knee will bow of those in

59 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW heaven, of those on earth and of those underneath the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11).

“Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11, NKJV

He fulfilled God’s plan perfectly by being obedient to death as our atoning sacrifice on the Cross. Because death could not hold Him in the grave, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after burial. Through His atoning sacrifice and resurrection, we have peace with God and access into the grace of His Kingdom.

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege (GRACE) where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.” (Romans 5:1–2, NLT).

Jesus glorified God in His perfect obedience and revelation of God. Likewise, it is through our obedience as followers of Jesus Christ that we will make God known and glorify Him. God has called us to be His vision, intent and purpose (VIP Christians), displaying the mysteries of Christ and shining the light of Jesus (Matthew 5:16). Although some people refer to Jesus as a prophet, teacher, philosopher, and many other exalted names short of God, the VIP Christian is fully persuaded by the Word

60 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW of God that Jesus is the very Word of the very God. Jesus is one hundred percent fully God and one hundred percent fully man at the same time. God prepared the Body of Jesus for Himself in Mary’s womb, and He was conceived in a virgin birth by the Holy Spirit.

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35, NLT).

VEILED GLORY In His life’s work, Jesus veiled the totality of His glory for no one can see the totality of God. Jesus veiled God’s fullness but manifested God’s glory in some specific ways such as in His miracles. However, He did unveil more of His glory for a moment on the Mount of Transfiguration when He spoke with Moses and Elijah. On the Island of Patmos, Jesus appeared in His resurrected glorious body to John, the Apostle. When John saw Jesus, he fell as a dead man.

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as if I were dead.” (Revelation 1:17a, NLT)

Jesus is fully human in that a human body was prepared for Him in Mary’s womb. Jesus took on humanity when He was conceived in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit of God. In His humanity, Jesus was like each of us except that He had no sin. Like each of us, Jesus needed to pray and sleep; He was tired, hungry, and He cried. Jesus felt the pain of betrayal, rejection, being misunderstood, and the thought of having to die. Jesus could only be at one place at a time, and His knowledge was limited to what God the Father revealed to Him. Yet Jesus is the Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6b). As God, Jesus is divine, eternal in nature while in a human body with power over death. Jesus had the power “to make the blind see, the lame to walk, to cure the lepers, to make the deaf hear and to raise the dead” (Matthew 11:5). Today, Jesus continues

61 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW to save people who are dead in their trespasses and bring them into a new life. All the good things that Christians do to make the world a better place to live are done in the name of Jesus. Once when the people doubted the power with which He healed a demon possessed man, Jesus stated that His power was the divine power of God who fully indwelled in Him (Luke 11:14–22). Nicodemus came and sought Jesus at night because the testimony of God in Christ was compelling. Jesus is the glory of God (John 3:2).

JESUS IS THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD Jesus came to manifest the glory of God to the world. When Phillip asked Jesus to show the Father, Jesus’ response was, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus is the beginning and end, the Alpha and Omega of our entire human quest to know God. Jesus is the direction of providence, the Second Person of the Trinity and the manifestation of God’s glory. Jesus is the co-eternal, co-existing Second Person of the Trinity and the means by which God speaks today.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Hebrews 1:3, ESV)

ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM AND FOR HIM All things were created by Christ and for Christ, the eternal glory of God. Therefore all things will find their purpose in Him. A life without Christ is a life without purpose. Every atom of every cell of every tissue of every organ of every organism, no matter how simple or complex, was created purposefully to manifest God’s glory. Psalm 19:1-6 describes the heaven as the glory of God, the firmament as His handiwork daily declaring the glory of God. They speak and tell of the beauty of their Creator. Man, who is created in the image of God, gives God the most glory

62 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW when he is in relationship with God through Jesus—because of Christ in him is the secret of life and the hope of glory of God (Colossians 1:27).

JESUS HOLDS ALL THINGS TOGETHER Jesus created all things and holds them together by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) that created them. Before they were created, and before the mountains were brought forth, Jesus is and has always been God. Jesus not only created them, but also holds them together by the Word that spoke them into being. They (all creatures including humans) have and maintain their form because of Jesus; otherwise, they would lose their form and disintegrate. The earth, as we know it, would have lost its form and melted if the sun is a little closer. But Jesus, as fully God and fully Man, holds them in exact distant place.

Every atom of every cell of every tissue of every organ of every organism, no matter how simple or complex, was created purposefully to manifest God’s glory.

In the same way, all people in the world today are held together by the grace of God—common grace toward unbelievers and saving grace toward believers. If God were to withhold His grace from any of us, sin would ravage and destroy us. The VIP Christian needs to keep a humble lifestyle, knowing that God is covering him all the time with a measure of grace.

THE FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD AND HEAD OF CHURCH The direction of providence is a direction of the call of God into His eternal glory. It is a call from death to the resurrected eternal and abundant life in Christ. Jesus Christ has tasted death for all. He has conquered death. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6) and the Light of mankind (John 1:4). Jesus now calls all who are still dead in their sins and all who are being saved to find their resurrected life and rest in Him (Matthew 11:28–30).

63 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW God manifests His glory in the church, which is the body of Christ. Followers of Jesus are living stones, the building blocks that have the Spirit of Christ in them. As the Spirit cannot be separated, the body of the Spirit is one body that includes all people all over the world who have confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead. It is this Body, whether locally as a church that meets regularly or as the invisible global Body of Christ that is the manifestation of the glory of God in Christ. The church is the lamp of God on earth because the glory of Christ is in her. When the church is being truly faithful to her call to love and accept people so they can be rescued and redeemed through the blood of Jesus, she will manifest the glory of God. The Bible says “Christ in us is the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). This means that Jesus, the glory of God in us, will only shine as each follower of Jesus Christ works out their salvation as a faithful witness of Jesus. The church is the visible expression of the eternal glory of Christ in the world, calling all people from all nations, color, culture, language, ages, gender, and socioeconomic status into the beauty of His eternal glory in Jesus and asking people to “turn from godless living and sinful pleasures . . . and live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God” (Titus 2:11–14).

SHROUDED IN MYSTERY Everything about Jesus, His birth, His life, His resurrection, and His ascension, is the mystery of God concealed, except to those who are truly seeking Him. Mysteries are the works of God, which were concealed in the past but have now been revealed in Christ. God uses the miracles of Christ as mysteries to draw people to Him. When a person observes a miracle and seeks to understand it, the closer that person gets to the mystery, the more God will reveal Himself through Jesus Christ. Think of Moses and the burning bush. It was when Moses drew closer to the mystery of the bush that was burning but not being consumed that God revealed Himself from within the burning bush (Exodus 3:4-6). Knowing the mystery of God applies to believers and unbelievers. God reveals His mystery to those who respond in faith for initial salvation. God also reveals His mystery to believers in Christ, who are living in faith and obedience as matured

64 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW Christians. In 1 Corinthians 2:6-7, Apostle Paul affirmed that God’s plan was pre- viously hidden as mystery, then is Colossians 2, he stated that understanding the mystery of God is through knowing Christ by having faith in Him.

“I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mys- terious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” – (Colossians 2:2-3, NLT)

Jesus is the King, and the ruler of the domain of life (King + Domain = Kingdom) both spiritually in our hearts and in the future kingdom. The kingdom of God is a mystery until revealed by and understood through Jesus Christ. Jesus speaks in parables to conceal the mysteries of the Kingdom, but He will reveal it to those who genuinely want to know Jesus as the light of God. God brings light through Jesus into the dark areas of each of our lives, but He is shrouded in mystery to all who reject Him as the God-Man. Those who live in darkness and refuse to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God will remain in darkness. God knows our motives, and He is the One who can judge the thoughts and intents of the heart of those truly seeking Him. Only those who really want to know Him will receive the revelation and come to know Him. People who want to know God are people who respond to His mystery, His miracles, His love initiatives in creation, history, and now in Jesus Christ through the Gospel. In His conversation with the woman at the well, Jesus progressively salted her oats that she became spiritually thirsty and wanted to have the Living Water for herself.

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”– John 4:15, NLT.

The whole Bible, Old and New Testaments, is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the One the prophets spoke of, even though they did not know how salvation would be brought to mankind. Even the angels, as they serve God as ministering spirits to

65 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW those who are being saved, watched with interest about how God was going to bring our salvation to pass. In other words, it was a mystery to the prophets and angels.

“This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen”. (1 Peter 1:10–12, NLT)

Mystery in Creation There is a mystery in creation in that it came into being out of nothing. The Bible describes the condition of the world before creation as outer darkness. It was a formless void inhabited by nothing but the black darkness of rebellious spirit beings cast out of heaven. However, when God commanded light to shine out of darkness, the darkness disappeared. Science has tried to unravel the mystery, but it cannot. The most that it has done is to describe what happened but not why it happened. It is a mystery that cannot be explained, except through Christ the Word of God who spoke creation into existence

“The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:2–3, NLT).

Spoken into Being That Jesus spoke creation into being is the key to understanding the mystery in creation. One has to go all the way back to eternity to find out that before God brought forth the mountains, God had desired for His own good pleasure to extend,

66 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW express and manifest His glory beyond Himself, which was to make man who would be made in His own image. From eternity, God loved us, accepted us in Christ (even before we were born), and predestined us to be holy and blameless. In order for this to happen, He had to create a universe in which man could dwell. In order for man to fill the earth with the glory of God, there had to be a woman who would carry the fetus from conception to birth and help raise and nurture the children. Just a quick note here: all claims about homosexuality that God created a person to be homo- or bisexual are false. They do not align with God’s reason – His vision, intention and purpose for creating humans which is to glorify Himself. In order for man to survive, the environment had to be conducive to human life for procreation and sustenance. God had to create other things like the sun, moon, water, vegetation, and the plant and animal kingdoms in the first five days. There are many other things that God created to support and sustain human life that science is yet to discover. God created man on the sixth day after all the life-supporting and procreating structures had been created. God made man from the dust and breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living being. God then charged man to “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and have dominion over it” (Genesis 1:27-28). See the order of creation below:

Light Firmament Vegetation Sun, moon, and stars Water animals, and fowl, land animals, Man and womanii

Mystery in death Death is the end of physical life here on earth. All body systems and functions that support life come to a stop. This means that all cells, tissues, organs, and multiple body systems cease to work properly. This ultimately shuts down the breathing system, and life under the Sun ends. But death is not the end of life for those who live life under the Son. When we understand that God made each of us as beings with three

67 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW parts: body, soul, and spirit, death can destroy the body but cannot destroy the spirit and soul because they are eternal. The body came from dust and returns to dust, but the spirit and soul of man is given by God and returns to God to live in eternity with Him or in eternal damnation with Satan. The mystery is that spiritual death must come first before an unbeliever can be raised into, and begin a new resurrected life in Christ. It is in resurrection through Christ that God glorifies Himself.

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4, NKJV).

Physical death and death-like experiences in life are tools in Satan’s hand to par- alyze us and prevent the work of God’s vision, intent and purpose in us and through us. In encouraging His disciples then and now to be fearless witnesses of Him, Jesus asks that we not be afraid. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, NIV). It is the message of Christmas that we should not be afraid because God became man to make peace with us through His Son Jesus Christ.

The body came from dust and returns to dust, but the spirit and soul of man is given by God and returns to God to live in eternity with Him or in eternal damnation with Satan

Death is a mystery because the original cause of death is not known to science and the secular world. Science can postulate the chemical processes that lead to death, but it cannot explain the reason why physical life on earth cannot go on forever. Science will have to go back to eternity to understand that before creation was brought forth, God determined to create man, give him instruction for successful living, and give him freedom and liberty to fulfill it. When God gives freedom and liberty, He also

68 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW gives responsibility and will hold us accountable. It is inconceivable to human mind why God would allow Adam to sin. God knew what would happen, so He mitigated the freedom and responsibility with the LAMB that was slain for us before the foundation of the world. Science with all the knowledge, textbooks, and researches does not and cannot know this truth. It will have to go back to eternity in God’s textbook of life, the Bible and discover the mystery of death and how God prepared in advance for it. God knew that death would enter the human race, and it will take the blood of Jesus to redeem and restore us back to God. The key to understanding death is knowing why God created life in the first place. God created life for His own glory (Genesis 1:31, Job 38:4-11, Ephesians 1:5). Spiritual death is separation from God. Any act of man that is short of giving glory to God will automatically bring death—spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Science, human philosophy and popular psychology have no answer to the cause of death because it is spiritual. When God created Adam and he became a living being, He had given freedom to Adam to eat of anything in the Garden except the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God had pronounced death as the judgment for disobedience. God said “Of any tree in the garden you may freely eat except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam disobeyed God, and his disobedience dishonored God. Adam therefore brought death on himself and on the whole human race. Any death-like experience we face today such as shame, guilt, sadness, physical pains, and the like are the result of the spiritual death—a separation from God, the giver and sustainer of life. However, death is not the end of life to a believer in Christ.

Mystery in New Life The mystery of new life is in understanding the reason for life and how death could not stop it. The mystery of new life can then be understood as the power of God in Christ who calls things that are dead back to life, who “calls things which do not exist as though they did and creates new things out of nothing (Romans 4:17, Genesis 1:1-3). Death cannot and will not stop God’s purpose that has existed from

69 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW eternity, which is to extend His glory into mankind that was created in His own image. God knew before-hand that death would enter the human race so He made provision to overcome death through Jesus. God’s desire to fill the earth with His glory will be accomplished in the Kingdom of the Lordship of Christ in the future and is being accomplished in the present when we accept God’s love initiative in Christ as Savior and Lord.

“I tell you the truth; those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” (John 5:24, NLT).

A believer in Christ, after confessing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, has eternal life—the new indestructible life of Christ within. The believer has passed from death into a new life (John 5:24), as the power of death has been broken by Jesus Christ in His resurrection from the dead.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?? (1 Corinthians 15:54–55, NLT)

This is the eternal life (John 17:3) that begins the moment we confess Jesus as Savior and Lord (Romans 10:9–10). It is a life of the eternal vision, intent, and purpose (VIP) of God empowered by God Himself, who now lives inside the new believer which shall be fulfilled under heaven for the glory of God. So even when perils, persecution, and other forms of suffering come, the believer is sustained through them. The believer keeps manifesting resurrection power over the circumstances of life and it is a mystery that can only be understood in the reason for creation and in the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never

70 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4:8–11, NLT)

When a believer dies physically, his spirit-soul is immediately alive in the presence of Christ (Philippians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 5:8). Likewise, an unbeliever who dies physically will also be raised in order to be judged and will spend eternity in eternal fire where the worms never die (Mark 9:47–48). Science and the philosophies of mankind cannot explain new life as in a newborn baby. Although babies are born every day, the mystery of life in a newborn must not be discounted. They also cannot explain how someone who has died can suddenly come back to life as in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; or a changed life as in someone who was formerly fearful, but now is filled with confidence; or an addict who was delivered from drugs, sex, and alcohol; or the proud and boastful who now lives in humility. The key to understanding the mystery of new life in Christ is to simply have faith in God through Jesus Christ. Faith in God gives access to the knowledge that will unravel the mysteries of Christ as the glory of God. It will give us the understanding of why God is gathering all things in heaven and earth to Himself through Jesus Christ. It is in accordance to His original purpose in creation, which is to glorify Himself. This means nothing can stop it, and if sickness, disease, and death come, God will heal the sickness, cure the disease, and raise from the dead or work through them which ever will give God the most glory. Death came through Adam (Romans 5:12), but eternal life (John 17:3) came through Jesus Christ. That is why God sent Jesus Christ to inflict the mortal blow to Satan, the killer, the stealer, and the destroyer (John 10:10).

“When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” (Romans 5:12, NLT)

71 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW “But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:15, NLT).

UNSHROUDED TO THE HUMBLE All these are mysteries until we express faith in God through Jesus Christ. God gives us access into the mysteries of the Kingdom and then we will understand. But it is to those who are poor in spirit, broken-hearted, spiritually blind, and oppressed and know their need for a Savior, who are more likely to express faith that Jesus is unshrouded. They are the humble in heart who know their need for hope and help from God. Jesus has been revealed as the hidden mystery of the glory of God and the bearer of the Good News of our salvation.

When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners. (Mark 2:17, NLT)

Jesus is the “Light of the glory of God shining in the dark place” of our lives that if we behold Him long enough; He is the Light of His glory that will shine in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19). If we allow God to confound us with the mystery of Christ and draw close to Him as Moses drew to the burning bush (Exodus 3:4–6), God will reveal Himself in the mystery.

Salvation come through Jesus Alone God’s glory can be displayed in nature, but nature is not God and we cannot be saved by it. God’s beauty of His glory can be displayed in medicine, sports, science, and beautiful arts, but they are not God and cannot save and bring humanity to the eternal glory of God. God’s beauty can be seen in languages and culture, but cultural traditions cannot save us.

72 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW The beauty of nature, culture, and human accomplishments are evidence of God’s glory within them. Jesus Christ, the Creator, the Giver, and Sustainer of life, is the glory of God and the One through whom God’s glory is to shine and populate the earth. Christ is the Giver and Sustainer of life. Christ is the reason for creating the universe (Colossians 1:15–17). Christ is the One who sustains the universe (Hebrews 1:3). Christ is the One who came and took the sting of death on our behalf to remove death and all death-like experiences from our lives (Hebrews 2:14). He is the one who died, who was buried, and who rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God (Romans 8:33–39). All things that God wants us to know about Him in order that all would believe that He is God, are clearly seen in the things He has made—“His invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So we have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1:19b). People can see the evidence of God, but they are not willing to draw closer to Him. Instead, they suppress the evidence in human theories about the nature of God. God cannot be known unless He reveals Himself, and that is what He has done in stages. First, He has revealed Himself in creation when He called light to shine out of darkness. He is the same God who called light to shine out of darkness and wants to call light of Jesus to shine out of the darkness of our hearts, if we will allow ourselves to be entreated by His mystery and draw close to Him (2 Corinthians 4:6). And second, He has revealed Himself in the history of His relationship with mankind. History is His-story of His grace and mercies by which He created, sustains, and promises to redeem us to Himself in His eternal glory. If creation and history are not enough to convince us of the existence of God and to draw nigh to Him, through Jesus Christ, God asks us to take a closer look at Jesus in His work before the Cross, His work on the Cross, and His resurrection from the dead. There should be no doubt about who Jesus is. God has revealed Himself in Jesus as the LAMB of God before the Cross and the LAMB of God who came to take our sins away on the cross at Calvary.

73 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW In the LAMB on the Cross Jesus is the LAMB of God who came to the world to die for our sins on the Cross. But before the cross, Jesus Loved and Accepted people, regardless of ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and every other social barrier and stigma with the intention to Make us holy and Blameless—LAMB. Jesus ultimately fulfilled the reason for which He came – to reveal God, to save and draw many to God. But not many knew or even believed until it really happened. Even the disciples of Jesus did not believe that Jesus was actually going to die or be resurrected. Peter tried to prevent Him from being arrested. And afterward, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus were saddened by the crucifixion of Jesus (Luke 24:13-48). However, Jesus proved God to be right concerning all the prophecies about Him (Isaiah 53). He died on the cross for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and rose on the third say according to the scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3).

“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, NLT.

In the Resurrected LAMB Jesus proved to be the glory of God in His life, death, burial, and resurrection. From the quietness inside the grave to the quiet environment surrounding the tomb and to the busy normal life in Jerusalem and the entire world, there was a mystery about to take place that will determine the salvation of the world. Two days have passed and nothing happened. Nothing was supposed to happen because Jesus has said many times that He will be raised on the third day. On the third day, there was a spiritual and colossal systemic shift that re-aligned the means of salvation of the

74 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW world. All people language, and government of the world would find their reason for existence in the Resurrected Christ. They will no longer be able to find their purpose in traditions, rules, laws and regulation. A power shift has taken place, and power of the principalities of evil over the social pillars have been broken. They can no longer use fear, doubt and anxieties to scare people into serving Satan, the evil kingdom and its representatives on earth. Anyone who believes in the resurrected LAMB has this power within and can be a “change agent” in the culture. God raised Jesus from the dead—bodily. When Thomas, a disciple of Jesus doubted that Jesus was indeed raised, Jesus entered the room through the wall and called Thomas to come forward and see His nail-pierced hands. Thomas came forward, bowed his head, and worshipped Jesus as his Lord and his God (John 20:28). Thomas proved what God wanted us to know—that Jesus is the glory of God, and that glory is seen through the broken body of Jesus. After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to over five hundred people, including Cephas, James and all the apostles. (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).

In the LAMB Slain Jesus is in heaven right now, acknowledged as the LAMB that was slain. God allowed Apostle John in his exile on the Island of Patmos to see the vision of heaven and the revelation of Jesus as the LAMB that was slain. In Revelation 5, John gives us the account of a space of time when the heaven and earth was silent. It was silent because the stage was set for revealing who was worthy to step up, take the scroll, and open it. There was no one in heaven or on earth who could. Even as John started to cry and lament about what would happen if no one could save the nations, Someone appeared and stepped on the stage. It is the Jesus, the LAMB of God. John explained the sight of Jesus as a LAMB that appeared to have been slain.

“Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which

75 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth.” (Revelation 5:8, NLT).

The living creatures and the twenty four elders around the throne bowed in worship and sang:

“And they sang a new song with these words: You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9, NLT)

God wants us to know that Jesus is the glory of God, who stepped into time to fulfill God’svision, intent, and purpose, and He opened the door for each of us to be God’s VIP. Without Jesus, the world would have been destroyed. But thanks be to God that through Jesus, God is sustaining the world, giving time for us to be saved and also calling us into the awesome privilege to co-labor with Jesus and bring many people to the eternal glory of God.

IF WE ONLY KNEW That there are cloud of witnesses always in attendance watching and waiting to see how God is going to pull out His mystery of His glory from the mess and crisis of our lives. The principalities and powers watch in wonder how God will ever reverse their destructive and interruptions of God’s plan of salvation in our lives. As they watch and wait, the angels of God keep ministering in obedience but also in wonder of the meaning of salvation because they do not understand and cannot experience it.

76 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW The Hall of the Bible faithfulls, and all the saints of God are also watching but with a confident hope that God will pull it off through Jesus Christ. God did raise them for they are present with God in heaven and He will in our lives. But watching and waiting in futility is the frame of mind and the exact situation of Caiaphas and the Jewish leadership, Herod, Pilate and the host of the kingdom of darkness. It was while they were waiting and watching, when the whole plan of salvation hung in the balance, while it looked like God would not be able to fulfill His promise that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit who are the real audience decided to turn the wisdom of the Jews, Greek and the world upside down and fulfill their eternal promise and reward JESUS for His complete obedience. God raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection of JESUS is the foundation of our faith. It is the confidence that we have in God that as the Great I AM, He will do what He only can do and He will be Who He must be and at any time and in any place in order to express Himself, and advance His vision, intention and purpose in our lives. The death burial and resurrection of JESUS CHRIST is the evidence - signed and sealed. Because Christ has risen from the dead, the VIP Christian must delight in the hope of God’s glory and not be in fear, but must be faithful and proactive, in living out the vision intent and purpose of God as Jesus albeit as a living sacrifice knowing that God has our back. The hope is the longing that comes when we want to know Christ, His power of resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering (Philippians 3:10). No matter the circumstance, we are to live in the present in light of the confident hope of resurrection. While we are doing and living as VIP Christians, no weapons formed against us will prosper because God is not idle. In the chaos of our lives, God does not slumber nor sleep but is attending to every detail of the circumstances in the life of the VIP Christian, predestinating them and causing them to work together for our good and His glory, AMEN AND AMEN

“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means,

77 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 3:10-14

CONCLUSION Jesus is the glory of God, the Second Person of the Trinity who is the perfect expression, of God’s will. God’s promise, God’s means and God’s fulfillment of His vision, intent and purpose to gather all things in heaven and earth to Himself. Jesus is the means that was predetermined in heaven by which God will reveal Himself to the world. In the incarnation, God prepared a body for Jesus to dwell in and through Him, manifest Himself to the world. Jesus is the means and end of God’s plan of salvation. It is a mystery of God that can only be understood in Christ the God-Man. Jesus is the only name and the only sacrifice by which any one of us could be saved. God will not accept any other name or sacrifice by which man could approach Him (Acts 4:12). God has prepared us for the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us so we could also be His reflection and populate the earth with the knowledge and glory of Christ.

God wants us to know that Jesus is the glory of God, who stepped into time to fulfill God’svision, intent, and purpose, and He opened the door for each of us to be God’s VIP.

They key to understanding God’s mystery in Christ is by faith, to receive Him into the heart by believing in the heart that Jesus is Lord and confessing with the mouth that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10).

“Christ will remain a mystery till men had come to Him, and asked to enter in, and had entered in believing. Then He was revealed. Seen

78 PREVIEWJesus Christ Is The PREVIEWGlory Of God PREVIEW from within, He shone from all sides upon the wandering sinner’s soul, the secret of God disclosed. He proved Himself then the Answer of the Eternal to the question of the agonizing conscience, of the weary heart, of the broken will, of the man who through fear of death was all his lifetime subject to bondage” (Sterrett, 1938)

Understanding God’s mystery in Christ is the beginning of knowledge, wisdom, and peace in life. Jon Courson describes it by saying that:

“On any given day, the extent to which you understand the mystery of the will of God that will be the extent to which peace will reign in your heart.” (John Courson—Application Commentary on New Testament. p. 1228).

79 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW Check your VIP status 1. In John 14:7 Jesus said to Philip that “if you have known Me, you have known the Father” How is Jesus the glory of God in this statement? 2. What is “mystery,” as described in the Bible? 3. God does not unshroud His mysteries to everyone. To whom does God reveal His mystery and why? 4. Why are death and life mysteries that science cannot explain? Think of origin. 5. How is the birth and resurrection of Jesus the manifestation of the glory of God?

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CHAPTER 3 PERFECT CREATION

The VIP Christian believes that understanding creation is the key to understanding everything about life.

od created all things according to His vision, intent and purpose. He created Gall things in perfect love, in perfect unity, and perfect peace for the beauty of His glory. The VIP Christian is aware of God’s standard of perfection in Christ. We are not perfect, but God has made a provision for us to be made perfect in His sight through Jesus Christ. God is Love and exists as the Triune God in perfect unity of love as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The unity of the Godhead is not idle but living and active. It is always “overflowing, ever-seeking, and ever moving” (Old, 1995) seeking to express Himself in everything and everyone that will be created in a powerful glorious, creative way. It is from this unity that God expressed Himself, His vision, intent and purpose. Because God is love, He created all things in love. This can be described as osmotic, centrifugal, centripetal, and redemptive love. God sustains everything He created by the power of His love. Since God is the fountain of love, God’s love is osmotic in that it always moves in the direction to overflow and beautify other lesser things. God’s love is centripetal because God love draws us, keeps everything in reference to Himself, the center of life, the direction of providence, essence of eternal glory, as the love that hold things together in order to keep them from spinning out of control. God’s love is centrifugal

81 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW because God in His love at the same time that He draws us to Himself also gives us freedom and liberty to respond to His call in our lives to be missional VIP Christians. Most importantly, God’s love is “Agape” which means redemptive love through sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God in His love is always seeking us in order to rescue us, redeem us, and restore us to Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

In Creation Where there is perfect love, there will be perfect unity and perfect peace. God created all things to work together in an orderly fashion to sustain the creation in perfection. In perfect unity and perfect peace, everything, though uniquely different, is bounded in love and therefore operate in unity and peace, thereby reflecting the glory of God. In creation, the heavens, the earth, and all things in it declare God’s glory because they are operating in reference to God and for His glory (Psalm 19:1–3). Everything in the cosmos, the existence of planet earth, the Milky Way and the whole universe, all operate to testify of the perfect love, perfect unity, and perfect peace in the universe. Reflecting on the beauty of creation, one evolutionist said:

“You might also think that these disparate bodies are scattered across the solar system without rhyme or reason. But move any piece of the solar system today or try to add anything more and the whole construction would be thrown fatally out of kilter. So how exactly did this delicate architecture come to be?” (Webb, 2009)

The answer is that God created them in perfect unity for His own glory. God wants to testify of His Creative power and His invisible hands in Creation (Hebrews 11:3), so that men may behold it, seek Him and be found by Him (Acts 17:27).

In Humans Each day He created was good and the sixth day was very good. After He had created all things for Adam, God created Adam on the sixth day, placed Him in the

82 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW Garden of Eden and made him to have dominion over the work of His hands (Genesis 1:31, Psalm 8:6). God’s love for humanity began in eternity and was first manifested under heaven through creation. Creation of Adam laid the foundation for God to demonstrate His love and accept to make us holy and blameless. This should motivate us to draw closer to God, our Creator so God can glorify Himself in our lives. It should motivate us to see beyond the created things, not to worship them (Romans 1:25), but to worship the only True God YHWH who made them for His glory.

“For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God” (Romans 1:20, NLT).

Creation is the initial platform through which God revealed Himself in order show Himself as Creator God, Sustaining God, Redemptive God and Restorative God. God has now revealed Himself in Jesus Christ as the One through whom and for whom the whole universe was created in order to display His glory. We must confess how we have denied God from receiving His glory when we minimize His creative wisdom, power and we adopt the evolution theory of creation. Instead, we must and should always be in amazement of creation and learn to worship God in the grandeur of the work of His hands and ascribe the Excellency and Majesty that is due to Him. God created Adam and Eve in His own image by breathing in Adam’s nostrils. God placed Adam in a perfect environment of love, with perfect freedom and perfect liberty. God’s blessed Adam and charged him to manifest His glory, by procreating— multiplying and filling the earth with His glory. God ordered Adam to fill the earth with His image-bearers and gave Adam the authority to have dominion over it. All humanity is to exist under the theocratic rule of God. Under this rule, Adam was made a little lower than the angels, but Adam was to rule over everything else that God created.

83 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen— Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:3-9

When God created Eve, He created her to be in perfect unity and peace with Adam. This was true until sin set in, and both Adam and Eve fell before God. God’s intention was not only for Adam and Eve, but for the whole human creation to live in perfect unity and perfect peace with God and with each other. God created us to be in perfect unity of divine interconnectedness and interdependence under His sovereign love.

We must confess how we have denied God from receiving His glory when we minimize His creative wisdom, power and we adopt the evolution theory of creation.

84 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW Having the understanding of the reason for God’s creation is the key to understanding God, ourselves, our heart longing, the world culture, languages, science, and the operation of everything known and the unknown, including things that science is yet to discover. This author agrees with Dr. Morris, founder of the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) that:

“All truth in every area of life finds its beginning in the Genesis record of creation and the other events of primeval history. That is why God placed it first in the Bible . . . supernatural creation is the foundation of the true gospel, the true doctrine of Christ, true evangelism, genuine saving faith and all the key aspects of biblical Christianity. True science, true education, the true institution of marriage and government—also were based on Genesis creationism.” (Morris, 2016)

All Nature All nature is held together in love and perfect unity in order for it to fulfill God’s vision, intent, and purpose because Christ spoke them into being and sustains them by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3a). All nature was made and is sustained by Jesus Christ (John 1:1–3). These includes the hosts of heaven, the angels, the sun, moon, stars, the sea creatures, snow, cloud, hail, winds, beast, cattle, creeping things and flying fowls, kings of the earth, princes and judges, young men, maidens, old men, women, and children—all are created and are held in perfect unity in love in a divine connectedness and interdependence for God’s good pleasure. Creation reflects God’s divine ecosystem. In divine unity and rhythm, God sovereignly and providentially causes natural, human, mini-purposes to work together to fulfill His grand vision, intent, and purpose. (Psalm 148; Romans 8:28). God created them for His divine purpose to reflect His glory. They all to work together in accordance with God’s VIP to glorify God by working well together in love and unity in heaven and earth. Just as God has rested from His work, He now invites everyone to leave the disorganized, destructive entropy of life and enter His rest by expressing faith in

85 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW Jesus Christ and living in sync and rhythm with Him. We are to live in appreciation of how we are as integral to the sustenance of this ecosystem as God’s image-bearers. As Emily Brunner describes below, “we as part of God’s creations are to grow in our admiration for the Creator God” (Brunner, 1952).

“The Christian statement on Creation is not a theory of the way in which the world came into being . . . but it is an “existential” statement. In His revelation, the Lord meets me, as my Lord, as the Creator, as My Creator, and the Creator of all things. In so doing, I become aware that I am the servant of this Lord, and His servant, His property, because all that I am and have from Him, because not only I, but all that is, has been created by Him. I, together with my own world, am. O God, Thy creation; therefore I too am included in the aim of creation, which in the same Word through which all was created is revealed to me. As the one, however, to whom this Word is spoken in order that he may hear it and obey, am singled out and distinguished above all other creation.” (Brunner, 1952)

Jesus is the second Adam through whom God will rescue and restore us from labor, from strivings upon strivings, so that we may enter His rest. His rest is found in understanding and embracing His vision, intent, and purpose in Christ Jesus (Hebrews 4:10–11). To live outside this unity with God’s purpose is to strive against the eternal sovereign power of the infinite God. It is like swimming against the ocean tide of a tsunami. No finite being can survive it, but unfortunately that is what the modus operandi is for us, even Christians, today. It is a lifestyle that will definitely lead to death and destruction sooner or later.

Perfect Freedom and Perfect Liberty Dictionary.com defines perfect freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” In perfect freedom, there is no possibility that an individual will be forced to make a choice against their will.

86 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW God gave Adam a freedom to enjoy all the things God had created—the nature and the nurturing environment under God’s love, God’s care, God’s warmth, and God’s presence. Adam enjoyed perfect freedom in the Garden. Liberty is the exercise of the right to make choice and make decision in an environment where there is freedom. In this environment of freedom, God gave Adam the free-will or liberty to reason in light of God’s revelation, and to make a choice to acknowledge God’s love in return by his loving obedience. Since this is a loving relationship, one is to expect a loving response to God, who first initiated love in creation itself. Adam was to reason and make choices in light of God’s revelation of His love, his understanding of instructions and within the boundary of His love. The God of perfect unity, perfect peace, and perfect freedom rewards us with His infinite and abiding presence when good choices are made that honor Him and makes us to be fruitful in the things of His Kingdom. The opposite is true when we disobey and refuse to trust God in His promises. This is what happened in the Garden when Adam, in the exercise of his free-will in an environment of freedom, chose to disobey and dishonor God. The reward of his wrong choice is seen in our lives and in the society today (Romans 5:12). Adam missed the reward for obedience to be the progenitor of the human race that would multiply and have dominion on earth to the praise of God’s glory. God relates with us in love, truth and grace and gives us the freedom and liberty to express our gratitude to Him. God is glorified when we make conscious decision according to His vision, intent and purpose in the environment of perfect freedom and perfect liberty. This is the pattern that God intends to govern our relationship with Him and with our neighbors. Someone who is still under the law has no freedom because the environment is a controlled environment. There is also no liberty because the right to choose to obey has been taken away. This is one of the reasons the gospel will not prosper in some homes, churches, and countries where freedom and liberty have been taken away. But give people freedom to examine the Gospel and liberty to choose, many people will opt to follow Jesus Christ for the Love of God in Him. A Christian who lives under the Ten Commandments is immature in the things of God because he is not able to do things without being told. A mature person, empowered

87 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW by God’s grace and having been exposed to God’s love in Christ and the understanding of His vision, intent and purpose knows what to do, when to do it, and how to do it because if one is led by the Spirit of grace the compulsion of the law no longer applies. God placed Adam in a loving environment of freedom and liberty with a few guidelines. There are many other things Adam could have done without focusing on why God was keeping one tree away from him. God had already charged him to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:26-31). God did not tell him how to because God expects him to use his intellect, creatively and living up to his potential. The same still applies in Christianity today. God wants us to relate with Him in an environment of freedom where we can express love and adoration to Him and live up to the full potential that we have in Him through Jesus Christ. We will thrive in our relationship with God when we allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us to express our devotion to God. But we do misuse our liberty to choose things that will not honor God. In 1 Peter 2:16b, we are asked to not “use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.” When we do, we end up in the same position of Adam—created, born again, but unbelieving and underachieving. We can pass the same to the coming generations.

PERFECT SCENARIO I took our daughter to dinner one day. We had a good time discussing news and catching up. She had just graduated from college and was still seeking God’s guidance for the next step of her life, which I know some of the readers, can understand. One of the reasons we had an enjoyable time is that about in the middle of the dinner at the Cheese Cake Factory, I asked Kemi about what would be a perfect scenario for her now and in the future. Also on the same morning at the weekly breakfast with my wife, Catherine, I asked her the same set of questions. This question is part of an online survey, which I conducted as part of the research for preparing to write this book. Without telling them which areas to concentrate on, I would ask:

What is a perfect scenario for you today? And what would be a perfect scenario for the future?

88 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW I conducted this research and interviewed people in order to understand their deep needs which, if met, would bring fulfillment into their lives. For both questions, I asked:

Why they are not in their perfect scenario. And last, I asked, what are they doing to make their scenario perfect.

FOUR ETERNAL REALITIES From these four questions, I concluded that people are seeking perfect scenario in four areas. People seek a perfect scenario for love, significance, safety, and security, which I referred to as the “human perfections.” The search for these perfections are not only in individuals, but in all the institutions that support society—family, education, business, religion, politics, government, education, and the like. In my survey and interviews, no person was in their perfect scenario. The reason why they could not attain or achieve a perfect scenario can be summarized in four areas which are due to limited time, limited knowledge, limited power, and limited resources. These limitations are in the spirit-eternal realm of God’s domain, the only place where “we can participate with God’s omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence in the spatial experience of His creation” (Ramm, 1955).

“Omnipotence means that God has the victory of non-being in Himself; eternity is God’s victory over the negatives of temporality; Omniscience means that God participates in human knowledge; and Omnipresence means that God participates in the spatial experience of His creature.” (Ramm, 1955)

We are finite beings and therefore unable to attain to this perfect scenario because we do not have the spatial presence, power, and other resources to manage all our lives by ourselves. We need the presence of the Eternal God who has made Himself known in Christ. God’s omniscience covers our uncertainty, God’s omnipresence covers our insignificances, and God’s omnipotence covers our insecurity and insignificance and

89 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW can frame our thoughts to be at peace, assured, empowered, and courageous with soundness of mind through Jesus. However, we have to confess our need for Him and accept Jesus into our lives as Savior and Lord.

Our Cry for Perfection We all have perfect scenarios in our hearts and minds that relate to all aspects life; career, marriage, family, children, house, cars, and other life-supporting trinkets of the culture. We ponder on them, long for them, and dream of them. But because we are limited in time, knowledge, power, and other resources, these things are elusive. So we cry in our hearts—cries that shed tears, and in our soul cries that shed tears within. The mention of the wordcry reminds me of the book I read in elementary school titled Cry, my beloved country. It is a book about the rule of apartheid and the suffering it caused to the land and people of South Africa. There were many people all over the world who cried along with Alan Paton, the writer of this book on apartheid in South Africa. But this book, along with many other books that pertain to human suffering, are actually a book of all our cries together as a human race. Someone is either writing about it, or singing about it, or depicting it in plays and dramas. It is a soul cry that is embedded in fabric of our lives. It is the cry for the salvation of our souls from the hustle and bustle of life. We can feel hopeless and helpless when we see the schemes of wickedness triumph (Psalm 4:1-3, Psalm 27:12-14). They think God does not see their schemes (Psalm 10:11). They forget that God is All-knowing, and Ever-present in our suffering whether we caused it or not and He is All-Mighty and will somehow, in our suffering perfect that which concerns us (Psalm 138:8, 140:12). The fact is that our Creator cries along with us. Jesus cried when He heard about Lazarus’ death (John 11:35) and still does today when God sees the ravaging effect of sin among His image bearers. This writer believes Jesus still cries on our behalf when He intercedes on our behalf before God. Every culture has a name for this cry that calls on the divine to intervene, to console the soul and allay the sufferings. When God answers their prayers, they have a name for it as well - consolation. Merriam Webster defines it as the“ giving of hope and strength in times of grief, distress, or suffering” ...... In Spanish, it is “Consuelo”.

90 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW In Yoruba it is “Remi-lekun” Remilekun is the name given by a barren mother who calls upon God to bless her womb; Remi means to “relieve” and Lekun mean “of my cries”. Similar to Hannah (1 Samuel 1), this mother may have endured the reproach of other women for being childless. So she cries to God to remove the reproach and when God blesses her womb, she honors God and gives a name that will always remind her about the Goodness of God.iii By naming her child Remilekun, it will be a constant reminder that God is very present to console. In the New Testament age, the comfort we have comes through Jesus in the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit whereby God gives us the strength in the inner man to experience God’s joy and peace of the Holy Spirit when we are experiencing the pressures of life (John 16:7). Through the Holy Spirit, God constantly renews our vision to put our circumstances in light of His vision, intent and purpose.

“And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake,you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” – 1 Peter 3:14-17, NKJV

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” – 2 Corinthians 4:17, NLT.

VIP Christians are to remember that all the past visional, intentional and purpose followers of God have gone through their own spiritual heart aches. They have laid foundation for us to build on. God showed them the vision, His intent and purpose which was compelling so that they presented themselves to God, that God may be glorified in their

91 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW lives. Apostle Paul comes to mind. God sent Apostle Paul to the Corinthians to encourage them in their walk with Christ using himself as the example of what to expect in doing good according to God’s vision, intent and purpose.

“Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but we are ridiculed. Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment.” 1 Corinthians 4:10-13, NLT.

As a result of the sin of Adam, we are all born with this imperfection and we cry for it as soon as we come out from the womb. We continue to cry for a perfect scenario throughout life unless and until we come to terms with God’s vision, intent, and purpose for our lives through Jesus Christ. When we do, by faith, God reveals things that strengthens our hearts. Things that our natural eyes have not, and cannot see, and our natural ears have not heard that inspires us to delight in the hope of His glory (Colossians 1:27). This delight, empowered by God’s Holy Spirit within us, gives us spiritual stamina to endure and to be joyful, even though we still live in an imperfect world.

In the Social Structures In family, the inclination of parents is to see things perfect in the family; in our children we want to see things perfect, even though some will deny it. I am a parent, so I know I have done it. This is especially true for us parents who want to correct something that was wrong with our childhood, and we want to correct in our children. We focus on that area in our children’s lives and demand perfection. If they do not live up to it, we can make their lives miserable by making insensitive comments;

92 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW we embarrass them by comparing them with their siblings and friends. Sometimes for our own pride and significance, we want our children to excel in sports and academics, when all they want to do is just participate in football, basketball, hockey, and the like – to enjoy being kids. We compare our family with another and wish we could be like them, not knowing that we are seeing them in one of their best days. If we see them on their worst days, we would probably hold back on our comparison, Husbands want a clean home, clean laundry, clean kitchen, and clean bathroom all the time. Wives want husbands to always understand them and love them, adore, cherish them. They want candlelight romance, must not forget birthdays and anniver- saries, but no debt, no credit cards, and mortgage that is paid on time. A church friend describes his wife this way: “My wife is a perfectionist and wants our grandchildren to be free from any health problems. I told her that some things are beyond our control, but she will not listen to me. She goes lengths and breadths to do something about giving them good health.” If you are a husband who is not very handy and you don’t have access to funds to get things repaired, you are a source of imperfection in the house. Children want to have freedom and liberty as soon as they get to a certain age. They push the limit, wanting to be able to do what other children are doing, even if they know is against the value of the home. Of course, not all families are seeking perfection to the same extent, but the fact is we all seek perfection directly or indirectly in our families. In churches, the incubator of God’s righteousness, we expect perfection. Otherwise, there would have been no church conflicts, and there would be no church break ups. Because of doctrinal differences or personal conflicts, pastors, worship ministers, and youth pastors have been forced out by leadership. Politics of preferences, and favoritism have been given to certain cliques within the church to the displeasure of another clique. There are conflicts between the pastors and elders, between elders and trustees, and between leaders and the laity. Insecure church leaders are intimidated by ideas of others and then seek to suppress them. The pastor does not understand why the flock is not getting the point of obedience, submission, and surrender to God. “Why can’t they just do it,” he says.

93 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW They are not alone, Moses did not understand, either. With anger, he struck the tree at Meribah or Massah and said “must we bring . . .” (Numbers 20:11–12). Also, we must not forget the discord between proponents of sound and instruments of worship, and contemporary or conservative worship styles. How about the color of carpet or the kind of food we serve at our gatherings? Then we have churchgoers, who bring personal biases and pet peeves and spiritualize them into their religion that cause friction in the church. Although not all churches are perfectionistic, there are many who practice and preach perfection with no margins for sin. In schools, parents seek and expect perfection in the schools, so that their students can take the perfect courses that will lead them to a perfect career. From kindergarten through high school and college, we strategize their path to success in life. For some parents, it does not matter how much it costs, even if we have to enter into long-term loan commitments. In education, the advancement in knowledge may have created technological marvels in space explorations, communication, and medicine, but it has created more chaos, crisis, wars, terrorism, fear, and insecurities all over the world. All the hierarchy and policies in the delivery of knowledge from federal, state, down to the board of education, the school CEO or superintendent, to the principals, teachers, staff, PTOs, and PTSAs are reflections of the state of dissatisfaction. Teachers feel overburdened with reporting systems that consume time they need to prepare, develop lesson plans, teach, and grade. Teachers direct their frustrations to the principal, and principals look to the county. Principals feel the inequity of government resource distribution, especially in minority populated areas. Parents complain about teachers, and teachers complain about parents. The government has no answer than to say there is not enough money to do everything. While this is true, the expectation of perfection in our education system is a reality. In business, entrepreneurs who get into business to see their vision become a reality and bless the community are faced with many obstacles. Government puts a heavy burden of taxes and regulations on businesses that hinder creativity and make it difficult for the businesses to thrive. New businesses do not even have a chance. Then there is the cost of running business, from the cost of labor, insurance, and

94 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW utilities that drain the profit that even the business owners cannot pay themselves. Then we have employers, who misuse power and authority to abuse employees, as well as employees who steal from the company and do not respect the leadership or policies of their company so that both the employer and the employee go home frustrated. They seek perfection scenario. In government, we have the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but the people are not happy with their elected government. Even when the people use the power of the ballot to remove governments for not meeting their needs and elect a new one, they find that the new one is just as incapable of meeting their needs, The people cannot understand why, when they pay their taxes, they work hard, they obey the rules, they pay their fines and penalties, and yet the government can’t assure them that there will be money in the coffers of Social Security when the time comes. Then there is the division among the people about government’s role in the life of the citizen. Some expect government to have no interference in the private lives of citizens while others expect more government rules to keep them safe and secure. There is also the difference in expectation in how much the government has to support individual citizens in the provision of food, clothes, and shelter. There are differences in how we view the society, transparent or not; judiciary, independent or non-independent; free enterprise, capitalism, and so forth. By the way, all these imperfections of life are common in all nations all over the world. The imperfections in homes, schools, businesses, government, and other social structures are equally present in all nations of the five continents of the world— America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia. All we have to do is listen to the radio, or read their newspapers. The media, whether radio, television, cable, newspapers and other media outlets, become the megaphone and battleground of different vision, intents and purpose for existence. Try to listen to some radio talk shows or cable TV, and you will get the point. Minds have been poisoned, even children have been exposed to adult biases; battle lines have been drawn; and we are at each other’s throats.

95 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW Hungry and Thirsty for His Glory All the problems in the world today, spiritual, emotional, and physical on a personal, relational, group, community, or national level in all the social structures of family, education, business, media, politics, arts and entertainment, government, and law enforcement are our individual and collective cry as a human race for the rest of the eternal glory of God. We want to be at-one with Him. Whether we know it or not or whether we admit or not, we are hungry and thirsty for the glory of God. The glory of God is the place of rest in the grace-empowered life of Jesus. When we get to the point in our lives where we find no satisfaction and no sufficiency in our pursuit in life, we come to understand our need for God’s fulfilling satisfaction. God creates the hunger and thirst as a way of bringing us back in the direction of His providence. God gives us the gift of the knowledge of His Kingdom priorities, which are His vision, intent, and purpose. Jesus mentioned that it is a blessedness to hunger and be thirsty for the glory of God because when we are, Jesus says we will be filled.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6 NKJV)

But filled with what? God’s righteousness is the taste of His glory. It is the delight and the hope of His glory. It is the understanding and participation in His vision, intent, and purpose so that His glory will be manifested. God not only gives us the delight and hope of His glory, but also gives us wisdom, creativity, and innovative ways that we can be the fulfillment of the VIP in the presenting problem that is causing the hunger and thirst.

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THE CRIES OF OUR SOUL There is a soul-cry in the heart of every human. It is a cry hidden in the most secret place, the heart. It is that cry that seeks the Creator of this delicate body in which the soul is embedded. It is a cry that is longing for unity of the body, soul, and spirit together in the same way it was created in the beginning. It is a cry that wants clarity of what happened to the perfect state and the reason for the torment and agonies of one’s personal life history, relationships, misunderstandings, and betrayals of brothers against brothers, fathers against sons, and mothers and daughters. How will today’s end be, and what awaits the soul tomorrow? It is a cry that comes like the sobs of a neglected little orphan boy or girl, who looks around and sees other little boys and girls cheering, giggling, and seem to have all they want. It is a cry that sobs from under the blanket where she finds the most security because no one can be trusted and the outside is treacherous. It is the cry of everybody from paupers and beggars to presidents and kings. Everyone has this cry of the soul—Blacks and Whites, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, believers and unbelievers, young adults, senior adults and the rich and the poor, everyone have their own way of crying to their Creator, seeking unity. We all have the soul-cry, seeking love, significance, righteousness, and protection in an environment of trust, security, and warmth of relationship. It is the cry of modern-day Rachels, (Matthew 2:18), who watch helplessly as their sons and daughters are being sacrificed on the altars of the gods of this age. It is a cry of fathers who wonder what kind of society will remain after they are gone to the next world. It is our cries as pilgrims in the journey of life who have been held captive by the power of the god of this age. We are being taunted to sing the songs of heaven, the songs of melody to our God. Psalm 137:1-4 describes the soul-cry of the Israelites as aliens far away from home. The Israelites were aliens held captive down by the thinking of home in Jerusalem. They pray for deliverance by the God YHWH. But they are now being required by their captives to sing and be happy. But how can they sing to the Lord in a strange land?

97 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW The Melodians put it correctly in the song, “Rivers of Babylon”:

“By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, And there we wept When we remembered Zion

Oh, the wicked carried us away captivity, Required from us a song, How can we sing {the LORD’s song} In a strange land?

So, let the words of our mouth And the meditations of our heart Be acceptable in Thy sight” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDYAqz603TE)

Some of us will deny the need for the soul to express itself in crying. The stoic takes life as not to express self in this way. In some cultures, it is generational and one is expected not to express oneself in their soul cries. For men especially, a soul-cry is evidence of weakness that brings one’s guard down. We want to always have our guards up to protect ourselves from others, who may be preying on our perceived weaknesses. But what are we going to do about the toxic cry on the inside? This is a soul-cry that everyone must cry no matter what stage of life, no matter our socioeconomic status. Let the tears roll off the cheeks. Let the tears roll because to withhold them any longer will deny the truth of the matrix of life in which we find ourselves. To deny the soul-cry will cause more toxicity for the soul. We need to cry out the poverty of spirit; to cry the broken heartedness; to cry the oppression that has left many hopeless, helpless, and lifeless; missed opportunities, deceptions, errors and mistakes, repeated wrong choices, shattered dreams, loneliness, being misunderstood,

98 PREVIEWPerfect Creation PREVIEW PREVIEW and lack of advocates. So go ahead and cry, for our Lord Jesus has found our voices and He cries for us in His longing to reconcile us with Himself. You are His Most beloved. But wait! You are the most beloved from the beginning, and here comes your God, your Redeemer, asking for your hand as He runs toward you to pull you out of the matrix of your life circumstances, out of the horrible pits and miry clay of life and into His everlasting loving arms (Think of Jesus’ parable of the father and his prodigal son). He wants to take off your old soiled garment and put on the new garment of the righteousness of Christ on us. He wants to put a new song in your heart. The Eternal God wants to develop a personal love relationship with you. The Creator God is also merciful and full of compassion. Your life is significant to Him. He is committed to rescuing you from the crisis of your life and restoring you and beautifying you with His salvation. The question is, are you going to give Him a chance and embrace His love proposition? God’s love proposition is towards the unbeliever and the Christian who might be stuck in relationship with God

CONCLUSION There is no perfect scenario without Jesus. Jesus is the center of life in heaven and on earth. It is by Him that all things consist and are held together. When sin entered the world, the possibility of a perfect scenario left the world. We have all been searching for it since then. Secular books have been written about it, but they are just like chasing the wind. God has given us a provision for how we can have a perfect scenario in Jesus Christ, if we receive Him into our heart. God will reorder your life and make it a perfect scenario of joyful walk with Him. To the unbeliever, I say - Believe on Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved (Acts 16:31), trust in Him you believer and He shall not fail you. God is faithful, He cannot fail. He must prevail.

“Have faith in God, He’s on His throne; Have faith in God, He watches o’er His own. He cannot fail, He must prevail; Have faith in God, have faith in God.” (Mckinney, 1962)

99 PREVIEWThe VIP ChristianPREVIEW PREVIEW CHECK YOUR VIP STATUS 1. Do you have a cry in your soul? Please describe it. If not, have you ever had a soul-cry? If so, please describe it. 2. What are the four “human perfections” that we seek beginning from childhood? 3. Which of the four eternal realities do you still struggle with today? How are you coping with it? 4. What was your perfect scenario before and after Christ came into your heart? 5. What is the difference between liberty and freedom as it pertains to a Christian?

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