The God Of The No More

Tucked away in Verse 19 of Paul Letter to the Church at Ephesus at Chapter 2, is the Text of Scripture I want to raise to level of consciousness. I have tagged and targeted for teaching EPHESIANS 2:19. It reads in the KJV:

"Now therefore you are NO MORE strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God."

From this Text, I want to highlite this headline in our little chat this afternoon: THE GOD OF NO MORE

If there is one truth I have learned during my brief sojourn of 51 years here on Planet Earth, it is this: The Societal Systems of this World’s Order Are UnForgiving and Unsympathetic Towards Its Deserters and Defectors.

When a citizen of the Russian Federation renounces his country and citizenship and defects to the West, he becomes the Enemy of the Republic. And even his remaining family members are tagged and targeted for oppression and torture. And conversely, when a citizen of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" renounces his country and citizenship and defects to the East, he becomes the Enemy of America. Even his remaining family members are tagged and targeted for social excommunication, governmental surveillance, and are labeled ’unpatriotic.’

This very scenario is being played out in ’Little Havanna’, Miami, Florida. The young boy, Ellian, is being used as a pawn by both the family in Miami and the government of Cuba, while the Father and the Boy are caught in the middle. If the father and son renounces their Cuban roots, they will be disowned by Cuba. And if they decide to return to Cuba, the so-called loving family in Miami will certainly disown both.

Furthermore, this Neoteric yet Archaic Society insidiously Disowns the Blood-Bought, Spirit-Filled Child of God. They would really prefer to see us all strung-up on state-of-the-art crosses, or else, rounded up like sheep and shipped off to some genocidal slaughter-house for exteinction!

Now if you yet surmise that this cruel, callous, cold world is a friend to grace then, I would redirect your charitable yet catastrophic conjecture to the crystal clear critique of Christ. Standing in the shadow of the Cross, He warned us all of the imminent hatred of the world. With deep concern and yearning love, He said:

"If ye were of the word, the world would love his own:

but because ye are not of the world, but I have

chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

It is then an inescapable fact that this neoteric yet archaic society of confirmed sinners Hates the Saints of God! Ever since 120 Ambassadors huddled in the Embassy of an Upper Room, the nations of this world have been strategizing as to how to effectively Disband and Destroy this Transplanted Colony of Heaven on Earth.

If we would examine Church History, we would discover that the Early Saints were Disowned by this World. When the Roman Empire began to crumble apart, Nero blamed the church and banished them from his empire. They were Disowned by this world yet Enshrined in the Hall of Faith. It is written of them that they:

"Had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted,were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented:

(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." They were Disowned by This World!

And yet I feel I must remind us that the rejection, hatred and displacement of the saints has not ceased! And yet, sometimes we live as if we have already entered into our rest. We think it strange if a saint nowadays endures persecution. But it still persists. And it is as potent and insidious as ever!

If needs be, I can personally testify. During my brief tenure as Undershepherd of the little flock of New Zion, I have received death-threats, hate mail, irritating phone calls, and I am now under surveillance. But to bring it a little closer to you, when I pastored in the city of Midland, one self-appointed member of that church told a Midland police officer that I shouldn’t be allowed to stay in Midland; that I should be ran out of the state of Texas; and that I didn’t deserve to be a citizen of this country. He hated me so much that he wanted me exiled from the county of my birth. So I can testify that the world still Hates and Disowns the Children of God.

When once a Spirit-Stirred and Enlightened Soul is quickened and aroused to see that one lives in the city of destruction and recognizes that one is a sinner undone and under death’s condemnation, then that one will flee swiftly to Heaven’s Embassy on earth to apply for Citizenship in Heaven’s Kingdom and Salvation by Grace in Christ Jesus. And when that transpires, that one will be Disowned by the World. Rejection, Isolation and Hatred all begin; and that soul begins its Quest for Companionship.