As we have covered, the biggest falling away from the faith began after the Roman Empire made Christianity the imperial religion. This brought a flood of unsavory and selfishly ambitious people into the church. They sought leadership positions in the church, viewed as the easiest and quickest path to wealth and power. Quickly, the church was transformed from a vitally alive and powerful force spreading faith throughout the world in the face of relentless persecution to little more than a political pawn of the state.

     My purpose in sharing these brief biographies of great Christian lives is to encourage you to go deeper in study of the lives of those who especially inspired you. Their stories can influence us in a way that is like being one of their disciples. The stories of those who walked with God still have power and an impartation, as do many of the biblical accounts.

As we begin our study of the individual characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22-23, we need to remember that this is exactly what they are—individual characteristics of the “fruit of the Spirit,” singular, not fruits, plural. If we have one fruit, we should have them all. If we lose one fruit, we will lose them all. They are inseparable.

Last week we reviewed and looked a little more deeply at how we recognize and enter the kingdom of God. We also looked at how righteousness and justice are the foundation of the Lord’s throne (see Psalm 89:14). Therefore, we can expect to find these at the base of everything that God is doing in preparation for the coming of His kingdom. The wise will learn to recognize His righteousness and His justice, and only give themselves to building on the same.

This week our study is from Ephesians 6:7-8:

This week we will study the simple, but essential truth that is revealed in Ephesians 4:4-6:

The church has been in a period of renewal. Multitudes have been healed and restored. Vision and faith have been rising steadily over the last few years. This has been a wonderful time, but it is merely a preparation for what is coming. We are now about to cross the bridge from renewal to revival.

I am defining renewal as that which works to heal and awaken the church, and revival as that which results in the salvation of the lost and the empowering of believers to challenge the spiritual darkness of the times.

Last week I tried to make the case for why we need to seek the Holy Spirit first, especially when we seek to present our message. It is better not to have anything else but the Holy Spirit than to have everything else without Him. Even so, we do not have to make that choice. The greatest advances of the gospel have come when the state-of-the-art technological advances of the times were used for it.