We have been covering how having koinonia is essential for the true New Covenant life for fulfilling The Great Commission to make disciples, not merely converts. In the New Testament, every new believer’s discipleship began with being “added to the church.” There simply is no other biblical way to walk with God that does not also include being connected to the body of Christ as a member of His church. We cannot be properly connected to the Head without also being properly connected to His body.

On Sunday, December 5, 2004, MorningStar Fellowship Church met for the first time in its newly acquired facilities at Heritage International Ministries (H.I.M.). Local news stations called it “a historic meeting” as the two services broke records for our Sunday attendance, and people had to be turned away at the 11:00 a.m. service, even in these much larger facilities.

         Over the last couple of weeks, we opened the issue of divorce, which is one of the most important issues of our time. I have addressed this in more depth in our television program, Prophetic Perspectives, and will address it in much more depth in a work I am preparing. However, it deserves much more space than we can give it in this Word For The Week format. I hope I provoked some questions for which there are sound, biblical answers that in no way compromise the Scriptures.

      If you are reading this, you are likely an educated, high-impact professional, which is the profile of the people who tend to read this Word for the Week, as well as attend our conferences and churches. I did not choose this profile for our audience, but I’m happy with it. I did not know this until a few years ago, and had never fashioned my message to fit any particular group, but have mostly addressed what I felt the emphasis of the Spirit was on. Even so, knowing this profile does help.

     We cannot understand the ways of God without understanding His judgments, yet this may be the most neglected of biblical teachings in modern times. This is because many think of the judgments of God as condemnation and/or destruction. These are actually very rare consequences of His judgments, but the un-regenerated do tend to think in extremes.

Last week we discussed how change is a healthy process that every living thing experiences. The challenges that change brings to our lives can help us to be a wineskin that can hold new wine without bursting. The great, Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn once said, “Even biology teaches us that perpetual well-being is not good for any creature.” Biology also teaches that when there is an excessive resistance to change, it is a sign that the death process has begun.

We have established three of the four cardinal points on the compass using the map provided by biblical prophecy, which will help us to navigate through our times. These three points are:

Has our policy in Iraq failed? Civil war in Iraq is now a reality; it is only left to be determined how long and devastating it will be. Even though there has been a noble attempt to avoid such an internal conflict, it was probably inevitable and should surprise no one. Even so, the progress toward stable and lasting reform in Iraq has been truly remarkable. In fact, things are going so well that we should not have much doubt that it is possible for Iraq to become one of the most stable and prosperous democracies in the world.

This week we continue our study with Ephesians 4:14: