There are two Greek words most commonly translated “church” in the New Testament. Koinonia, which we began to address last week, speaks of the special bonding of the saints in relationship. The other is ecclesia, which speaks of church order, structure, and government. We must have both of these to become the church we are called to be and to experience fellowship as God intended.

       We now come to Revelation 1:17-20:    

    And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. 

    “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. 

        Over the last few weeks, we have covered some of the basic issues of judging and judgment. Understanding these is basic to living a great Christian life because they affect our basic relationship to others.

Our text for this week is Ephesians 4:25:

The beginning of a New Year is always a good time for evaluation. Most of the time we want to say “good riddance” to the old, embracing the hope that this New Year will be better. Certainly it can and should be a much better year for every Christian.

As we are told in Hebrews 12 and other verses, everything that can be shaken will be shaken. However, we have been given a kingdom that cannot be shaken. A primary way that we build our lives on the kingdom that cannot be shaken is to use the key of the kingdom for every major decision in our lives. The key of the kingdom is described in Matthew 6:31-33:   

As we covered in our message last week, one of the crucial issues with both Israel and the church in these times is for them both to understand their purpose. This is a major, in-depth study which we will do in the coming year. However, there is one issue that relates to both Israel and the church, which are crucial for us to understand now. That is the issue of borders.