We got back to Huntsville last night after having a wonderful time in Americus, Georgia. Jennifer is now Mrs. Jason Adams. We are so thankful for Jennifer and Jason, and we ask for your prayers for them as they begin their new life together.

While we were gone, I was reminded of the blessings we experience as members of God’s heavenly Church. When a person accepts, by faith, that Christ died for their sins, a spiritual union takes place between that person and Jesus Christ. At that moment of faith, the believer is spiritually raised and seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph 2:6).

God’s earthly program, on the other hand, has always been administered by the nation of Israel, and they have always been required to perform certain earthly rituals in their worship of the Lord. Circumcision was given through Abraham in Gen 17, and the Passover was given through Moses in Exodus 12. As the children of Israel prepared to eat the Passover and leave the land of Egypt, God instructed them that no uncircumcised male could partake of the Passover.

Three months after leaving Egypt, the nation of Israel came to the foot of Mt. Sinai. There Moses received the Old Covenant Law, and the practice of circumcision and the Passover were both required observances of the law. Ten months after they arrived at Mt. Sinai, they partook of the second Passover feast, and one month later, the nation of Israel left for the promised land.

The Lord led them to the border of the land of Canaan, and there at Kadesh Barnea the nation of Israel refused to enter the land. Their lack of faith brought the judgement of God, and they were sentenced to wander in the wilderness for forty years. After forty years, they came back to the land of Canaan, crossed the Jordan River, and, by faith, entered the promised land.

While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they did not practice circumcision.

Josh 5:5
5 Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised (KJV)

There on the plains of Jericho, the men were circumcised, and they were able to partake of the Passover once again.

Josh 5:10
10 And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. (KJV)

Israel’s Old Covenant Kingdom was set aside as she wandered in the wilderness, and the rituals which were designed for kingdom worship were not observed.

From the time of John the Baptist to the end of the book of Acts, the nation of Israel was offered the New Covenant Kingdom. Israel was at that time on the border of an even greater promised land. Again, they refused to enter because of their unbelief.

God set aside Israel’s New Covenant Kingdom, and Israel has been wandering in the wilderness from that time until now. All of the earthly rituals associated with the New Covenant have been set aside. There is no purpose for earthly church membership, water baptism, communion with wine and bread, feast days, and so forth and so on.

Even as Israel was rejecting the earthly kingdom in the Acts period, God was building the Church to which we belong in the heavens. As God’s program for Israel was set aside, only God’s program for His heavenly Church has remained in effect. Each person who accepts Christ by faith is automatically added to that Church . Each believer is spiritually circumcised as the flesh is crucified with Christ. Each believer is spiritually baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Each believer has the opportunity for constant, spiritual communion with Christ as a member of His Body.

Someday, after our present age of the Church, God will offer the New Covenant Kingdom to Israel once again. At a certain time known only to God, Christ will return and catch believing Israel up into the clouds. Christ will remarry Israel in accordance with the New Covenant, and Israel will enter the promised land. The blessings of the earthly kingdom will flow through Israel to the rest of the world, and the earthly rituals will become a very meaningful part of the New Covenant Kingdom.

Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com

Other church links:
http://www.peacechurch-ok.org/
http://www.eleventhavenuechurch.com/
http://gracebiblechurch-fw.com/

James III’s link:
http://www.jeditime.blogspot.com