Lessons From The Tent

SECTION 1
During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.
 
LESSON 6 – Becoming poor in spirit should make you mourn    
Bible References: 
Matthew 5:4 (1)  
1 John 2:1, 2 (2) 
 
Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. I hope you are feeling really lousy today. If you have been thinking on what Jesus said about becoming poor in spirit, you should be feeling miserable about yourself. And if you are, then you’re right where you should be and ready to become happier than you have ever been before.  
Now don’t be thinking I am delusional for saying if you are miserable then you are ready to be happy. All I am doing is drawing attention to a genuine paradox that Jesus taught, after He said we need to become poor in spirit. Here is what He said.   
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (1) 
Again, Jesus starts with the word blessed just as He did when saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. This word blessed is a life defining word because it refers to a special type of happiness. It’s not the kind we experience when having a good day or after getting a better-than-expected raise at work.  
This happiness has nothing to do with circumstances. What Jesus refers to here is a joy that touches you deep inside and is specifically the result of something God does. But how can someone be happy while feeling miserable about themselves? I mean, what was Jesus’ thinking?  
When you do come to terms with your poor in spirit condition, it should naturally make you feel awful because God designed you to be a perfectly righteous, happy person and the truth is, you are not. That is why this attitude of mourning should be natural when you understand how bad you really are. But this comfort is unique because it’s something that only God can make happen, you cannot do it for yourself. 
This word comfort is a verb, and it refers to an action that the Spirit of God does to your mourning. Remember what we learned last week. When you recognize and acknowledge how poor in spirit you are God gives you His kingdom, which is the invisible Spirit of God living and reigning from inside of you. But you must understand, the Spirit does not just sit there idle on the throne of your heart. He is constantly working inside of you. And when you mourn for your awful condition, He floods your emotional feelings of sorrow with a kindness that lifts you up from your despair and stands you happily on the mountaintop of His forgiving grace. The question is how in the world does He do that? 
There is a word that defines His action of comfort, and it’s called propitiation. This is one of the most comprehensive words God uses to describe what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Here is its definition as used in the Bible. Propitiation is the means God uses to lavish grace and kindness on us sinners without violating His own judicial righteousness.  
The only way God can lavish grace and kindness on a poor in spirit; horrible sinner, is because of the means He chose to deal with our sin. God didn’t just ignore it or excuse it. Instead, He punished the hell out of it by placing His own Son Jesus on the cross and then had Him become our sin. Then, while Jesus was nailed to the cross and filled with everyone’s sin, God punished Him with the full payment that all our sin requires.  
And because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, whenever a person mourns for their horrible condition, God is free to do what He loves to do, which is to lavish His propitiatory grace and kindness on our sorrow. 
The Holy Spirits’ comfort reaches deep into your emotions, where nothing can diminish its effect on you because His comfort addresses the reason for your sorrow. 
Mourning and happiness are quite a contrast of emotions. But the reason God can comfort our sorrow is because His judicial nature, which cannot overlook sin, has been completely satisfied through the propitiation of Jesus.(2) 
This attitude of mourning, while at the same time being intensely happy, makes living in the kingdom unlike anything else. For nothing can take this joy away due to the fact it didn’t come from outside of you. It comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit who takes God’s grace and kindness and lavishes it upon your poor in spirit sorrow.  
Whenever I teach this, I like to have my wife make a beautiful plate of strawberry shortcake and then I take a full can of whipped cream and start spraying it on top of the strawberry’s. While I am doing this, I ask someone to tell me when I have reached the point of lavishing the whipped cream. No one ever stops me until the whipped cream is so high and wide it covers the entire plate of strawberry shortcake. It usually gets about a foot high before it finally begins to fall on the floor. This is lavishing. 
I hope you can picture that in your brain. To me, this is the perfect example of God lavishing His grace and kindness on our mourning. And remember, the only reason He can do this is because His Son willingly offered Himself, to be punished for all our sins. His sacrifice purchased this gift of comfort the Holy Spirit gives you. And it’s only when you are one of God’s favored ones that you get this. 
How valuable is this gift of the kingdom that was bought and paid for by the propitiatory death of God’s Son! So, do mourn for your sinful condition as you should ─ but at the same time let the Holy Spirit make you extraordinarily happy because of the means God used to lavish you with grace and kindness without violating His own judicial righteousness.  
I hope you are beginning to see why the cross of Christ is so important to the kingdom of God. It’s the only way we poor in spirit sinners can become favored and inherit the purpose of life. 
Well, that’s it for today and once again, there’s just one thing ─ The propitiation of Jesus allows the Spirit of God to lavish you with grace and kindness and turn your mourning into extreme happiness.
 
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Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved
For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/
-------
Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com
 

SECTION 1
During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.
LESSON 5 ─ How to become favored by God  
Bible References: 
Luke 4:43 (1) 
Matthew 5:3 (2) 
Romans 3:9-18 (3)  
 
Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. After last week’s look into the invisible kingdom, I hope you are beginning to have a great interest in becoming favored by God. Especially since today’s lesson is all about how to become favored. I love it when a plan comes together. 
We humans have come up with at least a thousand different ways we think as the way to please God, but really there is only one opinion that matters on this, and no its not mine. Since God is the one who determines who is favored, then it doesn’t matter what any of us think. It’s His choice not ours, so we need to know what He says about how you get the kingdom. 
When Jesus first started going from city to city doing miracles and teaching, He said the reason He was sent here by His Father was to tell everyone about the good news of the kingdom.(1) If that’s why Jesus said He was sent here, then you would expect at some point in time He would have explained exactly how to become favored by His Father. 
And sure enough, one day Jesus sat down on a hill and explained how someone can become favored and inherit the kingdom. Here is what He said: 
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (2) 
And there you see how to become favored, and to think it only took Jesus thirteen words to explain this. But make sure you understand what He said ─ if someone becomes poor in spirit, they are the ones who get the kingdom. And this would also mean they have become favored by His Father. So here it is, God declares someone favored when they become, poor in spirit. Can it get any simpler than that? But this stirs up an important question for us – What does it mean to be poor in spirit?  
Well, I can tell you this, it is not about being financially broke. This poverty that Jesus refers to, concerns the condition of your spirit. Another way you can think of this is your spirit does not possess enough righteousness to become favored by God. That is the poverty Jesus is talking about. 
Human life has to do with our spirit so, poor in spirit means your life is completely destitute of what God created it to be; therefore, you possess nothing that would allow you to become favored by Him except the ability to recognize how broken you are. 
From what Jesus said here we can take the whole world and divide it into two groups of people. One group God favors and the other group He does not. Both groups of people are considered broken, horrible sinners by God, but the difference between them is one group recognizes how destitute they are and is humbled by their condition, while the other group does not see themselves this way and therefore, they are not humbled by their spiritual poverty.  
What we learn from this is the way to become favored by God is all about having the right perception of yourself, and that must be according to how God sees us; not how we see ourselves.  
I guess then we better look at who God says we really are. The best way to understand this is to put yourself personally into God’s description of all humans. Let me show you what this looks like by inserting the personal pronoun “I” into His description of everyone as written in the Bible. (3) 
“I am not righteous at all 
I am not truly wise and I do not seek after God as I should 
I have turned away from God and have become useless to Him 
I never do what God considers good, it just isn’t in me 
I condemn people with words and I get bitter so easily about things 
I even commit murder with my angry attitude towards people 
I am destructive and misery follows me. It is far too easy for me to get down about my life and others 
I do not possess true peace and contentment 
And I don’t fear and respect God as I should” 
This assessment of who we are is the poor in spirit attitude that God is looking for. And all this is, is an honest evaluation of yourself from God’s perspective. 
But with all this ugly, there is actually some very good news about this. God’s assessment means it is not the rich, the mighty, the smart, the beautiful, the righteous, the religious, or the best people that He favors. God favors those who understand how awful and helpless they are ─ to become favored by Him. And that is really good news because it means everyone has the same potential to inherit the kingdom, because we are all bankrupt when it comes to what we need, to become favored. 
Jesus doesn’t tell us we need to get better to inherit His kingdom. Instead, He wants us to see ourselves truthfully the way His Father sees us. 
This means that God’s kingdom will only be populated with those who understand, and own up to, their awful condition.  
Is anybody wondering why God would like to fill His kingdom with only poor in spirit people? The best answer to this is ─ it’s His kingdom, so He can do whatever He wants. If He would like to have a kingdom full of horrible sinners, then who are we to argue with Him about that? 
Personally, am very glad this is who He wants to favor because I easily qualify as a horrible sinner. If God only wanted righteous people in His kingdom, then I would never have a chance to get in ─ and neither would you or anyone else for that matter. In fact, according to God, there would be no kingdom because just as He said, there isn’t anyone righteous enough to qualify for His kingdom. So, the only chance we have is to recognize how God sees us. 
Well, that’s it for today and once again, there’s just one thing ─ See yourself the way God sees you, and remember, He favors those who are poor in spirit. 
 
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Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved
For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/
-------
Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com
 

SECTION 1
During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.
 
LESSON 4 ─ The invisible kingdom – a new way of living  
Bible References:  
Luke 17:20, 21(1) 
Matthew 12:28 (2) 
John 14:7,26/John 15:26/John 16:7 (3) 
 
Good morning, and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. Today we will be looking at the kingdom that God wants to give His favored ones.  
To help you understand this I would like to look at a day, much like any other day, in the life of Jesus. As usual there is a large group of people following Him. But, on this particular day there are some very pompous religious leaders tagging along who are only there to try to trap Jesus. 
These guys decided to challenge Him with the question, “When is the kingdom of God coming?”  
How Jesus responds to their question is really interesting, for He said:(1) “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be seen by your eyes; nor will anyone say, ‘Look, here it is! Or, there it is!’ Then Jesus said, ‘Pay attention to what I am about to tell you next; the kingdom of God is in your midst.’”  
Though the religious leaders asked Him a very specific question, Jesus decided to not answer them directly and instead, teach something about the kingdom that adds a whole lot more mystery to it.  
First, He revealed that the kingdom cannot be seen or identified by the human eye. And second, He said, the kingdom is in your midst.  
Now Jesus is the only one who could have used this word midst to describe the kingdom, for He was the only person on the planet who understood how significant this word was when using it this way.  
The word midst can be interpreted two ways – one, in your midst and the other, inside of you. And what makes this word so special is that both descriptions of the kingdom are true. When Jesus said this, the kingdom was standing in their midst, but soon it would be inside of them. Which really irritated those pompous religious leaders, because how can a kingdom be both of those? 
The word kingdom used here simply means the reign of a king. And since Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God being in their midst, that could only mean He is the kingdom and therefore, He is the reign of God, for He is the only one who would specifically qualify as the reign of God in that crowd of people. 
But when you interpret the word midst to be inside of you then Jesus created another mysterious dilemma, because if He is the reign of God how could He also be inside of them?   
What Jesus said reveals something very special about this amazing gift God wants to give His favored ones. The reign of God was really standing there in the midst of all these people, because Jesus is the powerful reign of God! That’s the reason He could do all those astounding miracles. And every time He did one, such as a bring someone who had died back to life or give sight to a blind person, it proved, He is the powerful reign of God and it also proved that He is the kingdom of God.(2) 
But just before Jesus went back to heaven, He promised His disciples that He would send Himself back to earth, which is the Spirit of God, where He would reign from inside all His favored ones.(3) And when the Spirit came, the invisible kingdom was born for the Spirit of God cannot be seen by the human eye.   
This doesn’t mean the reign of God is any less powerful than it was when Jesus stood in their midst and performed miracle after miracle after miracle. The only thing that changed was now the kingdom, or reign of God, is not restricted to only being in one place at a time. 
For example, the reign of God may be working inside a carpenter in England to help him think better thoughts while He’s cutting some wood. And at that same moment the reign of God could be working inside the waiter who is serving you, helping him get free from an addiction. But at the same time in another country the reign of God may be encouraging an Amazon driver who is delivering packages, to overcome their anger and forgive someone who hurt them badly.  
Things like this occur a hundred, thousand times every day all around the world, and when they do, just as Jesus revealed no one ever says, “Look, there is the kingdom of God” because it cannot be seen by the human eye.   
What an amazing gift the kingdom’s powerful reign is to His favored ones. The same power that accomplished all those great miracles throughout history now lives and rules on earth inside His followers.   
But even though you cannot see the kingdom, it is as real as the air you breathe and as powerful as the God who created the universe with just His words. So, make sure you understand what the kingdom is that God wants you to inherit ─ it IS the powerful reign of God ruling from inside His favored ones.  
Now what does that mean to you? First, it would mean you are one of God’s favored ones if you have the Spirit living inside of you because they are the only ones who inherit His invisible kingdom. And second, it would mean no matter how difficult your life becomes, the powerful reign of God is far greater than any problem you will ever encounter. Therefore, you have some serious help to deal with life’s challenges, when the kingdom is inside of you.  
Another really great result of the invisible Spirit living and reigning inside God’s people, is the kingdom of God can be anywhere and everywhere all at the same time without anyone even noticing it.  
So, if you are one of God’s favored ones, the powerful reign of God goes with you and is inside of you wherever you are. And that’s not religion, that is a completely different way to live. (say it with authority) 
Well, that’s it for today and once again, there’s just one thing ─ What could your life be, if the powerful kingdom of God reigned from inside of you?  
 
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Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved
For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/
-------
Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com
 

SECTION 1
During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.
 
LESSON 3 ─ Why is life so difficult? (part 2)
Bible References:
Colossians 1:13 (1)
Genesis 3:1-24/Romans 5:17-18/Ephesians 2:1-3 (2)
Genesis 1:24-25 (3)
Matthew 25:34 (4)
2 Peter 3:10-13 (5)
1 Peter 1:3-11/Romans 12:2/Ephesians 4:22-24 (6)
John 18:36 (7)
John 3:3-8 (8)
 
Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. I hope this past week you have begun to see that everything wrong in life is actually the result of this domain of darkness.(1)
I also hope you have been able to see that this is not a problem that you can just wish away and everything gets better because that’s not ever going to happen. The core of this problem is us – all of us. It is you and it is me, but multiplied, by seven billion other blindly ignorant people.
 And then there is the issue of Satan and his demonic followers who have made it their chief goal to keep us blindly ignorant people thinking this world we live in is ok.
This leaves us in a real predicament; we humans have no ability to rescue ourselves out of this mixed-up life even if we understand how awful it is.
And this brings us to the only solution to our dilemma. God is the only one capable of all that is needed to address what is behind this powerful and deceiving, blindly ignorant world of freewill.
Let’s first look at the reason our ability to make our own choices is so messed up. Because God did not create us humans this way. Our ability to make wrong choices came as the result of the first two people God created when they were deceived by Satan and then ignorantly choose to disobey God’s one rule He gave them. The moment they did, this instantly killed their natural ability to choose right.(2) From that moment on, this world has only gotten worse with every new generation because broken things don’t produce something better.
Every person born as the result of these first two fallen people has a powerful and natural bent towards making wrong choices and there is nothing any human can do to change that. Let me give you an illustration of what I mean. You can educate a monkey every day for thirty years and he will never be able to make the choices necessary to build a hospital. And neither can more education change us blindly ignorant humans back into the innocent and righteous people God originally designed us to be.
God made all living things to produce after their own kind. Elephants produce elephants, cats produce cats and broken people produce more broken people.(3) This is why there are seven billion blindly ignorant humans on earth.
And you have got to realize it is these same broken people who make the rules and grow the culture you and I live in. But when you understand this, how can something so integrated into the basic fiber of everyday life ever be changed back to its original righteously innocent state?
As we learned last week though, God does have a plan to rescue us from our predicament, and this is where things really get interesting. If you remember from the first lesson, God’s ultimate goal for us humans is to become favored by Him so we can inherit the kingdom. (4)
God’s solution to the domain of darkness world that we live in is the kingdom of His beloved Son. And how all this takes place is what these Lessons From The Tent are about. Let me try to whet your appetite for what God is doing. His plan is to rescue us out of this impossible situation. But He is not going to do away with this powerful domain of darkness world. At least not right now.(5) Instead, He has established His kingdom to reign on earth, and it is immensely more powerful than the domain of darkness world.
If you have been transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, you will still have a physical home in this blindly ignorant world and still go to work in it every day. But, at the same time, you will also be living in a completely different world that is unlike anything you have ever experienced before. Does that sound a bit confusing or even too challenging to believe? I will be the first to admit, it really does. But we are not talking about something that we humans can do. God is outside the realm of the world we know, and He has the power and the ability to fix this complex problem.
And this is what is so great ─ His kingdom is a world unlike anything you could ever imagine. It is as real as the ground you walk on, but it is as invisible and necessary as the air you breathe.
What is so unique though is when God transfers someone into the kingdom of His beloved Son, they begin a life that is constantly changing for the better as they start a process of growing back into what they were originally created to be.(6) This transformation is designed by God to take place daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. And as it does, God’s favored ones will find a peace and a life that surpasses anything they could ever imagine. And if they don’t, it will be because they are living in a world of religion and not the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
His kingdom doesn’t operate anything like the blindly ignorant world we have made and are so accustomed to.(7) God refers to this transformation as virtually starting over, through the process of becoming born again.(8) Which is actually what takes place when He transfers someone into the kingdom of His beloved Son. And this new way of living has been God’s plan for you, from the beginning of time.
I purposely chose to make what I just said about you, the individual because even though God’s plan is for this whole world ─ as only God can do, His plan for the world is also extremely focused singularly on you the individual.
Well that’s it for today and once again there is just one thing – Hold on to the hope that there is a better life for you because the world of the kingdom is real and available to everyone.
 
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Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved
For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/
-------
 
Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com
 

SECTION 1
During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.
 
LESSON 2 ─ Why is life so difficult? (part 1)
Bible References:
Colossians 1:13 (1)
Job 1:12-22/Job 2:1-7 (2)
1 Peter 5:8 (3)
Jeremiah 17:9 (4)
 
Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. So far, we have looked at the purpose of life. It is now time to look at a truth God teaches about why this life is so difficult. And what He reveals about this touches everyone. It doesn’t matter what country you are from, what culture you grew up in, what race you belong to, if you are male or female, and even how old or young you are. As you will see, this world is not your friend and there is only one solution that can change the natural chemistry of this difficult place we find ourselves living in.
What God reveals about this world is quite stunning. I would like to start with something He says in the Bible that explains the reason for all the difficulties of life, and He also gives the way out of this troubling world we find ourselves in. Here is what He says.
“God rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” (1)
I am sure after hearing this you didn’t just jump up and scream out “now I know why I have so many difficulties every day.
We need to unpack some of the word meanings so we can understand what God actually said. It's the only way we can comprehend the reason for all the frustration and difficulty we find ourselves living in. I must warn you though, if truth had a similar rating system that movies do, these words of God would have to be rated “R” due to the adult content we are about to look at.
So, let’s start with the phrase “domain of darkness.” God says He rescued His favored ones from this world and transferred them to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Don’t know if you caught this or not but God just divided life on this planet into two worlds – one being the world of the domain of darkness and the other being the world of the kingdom of His beloved Son. Two worlds. One that God says we need to be rescued from and the other we need to be transferred into.
Well then, what is this domain of darkness? The original word for domain is fascinating. It is all about the freedom to make choices and this freedom is defined as a powerful right.
Let’s begin with the basic concept of freewill. It began with God first creating the angels and giving them the freedom to make their own choices. The most powerful of those angels God calls Satan or sometimes the devil. They all have an enormous ability to do things that you and I can never do, but Satan is extremely powerful. He can cause disturbances in the weather, stir up natural disasters, influence large groups of people to do evil such as killing, stealing, and abuse of people. He can even cause sickness. (2)
God refers to Satan causing these things several times in the Bible. But probably the most evil affect Satan has on this world comes from his ability to deceive and incite people to go against God even to the level that the Bible says Satan prowls around this world looking for people he can devour. (3)
But let’s look at another dimension of this domain and see an aspect of the power of freewill that adds a greater influence over the world we live in than even Satan and his fallen angels have. I am referring to human freewill, and it is mostly influenced by the second word of how God defines this world.
I’m referring to the word darkness. The original word for darkness means blindly ignorant. Put these two concepts together and we have a world full of blindly ignorant people who possess the ability to make their own choices every day. And this means the greatest influence that makes this world so difficult is our own human freewill.(4)
Another defining aspect of the original word domain is the concept of power and is mainly expressed as authority ─ which is the powerful right to make decisions and that is over your own life, and is the foundation of all governments, business, and any system that makes rules including families.
But if Satan and his angels are involved in the freewill process of making rules, the results of those choices can be enormous and far reaching. And Satan’s freewill causes its greatest destruction when it works hand in hand with our human freewill to influence our choices, because it is here that the word darkness has its greatest power to effect people to go against God’s righteous will.
Yes, we humans have the right to make our own decisions BUT, God says our decision-making process is influenced by our own blind ignorance. And God is not referring to Satan and his angel’s here. He is referring to the power and right we all have to make our own choices.
We humans make decisions every day and unfortunately, we make them while not even being aware that our decisions may be working against God’s will. This gives Satan and his angelic followers their greatest ability to do evil. And in most cases, we humans are not even aware that this is occurring.
We are also not aware that we are living and functioning in this world God calls the domain of darkness. We just get up and go about life thinking we are making our own choices every day without even once considering how our own blind ignorance may be leading us further into the domain of darkness.
This lesson is only the beginning of looking at this topic. We have more to consider about these two worlds, but for now we will close with just one thing – God wants to rescue us from the ugly world of the domain of darkness and transfer us to the world that is the kingdom of His beloved Son.
Sure, hope you join us next week as we continue examining this predicament, we all find ourselves in.
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Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved
For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/
-------
Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com
 

SECTION 1
During these first nine lessons I would like to talk about why we are here on this planet called Earth. I do not believe we are here by chance or by some cosmic accident. It is obvious there is a purpose for our existence and that is what Lessons 1-9 are about.
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LESSON 1 – What is the purpose of life?
Bible References:
Matthew 25:34 (1)
 
Good morning and welcome to, Lessons From The Tent – I don’t know about your weather but mine is Southern California fine. Birds are singing, roosters are crowing, and the wild peacocks are squawking, which you will probably hear in the background now and then. And yes, I will be doing these lessons from a real tent. My wife and I lived in this tent for five years while our house was being built.
Even though the house is completed now, I still spend most of my days here. You would call this a glamping tent and it has become a daily retreat for me now ─ it's peaceful, and the view is fabulous, it’s filled with oak trees, large boulders, squirrels, rabbits, woodpeckers and Red-tailed hawks. I think this is a great place to do a lesson from.
For this first lesson I would like to look at what God says is the purpose of life.
I spent a large portion of my early years studying the Bible, but what I want to share in these lessons had completely escaped my notice. Several years ago, I ran across something Jesus said that stopped me dead in my tracks. And the reason it did was because that was the first time, I actually understood the purpose of my life.  
Here is what Jesus said that grabbed ahold of me.
“Come, you who are favored by My Father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you, from the foundation of the world.” (1)
In these few words Jesus tells us exactly why He made us and what is the most important thing we can ever do with our life.
He said the reason we were created is to become favored by His Father so we can inherit the kingdom. And He also said this was God’s plan from the beginning of time.
Take all the greatest minds who have ever lived and not one of them has ever taught that life is about just one thing, accept maybe the crusty old cowboy Curly from the movie City Slickers. When Mitch Robbins, who is the main character of this movie, was wondering about the purpose of life, Curly looks intently at Mitch and with his penetrating eyes and stern voice, he raises one gnarly finger and says ─ “life, is about just one thing.” I know that was a terrible impersonation of the cowboy Curly, but just go with me on this for a minute.
Even though City Slickers is a comedy, the point Curly made is brilliant. But where Curly never reveals what the purpose is, Jesus does. He said the purpose of life is to become “favored” by His Father so we can inherit the kingdom.
What that means is, no matter what else you do in your life, if you do not become favored by God, you will not inherit the kingdom and therefore, you will have missed the entire reason you were born.
Now, if anyone should know what the main purpose of life is, it would be Jesus, since He created everything in this world and He just reduced life down to one ─ simple ─ thing.
I hope you are paying attention to what Jesus just said for it is far too important to miss. If you did catch it then follow along. If you didn’t, then go back to sleep.  Be sure you catch this though ─ from the moment you were born to the moment you die the one thing you need to accomplish is becoming favored by God. If you do, then the reason you are alive has been fulfilled.
So then, let me ask you a couple of questions ─ Do you have any idea how to become favored by God? And second, do you know anything about the kingdom that God wants to give you?
When I first caught what Jesus said, I can honestly say I had no idea how to answer either of those questions. I’m sure I could have spouted out a smart aleck comment trying to act smart, but honestly, I knew I had no idea what the answer was to those questions. The one thing it did though is it put me on a life-long quest to figure this out, and what I have learned is the reason for these Lessons From The Tent.
Understanding the purpose of life will give you a whole new perspective of what is important, and I want you to know – it has nothing to do with religion. But it will change how you approach life.
Let me explain this through a situation that occurred early in my married life. My wife Joan and I were heading out for a vacation when after a couple of hours into our trip our car broke down. Joan’s father drove up and towed our car back to his house. He knew how to work on cars, and at the time I had no idea what was wrong with mine or how to fix it.
For the next couple of weeks, my father-in-law pulled my engine apart and rebuilt it while I worked hand in hand beside him learning every step of the way. The moment we finished repairing it, my experience with cars changed. With the knowledge I gained, I have been able to diagnosis what’s wrong with my car and repair it whenever it breaks down. And I have also saved a bundle of money, all because I learned how an engine works.
Now, repairing cars is a minor part of life. But the same idea applies to understanding the purpose of life; when you do, then everything about your life can change significantly. It won’t stop your life from breaking down now and then but when it does, it will give you the knowledge of what went wrong and how to fix it.
And that’s the whole reason for these Lessons From The Tent ─ to help you understand why you are here, how to become favored by God, and how to live in the kingdom that God prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Well, that’s it for today and just as Curly said, there’s just one thing to remember – the purpose of your life is to become favored by God so you can inherit the kingdom.
 
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