Most Christians don't make it full term. They opt out\aborted or miscarry their salvation before their race on earth is complete. This newsletter is about miscarrying the new birth, crowns stolen, entering heaven maimed, and losing all rewards but receiving eternal life because of faith in the work of Christ Jesus. God's mercy endures forever, and it has to be for all the premature Christians entering eternal life before God can fully form them into the image of Christ.

I'm dividing this teaching up into four sections. 1) Born of water in Egypt under oppression. 2) Leaving Egypt: The First Trimester. 3) Knowing God in the wilderness: the 2^nd trimester. 4) The 3^rd trimester: The promised land where we are fully formed in Christ.

Born of water in Egypt under oppression.

We are all born under the oppression of natural sin and the God of this world, Satan. We may be born in a free nation far away from tyranny. But inside the heart of man is the oppressive spirit of sin and death. The Pharisees proclaimed freedom under Abraham, but Jesus refuted this and said they were children of the devil in oppression. The same goes today in our Christian circles, with so many proclaiming freedoms only to go home and fall to the internal oppression of the things of this fallen world. Freedom from internal oppression is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit that is finished at death.

Many in the church, conceived and born-again in spirit, in the first trimester, are deceived and being deceived while an unrenewed mind still binds them.

Like the disciples, we want to be delivered from the oppression of government tyranny, cancel culture, bully pulpits, and the like. But God had another thing in mind. Jesus will deliver God's people from the inside out. When God delivers a soul from internal oppression, they never again choose a tyrant as their overlord. I will be their God, and they will be my people by mutual choice. Even though God first chose us even yet as we were sinners.

If our aim is off, we miss the bullseye and may even miss the target. Many Christians think the bullseye is going to Heaven after living a full life. But going to Heaven is one of the goalposts, not the bullseye. The other goalpost is eternal life. And between the goal post of Heaven and eternal life, we find the kingdom of God. I know this analogy is a mix of a field goal and darts, but go with me on this journey of knowledge anyway. You will be all the better for it. I teach God's ways so that you may be aware of His work in and around you.

Throw me a rope! I like discovering three strong cords in the Word of God. I have over fifty now. If we are stuck in a pit and need a way out, a rope is necessary to pull us out! Eternal Life, Heaven, & the Kingdom of God is a rope, a three-strong cord that pulls us out of the pit of sin and death.

Let me lay out some definitions so we are on the same page with the Word of God.

Let's define Eternal Life in one strand. The promise of Eternal life is for those who believe in God enough to follow Jesus to the cross, the grave, and the throne. Those crucified with Him are raised to sit with Him in high places. Eternal life has a straightforward definition, as Jesus gave it to us. This is eternal life, to know God and His Son whom He sent. Eternal life, summed up, is knowing God. We can know God! Israel knew God's signs, wonders, and miracles, but Moses knew God's ways. Eternal life is going from knowing the signs of God to learning His ways. Knowing the acts of God is not the same as knowing God's ways.

I understand the Church hurt you, and now you may be a home-alone Christian. I have a message entitled, 'If you are disillusioned about the church, it is because you have an illusion of the church.' The Church is not always a safe place. If you come to Church, you will get wounded sooner or later. But we are wounded no matter where we go, to Church or somewhere secular. So why not return to Church, where healing also occurs? It is better to be injured by a friend than kissed by the enemy. And the comfort you are receiving by staying away from a body of believers is the enemy of your soul, not your friend. Come back to the body of Christ and get healed.

The Church is both religious and relational. Yet, we get to choose which one we are. The Church will always have rulekeepers who lack grace and relationship. The Church will also have the grace healers found in relationships who know pain ensues when boundaries are not respected. To be in a relationship with Jesus means to also be in a relationship with His Church. If you live longer than the thief on the cross, more is expected of you. Don't die at home alone.

I know that the Church has lost her salt for many. Churches of our day are irrelevant to our culture because we have lost our unique identity to solve the hopelessness of society. We are another cog in the system that doesn't give a way out. So, the Church is disdained. People have an illusion of what the Church is thus are disillusioned when it does not conform to their expectation. For many reasons, people don't know the value of the church and its local body.

One reason people have left the Church is thinking it is an educational institution. Why attend and go through useless traditions when we can streamline knowledge through a book or podcast?

Another reason people have left the Church is because it doesn't meet their social service needs. Government and secular services do a better job of meeting temporal needs. People have flipped the major and minor commissions of the Church. The primary function of the Church is to make disciples. Secondary care is for people's natural needs. Even Jesus said you follow me because I gave you bread, not because I offer signs of eternal life. Most people don't want spiritual help. They want their natural needs met. The Church cannot meet the insatiable demands of the flesh. Neither can the government, but that is another lesson.