Week 2 Concept of the Kingdom LRF 002

CONCEPT OF THE KINGDOMSOLOMON APPIAH

WEEK 2

APRIL 12, 2016

PRESENTATIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT:

https://lrfcca.wordpress.com/

12-Apr-16LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR 2

BASIC CONCEPT OF THE KINGDOM (MATT 6:33) – OUTLINED BY PROPHET BAKO

i. THE KING

ii. TERRITORY

iii. LORDSHIP

iv. CULTURE

v. CONSTITUTION

vi. KEYS

vii. CITIZENSHIP

viii.LAW

ix. GIVING LUKE 6:38


TABLE OF CONTENTS

• DEFINITION

• TYPES OF CULTURE

• COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

• RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE & SCRIPTURE

• CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTUREi. Culture Is Learned ii. Culture Is In Part Unconsciousiii. Culture Is Cultivatediv. Culture Is A Way Of Lifev. Culture Is Relative


DEFINING CULTURE?MULTIPLE DEFINITIONS – SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES

WHAT IS CULTURE

• The customs, traditions, beliefs and values that a group of people share.

• It includes language, what they do, eat, make, believe and how they dress.

• Groups that share these traits are called a cultural group.


Edward Burnett Tylor

1832-1917

Culture or civilization, taken in

its wide ethnographic sense, is

that complex whole which

includes knowledge, belief,

art, morals, law, custom, and

any other capabilities and

habits acquired my man as a

member of society. E. B.

Tylor 1871


CULTURE…

• refers to the beliefs, values, behavior and material objects that, together, form a people's way of life.

• determines how we view the world around us

• includes the traditions we inherit and pass on to the next generation

• is the totality of our shared language, knowledge, material objects, and behavior


CULTURE DEFINITION

“the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group over another…

Culture, in this sense, includes systems of values; and values are among the building blocks of culture”

Geert Hofstede12-Apr-16LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR 9

WEBSTER’S 1828 DEFINITION

CULTURE, n. [L. See Cultivate.]

1. The act of tilling and preparing the earth for crops; cultivation; the application of labor or other means of improvement.

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.

2. The application of labor or other means to improve good qualities in, or growth; as the culture of the mind; the culture of virtue.


WEBSTER’S 1828 DEFINITION

3. The application of labor or other means in producing; as the culture of corn, or grass.

4. Any labor or means employed for improvement, correction or growth.

CULTURE, v.t. To cultivate.


TYPES OF CULTURE


THERE ARE TWO ELEMENTS OF CULTURE

1. Material culture – is tangible – it has a physical reality.

2. Non-material culture – are things that don’t have a physical reality, such as values, beliefs and religion.

1312-Apr-16LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR

14

MATERIAL CULTURE

• The things that a culture has made.

• They have physical reality –you can touch them.

• What culture is this identified with?

• What does it tell you about the culture

12-Apr-16 LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR

COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

1) Values: abstract ideas about the good, the right, the desirable e.g. core value integrity

2) Norms: social rules and guidelines; guide appropriate behavior for specific situations

a) Folkways: norms of little moral significance• dress code; table manners; timeliness

b) Mores: norms central to functioning of social life• bring serious retribution: thievery, adultery, alcohol

3) Customs are norms and expectations about the way people do things in a specific country

4) Traditions: e.g. Naming's, Weddings, History best man etc.


4) Symbols: anything that carries particular meaning recognized by people who share culture

―e.g. totems, Adinkra, obelisks, tribal marks & their significance

5) Ideas/Beliefs/Attitudes/Worldviews

6) Roles

7) Artifacts

8) Language


Custom is one component of Culture

A custom of frequenting a place of worship

• Luk 4:16 KJV …as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Feasts are & have customs e.g. Passover or Odwira

• Luk 2:42 KJV And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

Circumcision a custom and symbol

• Act 15:1 AMP …Unless you are circumcised in accordance with the Mosaic custom, you cannot be saved. [Gen. 17:9-14.]


Teaching was His custom

•Mar 10:1 AMP …and crowds [constantly] gathered around Him again, and as was His custom, He began to teach them again.

Our Traditions vs. GOD’s Commandments

•Mar 7:9 KJV And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.


Traditions received from Apostles

• 2Th 3:6 KJV Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.


ASSIGNMENT

• Examine your personal and tribal culture and identify deviations from GOD’s culture as found in His commandments

• In other words, examine your values, norms, customs, traditions, symbols, roles, artifacts, Ideas/Beliefs/Attitudes/Worldviews and then see if there are any deviations from the Kingdom culture?


RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE AND SCRIPTURE

•QUESTION: God’s Kingdom culture! Where is it documented?

•ANSWER: In the Holy Scriptures!


2Ti 3:16-17 AMP

(16) Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproofand conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action),

(17) So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work


Scripture is GOD – breathed unlike constitution of world and nations

God’s scriptures gives us the ability/power to profit (profit-able) by making us :

1. complete

2. proficient

3. well fitted

4. thoroughly equipped for EVERY good work.


CHARACTERISTICS OF CULTURE

1. Culture is Learned a) Pro 22:6 AMP Train up a child in the way he should go [and in

keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.

2. Culture is in part Unconscious

3. Culture is Cultivated

4. Culture is Symbolic

5. Culture is a way of life

6. Culture is Dynamic?

7. Culture is Relative?12-Apr-16LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR 27

CULTURE IS LEARNED

• Rather than inherited biologically

• Enculturation: The transmission of culture from one generation to the next

• Gen 18:19 KJV For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

• Justice & Judgment=Foundations Psalm 97:212-Apr-16LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR 28

CULTURE IS IN PART UNCONSCIOUS


CULTURE IS IN PART UNCONSCIOUS

Your values, norms, beliefsreceived mostly assimilated unconsciously like a baby

Your language, institutions,

explicit behavior


This is why when you get born again [when given the ability to see the Kingdom], you must re-train, re-program, renew the roots, the bottom of iceberg i.e. your mind

We change ourselves by changing the way we think

• Pro 23:7 KJV For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he

• Rom 12:2 KJV And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God


CULTURE DEFINITION REVISTED

CULTURE, n. [L. See Cultivate.]

1. The act of tilling and preparing the earth for crops; cultivation; the application of labor or other means of improvement.

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.

2. The application of labor or other means to improve good qualities in, or growth; as the culture of the mind; the culture of virtue

- Webster’s 1828 Definition12-Apr-16LRF 3RD DAY OF WEEK TRAINING SEMINAR 32

Gen 9:20 And Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard.

Psa 104:14 He causes vegetation to grow for the cattle, and all that the earth produces for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food out of the earth

Pro 3:29 Do not contrive or dig up or cultivate evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly and confidently beside you.

When you think on harming someone, you are cultivating evil; practicing witchcraft


1Co 12:31 But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all--love].

1Co 14:1 EAGERLY PURSUE and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy (interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching).

Php 2:12 AMP…work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ).

1Ti 4:15 Practice and cultivate and meditate upon these duties; throw yourself wholly into them [as your ministry], so that your progress may be evident to everybody.


THINGS WE CULTURE / CULTIVATE

We can cultivate:

i. cultivate the ground – Gen 9:20; Ps 104:14

ii. cultivate evil or good i.e. morality – Pr 3:9

iii. cultivate our salvation – Php 2:12

iv. cultivate the physical and spiritual gifts & graces

v. cultivate gifts bestowed upon us via prophecy. The prophet cannot do that for you. They can impart but you must nurture. So it is in every kingdom


1Ti 4:14-16 AMP

(14) Do not neglect the gift which is in you, [that special inward endowment] which was directly imparted to you [by the Holy Spirit] by prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you [at your ordination].

(15) Practice and cultivate and meditate upon these duties; throw yourself wholly into them [as your ministry], so that your progress may be evident to everybody.

(16) Look well to yourself [to your own personality] and to [your] teaching; persevere in these things [hold to them], for by so doing you will save both yourself and those who hear you.


CULTURE AS A WAY OF LIFE

• 1Co 4:17 AMP For this very cause I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, who will recall to your minds my methods of proceeding and course of conductand way of life in Christ, such as I teacheverywhere in each of the churches.

• There is a peculiar WAY OF LIFE in God’s Kingdom different from that of the world


•Gen 18:19 KJV For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the WAY of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.


DEDUCTIONS

• The way of the LORD is His Way of Life

• This way of the LORD is God’s Culture

• His culture should be our culture if we are His children

• His culture is summarized as justice and judgment

• Any deviation from His culture is disastrous


Pro 10:17 AMP He who heeds instruction and correction is [not only himself] in the way of life [but also] is a way of life for others. And he who neglects or refuses reproof [not only himself] goes astray [but also] causes to err and is a path toward ruin for others.

Way = Path

When we live according to GOD’s way of life, we become a way, path, gate to life to our unbelieving neighbor, boss, spouse etc.


1Pe 3:1-2 AMP

(1) IN LIKE manner, you married women, be submissive to your own husbands [subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them], so that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives

The believing wife’s way of life i.e. kingdom conduct can become a way of life for her husband to find the path to receiving Jesus as his Lord and savior.


CULTURE IS RELATIVE?

Culture changes over time influenced by economic advancement, technological change, globalization??

• Heb 13:8 KJV Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

• Mal 3:6 KJV For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

• Joh 10:35 KJV …the scripture cannot be broken

It may be so in this world BUT God’s word is the unchanging Constant. His values, customs, beliefs etc.don’t change


Many modern societies are multicultural—their people follow various ways of life that blend and sometimes clash.

• The culture of the Kingdom is NOT multi-cultural but uni-cultural or King-cultural.

• We must ALL conform to the KING’s way of life in His Kingdom

• Races appeared because of disobedience at babel

• The antithesis is the day of Pentecost when we all returned to one language—the language of the Holy Ghost—His Culture



• NEXT WEEK, WE’LL LOOK AT OTHER COMPONENTS OF CULTURE

• WE’LL ALSO LOOK AT HEALTH IN GOD’S KINGDOM

• THE FF IS A BRIEF INSIGHT INTO NEXT WEEK’S LECTURE


DIVINE HEALTH VERSUS WSTERN MEDICAL TRADITION


• In 2016 HEALING is regarded unconsciously in the domain of doctors and medicine/drugs

• But for those in the Kingdom, your health must primarily be derived from part-taking in the Bread of life

• Use hospitals if need be BUT do not be absolutely dependent of Western Medication for your whole life

• Healing is the children’s bread in the Kingdom


THE SYMBOLS AFFILIATED WITH MEDICAL SCIENCES

• Remember CULTURE includes symbols

• The culture of the western medical sciences is in need of redemption

• The symbol of the medical profession includes the scepter of Greek spirits or gods and serpents symbolic of the dragon

• The symbol of the medical profession are all draconian rooted in Greek gods and mythology i.e. evil spirits


CADUCEUS

•… with its two snakes and wings, used as a symbol of medicine


ROD OF ASCLEPIUS

• is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, a deity associated with healingand medicine.


• We’ll discuss these symbols next week


• Modern medical profession needs redemption

• Use medicine and doctors if need be. It is GOD who gave the wisdom but place your trust in GOD and not men or a profession

MORE NEXT WEEK


Education

Week 2 Concept of the Kingdom LRF 002