God in His goodness is providing every kind of blessing today in order to strengthen and encourage the believers and to bring the unsaved to a place of forgiveness and fellowship with God.

But as a result of such blessings and gifts of grace God's people are becoming self-centered. Christianity has been changed from God's eternal purposes into a means of making people successful and happy in the world. This is not the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Gospel of the Kingdom is not a plan for material success in our present life.

God gives us every good thing to enjoy and is faithful to answer our prayers. But we must be careful not to forget that God has a plan He is carrying forward to completion, and that our part in the Divine plan may at times cause us personal distress—even to the point of martyrdom.

Let us not be self-centered, spoiled children who will not love or serve God unless He is tending to our every concern.

God is not waiting to be used by us. God is working on a tremendous program of restoration. He always is looking for people who will work with Him in bringing forth His Kingdom in the earth.

The Divine program of restoration is a marvelous enterprise, a wondrous scheme, worldwide in its scope. It will result in justice, deliverance, righteousness, peace, and joy for the nations of the earth (Isaiah 42:1). But its chief purpose is to bring about obedience to God and the worship of God on the part of all peoples.

The Christian Church is the eternal Temple of God. The Temple of God is to be established forever on the earth. It is through the Temple of God that the Lord ministers to the world, even during the days in which we are living. It is Christ in us, the hope of glory.

We see, then, that as the program of restoration continues, every necessary door will be opened. God will speak to His Cyruses, and to the prophets among His people. No man or devil can possibly prevent the will of God, the eternal purposes of God, from coming to pass in Heaven and on the earth.

But it is a battle all along the way; and even the battle itself is furthering the work of restoration. For it is through the skirmishes of the battle that God's sons are developing the spiritual wisdom and strength that will enable them to be an eternal wall around the new Jerusalem (Judges 3:1-2).

The all-powerful Christ is on the throne of His glory. The restoration of the Glory of God in the earth is proceeding on schedule as the Body of Christ is being built up into unity and maturity, and as the defenses against the enemy are created in the personalities of God's victorious saints.

God moved through Cyrus and opened the door:

Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:3)

To be continued.