Favor

As we go back to work after the holiday weekend, my verse to meditate on is Proverbs 22:29:

Do you see any truly competent workers?
They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people.

Happy Friday!

I'm a very pragmatic person, so this is difficult for me -- however I've come to realize that vision is an absolutely essential quality of the vibrant Christian walk. If we can't see our world through God's eyes, we're stuck with satan's vision, and it isn't encouraging. How we perceive our circumstances dictates our response to them. That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law."

On to one of my favorite portions of scripture that I've discovered this year, in Psalm 77:19-20:

Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters — a pathway no one knew was there!

You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

The reality of this situation is that God had known His people before the earth's creation, and out of His love for them he prepared a road for them to cross on the floor of the Red Sea. (Perhaps this was part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as he hovered over the surface of the waters in the beginning!)

The people's perception was that God had forsaken them to be slaughtered by the Egyptians. Because they could not see God's salvation, they did not believe it and began to despair. Fortunately, God had anticipated this and had given them Moses and Aaron to exercise their faith in His goodness and unveil the escape route.

And the single most important lesson? Even though most of the people lost all hope of survival, a few trusted God -- and God used them to bring every man, woman and child across in safety.

What a plan. What a great God we serve.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Happy Birthday, Mama Lily!

What is this Kingdom, anyway?

My last post referenced something called the Kingdom of Heaven, sometimes referred to as the Kingdom of God. It's something that's talked about a lot in the Bible, but I get the feeling most people don't really understand what it means.

An earthly King is a sovereign, someone who rules over a region by their own authority. Where God's Kingdom is, His will is done. (If this sounds like the Lord's prayer, it should.) His perfect will is obviously done completely in heaven; he also desires the same on earth.

The Kingdom was foretold in the book of Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had a dream about a statue that represented the kingdoms of men. The statue was then crushed and completely destroyed by a rock cut from a mountain without human hands. The rock then grew to become a mountain that filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:31-45). Similarly, Habakkuk 2:14 says, "For as the waters fill the sea, the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord." Obviously the entire sea consists of water, and the entire earth will know that God is King.

The Kingdom is not the Church; it is bigger than the Church. Isaiah 2:3 talks about going "to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob's God" to learn His ways. Two things are evident here. The Church (house of Jacob's God) is on the mountain, rather than the mountain being in the Church. Also the nations are coming to learn God's ways; not exactly what you expect of a group of discipled believers, but definitely what you expect from unbelievers who have become aware of God's glory and have begun to seek its Source. The Kingdom of God is the region where God's rule is preeminent, that is a region that has been transformed to the point where God's will goes forth and becomes reality because His people obey His voice.

The Kingdom is not a human government. Many Jews in Jesus' day, even his disciples, wanted him to overthrow the Roman oppressors and set up an earthly kingdom to restore the past glory of the city of David. They didn't understand that Jesus was inaugurating a Kingdom that was far too powerful to be contained within human governments, but rather was about transforming hearts one at a time to conform to God's will.

The Kingdom is not a future hope; it is a present-progressive reality. Many people today have lost their hope for transformation of the earth and are waiting for Jesus to descend from heaven and establish his rule by force -- the same lie the disciples believed two thousand years ago. Fortunately, Isaiah 9:7 tells us that "Of the increase of His government and its peace there will be no end" -- meaning that every day since its inception on earth, the government of God has been steadily gaining ground and reproducing righteousness.

Matthew 13:33 compares the Kingdom to yeast, which when kneaded into dough spreads until it permeates every part. God is bringing every part of the societies of earth under His authority: Not only the church, but also the spheres of government, education, business, and media. 1 Corinthians 15:25 tells us that "Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet."

The Kingdom is victorious. Jeremiah 31:33-34 speaks of a new covenant that God will make with His people. "I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, 'You should know the Lord.' For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already," says the Lord.

Ephesians 5:25-27 speaks of Christ's love for the Church, with the end result being "a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault."

I don't know about you, but that excites me. I can't wait for the day when they say about our company of believers, "they are holy and without fault." God desires to bring the fullness of His Kingdom to earth, and He will accomplish it and He is accomplishing it. By the way, He's always looking for partners in His mission. Join with Him or you'll miss out on all the action!

Re-Definition

I've had lots of ideas for short blog posts recently, but haven't been able to make the time to act (no time like the present...).

I've decided this would be a good forum to share truths that the Lord is showing me in my life. The new Theme verse for this blog would be Matthew 13:52:

Then he added, "Every teacher of religious law who becomes a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a homeowner who brings from his storeroom new gems of truth as well as old."

It's neat because this entire chapter is about subversive transformation. The teachers of religious law (Scribes and Pharisees) were blind guides and whitewashed sepulchres; however if they became obedient to the Kingdom, they would bring forth the truths of God.