The Kingdom and the Normal

What is normal? Today, academia mocks the normal - the family, the heterosexual, the hard-working man and woman who simply raise a family. The family is a difficult prospect because it requires a belief that the sometimes dreary work of being faithful, of working a boring job, of sacrificing present pleasure for future generations is worthwhile. It is worthwhile if you build in faith, in a God who blesses those who are faithful, in a God who is buildig His kingdom as the inevitable consequence of the gift of His Son.

So everything . . .

that happens is an opportunity for God's kingdom to come. We pray, "Thy kingdom come . . . on earth as it is in heaven." How can we have anything to do with that? We can't, except as He allows us. The King needs only loyal subjects, who believe the king is good. Then whatever he asks will result in our simple trusting obedience. It matters not whether it is small or large in the eyes of man, or even whether any human being ever knows you existed or did what God called you to do. It's about Him anyway.

Love

Is it not love that determines whether and how we obey God's law? Our defective hearts, corrupt minds, and pride keep us from obeying the God who is love. The Kingdom involves everything - politics, economics, family, church, individually, and all the rest. Thus, we need more than law; we need the miraculous power of resurrection working in our hearts. Thus, Christ alone can save and bring about God's Kingdom because He alone has the power of resurrection.

Sen. Robert Byrd

Sen. Robert Byrd is now face to face with his maker, where we will all end up one day. God's kingdom is clearly before him, and God determines what his future will be in His eternal kingdom. But what effect will his life on earth, no, what effect will his political life on earth have upon that future. Did Robert Byrd care one whit whether his politics affected things for God's kingdom? Some would ask, Can political decisions have any affect at all? Read the Hebrew bible and look at how God judges the political rulers of that time. How is God's kingdom affected in politics? Or is that too presumptuous of me to ask? Should I just believe that God works it all out with or without me? Well, I know He does - He's God. But that doesn't answer the question whether what I do is good or bad, for His kingdom or against it. Wouldn't the bible have some guidance for me in that regard? Wouldn't my following the bible in my politics have some kingdom effect, no matter how small it may be?

The Kingdom is within you

As a young Christian in college, I was taught that Jesus did not mean it when he said to some Pharisees, "The kingdom of God is within you." What He really was "The kingdom of God is in your midst." But that is not logical. He was answering a specific question first of all. "Shall the kingdom come with external signs?" Jesus was an external sign; so were his miracles. It would not make sense to answer that particular question the way he did unless he meant what He said: "The kingdom of God is within you."

Second, His statement was aspirational. In other words, He could have said, "The kingdom of God should be within you." Thus, he reaffirmed that salvation is by faith alone. Faith is within you, in your heart. It is not that there are no external effects. "Faith without works is dead," but first you have to have faith. Jesus meant it when He said that the kingdom is within you. It is either in your heart, or you don't have it at all, even if Jesus Christ is standing in your midst.

Start and end with your heart -- if you do, the externals will show themselves.

Invisible

Faith is invisible. Jesus said the kingdom of God is within you. Think about the fact that man goes about his work and life punctuated with points of courage and faith that seem to stand out and demonstrate what is on the inside. But for the most part we simply press on being faithful in what God has called us. Sometimes it appears boring and uneventful. Think about Abraham: add up all the time of his life recorded in the bible, and you would probably not accumulate a year of literal time-passage that was recorded. The rest of his life was "uneventful" to us, but that does not mean he wasn't walking in faith. Thus, the kingdom is built not always with grand events, miraculous activity, crowd-wowing accomplishments. Even Jesus, the Son of God, only spent about three years in almost continuous miraculous activity. But he spent the other thirty living faithfully, living with and taking care of His family.

Law

You would think that law would be easy to apply in God's kingdom, but it is not. The fact that so many Christians teach against God's law is a shock and shame. That failure seems to be based on either a fear of man or a misunderstanding of grace. Having said that, however, it is clear to me, based on personal experience, that it is possible to study God's law so thoroughly and without a proper grounding in grace, that one begins to fall into the error of the Pharisees. A thorough study of God's law requires a thorough understanding of Christ's full atonement and His rebukes of the Jewish people who had missed Him while searching the scriptures.

The externals

The externals are important. Just because the internal is more important does not mean the externals are not. Why would God give us standards to live by if the externals were of no importance. We sometimes, in our sin, want the externals - consequences to sin, failures, etc. - to not matter, but they do. They do not end God's covenant faithfulness to us, but they affect our life and the lives of others. So how do we implement God's standards - His law - into our lives, our politics, our economy, our jobs, without being hypocrites and without denying the grace of God in the process?

The Individual and the Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God is within you. Here are two verses that sum up the individual and his or her relationship with the Kingdom, actually with the King. That is how the individual relates, for the Kingdom does not come with observation. Ultimately, with respect to having faith and relating to the King, it does not matter if no one ever knows of the individual's salvation and their inner relationship with God. Sharing that faith is important for obeying the King's great commission, helping others, and keeping the individual unselfish and recognizing their place in the world as nothing. Otherwise, the believer can become a spoiled brat.

But what of other matters? Politics, economics, etc.

Internal

Back to the individual - what is the kingdom within you? Righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Are you letting God work His kingdom within you, or are you constantly focused upon the external, the facade, the things without that you care about advancing for God?

Timing

Daniel 7 speaks of one like the Son of Man coming to the ancient of days, clearly in the throne room of heaven. This event occurs with a call for all nations to worship Him and the destruction of the beast. Clearly, this refers to the Ascension of Christ, the Son of Man, who conquered the dragon of old on the cross. But many Christians think victory is still far away at the 2nd coming of Christ.

More on the Heart of the individual subject of the King

Ezekiel and Isaiah say that Satan's sin began in the heart - it was lifted up. Jesus said that if you lust in the heart, you've already committed adultery. The individual subject must guard, clean, and purify the heart. How do you do that? The grace of God, the word of God - only by these may one purify the heart to be a subject of this King. The tenth commandment - thou shalt not covet - deals with the heart. Paul says he learned about lust being a sin from the tenth commandment. The law reveals, but it does not purify. God alone by His power and grace can do that work. If we submit to this King, we'll allow Him to do that work.

The Heart

I grew up around men who said things like, "Just press on," or "Don't worry about it." Such comments were to make sure duties were done and to avoid a maudlin obsession with feelings. But, what if it causes an avoidance of the heart, what it cares about, whether it cares. Jesus said the fist commandment is to love God, not just with our strength and actions, but with our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Do we know our own heart? How much resentment and mistrust to we hold toward the God who loves us enough to send His Son for us? What's the difference between my heart or soul and my flesh?

The kingdom requires there to be individuals with hearts and souls committed to the King. Where are we with that? How do we develop the proper heart of loyalty and devotion?

The Transition Period

From the Hebrew period recorded in the Hebrew bible to the New Testament is a vast transformation that we know little about, partly because of our distance in time from that period and partly out of ignorance of the bible itself. We put off to the future so much prophecy that we, like the bible students of Jesus' time, remain ignorant of just how much was being fulfilled then. It was THE END of an era, an era of great significance, but a temporary era. Both Jesus and John the Baptist went about proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. What did that mean?

Technology

Christians too often downplay the physical world - wrongly. It's done out of a sincere desire to not under emphasize the spiritual. But here's the question. Does God's kingdom include technology? Do you want to live in George Washington's day, before dentists, when everyone lost their teeth? Dentists have advanced the world's health and comfort in a way unconceivable to those living just two hundred years ago.

I've thought about this lately because of knee surgery I had two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I faced recurring bouts with knee problems that prevented me from walking. I had to hobble or use crutches on and off. 100 years ago, I would have to live with it. 20 years ago, I would have faced major surgery, with my knee completely opened up.

The surgery I had took less than an hour, and it required three small holes. I was walking the next day. My doctor, a Christian, prayed for the success of the surgery beforehand, and I am thankful for that. But I told him at the follow-up appointment that I must be thankful for the day I live in. We are too quick to look for the bad of our day and not see the good.

So, back to my question. Does God's kingdom include technology? Has God blessed the Christian world to have more faith, more initiative, more success in that area as a way to advance the kingdom, as a way to, in a sense, reverse the curse. Doesn't that enable us to better carry out the Great Commission? Advances in technology in travel, in communication, in helping others. Does that not advance God's kingdom?

Family

The family is a small kingdom. It more closely resembles God's kingdom than, say, political kingdoms, because the family allows for intimacy, friendship, wise and kind flexibility when governing the family. It is one reason bad parenting is so deadly; it attacks that fundamental understanding of God, who used to walk in the Garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Here was the King of the universe, conversing, communing with his creation. It was what has been restored through Christ's intervention in history to cover the sin, sheathe the sword of justice that guarded the entrance to Eden, show us what it's like to walk with the King of Kings. He was someone little children loved to be with and who said, "Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest, for I am meek and lowly of heart." This is how families should be.

What a family cannot do is exact penal justice, like capital punishment. That is for the state alone. The rod is the only physical discipline allowed. No one could harm Cain after he killed his brother. One reason may have been the fact that there was nothing but family living on the earth at that time to exact the just punishment, but God did not want to establish that precedent.

KINGdom

I think it's fair to say that a kingdom has a king. The king has total authority over all matters in the realm. We are not used to this form of government, and like Sandy in "Chariots of Fire," object to such distatorship. To that, the minister replies, "Ah, but a wise, benevolent dictator."

But even that response falls far short of describing the glorious King, whose word as that of our Creator, must be for our good. It could not be otherwise. To even doubt that His Word is good is to commit a damnable sin. So His wisdom is unassailable.

What about just? He is perfectly just. That's one of the main reasons Christ had to give His life in exchange for our lives and souls - He is so just that He must punish evil, even if the victim is a sacrificial lamb.

As for kind, that is an understatement. This is the God whose Son became man to die for the sins of the world. While we have heard that phrase a million times, it should still take our breath away to consider such service of kindness at great sacrifice. His wisdom is unassailable.

But do we really believe that He has our best interest at heart in all things, including our business, our politics, our family, even every event of our lives?

Reformed Answer

Here is the Westminster Shorter Catechism (a critical document issued during the Reformation) answer to the question:

Q. 102. What do we pray for in the second petition [of the Lord's Prayer]?
A. In the second petition, which is, Thy kingdom come, we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed;[Mt. 12:25-28; Ro. 16:20; I Jn. 3:8] and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced,[Mt. 72:8-11; Mt. 24:14; I Cor. 16:24-5] ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it;[Ps. 119:5; Lk. 22:32; II Th. 3:1-5] and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.[Rev. 22:20]

Do you agree with that assessment? Is it too limited? Too broad? Does it leave out the workplace, politics, the Church, etc.? Or are those aspects of life implied in the terms used in that answer, terms like Satan's kingdom, the kingdom of grace, etc.

When

Another question that I left off the first blog was When? Many people have serious difficulty with this because they think the kingdom can only come when Jesus comes back. They think Jesus Christ has to sit on a physical throne in Jerusalem, but He already sits on the most powerful throne in heaven and on earth - the right hand of God.

What is the Kingdom of God?

Here's a question I've had for a long time. What is the Kingdom of God? If we're talking about a God who has created all things, isn't everything God's Kingdom? Yes and no. Jesus spoke of it as something exclusive, conditional, and somehow separate from the rest of the phycial universe. So what is it? Is it the church? Is it a thing? Is it a group of people? Is it heaven? It must involve something on this earth because the Lord's prayer speaks of it coming - Thy Kingdom come - to earth. Is it spiritual? Can it encompass the physical? Politics? Society? Work? Play? Extracurricular activities?

What part do I have in that Kingdom? Am I in it? Why does Jesus refer to it as a Kingdom? Does it have an army? It must have a King, and that would be the Son of God, the King of Kings. How much does He rule over now? How does He rule from the right hand of God? What is His relationship to the rest of the world, that part of the universe that is outside His Kingdom? Or is that an illegitimate question? Is anyone outside His Kingdom? Why? How do they get in? Can they get out? Who are His subjects? How do you know who His subjects are? What activities do Kingdom subjects engage in? What is their aim in serving this King? How do we honor this King?

The questions go on and on. Do you have any thoughts on this question? Please blog them.