pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: kingdom


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Light

Reading: Isaiah 9: 1-4

Today Isaiah brings a joyful pronouncement.  Although there was much darkness and oppression when Isaiah spoke this prophecy, it brought hope.  Yet the darkness and oppression remained.  When Jesus was born, the prophecy was fulfilled.  Out of Bethlehem, from out of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, came Jesus, the Savior and light of the world.  Jesus was and is the great light of the world.  Yet still the darkness and oppression remained.  These forces of evil remain to this day.  So too does the light of the world.  The Lord Jesus Christ still reigns, still seeks to win people’s hearts, still works to shine light into the darkness.

In His day, Jesus walked the earth and taught and healed and brought hope.  Jesus Christ worked to bring the kingdom of God to the earth.  In doing so, Jesus offered hope and mercy and forgiveness and relationship to all He met.  His offer is the same today.  But for people to meet Jesus today, they must meet Him in the Word of God and in us.  One can begin with the Word, but I believe people learn best by seeing and experiencing.  The most effective way we have of sharing Jesus is not by giving someone a Bible, but by sharing what it looks like to live out the Bible by how we live our lives.

Jesus began a great work by defeating the power of sin and death.  Through the cross and the tomb, Jesus freed us from these chains.  He did this so that we who are imperfect could follow the example of He who was perfect.  It is our task, as loved and redeemed people, to help others to come to live as loved and redeemed people.  We do so by continuing the work of Jesus.  We go forth and shine light into the dark places; we work to end oppression and to bring justice; and, we live on people just as Jesus loves on us.

A light has dawned… we have seen a great light.  May we go forth, eager to share the light of Christ as we seek to bring the good news to the ends of the earth.


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Called

1 Corinthians 1: 1-9

There is a definite focus on “call” in today’s passage.  Paul opens with his call “to be an apostle of Jesus Christ”.  He then reminds the church in Corinth of their “call to be holy”, right along with all others who “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”.  This culture of call is one that is present throughout the Bible and is alive and well today.

Before Paul there is a long list of those called in the Bible.  Noah was called to build an arc.  Jonah was called to save Nineveh.  Moses was called to lead his people.  Job was called to endure much while remaining faithful.  Joshua was called to lead into the Promised Land.  Rahab was called to risk her life for God’s spies.  Fast forward and we find simple fisherman and unpopular tax collectors alike called by Jesus.  Almost all of the people that God called are much like us – normal, ordinary people.  Some were even outcasts and others were hated by their siblings.  Some served for just short periods and others served for years.  Some were even like Paul, who as Saul killed many Christians in his attempts to stamp out the new church.  The long and short of it is that God can and will continue to call any and all for service in the kingdom.

In addition to calling us, God also equips us.  Paul reminds us that in Christ we have been “enriched in every way” and that we “do not lack any spiritual gift”, that God has already given us what we need for the tasks at hand.  Paul then shares a promise: “He will keep you strong to the end”.  And lastly, Paul shares, “He has called you into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord”.  Pretty good company as we answer God’s call on our lives.

We are each called and equipped by God to go forth into the world with Jesus Christ.  May we faithfully answer the call this day.


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One Day

Reading: Psalm 98

The psalmist solemnly reminds us that the Lord “will judge the world in righteousness and the people with equity”.  It is a truth we know: one day we will all stand before the judgment seat to be deemed worthy of heaven or to be condemned to hell.  We do not know the when or the how, but we know that the who and what we are now is not forever.

God will first judge in righteousness.  There will be truth in how we are judged.  The simple question that is illustrated in the parable of the sheep and the goats will be the one Jesus asks us: “Do you know me”?  It is the hope and prayer of every Christian that when Jesus looks back over the course of our lives, that He will see we knew Him.  It will be revealed in how we lived out our daily life.  It will be revealed in how we treated our neighbor and the stranger in our midst.  It will be revealed in how we used the gifts and talents and blessings God gave us to help build the kingdom here.

God will also judge with equity.  Loving God and loving neighbor can look like and be a lot of different things.  There is not just one way to love.  By judging with equity God will look at each of us uniquely.  If I was given the gift of teaching, did I teach others about God and faith?  If I was placed in a situation to help the person on the street, did I?  If I was feeling the call or nudge to go to a friend in need, did I respond?  We will each be judged by our own lives, not against some set standard.

When Jesus asks, “Did you know me?” may our answer be a joyous “Yes”!  And may our Lord and Savior say, “Yes indeed – welcome home”!  May we live each day so that one day this will be.


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Building

Reading: Luke 1: 46-55

Mary’s beautiful song is all about God’s love for humanity.  She is aware of her direct role in this: she is bearing the Son of Man in her womb.  She rejoices in God her Savior and in her unique role: “all generations will call me blessed”.  Mary is aware of and deeply thankful for the role God has called her to fulfill.

Mary quickly moves past these thoughts and rejoices in the ways that God loves all of mankind.  God extends mercy to those in need and performs mighty deeds for those who fear him.  God blesses those in a relationship with him.  In doing so, God lifts up the humble and fills the hungry with good things.  God loves in many ways.

God’s love, however, is sometimes tough love.  God scatters those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  God will bring down rulers when necessary and will send the rich away empty.  God will not tolerate evil behavior by those with power.  God blesses us so that we can bless others, not so we can use our position or wealth to take advantage of others.

Mary’s song really speaks of God’s desired kingdom.  As followers of Jesus Christ we are kingdom builders.  We have a role to play in being the light and love in this time and space.  We too, like Mary, bear the Son of Man.  We bear Jesus in our hearts.  We can all bring God’s love to those who need God’s mercy and to those who hunger for either spiritual or physical bread.  We can all be conduits of God’s love flowing into the world.  We can also be the light shining into the darkness.  God’s kingdom is built on justice and equality.  If we are in positions with power and authority, we must use our place to insure justice and equality.  If, in our community, the leaders do not champion these things, we need to speak truth to bring about justice and equality.  May we each play the role of building God’s kingdom as we bear the light and love of Christ right where we are this day.


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Trust

Reading: Matthew 11: 7-11

At times, we all go through what John the Baptist’s followers are going through.  Someone who has been a leader in our church or community or organization is no longer present.  They have moved on to another place or they have passed on.  To be filled with questions and doubts and fears is a normal reaction.  We wonder who will fill the void.  We wonder how the void will be filled.

John has been put in prison.  He had led a powerful ministry out in the desert and had positively changed many people’s lives.  So instead of trusting in God and expecting God to do something amazing next, the followers worry and fret.  So Jesus asks them, in essence, why they followed John and why people came out to see him.  What drew you and others to John?

Jesus begins by asking if they went out to see a reed swayed by the wind.  Well, no, John was rock solid in his beliefs and in his mission.  His message did not change no matter who came out into the desert: repent for the kingdom of God is near.  Jesus asked if John’s attire and other refinements drew them.  No, of course not – it was about the message and about personally drawing closer to God.  Jesus then harkens the people back to a passage from Malachi.  John was there for a purpose: as a messenger sent to prepare the way.  Jesus has come, John’s work is done.  God’s plan continues.  Jesus ends the section by stating that although John was indeed a great gift from God, in heaven John will be just like everyone else.

In our lives, we too experience people God is using to do kingdom work.  It may be for just a short time or the work may last decades.  The person may be you or I.  But at some point, the work of God in that time and place draws to a close.  There is naturally sadness and often doubt or fear.  Yet in the midst of this, may we allow our faith to move forward, trusting fully in God’s plan and will.  May we be thankful for what God has done while remaining confident that it is all part of God’s plan.  God alone is in control.  Trust God.


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Fruit

Reading: Matthew 3: 5-12

John challenges the Pharisees and Sadducees who come out to see just what is going on in the desert.  He welcomes them with, “You brood of vipers!”. What a welcome!  John goes on to ask, “Who warned you of the coming wrath”?  It is almost to say, ‘who woke you up’?  John is implying that they have been lost or in a daze.

John goes on to tell these religious leaders that they need to produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  John is implying that they need to repent first, then to begin producing good fruit.  He warns them about complacency and the status quo, warning them that the axe is at the root of the tree.  I wonder if they realize they are the tree.  John wraps up this exchange by telling of Jesus, the one who is coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

We can read these words from John and smirk as we think about how those pompous religious folks have gotten a good talking to.  Or we can realize that maybe John is talking to us too.  To determine this, we must ask ourselves what fruit we are producing for the kingdom of God.  How are our lives planting seeds and bringing others into God’s presence?

One step beyond, especially true in this season of Advent, is to ask, ‘How are we preparing ourselves for the coming of the Christ child’?  What do you and I each need to repent of to be a worthy home for the babe to dwell in?  May we each step into our own place of solitude today to search our souls for the answers to these questions.  And may we emerge, ready to bear good fruit for God’s kingdom.


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God’s Kingdom

Reading: Isaiah 11: 6-10

The vision Isaiah lays out is hard to wrap our minds around.  We can picture a wolf with a lamb or a lion eating straw.  But to imagine this and all the other images Isaiah presents as the daily reality for all of the animals of the world really stretches our minds.  When Isaiah writes, “They will neither harm nor destroy on all my Holy mountain”, he means everyone and everything – man, animals, plants, nature…

We imagine heaven a number of ways.  Some see a beautiful city with streets paved with gold.  Some see us floating up in the sky, lounging on the clouds.  Some imagine a giant mansion with endless rooms in it.  But even more than what heaven will look like, we ‘know’ what it will be like.  We will constantly be in the light and live of God.  There will be no tears, no pain, no hurt, no hunger, no injustice, no oppression, no sin.

Jesus said, “This, then, is how you should pray… your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6: 9-10).  These familiar words from the Lord’s Prayer tie into the vision in Isaiah 11.  When Jesus taught the disciples this prayer, He included the idea of God’s kingdom coming here.  God’s will for the earth is peace, love, understanding, reconciliation, mercy.  God’s kingdom vision for the earth is the same as the vision for heaven.

So, what would our world look like if we put an end to all the harm and destroying?  What would life be like for all people if there was no violence, no abuse, no injustice, no oppression?  What would the world look like if there were no famine or drought or pestilence?  We, as God’s people, are kingdom builders.  What are you going to do today to help bring God’s kingdom to all the people you will encounter this day and to all the places you will be this day?


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The King

Reading: Jeremiah 23: 1-6

Bad kings have been the norm.  They have been unfaithful to God and have not insured justice and fair treatment for the people.  These bad kings instead have lived extravagant lives and have exploited the people to do so.  Having a king was the people’s idea.  Previously God had been their king, but they wanted a human king.  They wanted to be just like all the pagan nations around them.  Put that way it sounds like such a bad idea.  But the people would not quit asking so God finally relented and allowed them to have a human king.

As ever the God of second chances, instead of allowing the people (and later us) to suffer for their poor request, God brings news of a different king.  God does not punish the nation – the poor lambs have suffered enough already.  Instead God promises them a king who will “reign wisely”, a king who will do what is “just and right in the land”.  For a people who have been suffering for quite a while, this promise brings hope.

Today we do not have kings so much as systems.  True, we will soon have a new President, but he can only do so much on his own.  The President must work with Congress and within the confines of many systems already in place.  Yes, the systems can be changed, but this is very often a long and slow process.  Many people live within systems – medicare, social security, health care, prisons, education, foster care, reservations.  Many long for equality and justice and for things to be made right again.  Many long to be freed from the system in which they feel trapped.  Many need to see and experience hope.

The same king that was promised in Jeremiah 23 is the king who can bring hope to all people.  With hope, Jesus brings peace, compassion, and love.  Jesus may not directly fix these broken systems, but He can fix broken people.  May we, as the people of God, bring Jesus’ light and love and hope into the world, ever seeking to build the kingdom of God here on earth.


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Called

Reading: 1 Timothy 1: 12-14

Paul reminds us today that God can use anybody to help build the kingdom.  Paul acknowledges that his past included blasphemy, persecution, and violence – all against the newly founded church that followed Jesus.  He was very zealous in his work against this new church.  Yet God, in a show of great mercy, claimed Paul for service in the kingdom.  In a flash all the zeal against Christ became zeal for Christ.

When we look at Paul’s past, we can see how God was at work preparing Paul for the role we know him in as one of the great missionaries and teachers if the early church.  Early on Saul, as the old Paul was known, was a star pupil.  He was very intelligence and quickly learned the Hebrew Bible inside and out.  He quickly rose through the religious ranks and became a very well respected Pharisee.  It was all of this past knowledge and practices that allowed Paul to so skillfully build His case for Christ and to defend it against attacks from non-believers and the Jewish authorities as well.

Each of enters into God’s service in a similar way.  We too all come with our past sins and mistakes.  But we also come with we have done and experienced and learned in life.  The gifts and talents that God has blessed each of us with are a part of who we are as well.  Just like Paul, when we are called or led into service in some particular way, we are ready.  We are just who God has prepared us to be and needs us to be for that role.

Like so many before us, often we too ask, “Me?” as our initial response to God’s call.  We are usually skilled at saying “Well…”, “But…”, “When…”, and “No” also.  But God does not call us unless we have been equipped for the task at hand.  We may not know this or feel this way, but God knows better.  May we each obediently respond to God’s call in our lives so that we may say as Paul said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to service”.


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Cannot Be Shaken

Reading: Hebrews 12: 25-29

This passage in Hebrews was written in a time when following Christ could be very dangerous.  It could cost you your life.  While many of us do not face this danger today, in some parts of the world it is the reality.  Christians around the world die for their faith daily.  While most of us do not face this ultimate price, being a follower has a ‘cost’ to all believers.  This passage today is meant to encourage all believers and to remind us if the hope we have in Christ.

In following Christ, the cost can come in a number of ways.  It can be economic or social or relational.  As a Christian our choices and decisions can cost us popularity, status, position, or power.  It may cost us success as we choose to live following God’s ways.  We may choose to live less extravagantly as we choose to honor God first with our resources.  Our faith may cost us friendships, business partnerships, and even familial relationships as others choose to walk a worldly path.  There can be many costs.

Hebrews reminds us that we are one day “receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken”.  While in this earthly kingdom we face many ‘costs’.  They can shake us at times.  They can make us question and doubt.  We can also have our faith and our lives shaken by forces out of our control.  Economic downturns, violence and wars, disease, and death are just a few examples of things that can shake us.  Life and the circumstances that surround it and fragile and often we have little or no control over it.  Yet in the midst of this stands Jesus, our rock.  In the here and now, Jesus is our unshakable foundation.  As we lived out our blessed lives here on earth, we know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Jesus awaits us in the heavens, the kingdom that cannot be shaken.