Category Archives: The Kingdom

Discipleship, The Kingdom

The Kitchen Door

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Did you know that when Jesus reminded the multitude that they were “the light of the world, a city set on a hill”, and “the salt of the earth” He was not speaking to born-again Christians, but to a motley crowd of Galileans? (After all, He had neither died on the cross, nor been resurrected at that point). And do we also realize that when he declared, “The Kingdom of God is within you”, (Luke 17:20-21), He was speaking not to his disciples, but to Pharisees?

So what’s going on here? Certainly Jesus wasn’t confused. These were human beings he had brought into existence, and He knew them better than they knew themselves. But perhaps this is a key to understanding. Unlike today’s church, which typically begins the gospel with a declaration of our sin and rebellion, Jesus seems to be going round the kitchen door and making his entrance from the other side. The truth is, we were designed for the Kingdom, and most people have at least a faint awareness that yes, there must be more.

Paul tapped into this pattern in Acts 17:28 when he declared to the pagan men of Athens that “We are God’s children.” Do we see that sometimes people, even unbelievers respond to a tender reminder of their design? Maybe this “kitchen door” approach calls more upon the heart, and less upon the conscience. This in no way diminishes our need to “turn and believe,” but it’s rather a hardware / software issue. The hardware of the human race is designed for destiny. That’s who we are, and there are faint echos of that strewn across the consciousness of the human race. But we have a software issue, a need for an operating system of faith in the One who designed us. Only turning to Jesus will activate the life and light of our design.

To call upon that part of man that deep-down knows he was created for significance can be a powerful tool for bringing our friends to faith. In the moving words of Fanny Crosby, “Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, chords that were broken will vibrate once more.”

Discipleship is all about learning the beautiful ways of Jesus. In a world where so many have lost sight of the path, perhaps this “kitchen door approach” is a key to reaching them with the good news.

Discipleship, Endtimes, The Kingdom, Worldview & Truth

The Trap of Fatalism

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One of the towering truths that set Biblical Christianity apart from other religions and worldviews is the double-sided concept of human significance and free will.  While other worldviews embrace fatalism, (“What will be will be.”), and the insignificance of the individual, Christianity boldly asserts that people are designed to make an eternal difference in the world.  In contemplating man, the Psalmist declared,  “You have made him a little lower than the angels,  You have crowned him with glory and majesty!   You have made him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.”  (Psalm 8:5-6)  

But do we live as if it’s true?   Many in today’s church seem to settle for insignificance and practical fatalism:  

“It is what it is.”
“What will be will be.”
“We’re helpless against the system.
“What difference can I make?” 

It shows up in our meager prayer lives and in the way we quickly consign the government, the culture, the educational system, and the creative arts to the ash heap of darkness.  When was the last time any of us were a part of a well-attended prayer meeting for our community, the epidemic drug problem, or the specter of another world war?   It shows in our theology every time we casually accept the idea that the world must become darker and darker until Jesus is forced to intervene and snatch us away to heaven. 

“There was a small city with few men in it and a great king came to it, surrounded it and constructed large siege works against it.  But there was found in it a poor wise man, and he delivered the city by his wisdom.”  – Ecclesiastes 9:14-15  The scriptures are brimming with stories of mere men and women who changed history.

“… if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”  – Matthew 17;20

We are not helpless slaves to fate, but children of a God who lives among us to impact the world.  May our prayers, our actions and our words reflect that reality.  

The Kingdom

Israel-Hamas: A Kingdom View

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This week’s unfolding nightmare in Israel and Gaza is the tragic result of missing what we were made for. The Palestinians have missed it, but so have the Israelis, the nations, and many Christians, including some of us.

We humans are designed for a Kingdom, for a territory that is safe, free, beautiful, blessed, and prosperous. God designed us to exist in a “homeland for the human soul”. And so he programmed that dream into our very DNA. But here is the problem: we have the dream without the interpretation, and so we go about looking for it in all the wrong ways:

“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.” (James 5:1-2) These two verses describe human nature with shocking precision.

But the answer, unfortunately, can never be found in diplomacy alone, nor in armed conflict, resistance, or endless retaliation. Neither the UN, the Jewish nation, the Western Powers, nor Radical Islam have a lasting solution to the complexities of the Middle East. Yet there IS an answer: We must all return to the Lord, receive a new heart, and embrace the hope of the Kingdom.

His is a Kingdom of forgiveness, enemy-love, and humility, where the nations beat their swords into plowshares, and the art of war is forever forgotten. A pipe dream, you say? Then tell us where and when it has ever been tested and shown to be a failure? The problem with the Kingdom is not that it has failed. It has barely been understood, and certainly never been tried.

It all begins when we embrace the life of Jesus and the beauty of His dream for the world. We move forward by learning the ways of the Kingdom, as we imitate and share the life the King Himself. Our part is simply to pray, love, forgive, serve, and declare the good news of that different world.

There certainly remains the embedded problem of human wickedness. Believers have wrestled for centuries for the proper Christian response to war and violence. Must we stand in the face of wickedness and reject it? Certainly. Should we protect, comfort, and care for the victims of evil? Absolutely! We must remember, however, that evil rests in individual human hearts, and avoid the sweeping condemnation of all Palestinians because some are terrorists. Alas, there are no human tools for turning hardened terrorists into loving, forgiving saints.

And yet there is hope! There is One who can wash evil from the human heart. Jesus does not choose sides like we do. He simply opposes evil and receives all who will come to him. If we long for the beautiful Kingdom to become a reality, then we must each do our part. He is certain to do His.

Grace, The Kingdom, The Love of God

The Sound of God’s Heart

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Years ago Youth With A Mission in Kona was sending off an outreach team to some far-off nation of the world.  The student-missionaries were surrounded by teachers and seasoned staff praying and waiting to see if perhaps the Holy Spirit had anything He wanted to say on their way to the airport.  And sure enough, His word came forth from one of the older saints:  “Don’t go!  Don’t go unless you love them!  Apart from love your message will be barren!” 

That powerful memory has returned to me recently, especially since a dear friend has challenged me several times about the importance of being “authorized” to represent Jesus. Although the resurrected One gave us the authority to preach, heal, cast out demons and make disciples, it was all predicated on the foundation of His life: The love of the Father.  Anything divorced from that love will remain sterile, barren and meaningless.  “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am only a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”  

“Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and knowledge; and though I have the faith to move mountains, but have not love… I am nothing.”   Eloquence, miracles, prophecy, wisdom and even faith itself are meaningless apart from love. 

Years ago I had a vivid dream that changed me: I was resting my head against Jesus’ chest listening to his heartbeat.  But the sound of his heart surprised me;  instead of the “thump… thump… thump…” I expected, each cadent throb of His heart spoke “people… people… people…” 

God’s Kingdom is a show-and-tell endeavor.  The language that opens the souls of broken men and women is love. 

The Kingdom, Worldview & Truth

Upstairs / Downstairs

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One of the church’s most deadly distractions from the Kingdom is our silly “upstairs / downstairs” idea. From the early centuries of the church, Gnosticism and Greek philosophies began to seep into our thinking which separated God’s world into two levels of reality: the upstairs “spiritual” level, where God lives, and the downstairs “natural” level, where mortals live, work, and watch America’s Got Talent in the evening.

We live downstairs in the “natural” world while God lives upstairs
in the “heavenly” world.

This messed-up worldview has kept our lives as divided as whites and colors on laundry day. We imagine God almost like a reclusive old grandfather living on the second floor, while the rest of us are grinding away at life down below. Of course God loves it when we go upstairs to visit Him on Sundays, or when we need His advice. But he never, ever comes downstairs to get involved in our messy existence on the ground floor. He’s just not interested in our music, work, TV shows, or the sports car in the garage. (He’s way too religious for those sorts of “natural” things). So we mostly leave him alone in His upstairs apartment where he can watch TBN, The Gaithers, or his favorite series, The Chosen, in peace and quiet.

The Kingdom, of course, is exactly the opposite: God has moved right down into the midst of our stuff on the ground floor, and He moves throughout the house tinkering, laughing, helping out with our messes, or rolling up His sleeves to lend a hand with the science project. He also loves America’s Got Talent, and I think I even caught Him tapping his foot to one of my ragtime tunes on the piano.

There is NO Upstairs-Downstairs, but only one world where God and people live together!

This upstairs-downstairs idea has done immense damage to both the church and the world. At times it has kept me from reading good “non-religious” books, from expressing political opinions, and occasionally it even keeps me from enjoying too much laughter and good times with friends. But the saddest and most dangerous thing of all is in “partitioning” God off from the rest of life. The Kingdom means God has invaded all things with his presence. “The Word became flesh and lived among us.” There is no division; neither upstairs nor downstairs. He inhabits it all.

The Kingdom

Never in trouble

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I just noticed an uptick in views here at Dispatches, and I’m wondering if perhaps people are looking for some perspective on the simultaneous crises happening around us. Certainly the world is looking more dangerous and chaotic than at any time in the immediate past.

Dallas Willard reminds us, “The Kingdom is never in trouble. And you are a part of the Kingdom. So you are not in trouble.” My YWAM friends in Kiev, (where I was scheduled to speak in five weeks time), surely feel like they’re in trouble. They’re sheltering in the basement and praying, while missiles fly overhead, and explosions rock the city. This is reality: life is a battlefield, but Jesus is at our side.

In every great, triumphant story there are battles. Without great battles there can be no great victories. Jesus promised us several things in life: peace, power, and trouble in this world, “but take courage… I have overcome the world.” His Kingdom is secure. It is not in trouble. And besides, He reminds us that “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.”

If I were a prognosticator I would say that for those of us who live in the West, things will likely get worse before they get better. We will need to learn that we cannot trust in the idols of people and politics. Many of us have become complacent and hopeful that the next election might save the day. We will need to repent from those idols and return to the King and the Kingdom as our only hope.

In the meantime, we must learn to pray and intercede, not casual prayers, nor prayers “on the run”, but focused prayers in agreement with others around us. We must gather for prayer. These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary, life-interrupting action.

Then I believe we will begin to see great changes and great victories around us.

The Kingdom

Shock Therapy

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Are we getting it yet?  Because if we don’t, this nightmare can get exponentially worse.  Two possibilities compete for the future of the human race: godless totalitarianism, or the Kingdom of God.  We cannot return to where we were.  We cannot go back to our failed nationalisms and idolatries.  We are experiencing shock therapy, and with very good reason.   Even our churches have missed it by miles, and that is a huge part of this crisis.

Everything around us is being shaken “so that those things which cannot be shaken will remain.”  (Hebrews 12:27).  God’s purpose on planet earth is not to install a livable “global order”, or to “build back better”.  And it certainly isn’t to establish world peace through godless human effort and mutually assured destruction.  Globalism is doomed before it leaves the gate because it is but one more futile brainchild of fallen humanity.  Neither Mark Zuckerberg, George Soros, Anthony Fauci nor Davos can save us.   

WELCOME TO SHOCK THERAPY  

  • “Politics will save us”  NO!  ZAP!!  A thousand times no! 
  • “Clever science will save us!”  WRONG again!  Zzzzt! 
  • “Religion will save us and take us to heaven”.  BOOM!  Zzzt!  Jesus is not a lifeboat for a doomed planet, He is the Redeemer of all things!
  • “Globalism will save us!”  Zzzt!  Zzzzzt!  Not a chance!
  • “Vaccines will save us!”  BOOM!  ZAP!  No! NO!  
  • “Critical theory, gender studies, ANTIFA, BLM and elections will save us!”   BAM!  Zzzt!  BOOM!  These shocks will stop the moment you forsake your delusion!          

There is ONE man and ONE plan that will save us!   The man, Jesus, and the only thing he ever called the “Good News”!  The Kingdom of God; the untested promise of the ages!    

We must turn to the Lord, and to the reality HE has spoken into existence, to HIS ways, HIS grace,  and HIS plan!  Let us choose HIS plan and see what glory will descend upon us; what beauty, abundance, order, compassion, and justice!  To continue on our present road will only invite more shock to our fragile lives.  “Here is the most radical idea ever presented to the mind of man. It means nothing less than replacing man’s order with God’s order.”   – H.G. Wells

Endtimes, The Kingdom

The End of days?

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A few friends have asked me to share my thoughts about the situation we’re currently facing. The honest truth is that I probably wrestle as much as anyone else. I do have a fundamentally optimistic view of history: that all things will be redeemed, and the Kingdom will grow like a mustard seed until the earth is filled with goodness, justice, and beauty. So perhaps I can share from that perspective.

Clearly these are perilous times, but are they, indeed, the final days? Perhaps. But in the way of perspective, let me tell you about the year 536 AD. For eighteen months the deadliest volcanic eruption ever recorded was spreading ash into the atmosphere and darkening the entire earth. Catastrophic crop failures triggered a worldwide famine, which along with the Bubonic plague wiped-out one half of the Roman Empire. One half!! Snow was falling in China during the summer months, and raging floods devastated South America.

So things have been bad before.

But today we are undoubtedly closer than ever to the return of our King. And if Covid, anarchy, idolatry, and godlessness is the prelude to that glorious moment, how, then shall we live? Hebrews tells us, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for God is a consuming fire”. (Hebrews 12: 26-29). Whatever may come, God’s Kingdom will remain solid. And we are citizens of that Kingdom!

These are my little pea-brained recommendations:

Let’s use these times of “Covid slow-down” to prepare our hearts, de-clutter our lives, and focus on Jesus. Perhaps this time is God’s gift for us in the same way He used the enslavement of Israel to refine a people who would be fit to become His nation.

Be encouraged! Jesus has promised, “I will be with you always”. Whatever comes, we will never be alone. So bring it on! Who would trade the stability of nations for the precious gift of God’s presence?

Pray “Let Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” with greater expectancy and faith than ever before.

Let’s guard our hearts from fear. “Fear not, for I am with you!!” (Isaiah 41:10). In the end we know that God’s glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

“And above all, we ought to love one another deeply.” (1 Peter 4:8). In case you haven’t noticed, hatred and division is outpacing the spread of Covid by a long shot. Let’s not allow ourselves to be swept away with the spirit of the age. Instead, lets draw near to the One who is Love.

Having done these things, I believe we will stand.

Endtimes, The Kingdom

Discernment in confusing times.

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I recently polled my Facebook friends on whether or not they believed the mainstream narrative about the Coronavirus.  The results were revealing, with a vast majority answering “No”, a few in the affirmative, and another handful admitting they don’t know what to believe.  People are confused.  While some embrace hair-on-fire conspiracies, others are happily acquiescing to the approved experts who inform of ever-changing models and protocols, and warn us to stay put.  

Several have asked about my take on the situation, which is probably worth about as much as a gum-wrapper.  But if turning my thoughts into words might help us look a little less like the Keystone cops, I’m happy to give it a try.

I think we’re facing a double-headed crisis.  On the one hand is an unpredictable and dangerous pandemic, and on the other is a great uncertainty of what to believe about the pandemic.  In a world of so many story lines, we’re all wondering what truth remains when the computer and television screens are switched off. 

Up front, I’m not a conspiracy person.  Conspiracies distract me from the simplicity of Jesus and his Kingdom.  God told Isaiah, “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.”  (Isaiah 8:12) Alarmism is being peddled from every direction, from the fear-mongering of the left leaning media, to the fear-mongering of right-leaning conspiracies. That’s not to say there’s no truth in any of it; both sides may indeed contain elements of truth, but fear should never lead the way.  Love is to lead. And as it does, fear will be cast out.   (1 John 4:18)

We Christians believe that the world is a battleground of good and evil, where our enemy strains to enslave and destroy the human race.  On top of that, we also believe that in the last days, (which, according to Acts 2:17 and Hebrews 1:2 began with the ascension of Jesus), “perilous times will come”, with deceptions, plagues and persecutions.  But these warnings are only footnotes to the good news, not the good news itself.  Disciples of Jesus ought to focus on the main attraction, and not the footnotes.    

My hope is that the church will seize this moment with wisdom and courage, and offer hope to those around us. Nobody knows for certain where this plague will go.  So lets take a deep breath and seek God diligently for discernment as we move forward.  After centuries of shooting ourselves in the foot with our dire prognostications, lets avoid making that mistake one more time around.

Of all the spiritual gifts, I believe discernment is God’s gift for this hour.  Over the years I’ve made a steady habit of praying, “Lord, give me discernment; show me the truth.  Don’t let me fall into conspiracies, empty rumors and foolishness.  Give me clear eyes and insight into the truth.” 

Here are a few humble suggestions I’d put forward:

  • Focus on the good news of Jesus and His Kingdom.
  • Avoid gloom and doom.  (That is certainly not the good news).
  • Cry out daily for discernment, truth, and understanding.
  • Steep yourself in scripture.
  • Cultivate humility, inviting God to challenge and correct your ideas and opinions as needed.
  • Stay prayerfully informed from a variety of news sources, both liberal and conservative, checking them carefully for facts.
  • Honor the Truth, whose name is Jesus, remembering He lives in you.  
  • Let love, not fear, lead the way.
Musings, The Kingdom

Isolation or investment?

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My greatest fear about this Coronavirus is not catching it.  Nor is it a crashed economy, losing my retirement savings or government over-reach.  I suppose any of those things could happen with powerful consequences.  But my greatest fear is that at the end of this extraordinary time of disruption I will not have experienced the full transformation God is trying to work in me.

Just as the prodigal son was changed by his social isolation among the pigs, I believe God wants to change us during these difficult days: challenging our assumptions, exposing our passivity, and supercharging our impact upon the world.  In the distant land the wayward son awakened to his sorry condition, remembered his father’s kindness, and realized that he was squandering his life in a dead-end routine among pigs. 

We were born to change the world; every one of us, or perhaps more precisely to make a Kingdom difference in the little portion of the world around us.  C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Enemy occupied territory, that is what this world is.  Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed… and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”   (Or… if you prefer Kanye West, “We were born into a broken world, and we are the cleanup crew.”)

The question I keep returning to day-after-isolating-day is, “What am I doing at this moment to make a difference in the world?”  These exceptional times are not for treading water or entertaining ourselves until the coffeeshops, churches and restaurants open again.  These long hours are God’s gift to us; a “time out” to consider our ways, our purpose, and the imprint we could be leaving upon the world. 

It pains me to think I’ve had a slow start in coming fully on board, but I’m engaging this morning in what may be the latter days of our confinement, hoping I’ve not squandered too much precious time.    

Updating this blog is one response I’m making this morning.  What are some of the actions God is calling you to?