I’m afraid I may mess with some sacred cows on this post, but I’ve been wanting to write about this for quite some time.  When Jesus declared the gospel he didn’t say the sort of things we say today about the promises of going to heaven when we die, the need to say a sinner’s prayer, or even the imperative to “ask Jesus into your heart.”  As true as all of these things may be they miss the essence of the gospel, which of course is the Kingdom.  Notice Jesus’ declaration of the gospel:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17)

With only eight words, that’s a pretty concise message.  But what the heck does it mean?   First off, most of us evangelicals have grown up with a narrow, parochial understanding of repentance.  We’ve been steeped in the doctrine that this Greek word, matanoia is limited pretty much to the idea of turning from sin, often with tears and time spent at an alter.  Although there’s an element of truth in this, it’s not even close to the full meaning of the word.  And the resulting problem is that the whole affair becomes focused on sin and getting released from sin, rather than on receiving the Kingdom.

In the original Greek, (in which the Gospel of Matthew was written), metanoia meant changing one’s mind or heart about someone or something, and in the context of Jesus’ declaration it meant that we are commanded to look at the whole world with new eyes.  He, the King, has arrived on the scene.  He has redeemed the entire cosmos, (Col. 1:20), and nothing can ever be the same again.

My experience over these past few years is that seeking the kingdom involves a continuous, lifelong process of rethinking everything, asking continuous questions and receiving an ever-refined prescription for my fuzzy, clouded vision and silly ideas about God and his world.

But here’s where it gets interesting: Some of that rethinking has been in regard to my evangelical heritage.  I’ve realized that much of what I received when I came to Christ was not a kingdom, (I spent about twenty five years with no understanding of that), but ideas and notions I inherited from a feeble Americanized evangelical church.

It feels great to be on the journey, the quest for the Kingdom as it is.  But the moment I stop questioning, the journey comes to a screeching halt.  In order to receive the kingdom we have to first lay down our notions of what we’ve always believed. We must repent and rethink everything.

After two exciting weeks of teaching in Romania I’ve returned home to Maryland and am enjoying time with family and friends.  My schedule in the coming months will be pretty full of travel, but I expect to do it from this side of the ocean rather than from Europe.

David Wilkerson’s “prophetic word” regarding the coming catastrophe in New York City has been getting some serious attention in the news this week.   People are confused and panicky, wondering how we ought to respond.  Should we stockpile food like David suggests?  Should we withdraw our money from the banks?   How  do kingdom people respond to such a terrifying word?

Dr Wilkerson writes:

“An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen…  It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us.”

“For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago… There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide.  There will be looting…

We are under God’s wrath.  In Psalm 11 it is written,  “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3)…  God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.”

First I want to say that I love David Wilkerson and have the highest respect for him.  His life and his fifty-plus years of ministry speaks for itself.  Yet I’m deeply troubled by this message.  Has not God placed the church in the world as a prophetic arrow of hope pointing to the Kingdom?  Jesus said “I did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.” (John 12:47)

We invite panic and despair when we miss the kingdom.   When the church understands the Kingdom to be heaven, (as many do), then it’s easy to embrace a message of judgment:  “The sooner the world burns up, the sooner we can get on with heaven.” But when we see that God’s intention in Christ is to restore all things,  (Col. 1:20), and to bring His kingdom into the earth,  (“…Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,”), we’re reminded that the Gospel message is in fact GOOD news:  “For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and not counting their sins against them.” (2 Cor. 5:19)

Today is a golden hour for the church as people all over grope for  answers.  “Is there any hope?” “Can there be any justice?”  “Is it possible to live together in harmony?” “Can we make a dent in poverty?”  “Can the environment be restored?” We’ve been entrusted with the good news of a resounding “YES!”  Ours is the privilege of preaching a kind King and a glorious  kingdom to a world on the brink of collapse.

Whether David Wilkerson’s word will be fulfilled is something only time will tell.  It doesn’t take a prophet to understand that when a nation rejects God it rejects the glue that holds it together.  Chaos and anarchy are inevitable.  Of course we’ll destroy and loot and set fires and turn on each other.   We’ve cursed our own way, and God doesn’t need to send judgment on us any more than he would need to curse the harvest of a farmer who fertilized his crops with salt.

Yet we are to go on preaching the kingdom, seeking the kingdom, living the kingdom, and demonstrating the kingdom in the power of His Spirit and in selfless acts of love.   There is something beautiful and glorious on the heart of God, and He has invited us into it.   Perhaps if we return to preaching the glad news of the kingdom we can yet escape the doom.

I hardly ever watch TV, but the other day I happened to be in the gym and got sucked into a makeover show about – of all thing – restaurants.  As the hour unfolded I was astonished at how my heart was so moved by this tired old restaurant being brought back to life.   So I listened:  “What’s up Father?  Why am I feeling emotional about this?” (I’m being very real here, at the risk of sounding like a mush).  The answer came quickly: “It’s a kingdom thing.  Makeover is just another word for redemption.  And I’ve wired the human heart to respond to redemption.”

Do you know there are as many as fifteen TV shows out there about makeovers?  I just did a quick search and found makeover shows about cars, people, pets, houses, restaurants, weight loss, wardrobes, rooms, and garages.  Network TV has tapped into our heart’s longing to see all things made new.   It seems that once our hearts recognize the kingdom, there’s no going back.  It crops up everywhere, even in makeover TV.

“And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered,
O Lord, you know.” – Ezekiel 37:3

There are mental breakdowns, and then there are political breakdowns.  I’m still in the midst of a serious political breakdown.  It’s become a clear crisis of faith in the American system that grows deeper by the day.  Or maybe it’s simply God leading me into repentance and a rethinking of my closeted and idolatrous hope of political salvation.

I feel like I’m awakening to the fact that American is NOT “the last best hope on earth.” (Barak Obama, 2007)  Nor is the American ideal “the hope of all mankind” (George Bush, 2002)  Nor is she “a shining city on a hill” (Ronald Reagan, 1989, quoting founding father John Winthrop.)  Those would decribe the Kingdom of God, and the sooner we clarify that, the better off we will all be.  Then perhaps we’ll be able to cast off the idolatry, look realistically at the United States government, and begin to pick up the pieces.

But even more importantly, we’ll be in a position to identify the True Kingdom that really IS the world’s best hope.  It’s time. No, it’s past time we become serious students of the Kingdom of God, the only kingdom that can truly deliver good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, freedom to the captives, and the year of jubilee.

It’s all so new to me, this transfer of loyalty from a teetering human government to a kingdom that cannot be shaken. (Hebrews 12:27)

Tomorrow I leave for Budapest to teach in the Discipleship Training School.  Don’t know yet how this will translate into the classroom, but it must.  It’s time to raise a new flag over our hearts.

Driving rain has marooned me at La Hacienda with no chance of leaving. So it’s a great chance to shoot off a little update if I can draw some inspiration from the Holy Spirit, my own heart, and this vegetable Quesadilla in front of me.

“Nathaniel”, (who laughed and told me to use his real name – “Amer”), did a terriffic job telling his story to a packed house last night. He’s a gifted storyteller, so the audience sat in rapt attention to his tale of encountering Jesus in dreams and Coffee bar conversations.

I’ve been thinking about the church lately. I reckon for a missionary I don’t talk a much about the church. I love the church, believe in the church, support the church, and of course “attend” church. But it’s the Kingdom that captures my imagination. After all Jesus told us that we should seek first the Kingdom, and He would build the church. But somehow it feels like we’ve gotten it all backwards with disasterous results. (He mentioned the word “church” twice in the four gospels, and the kingdom over one hundred seventeen times!

Lots of Jews in Jesus’ day missed the kingdom because they confused it with the Jewish nation. “Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?” (Acts 1:6) You gotta understand this question came after the resurrection, and after three and a half years of preaching the “gospel of the kingdom.” Can you imagine that maybe the Lord might have felt like banging his head on the nearest brick wall?

As long as we equate the Kingdom with the church, or with heaven, we’ll never understand the Gospel as Jesus preached it. The Kingdom is the fullness of Christ filling ALL of creation, from “animals to atoms” and “cabbages to Kings.” (Eph. 9-10) I look forward to the day when the church awakens to the call of being God’s arrow pointing the way not to heaven, and not to itself, but to the Kingdom. That will be a fresh, new day in the history of the Church.

Yesterday I had a stunning opportunity to lay out the Gospel to a dear Bosnian friend. He just sat down and started asking questions; The sincere questions of a seeker, and not the type of questions we often hear from those who just want to debate the differences between Islam and Christianity. It would be sketchy of me to use his real name without permission. So I’ll just call him “Nathaniel” because he reminds me of Jesus’ disciple: “an honest man – a true son of Israel.” (John 1:47)

In the end I was struck by how lucid and straightforward the gospel of the Kingdom is when it’s presented as it was intended: Forget the Four Spiritual Laws. The Apostle Paul “told them about the KINGDOM of GOD and taught them about JESUS from the scriptures.” (Acts 28:23) Phillip did the same in Acts 8:12: “But now the people believed Phillip’s message concerning the KINGDOM of GOD and the NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.” Even at the end of Acts we find Paul under house arrest in Rome “welcoming all who visited him, proclaiming the KINGDOM of GOD and teaching them about the LORD JESUS CHRIST.”

Even a child can understand a King and a Kingdom: a servant king who sacrificed his life for the Kingdom. The two go together like peas and carrots. It’s just taken me awhile to discover it.